Nuweiba Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

East Delta Bus Co (352 0371; Nuweiba Port) has buses to Cairo (E£70 to E£80, seven to eight hours) at 9am, 11am and 3pm going via Taba (E£15 to E£20, one hour); and to Sharm el-Sheikh (E£20 to E£25, three hours) at 6.30am, 8.30am, 10am and 4pm going via Dahab (E£10 to E£15, one hour). There is a bus to Suez (E£45 to E£50, four hours) at 6.30am, and an inconvenient connection from Nuweiba to St Katherine via Dahab departing at 8.30am (E£22).

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Boat

There’s an excellent fast-ferry service between Nuweiba in Egypt and Aqaba in Jordan, leaving Nuweiba at 3pm and taking one hour to two hours depending on sea conditions. Heading back to Nuweiba, fast ferries depart from Aqaba at 11am. One-way tickets cost US$59 for adults and US$39 for children aged three to 12 years. You must be at the port two hours before departure to get through the shambolic departure formalities in the main ferry terminal building.

Note that there’s also a slow ferry (adult/child US$49/29, 2½ hours) leaving at noon daily, though we can’t stress how much more comfortable it is to shell out the extra US$10 and take the fast ferry.

Tickets must be paid for in US dollars (note that these are not always available at the banks in Nuweiba) and can be purchased on the day of departure only at the ferry ticket office (9am), in a small building near the port. Note that the only exception to this rule is during the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) when boats are booked weeks prior to departure. During this period, it’s necessary to buy your ticket as far in advance as possible.

To find the ticket office, turn right when you exit the bus station, walking towards the water, and turn right again after the National Bank of Egypt. Continue along one block, and you’ll see the sand-coloured ticket office building ahead to your left. The office stops selling tickets approximately one hour before the ferry leaves.

Free Jordanian visas can be obtained on the ferry if you have an EU, US, Canadian, Australian or New Zealand passport. Fill out a green form on board, give it and your passport to the immigration officers and – hey presto – you can collect your passport and visa when you pass through Jordanian immigration at Aqaba. Other nationalities will need to ­organise a visa in advance.

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