I work remotely – I’ve found the perfect winter base on Egypt’s Red Sea coast

One evening in Dahab, my friend and I were paddling out across the bay in a canoe. The sun was setting behind the Sinai mountains, bathing them in gold.

All along the coast the bars, with wooden terraces stretching out to the Red Sea and steps leading down to the water, were full of people taking in the same moment as us.

We had hired the canoe for 250 EGP (roughly the cost of a Tesco meal deal, at £4) as a break from working remotely in a nearby café. Within just a few minutes of shutting our laptops we were on the water, watching the colours shift slowly across the bay like a painting.

Kayakers on the sea at Dahab at dusk (Photo: Ayman Kashef/Getty)

I’ve been remote working for more than a year, and what felt universal during the pandemic is now less common again. According to ONS data, more than a quarter (28 per cent) of working adults in Great Britain hybrid worked between January and March 2025, but other reports suggest that the proportion of the workforce working entirely remotely is around half that number.

At home in London, my days are often spent in video meetings with colleagues I’ve never met in person. Sometimes I leave the house to find a cafe to work from – the thrill of finding a new place only lasts until I realise I’ve spent almost £20 on coffee and breakfast just to be around other people.

In theory, with a remote job, the world can be your oyster. Your email could reach me on a beach in the Maldives. In reality, budget and logistics often don’t allow that dream to be realised.

However, as the temperature dropped below zero in London late last year and I realised my average weekly step count was about 300, I became determined to find a change of scene – somewhere warm to work from.

I turned to Skyscanner to see how far south I could fly on a budget. Egypt surfaced, with flights for late November roughly £80 to both Sharm el Sheikh and Giza Sphinx near Cairo. I asked an Egyptian friend for recommendations for relaxed, warm and cheap places for remote working and the answer was instantaneous: “Dahab would be perfect”.

A laid-back, safe coastal town halfway up the Sinai Peninsula, Dahab is about an hour’s taxi ride (£22) from Sharm el Sheikh airport. It’s popular with divers and hikers and has a more bohemian feel to Sharm. It’s worth trying to arrive during the day for the spectacular mountain scenery along the way.

And because Dahab falls within the South Sinai region, British passport-holders don’t need a tourist visa for stays of up to 14 days. Cost of living database Numbeo calculates that Dahab restaurant prices are almost 81 per cent lower than London. All of which made planning a week-long international remote working trip surprisingly simple.

The Asalah area has a creative feel (Photo: Jeremy Ullmann)

The town is roughly divided into three main areas. The northern end (Asalah) has bedouin roots and a creative, slower feel. The centre (Light House) is touristic and food-focused.

Mashraba, on the southern edge, is quieter, clustered with markets and hostels; stray cats and dogs weave between your feet. Every corner is full of rustic cafés, restaurants and bars, cobbled together with planks and beams, looking like a mix of a bohemian Paris bar and a Bahamian fishing deck.

At 8am – my favourite time to walk around town – the streets were wonderfully still, with only a handful of coffee shops open. It’s a world away from the bustle and intensity of Cairo.

One of my favourite cafés was Flat White in Mashraba, primarily because of the sheer number of cats draped across seats and tables like they owned the place. Mornings spent here with a coffee (£1) or breakfast (£2) as the waves gently lapped at the terrace reached peak serenity.

Flat White is a favourite cafe (Photo: Jeremy Ullmann)

For a full workday, my friend and I would head to Asalah. Most cafés were well set up for remote working: plug sockets everywhere, soft ambient music, a relaxed atmosphere and pretty reliable Wi-Fi. Speeds sit around 20Mbps, which is fine for checking emails, but as mobile data is significantly faster, I ended up buying an eSim from Holafly (£30 a week, although there are cheaper Egyptian sims available too) to hotspot on.

There is a dedicated co-working space in town, with strong Wi-Fi, soundproof booths and – perhaps most importantly – direct access to the beach.

It’s a remarkably affordable town, with three-course dinners rarely costing more than £15 a head, and our two-bedroom apartment only £180 a week via Airbnb.

Evening cocktails at Happy Hour Dahab are a fraction of London prices (£5 each), and can be enjoyed on the beach, toes digging into the sand, as the waves crash against the shore.

The White Canyon is within easy reach of Dahab (Photo: Getty/iStockphoto)

Even excursions are cheap. A day of diving at the Blue Hole (an underwater sinkhole and coral reef teeming with marine life) or a visit to the striking White Canyon costs around £25 per person (and you can barter with the agencies around Light House). Or you can go further afield – to the Pyramids, or even to Petra in Jordan – such is Dahab’s great location.

Over the course of a busy week, I spent a total of around £260 on food, drinks, souvenirs, three half-day excursions and the canoe rental. While this was more than the £170 I tend to spend at home, I did a lot more.

This was the first remote work trip I’ve taken all year where I truly felt relaxed. I found the people generous and friendly, always keen to help with a smile but never intrusive. The winter sun was warm but not scorching, the sea fresh but not cold.

That feeling of relaxation was never as apparent as when we spent an evening in a Bedouin camp in Wadi Gnai – just half an hour from central Dahab – for dinner (£7), sitting around a fireplace and gazing at the stars.

The bedouin camp at night (Photo: Jeremy Ullmann)

It was in moments like these, when the flicker of the firelight cast shadows across the Sinai mountains to the beat of drums, that the absurdity of my UK remote work life really hit me.

I love the flexibility, but the cost of living in London restricts my ability to enjoy it fully. Sitting there, looking at a scene that would cost me more to watch in a cinema back home, I felt grateful to have found the perfect winter base to work.

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