Dahab

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Image:Dahab-location.png Image:Dahab evening 01.JPG Image:Dahab evening 03.JPG

Dahab (دهب) is a small village situated on the south-eastern coast of the Sinai peninsula. Formerly a Bedouin fishing village, the construction of international chain-hotels and other ancillary facilities has now made this a popular destination with tourists. The nearest international airport is located Sharm el-Sheikh. Local supplies of fresh water are very limited; most hotels have desalination plants.

Tourist highlights include:

Dahab is world-renowned for its windsurfing. Reliable winds provide superb flat water conditions inside Dahab's sand spit. Beyond the sand spit, wavy conditions couple with strong winds to provide formidable conditions for keen windsurfers.
The SCUBA diving and snorkelling are very good, with many reefs immediately adjacent to waterfront hotels. The nearby Blue Hole and Canyon are internationally famous dive spots.
The seafood restaurants along the waterfront of the down-town tourist area, known as Masbet, are good, with red snapper, calamari and lobster being highlights. The Bedouin-style seafood is based on baking in earthenware.
There are camel, horse, jeep and quad-bike safaris. These are either parallel to the shoreline, up one of the several valleys or around the township.
A two hour drive is sufficient to reach Mount Sinai and Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai; ascents to view sunrise and sunset are popular.
Historically, most vistors to Dahab have been backpackers travelling independently and staying in hostels in the Masbet area. In recent years, development of hotels in the Medina area has facilitated the arrival of a wider range of tourists, many of whom visit Dahab specifically to partake in the windsurfing, diving and other activities.

Some less desirable things that tourists may wish to avoid include:

Dust storms caused by any moderately powerful easterly winds due to the complete lack of vegetation in the inland desert.
Huge amounts of litter, especially around the more distant tourist locations.
Shops selling coral jewelery; the CITES convention prohibits tourists from taking such jewelery home.

The word Dahab is Arabic for gold and is possibly a reference to the geographic locality; gold washed down from the desert mountains may have accumulated on the alluvial flood plain where the town was built.

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