Colorful Cappuccino on the Red Sea in Dahab, Egypt

Dahab, Egypt is a very special place. I’ve posted a lot about Dahab here over the many years that I’ve spent time in this small, dusty town located in the South Sinai.

Dahab is a place that is – or was – very popular with tourists who travel to Egypt and want to experience more than the pyramids, the tombs, the temples and the Nile River. For many years, the people living in Dahab were thriving from all of the tourism. Then the Egyptian people overthrew their government in February 2011, and the tourists left. Many finally returned, only for the Egyptian people to overthrow their government again in July 2013. Tourists cautiously returned at some point thereafter, only for a Russian plane to explode over the Sinai in October 2015. The list of events that scared off the tourists goes on and on. The streets of Dahab became noticeably emptier and emptier. Then, of course, 2020 came along and ruined everything. Now we have the war in Israel and Gaza, both of which border on the Sinai.

I’ve lived through and written about the comings and goings of the tourists in Dahab for many years. I lived in Dahab several years ago, worked in the tourism industry there and have many friends still there, missing the tourists and wishing they would return.

I took this photo early one morning in Dahab. Each morning when I’m there I like to enjoy a cappuccino at one of the little outdoor restaurants that line the shores of the Red Sea. What I like about this cappuccino photo is that it exemplifies classic Dahab. Bright colors, cloudless blue skies, and an empty restaurant on the peaceful waters of the Red Sea.

Dahab, I hope the tourists will come back for you some day.