Sharm el Sheikh Safe? Empty?

Hi Friends!

I am suppose to go to shark around sept 1, Now my question is, I know the situation is bad in egypt, Is sharm empty and/or dangerous? Are people there right now who can tell me. We are going to party etc. Just looking for some helpful info, Appreciate it

Dude! So you want to party in Sharm? To each his own., ,. But after hearing of the deaths of hundreds of people last week in Cairo, I, personally have lost any desire to "party" anywhere in Egypt. I guess I'm too sad / scared/ worried today. I keep asking "What is next for Egypt" and I for one have absolutely no idea.

I recenly wrote to thread "diving read sea":

"If you holiday in the egyptian resorts such as Sharm you are not going to be neither with genuine travellers neither with genuine egyptian people (though the latter is not something you seem to care for).
Currently most of the people who remain there are eastern european who dont care about any cultural tourism or travel experiences other that sun and sea worshipping".

Though I was aware I abstained to say that still most of the sharm visiting folks have in mind more than sea and sun: nightlife-partying (including sex: thats the famous 3s= seasunsex). The small arab public who go there are mostly into this: partying! This is the place where Mubarak family and greedy saudis used to holiday and have their villas.
Conclusion: First, partying in egypt? Sharm is the place.
Second, Collecting info for this? A travellers website is NOT suitable.
cheers, Anas

....... travel agents are cancelling holidays and travel to Egypt, travel insurance is probably void given the travel warnings issued by governments, families of Diplomatic staff and non-essential personnel in embassies etc. have in the main left the country. Normal policing is non-existent, gangs of thugs taking advantage of the chaos, why would you want to holiday there, you need to read a few good newspapers to catchup on the very serious situation in Egypt, this is only the beginning of a long period of civil strife. A large portion of the Egypt's population have been excluded from the democratic process, humiliated and frustrated most likely to resort to violence. As tourism is an important part of the economy, an easy target to inflict damage, Egypt is not safe for naive tourists now.

An example of a Travel Operators response to the situation....
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/travel/article/german-tour-operators-cancel-all-trips-to-egypt

I understand the situation there, being on vacation I want to party have fun etc., nothing abnormal my friend, & I am aware this is a traveler's website, I am traveling and hoping to get info of whats going on in a certain place I am traveling to. So I am unsure as what youre trying to insinuate @anas

Regardless, Egypt is the main part of my entire trip the pyramids etc. I dont want to switch over my holiday to turkey or something but I guess sometimes things happen. I was just hoping to get real responses bc I do not trust the media, I know they enjoy hyping up situations for profit.

Plus, egypt can really use the tourism money

Hi there again,
things in egypt made me so sad and you may found my last post reflecting my feelings.
At your first post you wrote that you will visit just sharm so I wrote having on mind that.
It is somewhat courious that the recent tragic events in egypt affected mostly the cultural tourism, the nile valley is almost empty of tourism, all the way from Cairo to Aswan.
On the other hand till recently the redsea resorts were less affected by the turmoil. Why this?? This is because the redsea resorts are mostly tourist traps policed and mostly unaccesible to the egyptian people. Most of the people who still flock there are eastern european, their idea about eguptian culture is to take one day excursions from Hurghada to Luxor (yes believe me) and day excursions to st catherine from charm (i even saw some ladies wearing hot pants around the monastery). And they enjoy sea and sun holidaying in this enormous tourist trap that is Sharm totally disconnected with the egyptian culture and reality.
These last days the egyptian reality was hard to be missed even by the redsea resort tour operators. The redsea tourism still going will possibly collapse. There was no any evidence of turmoil in sharm (hurgadha was affected by demonstrations but it is on the african coast). But things are not completely safe in the sinai peninsula. The north sinai is the most lethal place in egypt, worse than cairo, with dozens killed from both sides. And this is not faraway. In the past there had been terrorist attacks in the resorts. So none can exclude the dissemination of the violence in the south of Sinai.
I insinuated something? Yes I am concerned that the continuation of extravagent nighlife-partying of the westerners in sharm is provocative in such a poor country with so much bloodshed around that has the potential to make most possible the return of extremist attacks in the whole of the remaining tourist industry of Egypt.
Last word: the media do not exaggerate the tragic reality of egypt. On the contrary they are someway fed up with it and they stopped to have the egyptian bloodshed as first info at the news. How many knew that more than a hundred were killed in north sinai before the last massive killing of 26 policemen??
Anas

AlKemist - .on this site, we tend to be very sensitive to local conditions, and to care about the people of the countries we're visiting, beyond our own personal wishes/needs.

Try the TripAdvisor website. Maybe they're less concerned about such things?

If there's no travel ban, and insurance companies have no problem, I can see why people would still visit Egypt. By staying away, the tourism sector which employs so many people will suffer even more, resulting in even more loss of jobs. Just make sure you stay with local companies so that your trip benefits the locals as much as possible.

Taken from the UK FO website yesterday . It would not let me post a link .

Thanks for the informative posts AnasMohandes.

I've been planning to go through Egypt to Sudan in September - more to see Sudan than Egypt, but the only way to get into Sudan is by getting a visa in Aswan.
How is the transport functioning at the moment? It seems the only way will be to take a ferry from Jordan to somewhere in South Sinai, then bus it up to Aswan.
(and then hope that the Sudanese consulate in Aswan is still operating normally)

thanks.

Hi there yaggayagga!
I think you have to start a separate thread looking into your egyptian passage on the way to Sudan. Please make a more concrete plan, I had a look at your posts and found out you were so unlucky that easyjet now stopped flying to egypt leaving you without your booked air transportation.So where you fly finally? Is a VERY LONG way to go from Jordan to Aswan just for the visa of Sudan, If you dont have something to tour on the way I suggest you pay some little more money to fly to Aswan directly..
Currently I am not in egypt (godwilling will visit again December) so I cannot verify about the boats. As far as I know (I made this route Amman to Khartoum December 2012) there are boats going from Agaba/Jordan to Nuweiba/Sinai-Egypt and riverboat from Aswan to Wadi Halfa (the latter used to be only once a week so plan your travels to not be stuck in Aswan for longer than a week).
Please come again with more details on your situation and plans in a separate thread, though you will not attract a lot of responses, not many travellers on this route.
all the best
Anas

I just came back from a 10-day vacation in Sharm yesterday. There are no safety issues whatsoever in Sharm. It's not empty but of course tourist numbers are down considerably. There appear to be mainly Russians who are maybe less scared by travel advisories than Western Europeans (my personal theory). Egyptians are definitely happy about any tourist who does come to the country as lots of people in the tourist industry are losing their jobs because business is so slow.

No need to lecture the thread starter.

He simply wants to know what it's going to be like in Sharm.

Tourists continuing to go to Egypt will help the country more than people staying away and crying about the situation.

At the end of the day, it's personal choice. The British gov say its fine to go to Red Sea resorts but you have to think whether you are happy going to a country in crisis.

Sharm el Sheikh is fine - I live there. Im British. Currently its warm and uncrowded. The people here have no animosity against you and will be grateful for your contribution to building the tourism econamy again. Currently forget the pyramids and trips out of Sharm. Stay in Sharm and you will have a fantastic time.

Check out :-

http://www.diving-in-sharm-el-sheikh.co.uk/how_safe_is_it_in_sharm_el_sheikh_is_it_safe_to_travel_to_sharm_el_sheikh_current_situation_travel_advice.php

They give a clear concise overview and update it regularly

..... johnthemason, the link is from a company involved in the Tourist Business and you are a first-time poster here, so I take your advice with a pinch of salt and advise Travellers to think twice before holidaying in Egypt now.

"Currently forget the pyramids and trips out of Sharm. Stay in Sharm and you will have a fantastic time"

Sorry Johnthemason,
but not every traveller can enjoy Egypt contained in the very unegyptian tourist traps of the redsea,
genuine travellers always put the archeological and other cultural places of egypt on top of their travel agenda, I think you are not contributing to their search writing this advice to go egypt just to stay in Sharm.
very sorry again....
Anas

I have travelled to Sharm el Sheikh, diving and snorkeling, 4 times this year and it is great and safe. There is an excellent web site that gives regular updates on safety in Sharm el Sheikh at:-

http://www.diving-in-sharm-el-sheikh.co.uk/how_safe_is_it_in_sharm_el_sheikh_is_it_safe_to_travel_to_sharm_el_sheikh_current_situation_travel_advice.php

johnthemason - on 28 September - Sharm el Sheikh is fine - I live there. Im British.

johnthemason - on 28 November - I have travelled to Sharm el Sheikh, diving and snorkeling, 4 times this year

To be a good liar you have to remember what you've already said ....