Eleven to thirteen and a half hours, and one snorkeling stop in the middle of it. The Dahab day trip is a desert excursion that reaches the sea, not a water trip that passes a canyon – jeep, quad, camel, a canyon walk and a Bedouin lunch, with a shore snorkel toward the end. Booked with that in mind it is the best-value long day in Sharm. Booked as a snorkeling trip it will disappoint.
What the day actually contains
Set expectations properly and this is an easy trip to enjoy. The published running order:
| Segment | What happens |
|---|---|
| Hotel pickup, air-conditioned minivan | The drive north begins |
| Canyon | Walking trail of roughly 800 m |
| Jeep safari | About 30 minutes |
| Dahab | Guided tour and free time in town |
| Snorkeling | One stop, from the shore |
| Camel ride | Along the coast |
| Lunch | In a Bedouin tent on the coast |
| Return transfer | Back to Sharm |
Five of those seven segments happen on land. The snorkeling is a single stop entered from the beach rather than a boat, at what the listing calls the best snorkeling spot between Dahab and Abu Galum, and no duration is published for it.
That is the honest shape. It is also why this costs around £16 when Sharm's boat days cost £22 to £36 – you are buying variety and distance rather than time in the water.
The canyon name is worth one question before you book
Here is something the listing does not resolve, and we could not resolve for you either.
The listing calls the destination "Salama Colored Canyon" and refers to it as "Colored Canyon" interchangeably, presenting them as one place. Meanwhile, the Colored Canyon that appears on maps and in reference sources sits near Nuweiba, about 90 km north of Dahab – a considerable distance further north than Dahab itself.
Some operators and travel sources describe Salama Canyon as a separate, closer formation sometimes marketed under the "colored canyon" name; others treat the two as the same site. Sources genuinely disagree, and the ~800 m trail figure does not settle it – the Nuweiba canyon is itself described as roughly 800 m long.
Dahab is the reason to go
The canyon and the quad bikes are the filler. Dahab is the part people remember, and it is genuinely unlike Sharm: a former Bedouin fishing village turned dive town, low-rise, with cafes along a shore road and none of the resort-strip architecture Sharm is built from.
The guided tour and free time there let you see a different Egypt from the hotel zone – which is the actual argument for spending twelve hours on this rather than eight on a boat.
The snorkeling is genuinely good on this coast too. It is simply not the point of the day, and there is one stop of it.
Who cannot do this trip
The exclusion list is longer than any other trip in our Egypt coverage, and for obvious reasons – quad bikes, camels, a jeep safari and a canyon walk in one day.
The operator lists the trip as unavailable to pregnant women, people with back problems, people with mobility impairments, and wheelchair users. Electric wheelchairs are not permitted.
Take the back-problems exclusion seriously rather than as boilerplate. A jeep safari on desert track and a camel ride are both genuinely percussive, and this is a long day to get through if the first hour hurts.
No minimum age is published. Given the length and the activity mix, this is a trip to think carefully about with young children.
When to go
September through May. This matters more here than on the boat trips, because most of the day is spent on land in the Sinai interior, where summer daytime heat is severe and there is no sea breeze in a canyon.
Winter is the right season for this trip specifically – walking a canyon and riding a camel are pleasant at 20°C and punishing at 38°C.
Start times are early and the day is long. Treat it as the day you do not plan anything else around, and do not stack it against an early boat departure the following morning.
Check dates and availability before you leave this page – it runs once a day and the winter dates fill ahead of the boat trips.
Dahab, or a day on the water?
| What you want | Book | Roughly | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desert, a canyon and a different town | Dahab day trip | ~£16 per person | 11-13.5 hours, one shore snorkel |
| A national park and a sandbank | Ras Mohamed & White Island | ~£22 per person | Nine hours, all of it on the water |
| Famous reefs, more sailing | Tiran Island cruise | ~£36 per person | Exposed water, the sea picks the reef |
If you have one day, take a boat. Sharm's reefs are why people come, and Ras Mohamed costs only a few pounds more for a full day in the water.
If you have several days, this is the one that is not like the others – and at £16 it is the cheapest way to see a genuinely different part of Sinai. Pair it with a boat day rather than choosing between them.
For a shorter, cheaper thrill on the same coast, parasailing fits into an afternoon, and the Seascope semi-submarine is the option for anyone who will not be getting in the water.
For a base in Sharm, our guides to swim-up rooms and private pool villas cover the hotel strips these trips collect from, and the water activities index has our other destinations.
FAQ – the Dahab day trip from Sharm
Images: Petar Milošević / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
