# Sinai Mount Sinai, St Catherine's Monastery and the Red Sea reefs of the peninsula's southern tip. The peninsula's triangular shape is distinctive — a landmass that divides the Mediterranean from the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba and Gulf of Suez. This geography has made Sinai a crossroads of civilisations for millennia, and the landscape still carries traces of those passages in its ancient pathways and fortified monuments. ## Mountains and Desert The interior is a landscape of sharp limestone ridges, broad sandy wadis, and scattered oases that sustain isolated Bedouin communities. Mount Sinai rises with a rounded peak that holds deep significance for followers of three faiths — a place where, according to tradition, Moses received the tablets of law. The surrounding massif is rough and unforgiving, its colours shifting from ochre to deep rust in afternoon light. Below the mountain, St. Catherine's Monastery has clung to its sheltered峡谷 for over a thousand years. The walled compound holds one of the oldest continuously operating libraries of ancient texts, and monks still maintain the rituals of a liturgical tradition that predates many of the world's current nations. The gardens around the monastery are watered by a spring that has never run dry — an unlikely green pocket in the surrounding stone. ## The Red Sea Coast Along the southern coast, coral gardens slope from shallow reef flats into deeper blue water. Ras Mohammed, at the peninsula's tip, is a protected marine park where underwater channels concentrate currents and nutrients, feeding dense thickets of coral in colours that range from pale lavender to deep green. Snorkellers and divers share these waters with the same species found in the Indian Ocean — a consequence of the sea's connections through the Bab el-Mandeb. Dahab grew from a small fishing settlement into a low-key travellers' base, its relaxed atmosphere drawing those who want to spend time in the water without the infrastructure of larger resorts. The famous Blue Hole, a deep underwater sinkhole just offshore, is one of the region's most visited dive sites. ## The Bedouin World Sinai's indigenous people have preserved much of their nomadic culture despite the pressures of development along the coast. Mountain villages and desert camps offer glimpses of a way of life adapted to extreme aridity — hospitality traditions, oral poetry, and a detailed knowledge of plants and animals that few outsiders possess. Travellers who walk these trails, guided by local people, encounter a landscape that rewards slow attention: the way certain rocks hold moisture, the sudden green of a date palm grove, the call to prayer echoing across a wide valley at dawn. ## Tours that visit Sinai No tours visit this place just yet. ## Before you book you should know ### Is this trip right for you? Our groups are capped at eight travellers, which is about a third of what the industry calls a small group. Eight people share one vehicle, one table at dinner and one guide's attention, and the day can change on the road without anybody being left behind. If you are looking for a coach, a fixed script and a microphone, this is not that. Most days involve real walking, often on ground that was laid two thousand years before walking shoes: marble worn smooth, cobbles, uneven steps and long site paths with little shade. Bring shoes you can spend a morning in. Some days move between regions and are largely a drive, with stops along the way. Summers are hot — well over 35°C inland — and winters are colder than most people expect, so layers, a hat and sunscreen earn their place in the bag whatever the month. How demanding a particular trip is, is written on the trip itself: the physical rating in the header, and the day-by-day itinerary above. ### Rooms, and travelling on your own Trip prices are per person, sharing a twin room. Each traveller picks their own room while booking, so a party can mix the three: - **Twin share** — two single beds, shared with someone you are travelling with or with a traveller of the same gender. - **Travelling as a couple** — one double room. - **Individual room** — a room of your own, for a single supplement on top of the trip price. Availability is limited, and the supplement for a given date is shown next to the option when you book. Solo travellers are welcome on every departure, and most of our groups have one or two aboard. ### Accommodation The hotels named in an itinerary are a guideline rather than a guarantee. Where one is full, or has dropped below the standard we booked it for, we substitute a property of a similar standard in the same area — we would rather change the hotel than the trip. Check-in is usually mid-afternoon. If you arrive early we will ask for the room, but no hotel can promise one before its own check-in time; luggage can normally be left at reception in the meantime. If you want the room from the night before, ask us and we will add the extra night to your booking. ### Passports, visas and insurance Entry requirements depend on your nationality and change without much notice, so the only reliable source is the official one: the government of the country you are travelling to, and your own foreign ministry's travel advice. Check both before you book a flight. Many countries ask for a passport valid for at least six months beyond your travel dates, and for blank pages. It is worth looking at yours now rather than at the airport. We ask every traveller to carry travel insurance covering medical treatment and repatriation, and we would strongly encourage cover for cancellation and for your luggage as well. ### Your departure is guaranteed — the day can change Once a departure is on the calendar it runs. We do not cancel a trip for want of a minimum number of bookings, so a booked date is one you can plan flights and leave around. What can move is the shape of a day. Museums and archaeological sites change their hours, roads close, weather turns, a local holiday lands in the middle of the week. Where that happens your guide reorders the day, or swaps a stop for one of the same weight, and tells you why. Changes to a booked itinerary are covered by our Booking Terms & Conditions. --- Full page: https://www.smallvoyage.com/destination/sinai/