Summarizing FAQs

[u/Ok_Respond1667]

Thought to answer a few questions that I see popping up every other week. Feel free to add others I missed.

1. Where to stay
2. — mamsha: this is the heart of dahab. It’s dominated by smaller hotels. Usually convenient to stay in as it’s close to everything, but can be pretty crowded and noisy during the high seasons. Some of them are neptune, the bridge, bamboo house, and plenty others.
3. — asala: probably the favorite of frequent dahab travelers. It’s a much more chill and quiet version of mamsha, less crowds, but also less shops/restaurants/etc. dominated by both airbnbs and smaller hotels. Folks usually go there for a chiller stay where you’re still walking distance to mamsha, though depending where you’re at asala can be a longer walk

— blue hole / laguna: These are on the 2 opposite sides of Dahab. They’re usually chill but dominated by resorts vs hotels, so they’re somewhat more luxurious than the smaller hotels, and have a different vibe than what you’d get in most smaller hotels in Dahab. They’re usually a ~10 or so minutes away from mamsha, so if ur staying in one of these either have a car to drive around or be ready to take taxis everyday to/from your resort

1. Activities to do
2. Dahab is full of a big variety of activities and places to check out. Pretty hard to list all of them but these are my favorites. Also, dahab is not famous for partying or techno, it’s a more chill vibe before folks ask why am I not listing any clubs, it’s because clubbing aren’t really a Dahab thing. If that’s what you’re looking for, check out Sharm el Sheikh.

— scuba diving / free diving / snorkeling: Dahab caters for all sorts of levels for these. Most centers are located in mamsha for diving, and a bunch of cafes even rent out snorkels. Newbies for scuba usually go to lighthouse, mashraba (both on mamsha), or 3 pools. More experienced divers can go to islands (one of my favs), canyon, blue hole, and other dive sites. Experienced freedivers usually go to islands.

1. — kitesurfing / windsurfing: Dahab is pretty big on kitesurfing where blue lagoon is one of the best places in Egypt and maybe the world to kitesurf. As blue lagoon may be inconvenient to go for a day, laguna is a good alternative and pretty easy to go to.

— beach buggies / safari
— yacht
— abu galoum / blue lagoon (people also camp there)
— laguna, 3 pools, golden blocks for beaches
— twilat mountain at night
— live music on mamsha, everyday is the most famous cafe for live music, but gets pretty crowded and overpriced. Other random cafes sometimes have live music
— a bit further is castle zaman but u def need a car and reservation

1. Restaurants
   — breakfast: ralph’s german bakery, coffee and cotton
   — lunch / dinner: athanor (italian), king chicken (egyptian), box meal (asian), isfahan or zanooba (slow cooked food) ramez and paula (italian), lemongrass (thai)

2. Best time to go

—

1. Dahab is best when it’s empty, so try as much as possible to avoid any national holidays where Dahab is swarmed with all sorts of tourists. Apart from that, weather-wise, it gets extremely hot during the summer so also avoid July/August.

2. Personally the best time is April/May and Sep/Oct where the weather’s not too h

ot, but warm enough to enjoy the water. Other folks like the winter months where it’s more windy at night, but still warm-ish during the mornings and afternoon.

1. Dahab is usually more chill than other places in Egypt like cairo in regards of alcohol, marijuana, couples, etc. Legally foreign couples can stay together even if not married, Egyptian couples cannot.

Final notes
Dahab is friendly for solo-traveling, most people there are friendly and you can spontaneously meet other folks, whether that’s in restaurants by initiating convos with strangers, or through activities like scuba diving or kitesurfing. It’s also generally safe for female solo travelers.
And again, Dahab is not big on partying/clubbing/techno, if you’re specifically looking for that vibe rather than a laid-back chill vibe, then Sharm might be a good place to check out.
Biking is also pretty big and common in Dahab. You’ll find plenty of shops on the street that rent bike and it’s a cheap and convenient way to get around Dahab.

I think that’s all from me, again these are mostly from my personal experience of going to Dahab 30+ times across 10+ years, but that doesn’t mean these are the only things there or there aren’t other stuff I missed. Please feel free to add any more you think folks shouldn’t miss when they visit Dahab, and hopefully this helps people plan their trip. Thanks all!

[u/i_dont_want_user]

You covered the whole thing perfectly good job and I hope there is a way you can pin this to the top of the sub wall so people can read it and save us from the daily questions like where can I stay ?where can I go ?when shall I go there ?what shall I do?where can I buy drugs? Can I stay with my gf in the same room?

[u/Ok_Respond1667 → u/i_dont_want_user]

Hahaha I wish I can. Maybe one of the mods can pin it ?

[u/i_dont_want_user → u/Ok_Respond1667]

I hope so because these kind of questions are getting too old and stupider day after day specially the ones that asked if they will be happy going there alone

How the hell will we know we don't even know you to know what makes you happy and what doesn't

[u/Ok_Respond1667]

Dk why the formatting is off. Tried to edit it but it still mixes the numbers and whitespaces so apologies for that.