Sinai

Up north, the Red Sea splits into two v-shaped arms: the 300km long Gulf of Suez points NW to the Mediterranean, while the Gulf of Akaba extends a third of the distance NE. The mountainous Sinai Peninsula towers between the two. This sparsely populated area has always been home to nomadic Bedouins, and tourism remains largely isolated to a few seaside towns. By far the largest is Sharm El Sheikh, which attracts both foreigners and Egyptian high society to its dive-sites and cosmopolitan beaches. Windsports never really caught on here, but the former Bedouin village of Dahab has been thriving since the ’90s. It’s long been windsurfer’s paradise, but room has recently been made for kiters downwind of the main scene too. While the reddish-brown mountainsides hugging the Gulf of Akaba coast provide an awesome panorama, the atmosphere in the sandy coastal flats of the Gulf of Suez is more like the Red Sea’s west shore. But both sides of Sinai the have the key factors in common: reliable conditions with a high probability of wind and year-round warmth.