Sharm El Sheikh
You can be here in December for about €807, 4 days, direct.
Why now
Prime time in December: 25°C days, dry, sea 25°C.
Spring and autumn give warm water and calm mornings; winter is sunny with a cool sea and stiff wind, and summer means diving early and sleeping through the afternoon. Boats and dive sites are busiest in the European school holidays.
Best months here: January, November, December. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled".
The place
Sharm El Sheikh is a resort town built for diving at the tip of the Sinai, with Naama Bay's hotel strip on one side and Ras Mohammed's reef walls on the other. The desert behind it is granite mountain, monastery and Bedouin, which gives the place more than most Red Sea resorts to do out of the water. It suits divers first, sun-seekers second, and anyone who wants Sinai's interior with a pool to come back to.
What you can do
- 01Dive or snorkel the walls of Ras Mohammed, Shark and Yolanda Reef, on a day boat from Sharm's marina.
- 02Snorkel from the shore at Ras Um Sid, below the lighthouse, where the reef drops straight off the beach.
- 03Drive to St Catherine's Monastery and climb Mount Sinai for sunrise on the Steps of Repentance.
- 04Take the boat to Tiran Island's reefs, Jackson and Thomas, where the current brings the big fish.
- 05Eat grilled fish and Bedouin bread at the Old Market, Sharm El Maya, after dark.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
Stay in Hadaba or Ras Um Sid for the reef, Naama Bay for evenings; the resorts toward Nabq are for staying put by the pool.
Unusual things
- ◦The Nabq Protected Area's mangroves and the Maria Schroeder wreck, reachable by jeep along the coast north of the resorts.
- ◦Dahab's Blue Hole and the Canyon, an hour north, freediving country with a laid-back seafront of cafés.
- ◦The Coloured Canyon near Nuweiba, a narrow sandstone slot walked in an hour, usually paired with a Bedouin lunch.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Egypt visa on arrival US$25 (or e-visa online). Not valid for all nationalities.
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Taxi, 15 min, ~€8
- Car needed?
- No — walkable or good public transport
- Getting around
- The airport is 15 to 25 minutes from most hotels; taxis are the way around, with fares to agree in advance, and dive centres collect from hotels. Overland routes into the Sinai run with checkpoints, so use a licensed operator for St Catherine.
- Clock
- 1 hour ahead of Rome (Africa/Cairo) derived
- Daylight
- 10.4 hours of daylight in December · sunrise 06:26, sunset 16:49 derived
- Currency
- EGP
Good to know
Most governments treat the resort itself as fine but advise against travel across the rest of the Sinai by road except on the main tourist routes with organised transport; check current advice before booking overland trips.
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 4 days from Rome in December, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Abu Dhabi
Riyadh
Cape Verde
Addis Ababa
Dakar
Muscat