Flying Chicken
Registered
Hello all, having been reading this site for couple of years, I finally got a bit to share.
In July of this year, my family of 4 took a trip Hurghada (youngest is 11). This is our first experience in the Middle East. And we have limited diving experience (<40 dives). Below are our experiences:
Date: Around July 4th, 2017
Weather: Hot but Dry. Very few bugs. Some wind, more about that see below.
Hotel: Stayed in the Kempinski Soma Bay, which is about 1 hour away from the Hurghada airport. We book the van from the hotel for about $70 to pick us up. We booked with "half-board", where breakfast and dinner are included. We are spoiled by this hotel. Very friendly staff and the food was amazing. We went in their low season, so there isn't a crowd. Most of the time we are the only ones on the beach. The hotel's beach front has a shallow section about 2-3 feet deep and that runs out for about 1/4 of a mile. Then there is a slight drop off to about 40 feet. The snorkeling around the drop off is pretty cool and very very colorful. Slight current, but nothing to be concern about. Keep in mind that you are about 1/4 mile off shore, while there is a life guard on duty, I doubt he can get to you if you are in serious trouble.
Dive Shop: Orca Dive Club, Soma Bay. Very professional. They got a good and efficient set up. Our dive master brought spare goggles, computers and regulators during our check out dive. He ensure we did all the drills of mask clearing and regulator finding.. In my limited experience, I never seem any dive shop took check out dive so seriously. They also insisted my 11 years old son has a separate guide and not go below 40 ft. Our dive masters, Mohammad, Sam, Nico and Memo are all very experienced and professional. Dive sites are posted couple of days in advance, lunch can be purchased on the boat. They also have Zodiac for hire, which will cut down travel time by 1/2, but at an expense. There is another dive shop closer to the hotel, but I was "encouraged" by them to seek Orca out, as they only speak German. Transportation to and from the dive shop are provided FOC by the hotel, but tips are welcomed.
The Dives: In general, it was incredible (I will post video at a later date). However, we were only able to get about 2 dives a day as the boat ride to the dive sites can take hours. And if the waves are high due to wind, the trip would be cancelled. We missed Panorama due to waves. We dove at 4 different sites: House Reef, Gamul Kebir, Ras Abu Soma and Gamul Soraya. The two Gamul sites are incredible, but has some current. We actually ended up drift diving on Gamul Soraya. Lots of eels, as there are no sharks (at least we did not see one). Water temperature is around 85F, even at night. We dove with 3mm shorties and were not cold. The salinity is higher here than the Caribbean (I needed 8kg=17.6 lb here, but 12 lb in Cayman). Also, we dove mostly above 60 ft and there are plenty to see. See attached file for dive sites, but you can also see it on Orca's website.
Security: We were concerned before we went and there was an fatal attack in the Hurghada while we were there. But security is tight on Hurghada, I can see armed guards checking guest manifest at night. And military check points between hotel and airport. And one time, a military patrol boat approached our dive boat while we were diving. We ran into few Americans, mostly in the airport returning from live aboard. We did stay in Cairo for a few days to check out the Pyramids, and we felt a lot less secure than Hurghada. In both airports, the security personnel gave us a little bit of hard time for payment. We refused, and they let us pass. We very much look forward to return, but the recent attack on Sinai changed our plan to Bali for next year.
In July of this year, my family of 4 took a trip Hurghada (youngest is 11). This is our first experience in the Middle East. And we have limited diving experience (<40 dives). Below are our experiences:
Date: Around July 4th, 2017
Weather: Hot but Dry. Very few bugs. Some wind, more about that see below.
Hotel: Stayed in the Kempinski Soma Bay, which is about 1 hour away from the Hurghada airport. We book the van from the hotel for about $70 to pick us up. We booked with "half-board", where breakfast and dinner are included. We are spoiled by this hotel. Very friendly staff and the food was amazing. We went in their low season, so there isn't a crowd. Most of the time we are the only ones on the beach. The hotel's beach front has a shallow section about 2-3 feet deep and that runs out for about 1/4 of a mile. Then there is a slight drop off to about 40 feet. The snorkeling around the drop off is pretty cool and very very colorful. Slight current, but nothing to be concern about. Keep in mind that you are about 1/4 mile off shore, while there is a life guard on duty, I doubt he can get to you if you are in serious trouble.
Dive Shop: Orca Dive Club, Soma Bay. Very professional. They got a good and efficient set up. Our dive master brought spare goggles, computers and regulators during our check out dive. He ensure we did all the drills of mask clearing and regulator finding.. In my limited experience, I never seem any dive shop took check out dive so seriously. They also insisted my 11 years old son has a separate guide and not go below 40 ft. Our dive masters, Mohammad, Sam, Nico and Memo are all very experienced and professional. Dive sites are posted couple of days in advance, lunch can be purchased on the boat. They also have Zodiac for hire, which will cut down travel time by 1/2, but at an expense. There is another dive shop closer to the hotel, but I was "encouraged" by them to seek Orca out, as they only speak German. Transportation to and from the dive shop are provided FOC by the hotel, but tips are welcomed.
The Dives: In general, it was incredible (I will post video at a later date). However, we were only able to get about 2 dives a day as the boat ride to the dive sites can take hours. And if the waves are high due to wind, the trip would be cancelled. We missed Panorama due to waves. We dove at 4 different sites: House Reef, Gamul Kebir, Ras Abu Soma and Gamul Soraya. The two Gamul sites are incredible, but has some current. We actually ended up drift diving on Gamul Soraya. Lots of eels, as there are no sharks (at least we did not see one). Water temperature is around 85F, even at night. We dove with 3mm shorties and were not cold. The salinity is higher here than the Caribbean (I needed 8kg=17.6 lb here, but 12 lb in Cayman). Also, we dove mostly above 60 ft and there are plenty to see. See attached file for dive sites, but you can also see it on Orca's website.
Security: We were concerned before we went and there was an fatal attack in the Hurghada while we were there. But security is tight on Hurghada, I can see armed guards checking guest manifest at night. And military check points between hotel and airport. And one time, a military patrol boat approached our dive boat while we were diving. We ran into few Americans, mostly in the airport returning from live aboard. We did stay in Cairo for a few days to check out the Pyramids, and we felt a lot less secure than Hurghada. In both airports, the security personnel gave us a little bit of hard time for payment. We refused, and they let us pass. We very much look forward to return, but the recent attack on Sinai changed our plan to Bali for next year.
