Sharm El Sheikh: Overlooked Corners
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Most Sharm el-Sheikh lists just recycle Ras Mohammed and the Old Market, both genuinely excellent but also the two things everyone already knows about. Here are five corners that get less attention, most of them free or nearly so.
Five spots at a glance
| Spot | Where | Cost | Time needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ras Um Sid | Hadaba, southern tip of town | Free (shore access) | 1-2 hours |
| Nabq’s mangrove fringe | ~12km north of Sharm | Tour price | Half day |
| Ras Mohammed’s Mangrove Channel | Inside the national park | Park entry only | 30-45 min |
| Al-Sahaba Mosque | Old Market district | Free to view exterior | 15-20 min |
| Colored Canyon | Near Nuweiba, bundled into a desert day | Tour price | Half day |
Ras Um Sid’s shore reef, below a lighthouse
Ras Um Sid, at the clifftop southern edge of town below its lighthouse, is one of the area’s best easy shore-entry reefs, and it doesn’t need a boat trip or a tour booking, just a walk down from the Hadaba district above. It’s quieter than the Naama Bay house reefs simply because fewer visitors know it’s an option (verify current shore-access conditions with a local dive shop, as they shift).
Nabq’s mangroves, the reef’s quieter northern neighbor
Nabq Protected Area, a 600 km² reserve about 12km north of Sharm, holds the northernmost mangrove stands in the entire Red Sea and Indian Ocean region, a roughly 4.5km fringe of Avicennia marina that most itineraries skip in favor of Ras Mohammed. It’s genuinely rich, 208 hard coral species and 438 fish species recorded, plus threatened wildlife like dugongs, marine turtles and Nubian ibex, and it’s co-managed with the local El Mezina Bedouin tribe rather than run as a pure government reserve.
Ras Mohammed’s other half, the Mangrove Channel
Most Ras Mohammed trips are sold purely as dive days, Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef, and that’s fair, they’re the headline sites. But the park’s southern end also holds a shallow ~1.16km Mangrove Channel formed by earthquake-related inland cracks, a snorkel-or-kayak stop that’s a genuinely different pace from the deep-wall diving most people come for. Ask your boat operator whether the day’s itinerary includes it; not every trip does.
The mosque worth a look from outside
Al-Sahaba Mosque, in the Old Market district, has been rebuilt in Ottoman-style architecture after extensive renovation, and it’s a striking building to see from the street even if you’re not visiting for prayer. Pair it with an Old Market bargaining stop, since it sits right in that neighborhood.
The Colored Canyon, if a desert day is already on your list
The Colored Canyon, a narrow sandstone slot near Nuweiba with walls up to 40m tall carved by an ancient retreating sea, is genuinely striking and usually gets folded into a broader Sinai jeep or desert-safari day rather than sold as its own trip. Local Bedouin lore holds that Moses was once lost here for 40 years, treat that as folklore rather than history, but it’s a good story for the walk through.
For the ranked list of what most visitors do first, see our things to do guide ; our nature spots guide covers Nabq and Ras Mohammed’s ecology in more depth. Check rates near Hadaba on Booking.com if Ras Um Sid’s shore reef is the draw.
One concrete move: ask your Ras Mohammed boat operator directly whether the Mangrove Channel is on the day’s route before you book, since some itineraries skip it entirely in favor of more time at Shark and Yolanda Reef.