Private Tour: St Catherine's Monastery and Moses' Mountain at Sunrise

Viator was more expensive than booking at the hotel, but it's worth it! Our Bedouin guide for the climb, Ahmed, and the tour guide for the trip, Mohsin, were noticably more professional, friendly, and honest than all the others we observed during the tour. Make no mistake, this is a physically demanding climb, but it is doable for reasonably active people. If you are quite sedentary, or overweight, hire a camel. However, keep in mind that the camel will only take you to the steps at the top of the mountain. These you will have to climb, and they are rustic and challenging, meaning they are not so much "steps" as strategically placed rocks. The sunrise at the top was beautiful and well worth the journey. The view was inspiring. I could have done without the "pilgrims" who kept walking around to different spots on the summit, singing (badly) hymns at the top of their lungs. But, there isn't much to be done about that. All in all, the tour was wonderful, Viator provided a fantastic service, and I'm glad to have done it... But, it's one of those tours I will only do once!

An amazing experience! Very friendly and knowledgeable Egyptologist and Bedouin guides. The great advantage to a private tour is being able to ask questions and gain information that you possibly wouldn't ask on a 'group' tour. I went up the first part of Moses' Mountain by camel (an hour and a half on a camel is a LONG time - I literally couldn't feel my legs when I had to get off it again!) I recommend wearing long trousers - not just knee length shorts as I did! Then there are 750 'steps' to climb - very sandy and can be slidy - particularly when going up at night. We had a gorgeous moonlit night an the starts were amazing! At 4.45am we reached the summit and it was COLD!! Sunrise was 5am and it was as though someone had instantly turned on the heat - and WHAT a sight! Wouldn't have missed it for the world - worth all the exersion of getting to the top!! As you're climbing pretty much all night you are exhausted by the time you reach the bottom of the mountain again (unless I'm more unfit than I think!) and I was half falling asleep over breakfast at St Catherine's monastery. Bring a sarong or something to cover your legs if not wearing long trousers - if you don't have one, they'll supply a sheet type thing, but you must wear it! All in all the trip was WELL worth the price and effort - a real 'once in a lifetime' experience! I loved it and can't say enough about the Egyptologist and the Bedouin guide, they were fantastic - and both spoke fanstastic English! A brilliant trip by Viator - would definitely book excursions through them again!

This was an amazing trip with amazing views and I fully recommend it to people who enjoy hiking. We were picked up from our hotel in Nama Bay, Sharm El Sheikh, at about 10pm and it took about 3 hours to get to the base of the mountain. We started hiking at about 2am, got to the top at 5am and the sun came up at about 5:45am. The night I went happened to be a full moon, but otherwise I would have needed a flashlight for sure. Also, dress warmly! I wish I had worn warmer pants, gloves, and a hat. Luckily, there were some people who rented blankets at the top, otherwise I would have frozen! Again, highly recommended for people who enjoy hiking. It was fun to hike at night and the views are amazing during your hike down when you can see everything.