Naama Bay, Sharm El Sheikh

I suggest going only at night since the place is lit up amazingly, and very very safe and comfortable for tourists. in fact it is over ridden by tourists, either arab,, european or american. I met a wonderful Libyan family just visiting Sharm as a vacation, which i though was cool that even to people within arabic world, they also love to visit egypt's treasures. its very good compared to the nontouristic cairo. Naama Bay is extremely developed and is simply a joy to walk around in. The walking paths are so great through the shops, but are neccessary due to the amount of tourists.

Sitting down on the bench i spoke to a native Egyptian teaching at Sharm univeristy, and he was telling me his anger at how his city has been tooken over. lol

Naama bay has plenty of shops, clubs, outdoor shisha bars, entertainment shows, casinos, restaurants and souvenir shops. Pasha is the biggest club in town, but cover is 26 euros, so i said screw that. other highlights include The belly dancing shows occuruing in various shisha bars or restaurants. its expensive.

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The first day at the beach I went into the water for a try-out of my snorkling gear and the new underwater cover for my digital camera. From the beach I saw two spots where some people were snorkling.

When I arrived there in only a few minutes, It surprised me to see just in front of the beach lots of colourful fishes, swimming around two small pieces of coral reefs. I couldn't recognise all the types of fish, but anyway I saw a blue coloured parrot fish, lots of black & white sergeants majors, yellow butterflyfishes and red sea banner fishes.

Of course the huge coral reefs of Ras Mohammed are much more impressive, but for me it was a nice surprise to be able to have this close encounter, just coming out of my hotelroom at the first day.

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Along the seaside of Na'ama Bay is a long sandy beach. Most hotels have their private beach, but there is also a public beach. The first time we stay at the eastern side of the bay and frequented the beach of the Sonesta Beach Resort. The second time we stayed opposite at the western side of the bay and frequented the beach of our Helnan Marina Hotel.

It's the place for sunbathing, playing beachvolleyball, relaxing, having a massage, swimming and even snorkeling (there are some minor reefs and lots of colourful fishes just in front of the beaches), but also for boating, sailing or making a trip with a glass bottom boat. It's a nice mixture of activities, but also a striking mixture of types of swimmingsuits from topless till swimming suits covering the whole body.

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Both times we visited Sharm El-Sheik, we stayed in a hotel at Na'ama Bay. Along the bay is a nice pedestrian promenade. From the promenade you can reach all the beaches and the hotels, restaurants and shops lined along the promenade . It´s nice to stroll here, especially in the evening.

Along the promenade of Na'ama Bay are a lot of restaurants and bars. A rather cheap and popular one is Tam Tam Oriental Cafe for Middle Eastern and Egyptian dishes, drinks and shisha's (waterpipes). The bar has a relaxed and nice atmosphere.

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The first time we visited Na'ama Bay we made a walk into the desert. It was a nice experience, especially because our hotel at the main Avenue (Peace Road) was situated at the edge of the desert.

We walked in the direction of the mountains. They looked very scenic, but the forms were also good for orientation. The solitary tree (picture 1) was our second orientation point. It's looked great in the surrounding landscape. In the shade of the tree we took a rest and drunk some water (picture 2).

On our walk back to Na'ama Bay the orientation was quite easy. When we turned around, we had allready a good view from a big distance at the skyline of the hotels and could easily find our way.

Nowadays most people go into the desert by quad.

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During our first visit to Na'ama Bay we could easily walk into the desert from our Oasis hotel, situated at the edge of the desert. It was an easy walk, because the surface was solid and flat. The scenery with the mountains at the background was wonderfull. We didn't see any other people during our walk, so the desert gave us a feeling of solitude and serenity. When we walked back, we saw far away at the other side of the wadi a small group on quads, four wheeled motorbikes, entering the desert.

After 11 years when we came back to Na'ama bay, we found out that at the edge of the desert along the big Avenue, called the Peace Road, new housing areas were built and many more are under construction (picture 4). Along the Avenue you have hardly any free views (picture 3)at the desert anymore. Also the view at the desert from our former hotel was disappeared behind blocks of houses (picture 2).

Of course in case you want, you can still go for a walk into the desert, but you have to walk a bit more coming from the hotel area and the charm of walking straight from your hotel into the desert is gone.

The second time we didn't go for a walk, but we were happy we could still experience the desert by the splendid view from the balcony of our hotelroom at the same desert mountains like in 1996, as a wonderful background behind the town (picture 5).

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Na'ama Bay itself has some minor reefs for snorkeling, reachable from the beach. I was surprised to get a glimpse allready of many colourful fishes just a few steps in the water.

The first time we visited Na'ama Bay we walked to the Near Garden east of the beach area near the Sofitel Hotel. We could walk there on the cliffs. Also if you not go for snorkeling, the walk on the cliffs is nice. Nowadays acces can maybe be blocked by new hotels built on the shore.

you should go to marina or the so called na'ma bay if you want to shoping or clubing or smoking shisha in cafe then marina is the best thing,you can also find there Macdonalds pizza hut ,hardrock cafe and alot of other shopping center