Sharm el-Sheikh

Sharm el-Sheikh is an Egyptian resort city on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, where the Gulf of Aqaba meets the Gulf of Suez to form the northern Red Sea. For Georgian travelers it is the closest serious tropical beach destination outside the Mediterranean: water temperatures stay above 22 Celsius even in February, the visa is straightforward (a 25 USD visa on arrival, or a free 15-day Sinai-only stamp for visitors who do not leave the southern Sinai region), and the cost of an all-inclusive resort is genuinely competitive with the Black Sea or the Greek islands. The reef wall that runs from Ras Mohammed National Park north through Naama Bay, Shark's Bay, and Dahab is consistently ranked among the top three diving and snorkeling destinations in the world.

Getting there from Georgia requires planning: there is no scheduled direct flight from Tbilisi to Sharm el-Sheikh (SSH). The two routes that work year-round are Turkish Airlines or Pegasus through Istanbul (total journey 6 to 9 hours including layover) and EgyptAir through Cairo (total 7 to 10 hours including the domestic transfer to SSH or a 6-hour overland bus from Cairo for the budget option). In the summer season (roughly May through October) Egyptian Aviation, Air Cairo, and Georgian Airways occasionally operate direct charter flights from Tbilisi (TBS) to Sharm el-Sheikh, sold almost exclusively as part of tour-operator package holidays; flight time on a direct charter is around 3 hours 30 minutes to 4 hours.

The modern resort city was built almost from scratch starting in the early 1980s after Egypt regained the Sinai Peninsula from Israel under the 1979 peace treaty. Before that, the area had been a tiny Bedouin fishing settlement and an Israeli military outpost called Ofira during the 1967 to 1982 occupation. The accelerated development since the 1990s produced four main zones: Naama Bay (the original resort strip, walkable promenade, mid-range hotels, the dive shops and most of the nightlife); Hadaba and Ras Um Sid (cliffs over the Reef, mid-to-upmarket hotels with house reefs you can snorkel from the beach); Nabq Bay (north of the airport, large all-inclusive complexes on a long sand beach with a protected mangrove reserve); and Sharm el-Maya (the original fishing port, the old market, and the Marina). The actual town center is small and most visitors never enter it; almost everything happens inside resort gates or on the dive boats.

The attraction is the water. Ras Mohammed National Park, at the southern tip of the peninsula 25 km south of the airport, is one of the world's most famous protected reef systems; the Yolanda Reef and Shark Reef dive sites are textbook spots where the seabed drops 800 meters and you regularly see barracuda, jacks, and reef sharks. The Strait of Tiran 6 km off the northeast coast holds four parallel reefs (Jackson, Woodhouse, Thomas, Gordon) reachable only by boat. North of Sharm the reefs continue through Dahab (1 hour bus ride, the famous Blue Hole free-dive site) and into Nuweiba. On land, the Sinai interior has the Coloured Canyon hike, Mount Sinai for sunrise climbs from the 6th-century Saint Catherine's Monastery, and Bedouin desert dinners under the stars.

For Georgian travelers planning a first trip, the typical model is seven nights at an all-inclusive resort in Nabq or Hadaba with two paid excursion days (one boat trip to Ras Mohammed or Tiran, one desert quad-bike or Saint Catherine's overnight). Families with children gravitate toward Nabq, where most resorts have water parks, kids' clubs, and the long sand beach is gentle for toddlers. Diving-focused travelers prefer Naama Bay (close to dive boats) or smaller hotels in Hadaba with direct reef access from the beach. Couples often choose the high-end resorts in Nabq or further north at Ras Soma. Solo travelers and free-divers most commonly head to Dahab instead, an hour up the coast, where guesthouse accommodation and a backpacker vibe replace the resort gate.

When to visit: Sharm el-Sheikh has a 12-month season, but the rhythm varies. October, November, March, and April are the best overall windows: daytime 25 to 30 Celsius, water 24 to 26 Celsius, low wind, and resort rates 30 to 40 percent below European summer prices. December through February stay warm by Northern Hemisphere standards (highs of 22 to 25 Celsius, evenings 14 to 17 Celsius, water 22 to 23 Celsius); a wetsuit is recommended for divers, but snorkelers manage with a rash vest. May, June, and September are hot (32 to 36 Celsius); July and August are very hot (38 to 42 Celsius) but precisely when European school holidays drive the highest occupancy, so resort rates peak and so does the family-traveler concentration. Many Georgian families pick October or April for the combination of warm water, lower price, and lower humidity.

Practical notes: Egypt uses the Egyptian pound (EGP), but resorts price almost everything in USD or EUR, and Russian, Ukrainian, and Georgian travelers can usually pay in either. Carry a small reserve of USD in 1, 5, and 10 dollar bills for tipping (baggage porters, dive guides, drivers); 1 to 2 USD per service is the local norm. Card payments work at hotels, dive centers, and supermarkets, but Sinai mobile data and connectivity can be slow at some sites. The Egyptian visa on arrival costs 25 USD for a 30-day single-entry stamp; the cheaper alternative for Sharm-only stays is the free 15-day Sinai-only stamp, which is sufficient for most beach holidays but excludes visits to Cairo or the pyramids. Tap water is not safe to drink; resorts provide bottled water and most travelers stick to it.

Safety in Sharm itself is well-managed; the resort zones operate behind security checkpoints with bag x-rays at hotel entrances, and tourist police are visible. Travel between Sharm and Cairo, between Sharm and Saint Catherine's, and into the central Sinai interior requires use of organized convoys or arranged transport rather than independent driving; the road from Sharm north along the coast to Dahab and Nuweiba is a daily checkpointed route used by buses and resorts without restriction. The southern Sinai resort coast has had no terrorism incidents affecting tourists since 2015, but the central and northern Sinai interior remains a Foreign Office advisory zone for many countries; this rarely concerns Georgian beach travelers, who simply do not need to go there. Mountain hiking with a Bedouin guide on Mount Sinai is safe, popular, and routinely organized through resort tour desks.

For first-time Red Sea visitors, the single biggest piece of advice is to bring or rent quality snorkeling gear. Resort-loaned masks are often poorly fitted; spending 60 to 100 USD on a proper mask plus snorkel before the trip transforms the experience, particularly for anyone wearing prescription glasses (prescription-lens masks are sold online for 80 to 150 USD). A second tip: at least one half-day Red Sea boat trip is non-negotiable. The reefs you can swim to from the shore are excellent, but the offshore reefs at Ras Mohammed, Tiran, and the SS Thistlegorm wreck site sit at a level above almost any other reef in the world; a half-day group boat with two snorkel stops and lunch is around 50 to 80 USD per person and almost every Georgian traveler we have spoken with names it the highlight of the week.