Bussing down the coast of sinai

The Israelis only created three resorts excluding Rafi Nelsons Village, (that has since become Taba). Between Taba and the 60 km south to Nuweiba there are many beach side straw hut camps. These may be closed due to low tourists’ occupancy rates.

In Nuweiba the Bedouin Jebeliya, Muzeina+ and +Tarabin+ tribes’ domain have been left with Nuweiba’s popular Tarabin Beach. There is the (Egyptian police owned) City Beach Village motel (originally an Israeli built hotel), which is a 100 meters south of Tarabin Beach. Then the ex +moshav resort which is still open, (it's a dive center). Before the port, there are a couple more (open) beach side camps, and the Hilton Coral Resort hotel.

For the next 60 km south, there are no facilities until Dahab, the resort's infrastructure has been extensively improved, and substantially and successfully enlarged by Egyptians and international consortium, Dahab is well worth more than just a few days stay. Then it’s about 80 km south until Sharm el Sheik, with little in between, except a couple of road side cafes.

So really your answer is no! But Nuweiba and Dahab are both god places to stop, that are cheap as chips to eat and sleep at.

Edited by: sandyfoot

Sandyfoot seems confused. Sinai is in Egypt, not in Israel. Israel's military occupation of Sinai ended in... 1982!! Israeli military bases have long been dismantled, and so have the settlements.

The public bus goes from Sharm to Taba and back. It stops in all the big resorts and can leave you at the smaller resorts along the road, provided you ask.

Sharm is a very big, touristic, rather ugly hub. Dahab is pretty cool with a very nice vibe and all needed facilities while having retained some of its hippie soul. Nuweiba has no specific interest, save for the nice, hippie-style beach camps that stretch along the road between the city and Taba. Taba is an isolated touristy resort with little interest, located right on the border with Israel. I would suggest going to Dahab, or to one of the Bedouin camps.

I actually did not mention the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula which showed that Israel is willing to make painful sacrifices for peace. I merely stated ‘’ The Israelis only created three resorts’’.

But bizarrely and not uncharacteristically you have bought political connotations into a travel thread.

Consider if Egypt had not re-imposed the naval blockade on the Straits of Tiran, on May 23 1967 and had Egypt not announced that the Straits of Tiran had been closed by mines. Issuing a warning that Israeli shipping would be fired upon if it attempted to break the blockade. History and the Sinai Peninsula would be very different.

Then perhaps Sharm el Sheik would have remained until today, an Egyptian naval base hardship posting. Dahab and Nuweiba’s fisherman would still be tending their gardens and mending nets. Israel would not have attacked Egypt, and have been forced to defend her shipping lanes into Eilat.

Ask a 60 to 80 year old Bedouin elder, what the upside was, of the Israeli period of development in Sinai. The Bedouin people gained employment, roads, health care, and access to education, that the Cairo government had up to June 1967 never provided.

And the northern European tourists gained a warm foothold on the Gulf of Aqaba's Sinai coast, in an otherwise inaccessible undeveloped and until then barren landscape.

Sandyfoot, Sinai is in Egypt. It was militarily occupied by the Israeli army from 1967 to 1982, after which Tsahal had to evacuate. This was not a "sacrifice", it was just the end of military occupation. You cannot occupy a foreign country forever, and contrary to what you think, people do not like to be occupied by a foreign power - at all. Europe learnt it the hard way.

As for the Bedouins.... just curious: did you talk in Arabic with them?

#4 Asks; as for the Bedouins.... just curious: did you talk in Arabic with them?

No, I spoke with them in English. But happily with the advent of tourism many Bedouins, now speak most European languages. Bedouin I met are now busily preparing to learn Hindi and Mandarin, in order to facilitate the influx of new sources of tourists to Egypt and hopefully Sinai.

Edited by: sandyfoot

Sandyfoot, I'd not trust the version they give to naive Israeli tourists like you.

The Bedouins disliked the Israeli occupation, just like they do not like the Egyptian administration.

#6 ''to naive Israeli tourists like you''

And there I was trying to be pleasant, factual and non confrontational. You just cannot help spewing out inaccuracies and rubbish from your Ministry of Misinformation, can you.

I am British born and bred.

I have a friend who studied the culture of the Sinai Bedouins for years, which implied living in Bedouin villages and talking in Arabic. What they told her about politics was not what they told me or what they would have told you. They won't disclose what they really think to Westerners they don't know.

Besides, not every Bedouin thinks the same. there are huge differences between generations for instance.

With the best will in the world, I have now lost interest in this thread.