I reach Dahab in the early afternoon after an eight-hour road journey from Cairo. Although the route goes through bumpy terrain and involves a lot of winding roads, it’s a surprisingly pleasant experience. Soaking in the views from the minibus windows provides a unique insight into this fascinating Egyptian region.

Dahab has much to offer visitors, and its expatriate community makes for a unique experience compared with Egypt’s main tourist cities such as Cairo, Luxor and Aswan. This seafront town is recognisably Egyptian, but with a quintessentially European twist. This is demonstrated well by the shopping culture of the town, striking a distinctive balance between the in-your-face chaos present in most of Egypt and the Western tendency towards helpfulness with no pressure. With a population of just 14,000, the community consists of 6,000 Bedouin people, 4,000 Egyptians and 4,000 European expatriates.

Located in the picturesque Sinai region of Egypt, Dahab is well positioned to allow a full exploration of sights and history both within Egypt and its neighbouring countries. The Sinai region mainly consists of desert and sandy cliffs; this combined with the bluest of skies and a colourful, mesmerising coral beneath its waters creates an atmosphere of serenity in the area.

Sinai is of great historical significance, playing host to the infamous Mount Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God – a scene prominently depicted in the books of Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious traditions. It’s possible to arrange an overnight visit to Mount Sinai, which entails watching the sun rise from near the top, and exploring Saint Catherine’s Monastery on your way up or down the mountain. Guides are available to accompany your climb up Mount Sinai, or an alternative option is to take a camel ride for most of the journey upwards.

Daytrips are also available to visit Jordan’s capital of Petra, various parts of Saudi Arabia and nearby Israel during your stay in Dahab, though there’s little chance of not being able to occupy yourself by staying local either.

During my stay, the Dahab International Festival of Watersports, Culture and Desert Adventure is in mid-swing. Organised by members of the local community and, in particular, expatriates living in the area, the festival happens in April of each year and includes activities for children, teenagers and adults throughout the day and night. Every event involves a local organisation, business or individual, and activities focus on celebrating and sharing culture, skills and talents from anybody who wants to take part. Cooking classes, camel races, meditation and yoga, poetry readings and live music are just some of the events of this annual gathering, and almost all of the festival’s activities are offered free of charge.

The locals are laid-back and friendly, many of them working as artists and writers, while others are involved full-time in the local scene through community work. Dahab is incredibly bohemian, but without any of the pretention of London’s hipster suburbs. Our tour guide, the kind and knowledgeable Ahmed, beguiles us with tales of Egyptian culture and stories from his own life, at least half of which might be true.

Dahab has a fantastic food culture, particularly as a result of its prominent fishing location on the Red Sea. Most of the restaurants along the seafront offer a ‘catch of the day’ dish, including a scrumptious sea bass mixed grill at El Fannar during my stay. Other recommended restaurants include the Ali Baba restaurant offering traditional Egyptian and Bedouin food, and The Kitchen Restaurant which offers Chinese, Indian and Thai food. Every café, bar and restaurant I visit in Dahab is elaborately decorated and boasts a fantastic welcoming atmosphere.

Each night, freshly baked flat breads and an array of dips grace our table before we’ve even ordered – hummus, beans, aubergine, yoghurt and cucumber, and a strange orange dish that is supposedly (doubtfully) cheese. At the end of the meal, fresh sliced fruit or a traditional pastry dish is offered, such as a cake garnished with desiccated coconut. There doesn’t appear to be a charge for these bookends of our meal, because we’re with tour guide Ahmed who is known well at all of the local haunts.

As you enjoy a meal at one of Dahab’s many restaurants, almost all of which look out over the town’s stretch of the Red Sea, you’ll be greeted by a series of faint glimmering lights from the other side: Saudi Arabia. This part of Egypt is so close to other Middle Eastern countries, that Saudi Arabia is visible just a short distance across the water, and the sight of it is wonderful.

Kite-surfing and windsurfing is popular along the Sinai coast, as well as diving, snorkelling, sailing and quad-biking. After a few jokes about taking a swim across the water to visit Saudi, Ahmed tells us about a tourist who took a windsurf all the way across the Red Sea, and reached the shore over in Saudi Arabia. Without a passport and visa, he was arrested and then deported back to Egypt by bus. This story serves as a jovial warning to us, and the idea of travelling over to Saudi Arabia unannounced is quickly abandoned in favour of a cup of a Bedouin tea.

RECOMMENDED

Lauren visited Dahab with Encounters Travel as part of their 14-day Nubians and Beaches tour in April 2012. Encounters Travel have been operating tours in Egypt for more than 15 years and offer a range of different trips, varying in length, activities and Prices start from just £339. More information on everything Encounters Travel offer is available from their website: www.encounterstravel.com.

Egypt Air offer direct flights from London Heathrow to Cairo eleven times per week as well as flight options to Luxor and Sharm El Sheikh. To book flights or find out more, please visit www.egyptair.com.

The tropical paradise of the Maldives has always seemed like it was reserved for honeymooners and the rich and famous. This is no longer the case as Encounters Travel is opening up this world to adventure travellers with the first ever group tour of this magical archipelago.

With the first tour set to run in September this unique opportunity should now make your short list of must see destinations.

This tour offers all the same features as other Encounters Travel tours, with a maximum group size of 18, local guides and guaranteed adventure!

This trip will give you a true insight into the beauty and culture of the Maldives. You spend one night in the capital city of Male before boarding your luxury yacht for a 3 night sea safari with ample opportunity for snorkelling, diving and exploring deserted islands.

You then get to experience true Maldivian culture by spending two nights in  a Guesthouse on a local island. Here you will see how people from these tiny islands live day to day. One afternoon will be spent on an uninhabited island, swimming and snorkelling in the crystal warm waters, in the evening enjoy a beach barbecue with local cultural show including singing, drumming and dancing.

Now the only thing that is missing so far from this tropical experience is what most people think of when you picture the Maldives, this incredible tour is finished off with 3 nights in a 5 star luxury beach resort! The Royal Island Resort and Spa is a series of beachfront bungalows with all of the mod cons. There is a reef in front of the hotel for you to enjoy and your snorkelling equipment is included for spontaneous dips in the ocean.

This tour gives you a real taste of the real Maldives, it is for people who want a bit more than just lying on the same beach for a week. It gives you the culture,  relaxation and luxury of the Maldives with a spirit of adventure.

This is the first group tour of the Maldives and will become popular quickly, the first 4 departures are discounted to an unbelievable £699 per person, but be fast, we won’t keep it that cheap for long!

We are delighted to bring you some more information about the support facilities boat we are now providing on all our tours that feature a Nile felucca cruise.

Sailing down the Nile on a felucca is one of the most enjoyable experiences in Egypt. Its quiet and peaceful, and you see a lot of rural Egypt as you drift along, as well as enjoying the company of your Nubian crew and their cooking and singing in the evenings. Feluccas are pretty basic though, and there are no toilet facilities on board. In the past we have dug latrine tents on-shore when we are moored up at night, and used the facilities at a local Nubian house and at sites visited during the day.

The banks of the Nile have however been somewhat spoiled in places by the number of people staying overnight on feluccas and not using proper toilet tents or being respectful to the local environment.

Our brand new facilities boat makes the whole felucca experience more enjoyable, with a clean toilet and shower on board, as well as massage beds and a hygienic kitchen. It also helps ensure that we do our bit to protect the Nile and its surroundings.

Nubian massages

The boat doesn’t shadow the felucca all the way, as we don’t want to spoil the peaceful experience of sailing down the Nile. It will however join up with you as and when required through the day and moor with you at night. There isn’t another boat like this on the Nile at the moment, and feedback we’ve had from recent travellers using it has been extremely positive.

As well as the toilet, shower and kitchen facilities, there is also a sun deck where traditional Nubian massages are available.

Toilet & shower

Outdoor shower

Last weekend Encounters Travel was at the Destinations travel show in London. It was a fantastic weekend with a huge turn out of international travellers. It was great to meet people who have travelled with us in the past and many more who are looking to join one of our groups in the future. We always enjoy these shows, as its not that often that our UK team get to speak in person to so many past and future travellers. We also had a lot of interest in our competition for flights for two to Marrakech, this competition is still open on our Facebook page and we welcome you to join.

Hands out of your pockets Dan, its about to open!

The highlight of the show for us was a talk in the Meet the Experts theatre on Saturday. Sam, one of our Egyptologist guides, came to do a talk on tourism in Egypt before during and after the revolution. He shared with us his passion for his amazing country and gave us a unique insight into the current situation in Egypt as well as his own experiences in Tahrir Square during the revolution. He was very enthusiastic in his hope that his audience and travellers in general will take advantage of the amazing opportunity we all have to visit Egypt at the moment while it is not swarming with tourists.

One of our directors, Ralph Foulds, also spoke, and explained how tour operators like ourselves have taken account of the protests, demonstrations and strikes that have happened over the last year, and worked around them. Safety is of course always our first priority, but we have actually been able to continue running our Egyptian tours with only occasional minor changes to people’s itineraries. He explained that as long as you allow for a little flexibility, people can be very confident about visiting Egypt now and come home with some amazing memories about a country we remain passionate about. We would like to thank Sam for coming over from Cairo and sharing his enthusiasm and love of Egypt with the people at the talk, as well as the many more that came to visit the Encounters stand.

Tahrir Square in Cairo during the revolution

Success!

To follow on from the talk, we’re pushing Egypt further with some great deals that you can find on our Special Offers page on the website. We’ll also have some exclusive offers at the TNT Travel Show in London on the 3rd March, so do come and visit us there.