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IMO yes the quality of the diving is better in the south by far, Asser might think otherwise but then again he is based in the north. I have done 3 liveaboards out of Sharm and 4 in the south and I wouldn't go to sharm again, the dive sites are far more crowded. Although there will be a lot...

And you will fry :D I would recommend April or September for a liveaboard and I wouldn't go out of Sharm, although if you have been before then I suppose it's OK. I would also recommend Tony Backhurst @ www.scuba.co.uk. Oonas, Regal, Explorers and the the newest boat in the south Royal...

Most of the better / newer liveaboards are not refitted, they are purpose built dive boats, with the diver in mind. Take a look at Tornado Fleet, Sea Serpent Fleet and the Royal Evolution. Oh and the no shoes thing is nothing to do with "wood and fancy stuff", you are in the crews home and...

I have never done a land based trip to Egypt but a lot of people seem to recommend Ocean College and they seem to do trimix courses. HERE

Yes I have done the Brothers twice, once back on 2001 and again in 2004. The Brothers are a lovely dive but I wouldn't do them on my own, the itineray normally includes Elphinstone and Deadalus so you get anice mix of wrecks and reefs. There are some strong currents and there are no night...

Wow this US v European stuff is as bad as an agency v agency thing. The Maldives livaboards I have been on schedule their days diving to the itineray, we visited remote parts of the region and you can't do this by diving 4 or 5 times a day, we dived and during the surface interval the boat...

Not 2006, that's already taken up with UK diving. As I have seen 2 boats doing this for 2007 we should be able to put something together for 2007 / 2008.

and a great decision by the boats involved. We were told a couple of years ago that this was one of the aims of one of the boats, which wasn't actually built then. But great news for those of us not wanting to fly in to Sudan. A trip is already being planned :D

Do what most people do and pack your bags properly and put your regs in your hold baggage. I never carry on regs or big torch, too darn heavy to lug around.

I have an aquarium local to me in the UK which allows shark dives, however you don't need good bouyancy because you have to be overweighted and you only kneel on the bottom - no fins allowed. In fact you don't even need to be qualified all instruction can be provided.

If a whale can effect a big ferry then a saiboat has no chance :D Check this one out http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/5236300.stm

Not at all, we dismissed Mistral from the start, although some friends of mine had a good trip on her a few years ago. It is only for 12, we needed space for 16 at the time. No Nitrox A lot smaller So don't worry about mentioned her, I am sure she is a fine boat.

Thought I should update you. Most of our group have decided to bite the bullet and continue with our plans on Deep Blue, we choose the boat after reading Eric Chengs and Dougs report amongst others. We aren't however very happy at the direct discrimination of European guests by the owners...

You may have read my other thread about our current booked liveaboard - Deep Blue. Someone mentioned on my thread that Deep Blue was a good stable dive boat, which is why we booked her after reading some great trip reports, but I would welcome your recommendations for other boats, in case we...

The service charge, based on the boat only portion of your holiday (ie. US$3,715), is subject to exchange rate fluctuations and has been calculated at $1.8/£1. Obviously this doesn't include the usual onboard extras like bar bill and nitrox, marine park fees and chamber fees, just the boat costs.

The $370 I mentioned is the Mandatory crew tip they are adding to each of our invoices. There are 14 of us booked which works out at $5180 in crew tips for the 10 day trip. If it was a fuel surcharge then I could understand that, but some of that would also be absorbed by our operator. I...

The boat is DeepBlue, we wanted to book this boat based on some excellent trip reports we found on the net. There are 14 of us booked and some of us are doing extra trips to Peru so this will be a very expensive trip, we just feel very annoyed as it is apparently the boat owner who has...

I may not have expressed myself properly, the next payment of £500 is just another deposit, the balance is to be paid about 10 weeks before the trip next year. We are more annoyed about being discriminated against. I am happy to pay 10%, but I would prefer that to be my decision based on my...

Terry, it is instead of paying a tip at the end of the trip. Apparently us Brits and Europeans aren't quite a generous as you guys across the pond. A friend of mine was recently on the same boat and decided not to tip the usual 10% as the regular dive guide wasn't on the boat and he felt the...

No need to be quite so aggressive. No we are not used to your "normal / standard" of tipping which doesn't mean we are a bunch of tight buggers. We have a different standard of living than you do. I would rather not mention the boat just yet, however you are implying that I am not...