Sleeping By The (Red) Sea in Bir Suwair's Bamboo Shacks

Where: Bir Suwair, Sinai, Egypt

October 20, 2009 at 11:58 AM | by juliab | Comments (0)

We learned several things from our visit to Egypt last week. First, five star there does not necessarily mean the five star that you would be accustomed to. We stayed in three five star properties in the Sinai peninsula � the Four Seasons and the Concorde in Sharm El Sheikh, and the Intercontinental in Taba Heights, and, unless you count all inclusive buffets and slightly tired decor as desirable five star attributes, only the Four Seasons was up to scratch.

Second, do not trust the buffets. They will make most likely you ill.

Third, you may tire of the resorts after a week of the buffets and the activities and the enforced gaiety and being surrounded by what seems like half the inhabitants of Britain and Russia, comparing sun burn and complaining that the guy at breakfast overfilled the coffee cup.

This is when you need to escape. And this is where you should escape to: Bir Suwair, in northern Sinai, between Nuweiba and Taba. It�s a settlement on a lovely sandy beach (this is important because not all the beaches in Sinai are lovely and sandy; most are rocky and have to import sand that�s a bit chunky and scratchy, although they have awesome coral reefs to make up for this). And by �settlement�, we mean a group of about 30 campsites made up of bamboo and wooden shacks. Robinson Crusoe eat your heart out.

It�s in a pretty special setting � from the beach, you can see Jordan and Saudi Arabia opposite you, and Israel up to the left. You can see them from your shack, too, as well as hear the waves just a couple of metres away. It is heaven. As is the price � you can get your shack for as little as 20LE per person, which is just $3.65 or �2.20.

Obviously you aint getting no luxury for $3.65. You�re getting a shack, a mattress (bring your own sheets) and a lightbulb (although the generators go off at midnight, but then the candles come out). You�re definitely not getting air con (we�d say it�s bearable from now till about April) or en suite facilities (but the washblocks are divided into men and women�s sections, and are pretty civilized).

We went round two of the camps: Asala Beach and Love Beach. Both have opened in the last few months, so the shacks are top of the range, as shacks go. We liked the shacks slightly better at Love Beach (bamboo walls, so more light and airy) but the facilities were nicer at Asala Beach. The owners at both were very friendly, and we�d go back to either. A couple of nights at Bir Suwair would, if you�re not a stickler for amenities, be communing-with-the-earth heaven.

Neither has a website, but there is a Facebook group, Friends of Bir Suwair. Otherwise, Love Beach is on +20 185 713 433, lovebeach_sinai@yahoo.com or Asala Beach is +20 124 417 753. Go Crusoe them up.

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