On the eastern coast of Sinai 85 km north of Sharm El-Sheikh lies the village of Dahab. Like Sharm, Dahab can be divided into two areas. The town, or Dahab city, is not so touristic and has the local post office as well as bus station. In addition to one five-star beach resort and to or three hotels. The other area, termed Asslah is where everything is happening. For the past 7 years Asslah has been your local Venice

Beach of the 60’s, sex, drugs and rock and roll. You get off the bus, and you’re confronted with tye-died shirts, bikinis, and the smell of pot everywhere.Cafes crowd the coastline where you can eat and sit around. In Asslah people just “sit around”, some “sit around” for hours, others “sit around” for days. If you’re not a diver or smoker than there’s not much to do. The cafes all serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, and most of them hang their menus up front. Like the accommodation, dining in Dahab is relatively cheap. Diving trips leave out of the many diving centers on a daily basis, to the dive sites of Dahab, the Canyon, the Bell and the famous, but dangerous, Blue Hole. During the past two years police have increased drug trafficking control, and police men patrol Asslah on an hourly basis, so it is no longer Amsterdam of the Middle East.

Along with the cafes that fill the coastline, the place is packed with camps where you can spend the night for as cheap as 5 LE per person per night. We must warn you Hygiene-freaks that Dahab is not the cleanest of places, garbage fills the coastline, and you might find a cockroach or two under your bed, its all part of the Dahab atmosphere! Nevertheless, Dahab is by far the cheapest resort in Egypt. To get to

Dahab you can catch a bus from Cairo (it takes 8-9 hours) or you can get on a one-hour bus from Sharm El Sheikh. Busses from Sharm going to Nuweiba or Taba must past through Dahab, so you can take these too. Another option is to take the Peugeot taxis, but again they are quite expensive. A taxi from Sharm El Sheikh to Dahab will cost around 150 LE for the whole taxi, the more people you get the cheaper it gets. From the Dahab bus station you can get a pick up to Asslah for as cheap as 2 LE per person.