Sharm El Sheikh looks unremarkable from the road and completely different from the water. The town sits on a headland between two gulfs, with a national park at one end, a strait full of reefs at the other, and coral starting a few metres from the shore in between. This is what there is to see on that side, and what each part costs.

The rocky beaches and terraces of Sharm seen from the water
Photo: Shark Divers

Ras Mohammed — the wall

The national park at the tip of Sinai is the thing people come for. Deep water arrives close in, so the reef becomes a vertical face and the current runs along it.

You can reach it five ways: snorkelling from €25 with Shark Divers, as a yacht day at $35 with Hero, or diving it — €80 with Cinderella Eldawley, $105 with Mr. Diver, park and jetty fees on top, and €80 with Aqua Sharm, whose park fee of €10 a day, lunch and 14 % VAT are all charged on top.

A diver alongside a vertical reef wall in a cloud of orange anthias
Photo: Hero diving Center, via Google Maps

The Straits of Tiran — four reefs in a row

North of town, in the open water between Sinai and Saudi Arabia, four named reefs stand in a line: Jackson, Woodhouse, Thomas and Gordon. They rise from deep water with no shallow approach, and a day boat covers them in one run. Cinderella's snorkelling day is €40 per person, reduced from €50 on the operator's own list. Divers reach the same reefs on the centres' standard boat days.

Snorkellers in the water beside the boats at a Tiran reef
Photo: Stéphanie Morel, via Google Maps

White Island — a sandbank with a tide

Not an island in any useful sense: a strip of white sand in open sea that rises at low tide and shrinks or vanishes at high. There is no shade and nothing built on it, which is the point. It comes paired with Ras Mohammed on the €25 Shark Divers day, which now carries the protected area fees, the hotel transfers and lunch inside that figure, and takes guests from twelve years.

What can you see without getting in the water?

Coral starts close to shore all along the Sharm headland, which is why a $13 glass boat works here at all: you look at it through a panel in the hull, dry, with no mask and no fins. It is the least expensive thing on the water in town, and the one that has no requirements attached.

From the air

A solo parasailing flight is $26 ($29 for two, $35 for three), winched up from the boat deck and back down onto it. From up there the coastline and the reef line read as one shape, which is the one view of Sharm you cannot get from a boat deck or a beach. It is short, and it is sold on its own rather than inside a longer excursion.

The coast and the Sinai mountains seen from a parasail above the water
Photo: Elena, via Google Maps

Under the surface with a tank

If you want to be in the wall rather than above it, the dive day is the format: two guided dives, roughly eight hours, €70 to €155 per person depending on the centre and whether you go from the shore or a boat. Beginners start with Nemo's Discover Scuba Diving at €100 for the session — theory, confined water and one open-water dive, about four hours — or take the PADI Open Water course with Anar for €380.

Students diving over the sandy bottom with Anar Dive Center
Photo: Andre Astrakharchik, via Google Maps

How do you build the week?

DayWhatCost per person
1Glass boat, short and easy$13
2Ras Mohammed and White Island, snorkelling, 8 h€25, protected area fees inside
3Beach—
4Tiran snorkelling day, 8 h€40 + park and jetty fees
5Parasailing flight$26
6Dive day, or a private catamaran for the group€70–€100, or $600 per boat
7Beach—

How many boat days fit in a week?

Two eight-hour boat days in a week is a realistic maximum; three turns a holiday into a commute to a jetty. Leave a full day between them.

Important

The national park and jetty fees sit outside the price on every dive day here. Mr. Diver Red Sea lists "National Park Fees & Jetty Fees per day" among its supplements, Aqua Sharm adds €10 a day and then 14 % VAT on the whole invoice, Reef Oasis charges €7 per park entry on top of a €10 boat fee, and Story Divers, Camel Dive and Aquarius name their own daily figures. Two trips state the opposite on their own pages: the Shark Divers snorkelling day now carries the protected area fees inside its €25, and the Sun 'N Fun catamaran includes the marine park fees, the cruise permit and fuel.

The group option

If there are up to ten of you, run the arithmetic differently. The catamaran Elvira is $600 for the boat on a half day — $60 each with ten aboard — with a licensed captain and crew, a light brunch, unlimited soft drinks, SUP, kayak and tubes, hotel pick-up, and the marine park fees, cruise permit and fuel already included.

The Elvira catamaran anchored over the reef, seen from above
Photo: Sun 'N Fun

And a full day, or an evening?

The operator's grid runs to a full day at $1,200, a dinner cruise at $600 and an overnight at $1,500.

What is not on this list?

The land excursions — the pyramids, Petra, Luxor, Mount Sinai — are a large part of what Sharm sells, but all of it is on land and outside an article about the sea. This article covers the seaward side only, and every figure in it comes from an operator's own published price list as checked against that operator's own page on 27 September 2026, in that operator's currency. Where a fee is named without an amount, we confirm the current figure in writing before your booking.

The rest of the seaward side is split by category: diving, boat trips, kite and wing in the Nabq Bay lagoon, parasailing, sailing charter and fishing. What a dive day costs at the jetty rather than on the price list is in How much diving in Sharm El Sheikh really costs, and the whole price landscape in Sharm El Sheikh prices 2026. The three places named above have their own pieces: Ras Mohammed National Park, Tiran Island and White Island and Ras Mohammed in a single boat day.