Is Egypt Getting an Unfair Reputation When It Comes to Liveaboards?

[stepfen]

Golden Dolphin, April 2025

Anybody has more info about this specific incident? I can't find anything related in scubaboard nor in google.
Thanks
Ok fount it. Never mind.

 

[Doc Harry]

My take is this: yes, you absolutely should consider diving in the Red Sea—it remains one of the world’s great dive destinations.

No.

The Red Sea may be one of the world's great dive destinations, but the negatives far outweigh the positives.

I've been around the world twice, visited 50 countries. Egypt ranks up there with places like Pakistan as one of the stinkiest and filthiest and most disgusting countries I have ever seen. Ten miles out to sea you can still smell the sewage from Alexandria. Safety has become an issue in the past couple of decades, and the liveaboard disasters eliminates Egypt from my list. Permanently.

 

[pisauron]

Forget the boats.
Just go to Dahab for shore dives.
The hippie capital of the middle east.

 

[rmorgan]

That's why I sought more clarification from him. Meal and sleep times are the most important aspects of a dive trip, especially on a liveaboard, for me.

Then there’s the diving, of course . . .

 

[rmorgan]

This thread has not touched on the Sea Story situation last year, when the Coast Guard didn't have (or didn't use) the resources necessary to rescue divers on a capsized boat. The "lucky" folks were extricated by a team of local divers, including the father of one of them, but a number of people were, as I understand it, left in the capsized hull to perish. The survivors were then detained, interrogated, and coerced into signing statements in Arabic, with no translation service available. I would love to dive in the Red Sea, but knowing that the local authorities have no particular desire to effectuate rescues is shocking and the facts are horrifying.

 

[Terry Feinberg]

The bad reputation is well earned. The "tragedies" have not been a one-off incident, the culture of the industry there clearly has a problem. I can be happy dying without ever diving Egypt and the Red Sea. If I do dive it, I might dive sooner. Besides the safety concerns, living on the west coast of the USA, it is quicker and easier to get to great diving in the South Pacific, Mexico and the Caribbean.

 

[NothingClever]

To reiterate from my initial post, the LOBs I mentioned are from my personal experience and aren't meant to represent the entire industry or be statistically representative.

I think you rather knocked the legs out from underneath the premise of your own thread.

Not trying to start an adversarial conversation.

I wish the Egyptian dive industry were in better shape.

 

[NothingClever]

Forget the boats.
Just go to Dahab for shore dives.
The hippie capital of the middle east.

With a fully charged expedition grade scooter.

Booyah.

 

[pisauron]

With a fully charged expedition grade scooter.

Booyah.

Well i wish, scooters are "banned" in Sinai.
But some do exist and can be spotted sometimes.

But no need for them in Dahab though.

 

[Mobulai]

Well i wish, scooters are "banned" in Sinai.
But some do exist and can be spotted sometimes.

But no need for them in Dahab though.

technically rebreathers as well — well not banned but they just put you on a watchlist (and their „threat“ got normalized over the years)

Ofcourse people fly over with their rebreathers all the time, the same can’t be said for dpvs

But it’s relatively easy to rent out a dpv in Dahab, given the cert, the money and an (CDWS) approved diveplan — not that Dahab has a dive that actually needs a DPV