'A hundred and twenty metres to the sea': what distance in Sharm listings really means

'A hundred and twenty metres to the sea' is the most quoted figure in Sharm El Sheikh listings and the most slippery. The trouble is not that it is invented — mostly it is not — but that it is measured in different ways: in a straight line, along the route, to the water's edge or to the point where you can actually get in. The same flat is honestly both a hundred metres away and five hundred. This article is about how distance to the sea is measured in Sharm, why metres matter less than the change in height and the way down, how the field works in the Dommare catalogue, and how to check the figure in ten minutes at a viewing.

Three different numbers under one figure

• In a straight line from the building to the water — what a ruler on the map shows. The smallest number and the favourite of listings.
• Along the route people actually walk — round the fence, through the gate, along the street, down the steps. Usually twice as far, sometimes three times.
• To the point where you can get into the water, not to the shoreline — in Sharm the shore is often rock or reef, and the way down may be hundreds of metres from the nearest point of the coast.

None of these numbers is a lie; the question is which one is quoted and by whom. That is why the Dommare catalogue shows distance to the sea with a note of its source — owner, developer, partner or our own check — and the note matters more than the figure. '120 m, owner-provided' and '120 m, verified by Dommare' are different statements.

Why metres are not the point in Sharm

Sharm steps down to the water in terraces. Hadaba stands on a plateau above the cliff, Sharks Bay in steps above its bays, the heights of Naama Bay well above the promenade. A hundred metres horizontally can mean thirty metres vertically — several storeys down and, more to the point, back up, at noon in July. Flat Nabq and low-rise Montazah are a different story: there the metres mean roughly what they say.

The second correction is the way down. Sharm's shore is rocky in many places, and the water is reached by steps, a jetty or a hotel lift. Whose descent it is — the compound's, a neighbouring hotel's under agreement, or nobody's, that is public — decides whether you can use it all year and free of charge. A flat fifty metres from the cliff edge with no way down is further from the sea than a flat three hundred metres from a beach with a gate.

The third is the route itself. Shade, a pavement, a crossing of Peace Road, lighting in the evening. Three hundred metres along a shaded path inside a compound is easier than a hundred and fifty along a road with no pavement.

How the Dommare cards handle it

The compound directory has two separate fields: the beach relationship — private, beach club under agreement, shuttle, public access nearby, none — and the minutes on foot to the beach, when a source has stated them. Royal Residence 2 and 4 in Montazah carry 'two minutes on foot to a private beach' from the project's site; Royal Residence 5, three minutes. At Sharm Hills the sources give the distance to the Montazah beach in metres — 800 in the English text and 400 in the Russian one — and we show the discrepancy rather than pick the convenient figure; no minutes are recorded there because nobody stated them. Delta Sharm above Naama Bay has a beach, but in another area, with a minibus running to it — a compound like that has no 'metres to the sea' at all.

Compound data comes from the Dommare directory cards, with sources named. Minutes and metres on the cards are the sources' statements, not our measurement; our own measurement appears only with the 'verified' note.

How to check at a viewing

1. Ask the seller what was measured from and to: the door, the compound gate, the water's edge or the way down.
2. Walk the route yourself — at the time of day you would normally walk it, and back up.
3. Time it rather than counting steps. Write the time into your notes on the property — it is your figure, comparable between flats.
4. Look at the way down: steps, jetty, hotel lift; the state of the steps; whether it closes at night or off-season.
5. Establish whose descent and whose beach it is: compound grounds, an agreement with a hotel, a public shore. Ask to see the agreement.
6. Judge the route: shade, pavement, a main-road crossing, lighting.
7. Compare with a neighbouring flat further up the slope: sometimes it is fifty metres further and five minutes closer because the path is different.

Distance and price

Closeness to the water is one of Sharm's main premiums, and it is honest when it refers to the real route rather than a ruler on the map. That is why two flats 'a hundred metres from the sea' can cost differently, and the right one is the one with its own descent and the short way. It works at resale too: a buyer who has walked the route pays for minutes, not metres. We quote no size for the premium — it differs in every compound; compare in the catalogue with the sea-proximity filter, where every distance carries its source.