Ras Mohammed and White Island by boat: which trip, what it costs, what you actually see
Updated September 26, 2026 · 7 min read
If you spend a week in Sharm El Sheikh, you will be offered this boat day within about an hour of arriving: out to Ras Mohammed, a stop on the sandbank called White Island, lunch on board, back in the afternoon. It is the most booked trip in town by a wide margin. Our catalogue holds 34 snorkelling trips, from €17.78 — and the three most reviewed listings in the whole catalogue are all this one day, with 3,898, 3,811 and 3,431 reviews; the next listing down, a desert safari, has 2,426.
That volume is worth knowing about for a reason that has nothing to do with popularity: when thousands of people book nearly the same day out, the listings stop competing on what they do and start competing on what they leave out. The price differences below are mostly differences in what is included.
What the two places are
Ras Mohammed sits at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, 12 km from the city. The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency made it a marine reserve in 1983. It covers 480 km², and the majority of that – 345 km² – is water rather than land. At the southernmost end of the peninsula a shallow channel 1.16 km long carries about 0.9 hectares of mangrove forest. Ras Muhammad National Park
White Island is not an island. It is a sandbank in open water north of the park, with no shade, no buildings and nothing on it at all. That is the attraction: you stand in knee-deep clear water a long way from anywhere. It is also the honest warning. Look at the photographs two different operators use for the same stop and you will see a broad dry beach in one and ankle-deep water in the other. How much sand is above the surface on your day is not something the booking page can promise, and none of them do.
What a snorkeller sees, and what a diver sees
The names that made Ras Mohammed famous – Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef – are dive sites. The park’s other reef sites include South Bereika, Marsa Ghozlani, Old Quay and the Shark Observatory. A snorkelling trip takes you above reef, in the top few metres, usually at two stops; it does not take you to the wall dives the place is known for.
This matters when you compare listings. A trip sold as “snorkelling and diving” normally means the boat carries both, and the diving is an option you select and pay for, not something that happens to everyone on board. If you want to dive at Ras Mohammed and you have never dived, the thing you are buying is an introductory dive of a few minutes with an instructor, which is a different product from the reef the name promises. The options are on the diving in Sharm El Sheikh page, from €22.50.
The trips, side by side
Prices are the current starting prices in our catalogue and change with the date you pick.
| Trip | Duration | From | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultimate Ras Mohamed, White Island, snorkelling with lunch | 9 hours | €25.65 | 4.8 | 3,898 |
| White Island and Ras Mohamed snorkelling trip | 6 hours | €24.63 | 4.7 | 3,811 |
| White Island & Ras Mohamed dive & snorkel | 9 hours | €28.09 | 4.9 | 3,431 |
| Luxury Ras Mohammed & White Island cruise | 6–7 hours | €29.23 | 4.6 | 1,654 |
| Ras Mohamed & White Island, snorkelling, diving & lunch | 8 hours | €36.00 | 4.9 | 1,642 |
| Ras Mohammed half-day by bus & Allah’s Gate | 4 hours | €17.78 | 4.7 | 1,348 |
The last line is the one people overlook. It is not a boat at all – it goes to the park by road, which is why it is half the length and the cheapest thing on the list. If someone in your group gets seasick, that is the trip that still works for them.
Between six hours and nine, the difference is roughly one more snorkel stop and a longer stay on the sandbank. Between €25 and €36, the difference is usually the boat and the food. None of it is a difference in the reef.
The cheapest option on the listing is not the cheapest day
This is the paragraph worth the click. On the most-booked trip of the six, the inclusions read:
National Park Entry Fees: 10 USD (all options except Explorer Package)
and, separately:
Snorkeling equipment (all options except Explorer Package)
So the lowest-priced option on that page excludes both the park fee and the mask and fins. You pay the difference at the gate and at the equipment box, in cash, after you have already committed to the day. The higher options on the same page include both. Compare the total, not the headline.
The same trap runs through the category in different shapes. Read the two lists on the booking page separately – included and not included – because the phrasing of the second is always quieter than the first. See the full-day trip and its options
The visa question, which the listings answer differently
If you flew into Sharm El Sheikh and were waved through without paying for a visa, you are probably travelling on the free entry stamp. The UK Foreign Office describes it like this:
If you are arriving by air to Sharm El-Sheikh and staying for less than 15 days at resorts in Sharm El Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba or Taba, you do not need a visa.
and immediately after:
If you plan to travel outside the resorts or stay more than 15 days, you must get a visa.
Ras Mohammed is a national park, not one of the four named resorts. The booking page for the most-booked trip says flatly “No Need for VISA”. Both statements may well be reconcilable in practice, and most people do this trip on the free stamp without trouble. But they are not the same statement, and the one that carries weight at a checkpoint is not the one written by the operator. If you only hold the free stamp, ask the operator to confirm in writing before you pay, and check your own government’s advice. A full visa on arrival costs 30 US dollars, cash only, at kiosks before the immigration counters, and lasts up to 30 days.
Practical things, in order of how often they go wrong
Pickup time. Every listing says the same thing in different words: the time is confirmed the day before, and it depends on where your hotel is. Do not plan anything for the evening before you have that call.
Seasickness. The crossing to Ras Mohammed is open water and the wind in Sharm blows most of the year. If you know you are affected, book the morning departure, sit mid-ship on the lower deck and keep your eyes on the horizon rather than on a phone. Anything beyond that belongs in a conversation with your pharmacy or doctor before you travel, not in a travel article.
Mobility. The listing for the big trip says the tour “may not be suitable for people with limited mobility”, and that is the operator’s own wording, not a rule about who is allowed on board. Boarding is usually over a gangway between two moving surfaces, and the sandbank stop means stepping into water. Ask the operator what boarding actually looks like on their boat and get the answer before booking.
What to bring. The listing names sunglasses, a sun hat, a towel, sunscreen and a passport or ID – a copy is accepted. There is no shade on White Island at all.
When we would not book it
If you have two days left and one of them is windy, do not spend it on the long version. If nobody in the group swims, the half-day by bus gets you into the same park without the crossing. And if you are travelling with small children, nine hours on a boat is a long time to be somewhere they cannot leave – that question is worked through in Sharm El Sheikh with children.
If you have never put your face in the sea before, start shorter and closer: snorkelling for beginners in Sharm explains why the shore here is not the gentle sandy wade-in you might be expecting. All the boat days are collected under boat trips in Sharm El Sheikh, from €22.12.
