The Distractions of Dahab

There’s something about Dahab that makes us very sleepy. It must be something in the water. We’ve been lounging here for a week now and we pretty much do the same thing everyday. First we wake up and head down to our favorite sea side restaurant called “Sham’s” to grab breakfast and our early morning dose of free Wi-Fi. After an hour or three of lying in the Bedouin style seating we get up and head for a sunny spot so that Liz can catch some rays and I can swim like a fish.

Over the last few days we’ve tried our best to actually do at least one activity during our long days filled with napping, lounging, eating, swimming, snorkeling, and conversing with our friends about how great life can be when traveling the world.

Here’s a sneak peek on what we’ve been up to these last few days…

Swimming:

We hear that there’s a sandy beach called the “Lagoon” and it’s about a 30 minute walk from our hotel. It’s supposed to be a prime spot for swimming, snorkeling and especially windsurfing! About 20 minutes into our stroll down to the Lagoon, we’re offered a ride from a local named “Friday” and he takes us the rest of the way. When we arrive we’re amazed by how many shades of blue there are. There are hundreds of windsurfers here today, so many that I’m not sure how they avoid running into each other. I jump in and spend about an hour swimming around while Liz bakes in the sun.

There are many places to swim in Dahab, but if you want a sandy beach, the “Lagoon” is the place to go. If you’ve got water shoes, or flippers head straight into the sea at any point along the boardwalk and you’ll be sure to find all sorts of great swimming spots. You can swim along the whole coast if you’d like!

Horseback Riding:

After some slight haggling with the man on horseback, I negotiate a good price for Liz, Crumb, and I to spend an hour and a half on horseback at sunset. It’s low season right now and these guys are begging for business. Perfect opportunity to use my newly acquired haggling skills to their full potential. The normal rate for an hour on horseback is 60EGP ($10.53 USD) in low season. One and a half hours is about 70EGP ($12.29 USD). A few minutes after talking with the man, we strike a deal that gets sealed with a hand shake; 50EGP ($8.77 USD).

Our guide picks us up at our hotel and walks us to where our horses live. Each of us quickly mount our horse and before we know it, we’re off and running! Our ride will consist of walk down to the Lagoon area to catch a glimpse of the sunset over the Red Sea. Sounds so good, right? Well, it was! The only problem I had was that my saddle wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world. When the horse is walking along, it’s no problem. It’s when our guide yells out this crazy indian style attack chant and the horse takes off like we’re competing in the Kentucky Derby. No joke, we’re FLYING across the beach and it sometimes feels like a mix of “I’m going to fall off of this thing, and my internal organs are about to explode!”. All in all, we spent almost two hours down to the lagoon and back and we all had a lot of fun. Our guide even took a bunch of photos for our when we arrived down at the Lagoon, so that worked out pretty well. He’s no professional, but the photos did the job!

Our opinion on horseback riding is that it was definitely worth the 8 U.S. Dollars for an hour and a half, and we would highly recommend it for someone who is visiting Dahab and has yet to try horseback riding. We can’t promise that you’ll seal a deal like we did but hey, it’s worth a shot!

Renting Bicycles:

Once again, EVERYTHING is negotiable in Egypt. Well, pretty much. We pass a bicycle and snorkel gear rental shop and I see that they have a decent collection of bicycles. Some of them look a little shoddy, but the others are far better than a lot of the other bicycle rental shops we’ve passed in the last couple of days. I stop in and ask the guy how much to rent for one day, knowing the sign clearly says 35EGP ($6.14 USD). He knows I can read English and immediately understands why I’m inquiring about the price. Within minutes we’ve got another sealed deal with a handshake; 25EGP per bike for the day ($4.38 USD). He says he’ll even throw in 2 snorkeling masks for and extra 5EGP ($0.88 USD). Normally the masks go for 5EGP each. Deal? Deal!

He tells me to take this red mountain bike for a spin. He claims that I should love the way it rides because it’s “not from China”. I laugh as I do a few figure eights on the street. Yeah, this will do. Liz jumps on a granny bike with a basket and it suits her personality perfectly. She tosses her bags in the basket and we’re off!

If you’re in Dahab for more than a few days, we highly recommend that you rent a bicycle for a day. Renting a bike will allow you to fully explore Dahab from East to West. You can cruise down to the Lagoon to catch the wind surfers, and then cruise all the way down to the other side of Dahab past Eel Gardens. All of Dahab is within a decent walking distance but it just makes for a different type of experience to cruise it by bicycle. Try it! We promise you’ll love it.

Snorkeling:

We cruise around on our newly rented bicycles for a bit before landing at Eel Gardens, a prime place to snorkel here in Dahab. With our snorkel gear on, we hit the water to see what all of our friends have been telling us about this place. They were spot on, this place rocks! We snorkeled for about an hour as we tried to explore as much of the reef as we could. There were all sorts of crazy colored fish, and we could see for what seemed to be forever because of how crystal clear the waters are here in the Red Sea.

There are many places to snorkel here in Dahab. The most popular place is the “Blue Hole” which is located about 8-10km from here. As far as local snorkeling goes, there are tons of great spots as all of Dahab is basically a giant reef that runs along the whole coast. Make sure it’s not low tide though because if it is, you might get tossed around a bit and since the reef can be pretty sharp in certain spots, you’re prone to getting cuts and scrapes. High tide is the best time to go, and it’s even better if the sea is calm like it was here today. You can rent your snorkel and mask for 5EGP/day ($0.88 USD), and you can rent the whole package (snorkel, mask, and fins) for 15EGP ($2.63 USD). We personally snorkeled today without fins and we were absolutely fine. It’s totally up to you! What ever you do, do NOT miss out on the snorkeling here! It’s incredible.

Aside from the above, there are a few other things you can do here in Dahab. There are day trips to Jordan (Petra), tours to the Colored Canyon, snorkeling trips to the Blue Hole, Windsurfing, Kitesurfing, and more.

For more photos from our travels in Dahab, please see our Dahab, Egypt photo album.