By IAIN MILLER

Located mainly in North Africa, Egypt – along with the Sinai Peninsula – forms a land bridge in Western Asia. Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Gaza Strip and Israel in the north east; the Red Sea is to the east and Sudan to the south. Egypt is an ancient civilization with one of the richest histories of any country in the world. Many attractive locations make it a popular visiting site for tourists and historians alike. The tourist trade is a large commercial venture in Egypt, and a fairly good portion of its 76 million citizens are employed in the tourist business. Some of the most popular package holidays in Egypt include Naama Bay, Sharks Bay, Sharm El Sheikh, and Marsa Alam.

Naama Bay is a popular resort area for Egypt holidays with many restaurants, beaches, and places to go and have fun. Various shops and boutiques set up around the Naama area allow travellers to relax and shop. However, haggling is a common practice here and the locals will try and sell merchandise at higher prices, but a little haggling can earn many good deals. Restaurants and clubs around the Naama area will often offer free drinks as an incentive to stick around and eat and some will even knock off tax for the food to make people want to hang around.

Sharks Bay, another resort hotel village in Egypt, has many similar qualities to Naama Bay. Here, activities like scuba diving and desert excursions are also available. The Scuba diving is led by one of the many scuba experts of the area and divers are able to see all kinds of underwater paradises and a vast menagerie of interesting sea life. The desert excursions include camel safaris and camping under the blanket of stars that lie above the lovely canopy of shifting sands. Tourists can fully experience life in the desert without the risk of getting lost.

Sharm El Sheikh is a resort city situated on the Sinai Peninsula. It is generally called the City of Peace because of the many international peace conferences that take place there. In Sharm El Sheikh there is an endless amount of beach fun to be had, not to mention the interesting people and resort hotels that can be reserved for very low prices. Because of their excellence, most of the restaurants and hotels in Sharm El Sheikh are rated three to five stars.

Marsa Alam is yet another resort village in Egypt. This one primarily earns its tourists from the various fishing ventures. However, it also offers beautiful tours of the mystic Emerald Caves and the Temple of Seti. Marsa Alam is one of the smaller resort villages of Egypt, but no less enchanting that the larger ones.