A Boat Day to Tiran Island

Tiran sits between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, at the mouth of the Straits of Tiran. I went out there by boat while staying at the Monte Carlo Hotel in Sharm El-Sheikh. The island is uninhabited now. It used to be a military outpost, and you can still see that.

The Monte Carlo Hotel

The Monte Carlo is in Sharm El-Sheikh, close to the water that leads out to Tiran. Gardens, decent service, rooms looking over the Red Sea. It was a comfortable base. The point of the stay, for me, was getting on a boat.

Out to the island

The ride across was easy, with the Sinai mountains behind us. Tiran itself is rugged cliffs and empty beaches. No town, no hotels. Remnants of old military posts sit on the shore, and there are shipwrecks around the island too, some of them still visible from land.

In the water

We took snorkels and diving gear. The reefs around Tiran are part of Ras Mohammed National Park, and they looked it: a lot of coral still in good shape, and a lot of fish. Turtles and rays showed up now and then. The seabed also has wreckage from different periods, which makes some of the dives feel older than a standard reef circuit.

Back toward Sharm

Tiran does not get the same crowds as the rest of this coast. We spent time on the cliffs looking out, then watched the sun go down from the boat on the way back. I would go again for the reefs. The island itself is quiet in a way Sharm is not.