Sharm El Sheikh: Colored Canyon, Blue Hole Snorkeling & Dahab Lunch

4.86

(158 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

“You want to try the camel?” our guide grinned, already holding out the reins. I’d barely stepped out of the van in Dahab and suddenly there I was, wobbling along the Red Sea coast with salt in the air and my heart thumping. The light here is different—sharp but kind of golden—and for a second I forgot about everything except that slow sway above turquoise water. My friend tried to take a photo but mostly caught me laughing (and clutching on for dear life). We’d left Sharm El Sheikh early—still yawning—and it felt like we’d landed on another planet.

The drive to the Blue Hole was bumpy, windows down so we could catch that dry desert breeze. Our guide, Ahmed, pointed out random goats picking their way over rocks—he said their milk makes the best tea but I didn’t get to try it. At the Blue Hole itself, I just stood there for a moment smelling sunscreen and seaweed and feeling nervous about snorkeling (I’m not exactly Jacques Cousteau). But once I dipped under—wow. The coral really does look like someone spilled paint everywhere. Fish darted around my ankles; I lost track of time until Ahmed waved us back for lunch.

Lunch was in this Bedouin-style tent right on the sand—grilled chicken, smoky eggplant, bread still warm from the fire. There was sweet tea too, poured from way up high like some kind of magic trick. We ate with our hands and nobody cared if you dropped rice or got sauce on your shirt (which I did). Afterward we piled into a battered jeep for the Colored Canyon. The canyon walls twisted overhead—red and gold stripes—and at one point our guide told us to just listen: total silence except for wind scraping over stone. It made me feel tiny but also weirdly calm.

We stopped in Dahab before heading back to Sharm El Sheikh—just enough time to wander past shops selling oils and herbs (the smell of jasmine everywhere) and bargain awkwardly for souvenirs. My Arabic is terrible but people smiled anyway. On the drive home I kept replaying that moment in the canyon when everything went quiet—I still think about it sometimes when things get noisy back home.