Are you staying at a hotel in Taba, if so you might be best contacting the hotel to arrange a transfer. This might be more reliable than relying on a taxi from the airport. We got a taxi to the airport and on arrival at sharm I do remember seeing some waiting. It's definately a good 3 hours, possibly more it was 2 hours from nuweiba to dahab.

The man to ask about these matters would be Swissinai who is in Nuweiba and would be able to give you the best advice I think. I take it you're not going till next week so you should have plenty of time for replies.

Good luck and have a great time

Tigger.... 2 hrs to go from Nuweiba to Dahab ? By Camel ?? Its only 70 km.

A taxi will take two hours from Sharm Airport to Nuweiba and one more to the Taba Hilton. The drivers will be happy to take you if you are happy to pay the price they ask !!! I would expect that they will initially ask for something like LE 600 but might settle for around LE 450. If you were going from Naama Bay then you could probably get it for upto LE 100 less.

I too am curious as to why Taba ? As Tigger says, its a good idea to try and contact the hotel to arrange the transfers.

The reason for Taba is that we're going to Eilat, Israel and visit old friends. Flights are much cheaper to Egypt than Israel. I have been to Sinai a lot but it has been a couple of years and never to Sharm so I figured I get some fresh info. So maybe if I get away from the airport and to Naama bay it might be cheaper? I'll haggle hard and tell you what happen. Anyone going on sunday afternoon that fancy to share a taxi part of the way?

Once again, thank you all!/Sofia

Hi, nice to hear that the weather is good in Sharm just now. Our friends flew out yesterday and texted us last night, they got their visa's ok at the bank in Sharm airport, as I'd told them about it. They waited 30 mins for luggage to come up and said the airport "was mad" !!!

As we have pre paid taxi transfers to the Mexicana hotel, do you know how much we should tip the taxi driver, as we wont be paying the fare??? I don't want to upset him on our first night!

Hi Ray,

Hmm, yeah Thursdays' are quite manic. Yet on the other hand our guests arrived on Thursday at our transfer buses 10 minutes after the plane landed!!!

Generally we don't tip taxi drivers, if you want to around 10 EGP. Anymore and you're paying again for the transfer.

Have a fab hol.

surely a tip is a personal thing and not a fixed fee, if the driver gets you to your destination safe and sound and well relaxed ,whatever you feel you should give would be greatfully received.if you arrive in a flush of sweat with the vinyl from the seats under your finger nails from clutching the seat so hard and sick from the smell of fumes from the engine then you should also tip accordingly

daffyduck - are you saying that guests that stayed at your place got off the plane, queued and passed through passport control, waited and got their cases at the carousel and then left the airport and arrived at the transfer bus within 10 minutes? And furthermore did it on a Thursday - the busiest day at the airport.
I'm sure any previous visitors to SES like me, will want to know the name of your place, as we will want to come. Compared to the 2 hours + normal time it takes you must have special treatment - or was it just a tinsy bit of exageration.

Caveman, Egyptian pilots obviously land their planes in the car park.

having been to mexico cuba and goa, no more than 1 to 2 dollars, otherwise u are setting an example.
julie

Thanks for the advice folks. I will always tip only what I feel is deserved, and certainly don't believe in rewarding bad service etc, but I didn't want me and Mrs.P to 'get off on the wrong foot' in a place that is new to us.
I have a good supply of 1 Dollar notes ready
Our friends have just texted, it was 38 in Sharm today. By the way they got through the airport in about 45 mins, 30 of which was waiting for luggage.

Glad to hear that Briar

Poor caveman and Everast seem to be looking on the dark-side

PS C & E..... only joking

OK I concede that it is possible to get through with minimal fuss. But I bet you if you took the majority of cases they would agree that an hour is the norm, maybe more, especially on Thursdays.
I think most people that have arrived at SES airport will find the 10 minute claim astonishing and even your 20 minute one Briar quite rapid. Not that I would argue with a moderator.
BTW my 2 hour+ may have been OTT.

this is slightly but coming back from Gran Canaria into Manchester a couple of weeks ago, I was deplaned, through passport control, baggage claim and in the arrivals hall in 10 minutes!

nearly died of shock!

in tenerife last year we were deplaned and in a taxi to our accommodation in 15 minutes!

We go on a Monday, so i am hoping it will be quiet

So Briar, did you avoided the 'visa' queue and go straight to baggage reclaim... I thought you still had to queue, write Sinai only on the back of landing card, then go through the passport control????

Derwentrocker

Hope you get through at high speed, the sun shines, and your hotel is great... could do with a bit of sun myself just now, have come down with a cold Lorraine

Well, I'll soon find out for myself how quick (or otherwise) it is to get through SES, as we go this Thursday. Flying from sunny (not!) Newcastle and due to arrive at SES at 20:20, lets hope the rush has cleared abit by then.Really looking forward to actually seeing SHARM after all I've read about it.

Our friends are out there now (we overlap with their second week) and they are having a great time, texts say it is HOT HOT HOT, and that T. Blair and family have just arrived at the hotel next to their's... I think it's the Four Seasons at Sharks Bay? Friends said that there were police and security everywhere! Hope Tony likes it HOT

Hi Caveman,

Sorry it's been so long since i've checked my email, had a few days off!! A lot of responses since too.

On a Thursdays and Saturdays (shortly Tuesdays) we have a own flights, it's a small company but really good, virtually no delays and all our flights are scheduled with extra leg room now - we are really impressed with how things are going and we have a great team inside the airport. Saturdays are a little busier with the changes of Thursday flights, but still handling nearly 400 guests, the 1st bus left 35 mins after landing and the last 50 mins.

Thursdays have very recently changed - from being very chaotic to a dream. All airlines were flying in between the hours of two and four pm, over 30 flights landing during this period and the airport can only cope with 6 an hour!! So all the tour operators changed their flight days and now Thursday is a breeze.

Our flight landed at 4.30pm and seriously no word of a lie the 1st guest was out after 10 mins. All 120 package guests were out in 35 mins. It was probably a case of timing and the luggage was ready waiting for the guests as soon as they got through passport control, watch this space - a few more weeks will tell if this was a fluke or indeed an improvement on the organisation at SES airport, i hope the latter!! Admittedly 30 mins from landing to the bus at the airport is the norm at the mo'. (providing the conveyor belt is working!)

So all in all - Thursdays are fast becoming a good day as everyone else has moved their flights - for the summer anyway, what will happen in November (Winter) remains to be seen.

As for queing for visa's, becuase we are a tour company, visa's are handed to our guests in the passport control queue, and everyone has to go through passport control with visa or without! So this really doesn't make a diffence to the timing for us. But apparently on this particular day in question (as my husband was on the flight) there were only 2 passport controllers for when our flight landed and then they incresaed to 5, so this did speed things up and with the luggage coming out as they reached the luggage claim area, they were done and dusted!!

Thanks for the explanation as to how thing have changed at SES airport. I must say that is a vast improvement on the last time I landed there. It was a Thursday at 16:30 and as you have already said that was probably the worst time to arrive. Well we was greeted by 400+ people waiting at immigration already, needless to say it took an eternity.
Now that you say they have taken that on board ( the operators) and have staggered their flights during the week, I shall look forward - even more - to my October visit.