Flight Crew Adventures | Tour Guide

Sharm el Sheikh

Ross MilneJune 4, 2024

As a qualified PADI Scuba Diver, I have travelled to Sharm el Sheikh many times in the past, a country I always very much enjoyed going to.

With direct flights available from the UK, great weather all year round, especially during the summer when it gets very very hot!

You will always find a hotel to your liking, for me it has to be the Reef Oasis Beach Resort, a little bit further away from the main area of Sharm el Sheikh, but it really is worth it.

Now of course, there are plenty of other great hotels and if like me, you are a big kid, many of the hotels have excellent water parks for all to enjoy!

There is plenty for everyone to do, from shops, Night Clubs, bars, off roading in the sand dunes (very fun!) and most famous for their excellent Scuba Diving spots!

Talking about Scuba Diving, many hotels offer Scuba Diving onsite so you can make the most  of the hotel facilities and Scuba Diving at the same time, or you can easily go on a boat trip!

You can also easily get an internal flight to visit Cairo to see their excellent museum which since I was there has moved to a brand new building along with the pyramids.  When I went, I paid extra for a private excursion so, I had my own driver who was also a tour guide and not only that my own security guard (the gun he carroed made me a bit nervous at first, but knew I was safe as it was booked with my tour operator)

I must mention about safety in Sharm, it has had its many lows and since we are a aviation site, I can’t get away from giving a mention to the disaster that happened on 31st October 2015, a flight that was travelling from Sharm el Sheikh to Russia, I won’t go into any deal on it to due to its nature, but this hit Sharm hard, with near enough all countries suspending flights going to Sharm.

I always remember this as I worked for Thomas Cook at the time, so had spoken to customers trying to find out what was happening with flights home, which had to be   arranged, infact they had to fly back to the UK without any baggage, which was latter arranged via the Government to be brought home.

Alot of work had to go on to please governments that Sharm el Sheikh Airport was now safer to use, after they implemented a number of changes.  For us in the UK, the Goverment didn’t remove the ban until 22nd October 2019, a whole 4 years later.

It wasn’t until Thursday 19th December 2019 that the first flight to Sharm from the UK went back, departing from Birmingham.

Earlier in 2015, Sharm el Sheikh Airport had approval for a major expansion to greatly increase its capacity, due to ever grown demand and popularity in the destination.  Sadly, this never happened as a result of the tragedy.

Unlike other destinations I must admit I always felt disappointed in the air side area of the terminal, it always felt very basic and not fully geared towards tourists. 

Now there isn’t a huge amount more I can go into without making it an essay!  But to sum up this article, would I go back to Sharm? The answer would be yes!  I really enjoyed the times I visited, all the staff were friendly and happy to have you there.  The hotels are lovely, and of course, the Scuba Diving is just amazing!  Anyone looking for a destination year round with great weather, no freezing cold swimming pool during our winter (looking at you Turkey!).