Sharm's retail runs on two speeds: the alabaster-and-spice haggling of Souk El Qadeem in Sharm El Maya, and the fixed-price glass of SOHO Square and Il Mercato. Three days covers both, plus the fish quay and grocery aisles locals use.
Sharm's original trading lane stretches roughly 400 m with some 200 stalls: alabaster canopic jars, hand-stitched Bedouin cushion covers, shisha pipes and cotton galabeyas. Stalls stir around 09:00 and run past midnight; opening quotes drop 50-70% with patience.
A short side lane of open sacks: hibiscus karkade, cumin, coriander, dried mint and Sinai desert herbs sold by the kilo, alongside oil houses decanting jasmine, lotus and musk into hand-blown Egyptian glass bottles.
Beside the old port, iced trays of Red Sea bream, calamari, prawns and parrotfish are sold by weight, and the small kitchens behind the counters will grill your pick with tahini and baladi bread for a small cooking fee.
A cluster of family jewellers dealing 18k and 21k gold sold by gram at the day's Cairo rate plus a workmanship charge. The signature buy is a cartouche pendant engraved with your name in hieroglyphs, cut while you wait in about an hour.
A 100,000 m² pedestrian plaza of Egyptian designer boutiques, glass-blowing and ceramics workshops, silver ateliers and a dancing fountain. Fixed prices, air conditioning and stock you will not see in the souk.
The city-edition merchandise counter inside the Naama Bay branch, stocking Sharm El Sheikh tees, pins and the collectors' city glasses that are only sold at this location.
An open-air, Italian-styled shopping street on the Hadaba plateau with fashion chains, sunglasses and swimwear shops, a supermarket and shaded cafés. Quieter and cheaper than the Naama Bay strip for beach clothing.
A compact pedestrian arcade off the Naama Bay waterfront selling leather sandals and bags, silver Bedouin-style jewellery and papyrus panels, with vendors staying open until roughly midnight in high season.
Where Sharm's permanent residents shop: several floors of Egyptian cotton basics, sportswear, electronics and phone accessories at marked prices, plus a food court and bowling lanes upstairs. No haggling, no tourist markup.
The shop inside the antiquities museum sells licensed replicas of pieces in the collection — Tutankhamun figurines, scarabs and hand-painted papyrus — with certificates of authenticity that souk copies never carry.
The 2 km waterfront strip mixes bazaars with serious dive retail: masks, fins, reef-safe sunscreen, dive computers and rash guards sold by the dive centres lining the bay, often at better prices than European shops.
A full-size Egyptian grocery chain branch, and the best-value edible souvenir stop: Siwa dates, sesame halawa, dukkah, tahini, Nefertiti-brand hibiscus tea and vacuum-packed spices, all at the same prices locals pay.