Egypt Days 10-12: Sharm el Sheikh and the Red Sea

Now that it's been more than 5 months since we got back from Egypt I thought it would be a good time to finish my recaps!

After being so busy and active and awake SO EARLY every day of the trip in Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan, we were excited to head to Sharm el Sheikh on the coast for 3 days of pure relaxation.

But we had to get up crazy early one more time to make that happen. Our flight from Cairo to Sharm el Sheikh on December 30 took off at 6:15 a.m., which meant we left the hotel at 4 a.m., which meant we were up at 3 a.m. Oy.

It was delayed, of course, and it was the usual chaos to suddenly board the bus that takes you to the plane without warning, but then we were seated and on our way. This would be all of our first time on the continent of Asia. It's such a tiny corner I'm not sure it really counts, but it was still cool to check off two new continents as a family in one trip!

We got to the resort - Barcelo Tiran Sharm - about midday (?), hungry and confused about what time it was. We were able to go get lunch (it was an all-inclusive) and then change in the lobby bathroom to go hang out on the beach. The water was freezing, but that didn't stop my children from getting in immediately anyway.

Sharm el Sheikh was the first place we struggled with the language barrier. Not having a guide anymore, we didn't have our automatic Arabic translator. We also discovered that Russian was by far the most spoken language outside of Arabic as most of the tourists are from Russia (our driver told us 3 direct flights from Moscow land each day at the little Sharm el Sheikh airport). I think it was actually great for the kids (and us!) to be out of our English-speaking comfort zone. There was a lot of pantomining and pointing at the buffets and just kind of rolling with whatever you got.

Landon ordered a mocktail from the beach bar, took a sip, made a face, and told me the juice had gone bad. I took a sip. The juice was fine, it was the vodka I think he didn't like. My sweet baby boy, he'd definitely never had alcohol before 😂. The drinking age is 18 and Landon looks old enough, so this happened about six other times on the trip no matter how much he tried to point to the mocktail version on the menu and say "no alcohol." I enjoyed his cast-offs.

We eventually got our room, which was a 2 bedroom suite that I don't really remember but am sure was nice, and I probably took a nap? (I didn't keep good records of these lazy days). We enjoyed a great dinner and were in bed early. I do remember sleeping very, very well that night.

The next day- New Year's Eve- was truly lazy. We had nothing planned. All meals would be at the giant buffet. There would be a party that night. There was a beach and a scuba shop and a random cat on the beach chairs that Claire adopted immediately.

I was in regular clothes (it was cool out; not cold, but definitely not hot!) while James and Landon did a swim workout, Cora tried to build a sand castle, and Claire played with her new cat.

We decided to try scuba- the water is very shallow so you can do the beginner version. I got licensed in high school but haven't been since I started dating James (he had screwed up ears for many years and couldn't handle the pressure; a few surgeries later and he felt okay trying it, though he was super nervous about blowing his millionth ear drum, but it was fine!), so I was excited for everyone to try it.

The water is SO clear. It's really really beautiful. And in a wet suit I could handle it for at least a short amount of time!

Cora did not like it- she was just too cold- so she hung out on the shore while we waved at fishes and each other for thirty minutes.

That night we got dressed up a bit for the fancy buffet dinner. The staff did such a great job making it festive and the food was great.

We got a table for the New Year's party afterward only to learn it didn't start until like 10 pm which is very much our bedtime. We bought cards at the gift shop and played Uno (CNUNO!), drank fun mocktails, and listened to live music. Then we tapped out at like 9:45 and had no regrets as we crawled in our beds.

New Year's Day dawned bright and beautiful. We had a private boat snorkel tour arranged, so we hopped in our van transfer to get over to the public dock.

The boat was gorgeous- not at all the little motorboat I was expecting- and it was so fun to see the coastline from a different perspective.

Our captain caught a fish and told us we'd eat it with our lunch.

We stopped for a snorkel. The water was so cold, even with our wetsuits, but it was so crystal clear and beautiful that we braved it for a while anyway.

The sea life was plentiful, though I didn't take many pictures- we saw a lot of tropical fish and the colors were gorgeous.

We stopped at an island. By then I was warm and dry again so I stayed on the boat with the girls while Landon and James jumped in the water to swim over.

Beautiful!

We ate lunch on the boat (with our fish!) and it was great and then we were back at the resort for our last few hours in Egypt.

Our travel home would begin with a flight from Sharm el Sheikh to Cairo at 9:45 pm, so we kept our hotel room for the day so we could shower, change, pack, and lounge until we needed to leave. Our van picked us up at 7:15 pm and so began the long journey home.

Sharm to Cairo, Cairo to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Dallas. Claire had a timer going and it was 28 hours, 39 minutes, and 36 seconds before we walked through our front door back in Dallas. Long day (days?), tiny airplane seats, and not enough snacks, but absolutely worth every minute of the travel for the extraordinary adventure we were lucky enough to enjoy.

I can't stress enough how much we loved Egypt.

It was the trip of a lifetime. The history is extraordinary- we thought Italy was old and then we're touching pyramids built more than 6,000 years ago. The weather over Christmas break was absolutely blue-skied cool temped perfection. The people were so friendly, the food was delicious, the accomodations were great... we just truly loved everything. Multiple times during the trip James would just turn to me and go, "can you believe we're doing this?!" and I felt the same.

The scale, the history, just... how could these wonders even exist? How could they have been made and lasted so long? The colors in the Valley of the Kings were so vibrant- I have to repaint rooms in my house every 5 years and yet this paint is over 5,000 years old.

I wondered if the kids would object to the constant history lessons or the pre-5am-wakeup calls, but they didn't! They rolled with it and loved it and still talk about it and I am SO glad we got to do Egypt as a family.

Six months later I just can't believe we were there. What a gift.

All Egypt posts:
Days 1-3: Cairo and the start of the Nile cruise
Day 4: Luxor (Karnack, Luxor Temple, Valley of the Kings)
Day 5: Edfu and Kom Ombo and Nile River
Day 6: Abu Simbel, the High Dam, and Philae Temple
Day 7: Nubian Village, Aswan, back to Cairo
Day 8: The Great Pyramids of Giza and Saqqara
Day 9: Newer Cairo