1 Day 4x4 Tour: Eilat – St. Cathrine's Monastery – Sharm el Sheikh
06:30 – Our car will pick you up from your hotel in Eilat, and our representative will help you with the border-crossing formalities at Taba.
07:15 – Your Egyptian Guide will meet you at the Egyptian side of the border, help you with the formalities there, and the tour begins…
07:30 – We start driving along the coast of the Red Sea, with the blue sea to our left, and the red mountains to our right. We pass the oasis & town of Nuweiba, and start driving inland into Wadi Saada, which, like it's name, is a steep Canyon, carved in the hard granite rock. The canyon changes into a plateau of soft sandstone, where the wind has formed many bizarre "monuments". Then we arrive to the Sinai High Mountain Range, and into the St. Catherine's Protectorate.
10:30 – We step out of the car and go by foot (approx. 10-15 min.) to visit the St. Cathrine's Monastery. This monastery, built for the first time by St. Helen as a chapel in the 4th century, was never destroyed since, and therefor is famous for it's ancient icons and manuscripts. We will see "Jethro's Well" – where Moses met his wife Zipporah, the ancient church, built by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th Century, and never destroyed since. We will not miss, of course, the bush that is claimed to be the direct descendant of the "Burning Bush"!! Walk back to the parking lot.
12:30 – We drive to the St. Catherine's Village, where we have lunch in a Tourism Class restaurant.
13:30 – We descend from the Sinai High Mountain Range to Sinai's coastal road.
14:45 - After a little more than an hours drive, we go off-road for a safari-drive into the sandstone-area of Ramlat-e-Safra ("The Yellow Sanddune") – a great place to play like children, and Jebel el Machrum ("The Mountain with the hole").
17:00 – We are back on the coastal road, and drive towards Sharm el Sheikh.
18:30 – Arrive at Sharm el Sheikh City and check-in at your hotel.
PLEASE NOTE:
- The times mentioned here are only suggested times, and are mentioned just in order to give a time-frame to the itinerary . They might change according to the circumstances on the ground.
- For the entrance to the Monastery, decent clothes are required. Your shoulders, belly, and legs up to below your knees have to be covered. This applies to BOTH men & women.
- The St. Cathrine's Mountain Range is very cold during winter time. It might be covered with snow. Warm clothing is required.
