Taxi from Sharm airport to Dahab costs?

My hotel, Jan 07, charged me $25 USD for a pickup from Sharm and transport to Dahab. I stayed at The Bedouin Lodge. Looking at their website I see they have raised their rates. 29e for up to 4 people or 39e 5-7 people.

Taxi drivers outside of Sharm airport are no fun to deal with when you want to negotiate a good price on the spot. Rates given in #1 look reasonable. Three of us paid about € 30 for the transfer to Dahab (crammed in a van with others) two years ago and we were adventurous and spent 30 minutes haggling.

Are there any bus services between Sharm airport & Dahab? If so what would that cost & how regular are they?

Yes, there is a regular bus route. Couldn't tell you exactly how much it would cost, but to get from Cairo to Dahab on this same bus (A/C and all), it cost me the equivalent of about £8.

Have just found this timetable:

East Delta Bus Co.
Sharm to Dahab 100KM
6:30 AM, 07:30, 09:00, 14:30, 15:00, 17:00, 21:00, 23:00
32 LE

We paid LE120 from Sharm bus stop to Dahab. He initially wanted LE150. In hindsight we should have just paid that, then he might not have gone like such a rocket along the road. That was a few months ago. BTW that was a taxi, there were 4 of us.

#1, the prices you quote are an absolute rip off. The usual price from Sharm bus station to Dahab varies between 120-150 EGP, which means about 20 euros for the whole car, and not by person !
Bargaining at tha airport will be tougher but it is still worth it, simply expect to pay slightly more than at the bus station. Tell the drivers you live in Cairo all year long, they tend to offer better prices to expatriates.
If your hotel is asking 37 euros per person for the transfer, it means they are big, big crooks so I'd not advise you to go there. Check other hotels in Dahab, there are honest people out there. The Penguin hotel is quite nice, and you can find other good ones in any guidebook.

Yes catw, thats what I thought. The hotel prices were expensive, but it was well recommended. I might have gone for €37 for the car (and thought that expensive), but per person? Forget it. They did say that was for a two way transfer which I take to mean to Dahab & back from the airport. Even if the kids were free as is often the case in Egypt, thats still way over the mark.

37 euro is, as mentioned above, a complete rip-off. I stayed at the Penguin in April of 2006, if I recall they charged 150 pounds for the ride from the Sharm aiport to Dahab. Bargaining at the airport is pretty tough. The drivers know you're stuck and know if you won't pay someone else will. Walking away doesn't work, quoting a common and fair price doesn't work, waiting until the parking lot is empty of passengers doesn't work.

I'd lived in Cairo for two years and never, in all my travels in taxis in Cairo and in Egypt, ever experienced price stubborness (for lack of a better term) than I did in Sharm.

By the way, the saying "I live in Cairo, I know what it costs," thing never worked for me. The reply was always, "You're not in Cairo my friend. You're in Sharm el-Sheik."

For those still looking for a quote, we paid LE 150 to get to Dahab from the Sharm airport in August 2008. I do not think we could have gotten a lower price. All of the registered/legitimate taxis were asking the same price -- either 250 or over 300 (I can't remember exactly) -- and I'm not sure if that was an official price for that distance or if they were simply colluding. We got lucky because we found a private taxi, i.e. a person who probably was not registered as a taxi driver but still had a nice car with A/C, who was willing to take us for LE 150.

From Dahab we arranged a taxi to the Sharm airport at the "Palma Bedouin Safari" tour office that's located just north of the bridge for LE 150. I think their first offer was around LE 200. We probably could have bargained down another LE 10 if we had tried, but I don't think one could go further than that.

Our hotel (Red Sea Relax) offered us a transfer from Sharm airport for $62, and once there offered us a taxi back to the airport for LE 250, but you can do better.

All of the drivers will try to convince you that you have to pay a lot because they'll say that the price covers their round-trip journey from Sharm to Dahab (or vice versa), when in reality they'll pick someone up at the other end and charge them for the return trip.