Yes, and the distinction that matters is geographic. North Sinai is a separate governorate with a separate security situation, and it has been closed to tourism for years. Almost everything you read in the news about Sinai happened there. The ground I work on is the south — the coast between Nuweiba and Taba, the granite around St Katherine, and the wadis that drain out of those mountains.

Security in the south is visible and constant. There are army and police checkpoints on the roads between towns, vehicles get stopped, and names get written down. It takes a few minutes and it is the reason the area stays quiet.

The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to North Sinai Governorate. For South Sinai it advises against all but essential travel to the northern part of the governorate — the ground beyond the St Katherine–Nuweiba road — with the coastal strips on both sides of the peninsula excepted.

Every route I sell sits on the coastal strip or south of that road. St Katherine, Wadi Feiran, Jebel Serbal, the mountains south of the town and the Nuweiba–Taba coast are all outside the advisory area.

This matters for your insurance, not just your nerves: most policies are void if you travel into an area your own government advises against. Check your policy against the current wording before you fly. The advisories change; the two to read are gov.uk and travel.state.gov.

Yes, and several have. The trip is private, so you are never placed in a group with strangers. The guide is from the community whose wadi you are walking through and is known to everyone on the route. I am the contact from the first message to the last day.

In villages and in St Katherine, shoulders and knees covered is the norm and makes the day easier. At the beach camps, swimwear is normal. You will get looked at. It is rarely more than that.

Keep your passport where you can reach it, not in a bag in the boot. The driver hands over paperwork, a soldier writes your name and nationality into a book, and you go. Do not photograph the checkpoint.

On the coast road, in Nuweiba, Dahab and St Katherine town, yes. Buy an Egyptian SIM at Sharm el-Sheikh airport — Orange and Vodafone both work. In the wadis and on the high passes, signal drops out for hours at a time and in places for a full day. Tell whoever is waiting on you at home that this is expected.

The guides carry phones and know where the signal returns.

Most nationalities can get a single-entry tourist visa on arrival at Sharm el-Sheikh, or apply in advance through the official e-visa portal. Check your own nationality before you book a flight — the list is not the same for everyone.

It does. If you arrive at Sharm el-Sheikh or Taba and you are staying in Sinai, you can be issued the free Sinai-Only Entry Permit at the border instead of buying a visa. It covers St Katherine and the rest of the peninsula, which includes every route and every camp I work with. It is valid for 15 days and it does not let you go on to Cairo or Luxor.

If your trip is Sinai and nothing else, this is the cheaper option. Tell the officer at passport control that you want the Sinai permit — the default is to hand you a visa.

Sharm el-Sheikh (SSH) has the most flights year-round and is where most guests land. Taba (TCP) is closer to the Nuweiba–Taba camps but runs a thin, mostly seasonal schedule. Either way I collect you at the terminal and the transfer is in the price.

Yes. The Taba crossing from Eilat is straightforward and Nuweiba is about an hour south of it. The Aqaba–Nuweiba ferry also runs, though the published timetable and the actual departure are not always the same thing — build a spare afternoon into the plan if you use it. Send me your crossing time and I will have a car on the Egyptian side.

I do. Protectorate permits, entry tickets and the local guide each route requires are arranged before you arrive and are included in the nightly price. You do not queue for anything.

Per person, per night:

• Accommodation
• Breakfast and dinner at the camp
• On walking days: breakfast, a midday snack on the trail, and dinner
• All transport — airport transfers, road transfers between towns, and the 4×4, camel or boat a route needs
• The Bedouin guide on every mountain route
• All permits and entry tickets
• Coordination over WhatsApp from the first message to the last day

• Lunch on days you are not walking
• Alcohol
• A sleeping bag — it is a personal item, bring your own
• Travel insurance
• Anything you decide to add that was not in the plan

Solo travellers pay 150€ a night instead of 120€.

The reason is transport. A car to St Katherine costs the same whether one person or three are sitting in it, and the same goes for a guide and a camel. With two or three of you the fixed costs divide. Alone, they do not.

Cash or card, on arrival, when I collect you. Nothing is charged before you land.

The exception is a custom-built itinerary: those take a 10% deposit by bank transfer one week before arrival, with the balance paid on arrival like everything else.

On a standard booking there is no deposit, so there is nothing to lose. Message me and it is cancelled.

On a custom itinerary the 10% deposit is not returned. By the time it is paid, I have already committed to camps, guides and drivers on your behalf.

WhatsApp: +20 106 703 1249. You message, we talk, I build it with you. There is no booking engine, no call centre and no account to create.

If you want to walk tomorrow and I have a guide free, you can walk tomorrow. Next-day departures are normal here, not a special case.

A custom itinerary needs at least a week, because the deposit transfer has to clear before I start committing to camps and guides.

That is most of it. “I have five days and I like walking” is a complete brief. We sit with tea, look at the map, and decide.

Yes. Stay a second night somewhere you like. Skip a leg. Swap a summit for a swim. There are no group schedules to break and nothing in the price structure that punishes you for it — you pay per night either way. Tell me the night before so I can move the driver.

One to twelve. Trips are private, always — you are never joined to another party. One to three travel by sedan; four and above by Toyota HiAce.

No climbing skill is needed on any route in the catalogue. What the routes ask for is a body that can spend five to eight hours a day on uneven ground — granite slabs, loose gravel, dry riverbed — in dry heat, for two or three days in a row, and sleep on the floor between them.

The camel carries your pack. You carry water and a camera.

Each route page states distance, ascent and difficulty in plain numbers. Read those before you choose, and if you are unsure, send me your last long walk and I will tell you honestly whether the route fits.

Up before the light, tea on the fire, walking by the time the sun clears the ridge. Three or four hours before the heat. A long stop in shade with bread, cheese, zaatar and olive oil, sometimes long enough to sleep. Two or three hours more in the afternoon. Camp by the time the light goes orange, dinner cooked on the fire, and dark by seven with more stars than you have a use for.

Mid-February to early May, and October to mid-November. Days warm, nights cold, light long.

December and January are fine on the coast and cold in the mountains — below freezing at night at 1600 m, and snow on Jebel Katharina is not rare. Bring a proper bag.

For the coast, yes, if you accept that walking is a dawn activity and the middle of the day belongs to the water and the shade.

For the mountain routes, July and August are hard. St Katherine sits at 1600 m and is cooler than the coast, but the granite holds heat and the walking days get cut short. I would rather tell you that now than have you find out on day two.

• A sleeping bag. Three-season for the mountains, something light for the coast.
• Boots you have already walked in. Not new ones.
• A sun hat, sunglasses and a long-sleeved shirt — covering up beats sunscreen out here.
• A headlamp.
• Two litres of bottle capacity, refillable.
• Personal medication, and any plasters and tape you know your own feet need.
• Cash.
• A warm layer, even in April. The temperature drops the moment the sun goes behind the ridge.

Tents, mats and a seating area, yes, on the routes that need them. Sleeping bags no — it is a personal item and you will want your own.

On many nights you will not use the tent. Sleeping out on a mat in a dry wadi is the better option when the weather allows, and the guide will tell you when it does not.

Bedouin, from the tribe whose ground you are walking on. The Jebeleya around St Katherine and the high mountains. The Muzeina in the wadis behind Nuweiba and Dahab. The Qararsha on Jebel Serbal, where their guide is not optional but required.

They know which spring has water in March, which pass holds shade at noon, and where to stop when the wind gets up. Most speak working English. All of them will feed you better on a fire than you expect.

They range, and the range is the point. A reed hut on the sand with the reef three steps from the door. A stone room in a granite garden at 1600 m. A beach camp with a pool and a bar.

Be honest with yourself about which end you want. At the simpler places, bathrooms are shared, showers are cold or solar-warm, power runs on a panel and a battery and will not charge four devices at once, and there is no wifi. Every camp is run by the family that built it. Each property page states the bathroom, power and connectivity situation without dressing it up.

At a few of the beach properties — Crazy Horse has AC, a pool and a bar. Most places do not, and none of the mountain accommodation does, because at 1600 m the problem is the cold.

If you need AC to sleep, say so at the start and I will build the trip around the places that have it.

Bread baked on the fire, rice, cooked vegetables, cheese, eggs, zaatar, olive oil, dates, tea with too much sugar. Grilled fish or chicken at the coastal camps.

Vegetarian is easy. Vegan is workable with notice. Anything more particular than that — tell me before you book, not on arrival, because these are small kitchens with short supply lines and I would rather solve it in advance than apologise later.

Drinking water is supplied and carried for you, and it is included. Do not drink from the tap at the camps, and do not drink from a spring or a well unless the guide tells you it is fine — some are, most are for the camels.

Not included, and not available everywhere. Some of the beach camps have a bar. In St Katherine and the mountain camps there is none, and bringing your own into a Jebeleya camp is a bad idea. Nobody will lecture you about it — they just will not be comfortable, and you will notice.

The trip itself you can settle by card or cash when I collect you. Everything after that — tea in a village, a scarf, anything you buy on the road — is cash.

ATMs are reliable in Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab and Nuweiba town. In St Katherine, do not count on one. Bring euros or dollars and change them on the coast.

Yes, and read it before you buy. Two clauses matter: whether it covers multi-day trekking, and whether it excludes travel against your own government’s advisory. The second one catches people out in Egypt more than anywhere.

The coastal camps, the short wadi walks, the snorkelling and the camels work well with children. Multi-day mountain treks I would rather discuss case by case — tell me their ages and what they have walked before.

On the trail, whatever you would wear for a long hot walk, with long sleeves and a hat. In villages and around the camps, shoulders and knees covered — for everyone, not only women. Swimwear at the beach camps is normal. Sandals for camp, boots for the ground.

Of the landscape, constantly. Of people, ask first — the answer is usually yes from the men and usually no from the women, and both answers are final.

Never photograph checkpoints, soldiers, or the inside of the airport. That one is not a custom, it is a law.