bvbellomo
Contributor
My choice is the Tillis, deep South route. But I don't go until June.
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The transfer from Sharm Airport to Dahab is a bit of nuisance: 1,5 - 2 hours through the mountain/desert.
I think, it does not only make sense when going on LOB: You have some nice hotels in the Abu Dababd area with nice house reefs and zodiac/speedboot options to other dive spots including Elphinstone.
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If doing it with the transfer bus from a tour operator then indeed it's 2 hours (maybe even more) as the bus will only go to Dahab after leaving everyone to their Sharm hotels (and it can take a while). However Sharm to Dahab is 1 hour max if you arrange your own transfer from Sharm by taxi. (the airport itself is very close to Sharm's Dahab exit and there's no security check when leaving Sharm). It's not that expensive, going rate is about 35$ per car.
That would be a resort based holiday which couldn't be more different to hanging out in Dahab For diving if you're not on a LOB you depend on a group being formed to do Elphinstone (so they can charter a boat for the day) and depending on season that may happen or not. But I agree that during the high season this will get done a couple of days per week at least, so any decent dive center will get you on the boat.
When it comes to hotels clearly Marsa is better then Dahab, particularly these days.
One other thing to consider however is the cost of getting to Marsa compared to Dahab. The difference may be irrelevant for someone coming on an expensive inter-continental flight from the US, but for us Europeans it's one thing to get to Dahab and back for 120 euros or so and quite another to fork out 400-500 euros for a seat on a Marsa charter.
Ah! i see now: we are comparing holidays booked as a package (Flight, Transfer, Hotel = me) to every single bit booked separately, correct?
So the difference is that for us everything was included in the package, especially the tranfer.
For the Sharm - Dahab route, i would definitely prefer a transfer where i can be sure that the car will not break somewhere in the mountains near some old camel bones...
Putting the equipment on a carpet on high street to gear up and go to the entry point throught the terrasse between the tables of the restaurant is an experience you can only have in Dahab, i think.