When going on vacation to Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), you carefully calculate your future expenses: $100 - excursions and entertainment, $15 - visa, $50 - shopping and souvenirs... Stop! Did you know you can save those proverbial dollars? A trifle, of course, but it’s better to spend it on something else, rather than on a simple stamp in your passport. How to do it? The secret is called the “Sinai visa”.

However, our tourists are not idle people, and therefore a little legal information will not harm them. To begin with, this free entry option was not made possible as a result of the Camp David Peace Agreement, signed after the war in 1978. According to its provisions, Israel was obliged to transfer to Egypt - the rightful owner - the south it had previously captured. However, during the occupation, Israel built many hotels on the local Red Sea coast (in fact, the Sharm el-Sheikh resort itself grew out of investments from its northern neighbor), airports, and improved infrastructure . Therefore, when transferring territories, they counted on some kind of compensation for the invested funds. Thus, the political decision directly affected tourism: it was decided that Israelis could enter the peninsula for free and stay there for 15 days. This is how the Sinai visa was invented.

At first, it was applied only to Israeli citizens, but since 1982, amendments were adopted to the Camp David Agreement. According to the new regulations, a Sinai visa is issued to all foreign tourists arriving in Egypt for up to 15 days through the airports of Sharm el-Sheikh, St. Catherine and Taba, the Nuweiba seaport and the Taba land checkpoint. These tourists must only declare that they do not intend to leave South Sinai or travel beyond its borders.

So, let's decide whether we need a Sinai visa. If you plan to spend your entire vacation lying on the sand of the beaches, swimming in the warm sea and relaxing in an all-inclusive hotel, as well as in the entertainment centers of Sharm el-Sheikh and the surrounding area, this option is for you. And even if you plan to visit Mount Moses, the Monastery of St. Catherine, Nuweiba, Dahab and even Israel and Jordan, you can do this with a Sinai stamp in your passport. And you can even go to the Ras Mohammed coral reserve - however, only by sea. But you will not be able to visit Cairo, Luxor, or Alexandria with this document. A Sinai visa is not issued in Hurghada, but vacationers at this resort have ample opportunities to travel around the whole country on excursions.

Now let's look at what you need to do to get this free stamp. When you get off the plane, you are given a migration card form. You need to fill it out: indicate your full name, date of birth, country of your citizenship, and the hotel where you are going to vacation. And on the back of the form you need to write: SINAI ONLY (ONLY SINAI). With your completed card, you proudly walk past the booths where they sell visas, straight to the border guards. Place your passport, migration card, and say: “Pliz, put ze Sinai stamp” (please put a stamp). Previously, there were cases when border guards tried - illegally - to force tourists to buy visas. They said that supposedly only Israelis or only in Taba are given a Sinai visa. 2013, however, was a turning point: after the revolution, when the tourist flow into the country dwindled a little, the government became somewhat more loyal to those who come here “for free”.