Guide for two to St. Catherine's/Mt. Sinai from Eilat, Israel

Hi - My partner and I will be flying into Eilat from Tel Aviv in April 2013. We plan to stay overnight in Eilat and then hope to hire transportation and a guide to take us to Mt. Sinai & St. Catherine's monastery. I know that there are some package deals available online - we're open to considering these but would appreciate any specific recommendations. We're not sure whether it is best to plan to scale Mt. Sinai in time for sunrise or whether it makes sense to stay overnight in a hotel and just climb on the first day or the second day. We're pretty open-minded and are glad for any advice.

Rick (& Leroy)

Once you cross over at the Eilat/Taba border, you’ll find numerous taxis. Opt for a shared taxi, it’s definitely the easiest and quickest method of getting to Dahab.

Once in Dahab there are a few Agents that can take you to Mt Sinai & St Katherine's Monastery. Some people climb the Mount at night to watch the sunrise while others do it in reverse. Either way is spectacular.

St Katherine’s Monastery is sometimes closed due to religious holidays so please check opening hours before making the trip. The Monastery is closed Friday and Sunday, so if you’re planning on a sunrise trek to Mount Sinai ensure you work around the Monastery morning opening times. For example, climb Friday night so you're at the Monastery Saturday morning ...

For the more adventurous traveller there is a Bedouin Bus service which runs between Dahab and St Katherine’s linking the communities. This is a sponsored project and offers a very cheap way to get between Dahab and St Katherine’s.

http://www.bedouinbus.com/

I personally recommend FEEL LIFTED. This is a wonderful family run establishment located on El Fanar Street in Dahab. Maggi May and her Bedouin husband Mohammed offer one-to-one service and tailor made trips either for single days or overnight.

Thanks! So we would just make our own arrangements for a local hotel (or stay at the Monastery if that's possible??) I guess. Is there any possibility we would find that all tour guides are booked up without making a reservation? (or could we just make our own way to St. Katherine's - by Bedouin Bus - and up the mountain and around without a guide, in that scenario?) We're traveling in Mid-April, which I assume is prime time for tourists there?

Hi there, Have a good read of the Bedouin Bus website, There is a lot of information about the St Catherine area, accommodation, guides etc etc .... I think a lot of your questions would be answered there.

I prefer to stay at Sheikh Mousa Bedouin camp: http://www.sheikmousa.com/ you can book online.

You can't stay inside the actual Monastery but there is a Guest House just below the monastery called The Monastery Guesthouse.

To answer your question, YES it's very easy to make your own arrangements and travel there independently. It's only when you want to start exploring the Protectorate area that you'll need a guide. You'll definitely find a guide they won't be booked up! Every visitor or group of visitors to Mt. Sinai must have a guide. The Mountain Tours Office delegates all the trekking excursions to the local guides on a rotation basis, ensuring all work is spread evenly amongst the guides and therefore they're all working and receiving a regular income.

trugger43 . If this kind of approach interests you, it is possible to sleep overnight up on the summit ( or slightly lower down if you wish+ ) of Gebel Musa in order to be able to witness both Sunset and Sunrise independently, after initially going to the Monastery with minibus transport, visiting the monastery and then walking up the 'Siket Sayidna Musa' route ( +the stepped route up behind the monastery+ ) with a locally asigned guide ( +now expected, as Crash Dummy pointed out ) but breaking away at that point. It means an experience on the summit that is not rushed or busy, and means enjoying both the serenity of sunset and the circus of sunrise. I'd need to write more details from having done this myself last December, but I'll just ut the option out there for now - and if this angle interests you then I can go into detail in a further post or via private messaging.