Nuweiba travel guide

Nuweiba lies 67 km north of Dahab and 64 km south of the Israeli border at Taba on a dazzlingly beautiful stretch of coast. Nuweiba’s Moshav, or co-operative village, used to be a major destination for Israeli tourists during the occupation but has long since been surpassed by Na’ama Bay as the Sinai’s primary resort destination. The diving here might be rather tame in comparison to Sharm, but Nuweiba has many splendid sandy beaches with comfortable hotels that tend to be cheaper and are in closer proximity to Israel, Jordan and the wonders of the desert interior.

The town is divided into three distinct areas: the ‘city’, the port to the south, and the Bedouin village of Tarabeen to the north. Sadly, all three areas (and indeed most of the hotels and small camps along the coast up to Taba) have an eerie ghost-town feel since the second Intifada and, at the time of writing, border tensions between Rafah and Gaza means the absence of Israeli tourists is complete. Neglect and dereliction are much in evidence, as the skeletons of unfinished bungalows and old bamboo huts disintegrate and plastic bags wash up on stretches of Nuweiba’s gorgeous coast. But if complete peace and freedom from hassle are what you desire, there are still plenty of cosy camps on clean white sand to be found, and Nuweiba has a natural advantage over most of Dahab in that you can swim straight off the beach and snorkel out to some colourful reefs. Aside from winding down and floating in the Red Sea, it is also a much better place to get to meet Bedouin people and give something back to Sinai by organizing a tailor-made trip into the interior in the company of some locals to see the spectacular wadis and mountain villages.