10 days in Egypt in August

[igneous]

I'm coming into cairo on August 10 in the morning and leaving very early on August 20, and Im trying to figure out what kind of diving I should do. The week long liveaboards are out of the question because I want to do some sightseeing as well. I found some that are 4 days 3 nights like these
Mini Safari: Ras Mohamed - Thistlegorm - 4D/3N King Snefro 5
Mini Safari: Ras Mohamed - Tiran - 4D/3N King Snefro 6
But I'm not sure if I should bother with that, or just do something like the camel dive club or someone else who is reputable from the shore? I just want to get some great diving, I think I'll probably come back to egypt for a longer liveaboard sometime, but I'd love to see the best of what I can while I'm there now. Also, Im excited to see some of the tourist spots, but the 100 degree temps seem brutal so I really dont need to spend 9 days doing that. Any thoughts would be great thanks!

 

[igneous]

So far Red Sea Diving Safari - Marsa Alam - Diving seems to check more of my boxes than most. It does seem a bit harder to get to from cairo than sharm el Sheikh though.

 

[CamC]

So far Red Sea Diving Safari - Marsa Alam - Diving seems to check more of my boxes than most. It does seem a bit harder to get to from cairo than sharm el Sheikh though.

It's possible to do a day trip from Marsa Alam to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. It's a long day, admittedly, but well worth it.

 

[Diving Dubai]

So far Red Sea Diving Safari - Marsa Alam - Diving seems to check more of my boxes than most. It does seem a bit harder to get to from cairo than sharm el Sheikh though.

You fly internally from Cairo to Hurghada, then its a 3hr bus ride

Daytime temps will be between 110 and 120 inland, On a boat slightly lower but likely you'll also find it humid as well as hot at night

 

[KathyV]

Will you be traveling from North America or Europe? We took a 2 week vacation to Egypt and I wish that it could have been longer, and we tried to jam too much into it. I remember wanting to see all the sights of Egypt and the Red Sea but that just wasn't practical. There wasn't enough time - and traveling the distances is tiring and eats up a lot of vacation time.

Ten days sounds like a lot of time, but it is actually more like a week when you figure in all the travel times if you are coming from North America.

We were there during October and the weather was gorgeous but I imagine that it can be brutal in August. It was a long, hard trip just to get to Cairo from Chicago via Italy, and then another flight from Cairo to Sharm. We spent a wonderful week on a liveaboard out of Sharm and then went to Cairo to do some touring from there. We saw the Sphinx and the Pyramids and the wonders of the Egyptian Museum and the Old City and we did a Nile excursion, but we never made it to Luxor or the Valley of the Kings, and that is a regret.

But also keep in mind that the "wait to fly" rule after diving is a factor, so you may need to spend a day near your diving/LOB port before flying anywhere. If you need to spend a day in Sharm, it is a lovely beach and resort town, but I regret that we never went to Petra, Jordan which I believe is accessible from Sharm as a (long) 1-day trip, by bus, ferry, or plane.

To be honest, rather than touring in the heat of August in the desert, I think that you should take a week-long LOB this trip and then see what you can that isn't too far from your LOB port - like Petra from Sharm, and then plan to come back during a cooler season to focus primarily on touring with a little diving on the side, or come for a longer period of time and do both; but that's just my opinion.

 

[scubadada]

My wife and I did 2 weeks in Cairo, on the Nile between Luxor and Aswan, and a side trip to Abu Simbel in February, 2016. The weather was fantastic, mostly low 70s. I did two weeks on the Red Sea out of Port Ghalib/Marsa Alam in April/May, 2016. Again, the weather was gorgeous, warm, but not too hot. The water was 74-78.

A month was about right to enjoy both sides of Egypt, hope I get back someday

 

[Diving Dubai]

Of course, if you are located in Europe or the Middle East, that changes things, and the travel times will be easier and shorter and you will be able to do more stuff.

From Europe especially the UK, its easy - well for Hurghada, I think Sharm still has no flights

You'd think it would be easy from the Middle East - but it's not. Last time I went to Marsa Alam from here it was a 15hr trip each way because of the limited flights and connections. It would have been fractionally quicker to fly from Dubai to the UK and then back to Hurghada. Go figure.

As for tours, my recommendation is October to early Dec, and then late Feb to late April or early may, when the weather it more suitable for those not used to our heat. The Museum of Egyptology in Cairo is wonderful, but their AC is pitiful.

My recommendation for diving is always Sept to Nov as having the nicest water temps with the Air still being warm but not brutal and not having the winter chill in Dec to April (when the water hasn't warmed up).

Fun story;

Three years ago, a group of us from here occupied 50% of a boat. The other 50% were Europeans. It was Aug, because the Eid holidays fell in that month that year. Anyway on the boat, the Europeans were suffering because of the heat (+100F) Whereas the Dubai group thought is was great because the Red Sea was 20F cooler than where we'd come from

 

[Christian]

Rasmo and Tiran. It’s spot on season for the area (Sinai/Nortern Red Sea) and all the fish in the Red Sea swarms off Shark and Yolanda.
Do it now when there’s still very few divers. Started to pick up last season but Sharm is still a ghost town. For how long?

 

[outofofficebrb]

You fly internally from Cairo to Hurghada, then its a 3hr bus ride

Daytime temps will be between 110 and 120 inland, On a boat slightly lower but likely you'll also find it humid as well as hot at night

You can also fly from Cairo to Marsa Alam and skip the flight to Hurghada and subsequent 3 hour bus ride. The flight is not every day, though. I want to say it's twice a week? There are also direct flights from Europe to Marsa Alam so you can always book your flights keeping that in mind or you can buy a round trip to Europe then a round trip to Marsa Alam separately.

 

[igneous]

Will you be traveling from North America or Europe? We took a 2 week vacation to Egypt and I wish that it could have been longer, and we tried to jam too much into it. I remember wanting to see all the sights of Egypt and the Red Sea but that just wasn't practical. There wasn't enough time - and traveling the distances is tiring and eats up a lot of vacation time.

Ten days sounds like a lot of time, but it is actually more like a week when you figure in all the travel times if you are coming from North America.

We were there during October and the weather was gorgeous but I imagine that it can be brutal in August. It was a long, hard trip just to get to Cairo from Chicago via Italy, and then another flight from Cairo to Sharm. We spent a wonderful week on a liveaboard out of Sharm and then went to Cairo to do some touring from there. We saw the Sphinx and the Pyramids and the wonders of the Egyptian Museum and the Old City and we did a Nile excursion, but we never made it to Luxor or the Valley of the Kings, and that is a regret.

But also keep in mind that the "wait to fly" rule after diving is a factor, so you may need to spend a day near your diving/LOB port before flying anywhere. If you need to spend a day in Sharm, it is a lovely beach and resort town, but I regret that we never went to Petra, Jordan which I believe is accessible from Sharm as a (long) 1-day trip, by bus, ferry, or plane.

To be honest, rather than touring in the heat of August in the desert, I think that you should take a week-long LOB this trip and then see what you can that isn't too far from your LOB port - like Petra from Sharm, and then plan to come back during a cooler season to focus primarily on touring with a little diving on the side, or come for a longer period of time and do both; but that's just my opinion.

From Europe. Im doing kilimanjaro and was going to fly home to the US to work a bit, but decided it wasnt worth the trouble and tried to find a place to break up the trip before my climb.

Thanks for your tips