There are two very distinct sides to Nuweiba. At the southern end is the gritty port area, where you can catch a boat to Aqaba in Jordan. There's not much there, apart from the run-down dock facilities, some small stores, and a couple of hard-bitten fleabag hotels. Between here and the town itself, which is about 10km (6 miles) to the north, there are a number of hotels, many of which have been closed in the last few years or were never quite finished in the first place. The town is nothing special -- it functions mainly to sell cheap T-shirts and beer to backpackers. Starting at its northern edge, there is a kilometer or so of beach that has turned into a strip of cheap hotels and camps known as Tarabin.