Middle East - Anthony Ham [165]
East Delta Bus Co ( 352 0371) has three daily buses to Cairo (E£70 to E£80, nine hours) via Taba (E£15, one hour) at 9am and 3pm. Buses to Sharm el-Sheikh (E£22 to E£25, 2½ hours) via Dahab (E£11, one hour) leave at 6.30am, 10.30am and 4.30pm. One bus leaves for Suez (E£45, four hours) at 6am. There’s no direct service to St Katherine’s, but you can often catch the 6.30am Dahab-bound bus and make a connection there (Click here).
Service Taxi
There is a service taxi station by the port, but unless you get there when the ferry has arrived from Aqaba, you’ll have to wait a long time for the car to fill up. Per person fares (multiply by seven for the entire car) average about E£30 to Sharm el-Sheikh, E£15 to Dahab and E£60 to Cairo (usually changing vehicles in Suez).
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TABA
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This busy border crossing between Egypt and Israel is open 24 hours. There’s a small post & telephone office opposite the New Taba Beach Resort in the ‘town’, along with a few shops. You can change money at the 24-hour Banque Misr booth in the arrivals hall, and there’s an ATM just outside the border. The Taba Hilton can change travellers cheques.
Upon entering Egypt, when you exit the arrivals hall, the bus station is a 10-minute walk straight ahead on the left-hand side of the road. East Delta Bus Co ( 353 0250) has buses to Nuweiba (E£15, one hour) at 7am, 9am, 12pm and 3pm. A bus from Cairo to Nuweiba also passes by at around noon. Buses to Cairo (E£70 to E£80, nine hours) leave at 10.30am and 4.30pm. Services to Sharm el-Sheikh (E£30, 3½ hours) via Dahab (E£20, 2½ hours) depart at 9am, 3pm and 9pm. A bus heads out to Suez at 7am (E£45, three hours).
Peugeot taxis and minibuses function as service taxis. Per person rates are E£15 to Nuweiba, E£35 to Dahab, E£45 to Sharm el-Sheikh, E£60 to Cairo or St Katherine’s. As you may be in for a long wait before each car is full, you’re better off catching the bus; otherwise you can hire the whole car for about seven times these rates (less with vigorous haggling).
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EGYPT DIRECTORY
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ACCOMMODATION
Though youth hostels in Egypt are rare, there are loads of excellent budget hotels around. Decent midrange hotels, on the other hand, are harder to find. When it comes to the top end, travellers are spoilt for choice, with the major international chains represented in most of the larger cities.
Generally speaking, winter (December to February) is the tourist high season and summer (June to August) the low season in all parts of the country except on the coasts, and to a lesser degree in Cairo. Hotel prices reflect this distinction. Prices cited in this chapter are for rooms in the high season and include taxes. Breakfast and private bathrooms are included in the price unless indicated otherwise in the review. Some accommodation options offer ‘half board’, which includes bed, breakfast and one main meal. We have defined budget hotels as any that charge up to around E£100 (US$20) for a double room, midrange as any that charge between E£100 and E£540 (US$20 to US$100) and top end as any that charge more than E£540 (US$100) for a room. In the low season you should be able to negotiate significant discounts at all hotels, including those at the top end.
Hotels rated three-star and up generally require payment in US dollars. They are increasingly accepting credit-card payments but you shouldn’t take this for granted.
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ACTIVITIES
Visitors are spoilt for choice when it comes to activities, with plenty of nonarchaeological pursuits on offer. These include trekking, desert safaris, horse riding, sand-boarding, windsurfing, ballooning and world-class diving and snorkelling. Activities are mentioned throughout the chapter.
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BUSINESS HOURS
The following information is a guide only. The official weekend is Friday and Saturday. Note that during