Egypt Guide
Sinai
St Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai
Despite its isolated location, St Catherine's is one of the most accessible parts of South Sinai. You can visit on organized tours from Na'ama Bay, Dahab, Nuweiba, Cairo, Hurghada or Eilat, or you can make your own way by bus or service taxi. A daily bus leaves Cairo's Abbassiya terminal at 11.30am for St Catherine's village via Feiran Oasis (7hr; £E37). Services from Sharm el-Sheikh (7.30am; £E28) and Dahab (9.30am; £E16) turn off the highway between Dahab and Nuweiba. All buses stop about 10km before the monastery at a petrol station/police checkpoint/ticket office for the St Catherine protectorate, where foreigners must purchase a ticket (£E20) to enter the area. For a group of travellers, another option is to engage a service taxi at Suez, Dahab, Nuweiba or Taba and split the cost. Taxis usually run in the morning and afternoon if enough customers are interested, raising their fares once the last bus has left. The same goes for taxis leaving St Catherine's, which run to Dahab and elsewhere, depending on demand.