From Israel

Coming from Israel, going into the Sinai is as easy as crossing the border from Eilat to Taba, a process that normally unfolds in an orderly way, but involves a surpris ingly long hike. Get your passport iti hand once you drop out of the bus (#15 from Eilat); you’ll have to show it frequently as you run the 2km gauntlet to the corresponding bus depot on the other side. Here are the stations for the whole affair: bus drop-off, Taba snack bar ("last beer before Sinai” NIS4), passport pre-check, passport control booth (pay NIS31.40 exit tax, then check passport), Israeli last passport peck, no-man’s-land walk, Egyptian passport control (fill out entry form, get stamp), Egypt security (X-ray machine), post-border passport check, 1-km hike, Egyptian border tax of US$6 in equivalent Egyptian pounds (show passport), bus station. Welcome to Egypt! Always allow at least two hours for the border crossing; it can be slow on a busy day. The Taba Hilton is the best place to change money; it’s on the Egyptian side and is open 24 hrs.

Three buses run south from Taba at 10am, 2pm, and 3pm. Only the 3pm “crazy bus” goes as far as Sharm ash-Sheikh (LEI 2). It’s unclear whether it’s the driver who has blown some fuses after too much shuttling up and down the scorching Aqaba Coast, or the passengers who are demented enough to actually ride this tired beast of burden. What’s important is that the bus will go where it wants, when it wants; it could be as far as Sharm or no farther than you could throw it. The one-way trip to Sharm ash-Sheikh takes six hours by bus or three by taxi. To get to Dahab take the 10am or 3pm bus. St. Catherine’s monastery can’t be reached in a single day via public transportation; you have to transfer buses in Dahab. The 2pm bus goes to Cairo via Nuweiba. It is impractical to come through Rafrah and Gaza unless you are going to Al-Arish (best reached by taxi from Rafiah).