Big stuff passes by only infrequently but there's plenty to see, and chilling in the Bedouin cafés is a relaxing way to spend your surface interval. Red Sea Diving Safari has operated three eco lodges dedicated to divers in the Marsa Alam and Hamata region for the almost 30 years. Lying approximately halfway between Hurghada to the north and Marsa Alam to the south, El Quseir has remained relatively unaffected by the huge growth in tourism that formed the resorts of Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh. The striking port city of Alexandria affords divers the opportunity to dive into history (Photo: Shutterstock). Diving conditions are close to perfect quality rash guards optional! We never share your data. Only a few hours flight from central Europe, with affordable flights and ideal year round weather, the Egyptian Red Sea is one of the best diving trips on offer considering cost/quality/distance. It is possible to dive all year round in the Red Sea. Diving enthusiasts pay attention! Egypt has one of the best underwater worlds for divers to explore, with countless dive sites filled with sharks, large fish, and the most colorful corals you’ve ever seen. DIVE magazine is available to read on many devices. It is an exceedingly good location for entry-level diving and dive courses, with many of the reefs located in easily accessible, shallow, sheltered environments, yet teeming with the Red Sea's rich marine life. #af-form-1090581944 .buttonContainer{text-align:left;} Observe the rich marine life and healthy corals while diving some of Dahab’s best walls, gentle sandy slopes, and colorful coral gardens. .af-quirksMode .af-element{padding-left:0!important;padding-right:0!important;} Here you’ll find an impressive variety of soft corals rewarding dive site with a lot to offer for all divers. First brought to the world's attention by Hans and Lotte Haas' award-winning black-and-white documentary Adventures in the Red Sea and later popularised by Jacques-Yves Cousteau's 1956 full-colour documentary The Silent World, the Red Sea is now regarded as one of the best diving destinations on the planet. DiveZone is a site dedicated to reviews of diving sites all over the world by professional divers, and Egypt nabbed all the best dive spots in the Red Sea. Much of the diving is from shore, with plenty of shallow locations for entry-level divers and training, but divers with certification beyond entry-level will find more to enjoy. Most of the scuba diving in the south of Egypt is along deep walls, however some areas of the Deep South also offer intriguing maze-like reefs with lots of tunnels and crags for exploration, a few wrecks and some sheltered bays for night dives. Dahab's Blue Hole is a favourite with tec divers and freedivers (Photo: Paul Prescott/Shutterstock). Simply give us your best email address in the box below to stay connected. All divers visiting Sharm (and Dahab, just in case) are advised to purchase the visa. Water Temperature in Hurghada:. When to go:Diving in Egypt is year-round, but the best time of year to visit is from late July to early December, depending on location, with water temperature rising to over 30°C in August and September. is one of the most pristine house reefs in the Red Sea. Sign up to get the latest updates, offers and more. Safaga and the surrounding area is often overlooked by tourists flocking to Hurghada (Photo: Valerii Iavtushenko/Shutterstock). All sites easily available by boat, with some shore-based diving depending on whether or not you stay in Safaga itself or the nearby Soma Bay. April 12, 2019 4 Comments. The central area of Masbat is full of beach-front bars and restaurants (in a good way) and comfortable budget accommodations, with bigger hotels just south in Mashraba. Sightings of passing whale sharks and One of the newer dive sites in the area and the biggest #af-form-1090581944 div{margin:0;} El Quseir. Recommended PADI Courses: Advanced Open Water Diver, Wreck Diver. Walls, wrecks, drop-offs, colorful reefs and pelagics in warm water and with excellent visibility. The dives at Ras Abu Soma are considered to be some of the best in the region, along with the Tobia reefs, also known as the 'Seven Pinnacles'. So basically the below spots should be an Egypt diving bucket list for any diver: 1. or stay in the protected area. El Gouna's carefully designed and curated resort contrasts with the surrounding desert (Photo: Andre Nekrasov/Shutterstock). Sharm El Sheikh is the biggest City in the Sinai peninsula and is known as the City of Peace. Most of the dive sites are shore dives. #af-form-1090581944 input,#af-form-1090581944 button,#af-form-1090581944 textarea,#af-form-1090581944 select{font-size:100%;} Elphinstone is a 375m … Direct flights are possible to both locations (Hurghada more so than Marsa Alam), but the liveaboard operators will usually arrange all flights and transfers based around the itinerary. and turns inhabited by a variety of marine life including nudibranchs, Less crowded places for professional divers: Quseir Beth (“my lovelies”) Sanders, after achieving her PADI Open Water in her native Wales in became completely addicted to the underwater world. .af-body.af-standards input.submit{padding:4px 12px;} Further south from the city of Sharm el-Sheikh there is plenty of incredible liveaboard passing by the Ras Mohamed drop off or the fantastic SS thisthelgorn wreck. Elphinstone. The reef also offers a variety of diving profiles; explore How to get there: Departure to the deep south is most often from Port Ghalib, with the closest airport being Marsa Alam. Although diving is an all year around activity, the best time for practicing is from November to February. Sinai, dive in Dahab and Sharm el-Sheikh. Shark and Yolanda Reef, Sharm El Sheikh. Visitors can also dive the clear waters of the Siwa Oasis, a three-hour safari through the desert in which old Roman ruins are located. DIVE magazine is the world's leading scuba magazine - both in glorious print or cutting-edge digital app. Free entry stamps are available for visitors who plan to stay in Sharm, Dahab, Nuweiba or Taba for up to 15 days but note that this does not cover the national park of Ras Mohamed (including the Thistlegorm and Dunraven wrecks). .af-body input.text{width:100%;float:none;padding:2px!important;} Egypt has been a favourite of scuba divers for the better part of half a century, especially with its easy accessibility to the Red Sea, which runs along the entirety of Egypt's eastern coastline. Best time to dive in Hurghada . Makadi Bay, around 30km to the north, is also an excellent choice, offering a half-way house between the dive sites of Hurghada and Safaga, but not as well known to tourists. Then you’ve come to the right place! It is easy to take boat excursion from Hurghada and explore other great snorkel spots like Saab Sabina Reef or Sharm el Naga. The water temperature drops significantly between January and April, dropping to around 18°C in Dahab, and even cooler on Alexandria's Mediterranean shores (it even snows there from time to time), although the deep south remains a more tolerable 23°C on average. schools of snapper, batfish and rabbitfish whirl over your head. But there are places with abundant coral reefs: book your holiday in the Makadi Bay, Sahl Hasheesh or Soma Bay for having house reef! The Red Sea has world class diving. Egypt has got it all. Best Dive Review. Ten of the Best Egyptian Dive Destinations. Visitors can enjoy the freedom to walk around without constantly being hassled to buy souvenirs, and the nightlife is a lot more subdued than some of the more garish elements of Sharm. Press the Apple or Android image below to download the DIVE app for your device or the PC/Mac image to read DIVE on your desktop. From the remains of Cleopatra's palace around the sunken island of Antirhodos and the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Love diving? Debunking The Myths Behind Stingrays, PADI Divers Leaving the Ocean a Better Place, Education Through Scuba Diving in the Cook Islands, How to Become a PADI AmbassaDiver in 2021, Spotlight on PADI AmbassaDivers from Mexico. They are some of the best dive sites in the Red Sea as their distance and the surrounding currents make the reefs suitable for advanced divers only. almost at the surface with drop-offs descending to over 100m. Visibility is excellent all year round, wind might be strong sometimes. I have listed the most spectacular diving destinations in Egypt. The Makadi Bay is the most famous area and one of the best spots for snorkeling in Egypt! Try one of our featured destinations from DIVE's travel partners. Due to the canyons being open to the surface the sunlight Still not visited by many liveaboard boats, and out of range for day-trip diving, St. John's offers among the best diving in the Red Sea. found here including nudibranchs, turtles, bannerfish, moray eels, triggerfish, Glassfishes - These fish species with transparent bodies are part of the Chandidae family. In the summer months the reef flat is home to baby How to get there: direct flights to Alexandria are available from the likes of Turkey, Dubai and Greece but there are few other options from most of Europe. This site features the remains of the wreck Yolanda and its wrecks to drop offs and reefs, there’s something for everyone when diving in Sarah O’Gorman is the Marketing Manager for Red Sea Diving Safari where she has worked for the last 6 years while living in Marsa Alam. St John's ranges from fairly easy diving to much more dramatic drop-offs and currents, home to the richest coral gardens in the Red Sea, spectacular gorgonian forests and some of the most plentiful and biodiverse wildlife in the region including sharks and large schools of pelagic fish such as jacks and tuna. Swimming along the plateau, you will notice a crack in Simply click one one of the options below. Save Save. Marine life varies from the smallest nudibranch to the destinations » Diving the Red Sea » Red Sea Dive Sites. The Red Sea has a long history as one of the most important waterways in the world. Hurghada offers a glimpse of the real Egypt, with superb range of dive sites just a short boat ride away. Many of the best diving spots in Sharm El-Sheikh teem with countless corals and fish species. Impressive rock and reef structures create fun twists Below are the top 6 Best Diving Spots in Egypt that are guaranteed to astonish you! It also doesn’t matter if you never dived before a day in your life -- Egypt is chock-full of PADI-certified, professional diving centers, instructors and liveaboards. get an eerie insight into life during WWII. These can be purchased on arrival in the airport and the current fee is US $25. Join us on social and keep updated daily... 10 REASONS WHY THE RED SEA IS STILL THE BEST. Are Stingrays Dangerous? How to get there: Direct flights to Marsa Alam are available but much more limited schedule than to Hurghada, which may be a better alternative for the schedule but means an extra 3 hours' transfer by road. The long chain of reefs known as Fury Shoal, often a part of deep south liveaboard itineraries, has become accessible by day boats thanks to new developments in the town of Hamata, providing access to some of these pristine reefs without the need for a liveaboard, albeit a long (180km) trek south by road from Marsa Alam. spotting a dugong grazing on the seagrass but there’s plenty more to see, A whole array of marine life can be There are plenty of fantastic places to dive in the world that won’t drain your bank account — here are a few of our favorites that allow divers to get the most dive time for their money. These dive spots hardly see any divers and truly offer first-rate diving. Unsubscribe anytime. Na'ama Bay in Sharm El Sheikh - the place where, for many divers, it all began (Photo: Dimos/Shutterstock). Security.Based on the current (February 2020) UK FCO travel advice, there are no travel advisories to any of the mainland resorts, nor the South Sinai resort (including the airport) of Sharm El Sheikh. Much of Egypt's dive tourism over the years has centred around large resorts such as Hurghada on the mainland and Sharm El Sheikh, situated on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, but there are plenty of options for dive tourists, and many people forget that Egypt's northern coastline lies along the shores of the Mediterranean. Marsa Abu Dabab is a particular highlight, famous for the resident population of dugong, one of the few places in the Red Sea that these animals can still be seen on a daily dive excursion. You'll love these. High seas during these months can affect liveaboard itineraries. Many divers try their luck of this dive is one of the cranes that fell into the sea during the salvage barracuda. #af-form-1090581944 .af-standards .af-element{padding-right:0px;padding-left:0px;} Dahab is one of Egypt's best-loved destinations, a wonderful mixture of great scuba diving in a chilled and laid-back atmosphere, popular with the backpacking community and a relaxed contrast to the overwhelmingly touristy Sharm El Sheikh, 80km to the south. Once a small fishing village, since regular tourism began in the 1980s, Hurghada has grown to be the largest resort on the Egyptian mainland. As with other destinations, it's often easier to fly to Hurghada and make the three-hour road trip to Port Ghalib, but liveaboard operators generally fulfil the travel requirements. #af-form-1090581944 form,#af-form-1090581944 textarea,.af-form-wrapper,.af-form-close-button,#af-form-1090581944 img{float:none;color:inherit;position:static;background-color:none;border:none;margin:0;padding:0;} mantas have increased dramatically in the last couple of years. hawksbill turtles, passing eagle rays, stonefish, scorpionfish and nudibranchs. On these places you will find little marine life and you might be disappointed. snappers, goatfish, fusiliers and blue-spotted rays. cargo, including the diving world’s most famous toilets. Marsa Alam is home to some excellent Red Sea diving in a location that is growing steadily in popularity since the international airport opened in 2003, but is still relatively undeveloped when compared to the scale of Hurghada and Sharm. offers stunning light effects and juvenile fish. to the surface. El Gouna is a privately-developed, purpose-built resort, located approximately 25km north of Hurghada. Get Creative. }. #af-form-1090581944,#af-form-1090581944 .quirksMode{width:100%;max-width:590px;} Flying via Cairo and taking an internal flight is also an option, but may add an extra day to the travel time. Elphinstone is a 375m long, off-shore reef starting Ras Mohammed, Sharm el Sheikh.Egypt. gateway to a monumental sandy plateau that hosts many small coral pinnacles, wreck in the Red Sea (175 m) The Million Hope sank in 1996. Her fixation has cost her jobs, boyfriends and a whole load of other “respectable” things so finally she had to make the diving pay… Becoming a PADI Instructor was the only option for Beth, who achieved the PADI Master Instructor rating during her time working with Camel Dive Club & Hotel(Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt). Perhaps the most famous dive site in the region, Panorama Reef, is home to spectacular 200m deep walls and perfect for drift diving, huge hard and soft coral formations and sightings of grey reef sharks, barracuda and schooling jacks. .af-body input.submit,.af-body input.image,.af-form .af-element input.button{float:none!important;} streams through, casting mesmerizing beams of light. For history geeks, get ready to dive head straight into life history. Many divers are now beginning to appreciate the wonders of the Egypt's Deep South. With 2,900 of Red Sea coastline, Egypt is blessed with some of the world’s best diving and is a diving mecca for very good reasons. The smaller resorts of El Gouna and Safaga are great options from which to explore the best of northern reefs and wrecks while staying just a short distance away from Hurghada itself. The CDWS website has a complete list of accredited dive centres and a blacklist for those that aren't. Day trips to the SS Thiistlegorm are widely available, as are trips to the much deeper Rosalie Moller which, unlike Thistlegorm, is rarely visited from Sharm. incorporates the wreck Lara that sank at the beginning of the 1980s.