Peak banks: plan ~3 hours curb-to-gate. Eligible visitors staying in South Sinai resorts ≤15 days can use the free Sinai stamp; everyone else should have the $30 visa ready before the desk.

SSH is a leisure airport: morning European arrivals and late-evening returns stack immigration, baggage, and outbound passport control harder than the floor plan suggests. Build about 3 hours for busy international departures in peak winter-sun and summer weeks; 2–2.5 hours can work on quieter midweek shoulder days. UK leisure flights have operated again since the Department for Transport lifted the 2015 restriction on 22 October 2019. Separately, decide visa strategy before you join the arrivals snake: GOV.UK and the Egyptian Consulate in the UK say British (and, per the consulate, EU and US) visitors arriving by air at SSH who stay under 15 days in Sharm El Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba or Taba get a free entry-permission stamp. Leave those resorts, stay longer, or fly onward to Cairo/Hurghada and you need a visa — e-Visa (visa2egypt.gov.eg, tourist single entry $30 / multiple $65) or $30 cash visa-on-arrival at the airport kiosks. Do not buy from a tout; GOV.UK warns agents overcharge.

Most international flights use Terminal 1 (2007). Terminal 2 still operates. Pearl Lounge is terminal-locked, and T2 has a landside room as well as an airside one.

Terminal 1 is the larger 2007 hall most long-haul leisure guests meet first. Terminal 2 is the original building, still active after the 2019 capacity works. Live Priority Pass and Mastercard list Pearl Lounge in T1 airside, T2 airside (opposite Gate 10), and T2 landside (after check-in, left toward immigration). A T2 boarding pass will not open the T1 airside room, and DragonPass’s live SSH airport page lists only the two airside Pearls. Follow FIDS and your carrier’s check-in island; do not assume “international = Terminal 1” for every airline.

Airside cafés cover the basics at a markup. Buy sealed water landside; lounge drinks only help in the matching Pearl room.

Landside and airside cafés / quick-service counters cover coffee, bakery snacks, and burgers. Hours flex with the charter bank, not a shopping-mall timetable. If you have Pearl Lounge access in the correct hall, use it for soft drinks and light snacks (DragonPass lists hot/cold food in the airside rooms; T2 airside alcohol is listed as chargeable on DragonPass). Otherwise grab food soon after screening before a wave sits down on every chair near your gate. Buy water landside before a long passport queue — there is no published public fountain programme.

Three PP/LoungeKey Pearl rooms, 24-hour listings, 3-hour cap. DragonPass is airside-only. Walk-up prices are unpublished — confirm at the desk.

Priority Pass and Mastercard LoungeKey currently list all three Pearl products at 00:00–23:59 with a 3-hour max stay and free entry for children under 2. T2 airside lists unlimited guests per cardholder on the live PP page. Digital cards are accepted. Facilities are AC, Wi-Fi, soft drinks, a play area, and a smoking room/cabin — T2 landside also lists a prayer room. Published PP traveler scores are middling; treat the rooms as a cool seat and drinks stop. Paid walk-up / meet-and-assist is sometimes sold by airport service desks; no official USD tariff is posted on the live PP pages, so confirm the day’s price before paying. Open the live app the same day — capacity rules are enforced.