Trip Report Amelie liveaboard June 2025

[Sethis]

I went on the Amelie Safari liveaboard in June, and figured it was worth writing a quick review. I'll break it down into Great, Okay, Not Ideal, and Bad. I'll talk about what the diving was like at the end.

Great

- Shuttle service was prompt both arriving and departing, and they were flexible about where we were picked up and dropped off.
- Staff and crew were generally helpful, attentive, and competent.
- You were basically left alone as much as you wanted to be, you could dive or not dive, read a book undisturbed or chat all day, depending on your preference.
- The boat itself was spacious enough so that 11 people + crew didn't feel cramped.
- With the exception of the first dive (which was a parking lot of 13 vessels), we were the only boat at our locations for the whole trip.
- We were clearly told at the start "Zero alcohol in your system when you dive." One of the divers scoffed a bit at that and had a beer before the night dive, saying "I drink all the time before diving at home." He wasn't allowed to participate. Moustafa put his foot down. Appreciate that, good call.

Okay

- Food was alright. You obviously have to make allowances for being on a boat in Egypt. It was good enough, and there was plenty of it.
- Most of the dives were run well enough, briefings were adequate, and underwater things more or less happened as expected.
- Beds, toilets, facilities generally were good enough. Again, manage your expectations because you're on a small boat in Egypt.
- The price is reasonable for the number of dives and being on a boat, compared to the same things if you were at a hotel.
- I was diving with Nitrox, and I got ~30% mix every dive, which is fine.

Not Ideal

- The wifi was almost non-existent past the first day. There was some muttering about data or whatever, and I was hoping for the best/preparing for the worst after reading some other reviews which mentioned the same issue, and I can confirm it was poor. Obviously, you're on a boat, so I was prepared to accept the signal might be slow or patchy, but this was simply the company not being willing to pay for enough data for people to use. I don't live online, so I was okay with it, but honestly they should either just say up front "There will be no internet during the trip" on their website and let people make that decision, or they should say "Free wifi provided!" and then actually provide the wifi. Even if they asked you to limit yourself to low data use like messaging or website browsing, that would have been better. It felt dishonest and disappointing. If you go, do so on the assumption you won't have any internet, or bring your own.

- BCDs, tanks and regulators were in generally okay condition, but other equipment like weight belts, wetsuits, boots were frequently worn and frayed. Thankfully I had my own suit and boots, but if I'd been paying to rent the full set of kit, I wouldn't have been impressed.

- We weren't actually put on the boat we had booked. We were instead put on the Amelie Adventures, not the Amelie Safari. This was not mentioned or brought up at any point, and it took me asking about it at our first meeting/briefing to get anyone to talk about it or explain why. This isn't the biggest deal - there were only 4 people booked onto the Safari, and 7 people booked onto the Adventures, so it makes sense to just put out one boat with 11 people instead, and I don't mind that. I just wish there had been some communication when that decision was taken. Just like the wifi promise, it felt like being ambushed with false pretences, especially since the Adventures I think is the older boat, and is definitely a little more tired-looking in terms of the fittings and furniture.

- Enforced gratuity. Again, might be a culture thing, but in the UK tipping is optional. To be told that you must tip at least 10%, and that there is an envelope with 11 numbered spaces to write your name in, and you must write the amount that you are tipping, is not normal or appreciated. Further, 11 people tipping 10% is honestly a HUGE amount of money in the local currency (multiple months of average salary - and remember this is happening every week) and I have to wonder how much of that cash actually makes it into the pockets of the crew, and how much is hoovered up by the company. Do they get paid at all? Do they live on the shared tips and work for free? Who knows? Again, I'd prefer it if the prices were increased 10%, and tipping was left to the discretion of the individual, to be done privately or anonymously.

 

[Sethis]

Bad

- There were two dive leaders, Moustafa and another guy (who I won't name for privacy reasons). Moustafa took one group, and from what little I saw, was a calm and capable guide. I was less than impressed with the leader of my group. It was the least I've been impressed by a dive leader, ever. I understand different places have different cultures and attitudes, and it's potentially unfair to hold everyone to my standards, but even so. To be blunt, the guy got closer to marine life than I was happy with (going within inches of turtles, morays, etc.), wasn't particularly conscientious about the welfare of the divers in our group, and spent more time showing off with bubble rings than he did paying attention to make sure everyone was safe and happy. This culminated in an absolute shambles of a last dive, which left a very sour taste in the mouth. Read on...

- Last dive was a wreck dive just offshore of Hurghada. Visibility was extremely poor, and during the briefing we were told that we would locate and follow a line down, do some circuits around the wreck at a couple of depths, and then return. There was an option to penetrate the wreck (just entering the main cabin - spacious with an easy exit) for those who were more confident.

First off, one of the other, very new, divers in the group had been experiencing progressively worse trouble with her ears over the last couple of dives, taking longer to descend and staying shallower than everyone else in the group, but she (Diver A) was happy to continue participating, as was her buddy (Diver B). This time it took a good 5 minutes for her to leave the surface fully, but our leader had already continued to descend and was completely out of sight of Divers A&B. Contrary to the briefing, there was no line to follow. Visibility at about 5m. I did my best to place myself halfway between A&B and where the leader had descended, and I was having to keep track of him via bubble trail, while also making sure my fellow divers were able to make it down to join us by following me. Eventually we all made it down, about 7 minutes after the start of the dive, to find our leader blithely showing the other people in the group around the wreck and showing no attempt to either come find us or check everyone was okay.

Once we got down there, almost immediately he spotted something in a coral outcrop, and gestured Diver B over to take a look with her GoPro. Whatever she did then obviously wasn't satisfactory to him, as he took the camera off Diver B, and then, I kid you not, spent the next 5-8 minutes filming something with his head stuck in the outcrop, while everyone else just had to kind of shrug their shoulders and look around by themselves.

Eventually he got bored of this (I never found out what he'd seen) and we continued to circle the wreck and eventually were invited to come inside, and this is again, probably a cultural thing, but I was absolutely not happy with very new, very inexperienced divers being invited to enter a wreck, no matter that we were only at 15m, it was a big room, and there was a clear door in and out. I just don't think people with less than 10 dives should be put in that position. At all. Too easy to bump their head, panic, kick up silt, and knock out someone's regulator while blind.

Upon exiting the wreck and doing our last circuit, a mooring rope (which was attached to the wreck, and one of the two lines the Amelie was anchored to) snapped. Not their fault, no worries.

We were the first group back, and our leader was the first one out, leaving me to help the newer divers remove their fins and climb back into the boat. My assumption is that he immediately went to tell the captain/crew that one of the mooring lines had snapped, and that we needed to re-anchor to another line. However this was the moment when the second group was returning to the boat. One of the divers in that group, very sensibly deployed their inflatable beacon to warn boats on the surface that they were ascending, and it popped up a few meters from our hull. The problem was that neither our leader, nor the boat driver, nor anyone on the crew noticed, and we turned on our engines to arrest the boat's drift, despite the staff knowing that the second group was in the process of returning. Apparently the guy who floated the beacon was only a few meters away when the props started turning, and even though there was some yelling almost immediately, it took some time for the engines to be turned off and could very very easily have been a real accident. Not a good note to end on. At all.

So would I recommend the Amelie? Conditionally, maybe.

If you want a small boat with few people, and if you can dive with Moustafa, and if you're experienced enough to be able to handle yourself and help others on entry and exit, and you're confident under the water even if your leader decides to wander off without you... yes. This is a decent budget option that, apart from a few hiccoughs, ticked the boxes that I wanted to tick for my first trial of a liveaboard.

On the other hand if you're new, not confident, or don't know any better, and you're not lucky with which group you're in... I can't really recommend it over what I assume to be other operators who might run more professional dives. Diving is dangerous when it's not done with due care and attention, and our leader only managed to reach that bar when everything was uneventful and nothing interesting or unusual was happening. Safety is everything. Respect for the environment is everything. And I wasn't happy with the example our leader was setting on either of those metrics.

Would I recommend doing a liveaboard generally, in the Red Sea, out of Hurghada? Yes, absolutely.

We were followed around by a family of the largest Lionfish I've ever seen on a night dive, and led them to prey with our torches, and saw them pounce. We had an Eagle Ray fly through our bubbles 3ft from my face, and I watched a trio of them swim past on the surface at night when we were moored. We experienced some excellent wrecks, reefs, and locations, with lots of life (the damage of the last 30 years notwithstanding) and a huge variety of fish and coral. Most importantly for this part of the world, we got away from all the resorts and the noise and the crowds, and enjoyed sunbathing and reading silently on a boat between dives. I'd definitely recommend diving from a small boat for a few days to anyone. Just... manage your expectations, and be prepared.

 

[also_anon_dc]

Thanks for the trip report! That certainly was a mess of a last dive.

I've done many liveaboards and wanted to mention if the boat uses Starlink the internet will be almost as good as on land. I've done video calls from liveaboards with no issue.

 

[BoltSnap]

Thank you very much for your kind effort in making the report.

I've been on many livesboards in the past, this is one operation I do NOT want to use at all.

Thank you again for the information.

 

[PamelaH]

Thanks for that report. Given how many boats there are in the Red Sea I would avoid this one like the plague. Sounds like a nightmare. You were very kind in your review.

 

[Living4Experiences]

Thanks for your thorough report. You were too kind. It seems to be a common occurrence in Egypt that boat operators pull a bait and switch on divers once they arrive by placing them on a boat other than what they booked. That's really wrong.

I haven't heard of a forced tipping policy by intimidation. Another really wrong thing to do. I agree with everything you said about the crew actually getting the money and the fact that the tipping is out of balance with the local economics. This also happens in Indonesia. The suggested tip is 10-15% of your trip. At $3000-$5000 per person for a decent liveaboard multiplied by 15 or 20 divers, the recipients are getting rich (by their local economic standards). The Damai liveaboard company in Indonesia has the tips shared with the entire company, meaning the people in management and staff at the office in another country, the captain of the boat, and the cruise director (both of whom presumably make a living wage already). I don't tip anymore. I'll bring scuba gear to give to the crew, such as mouthpieces, muck sticks, small things that will fit in my suitcase.

Lastly, I am really glad that you didn't have a fire or other safety incident as is so common just about every month in the Red Sea. Did you receive a muster/safety drill or orientation as to where the fire suppression equipment and life jackets were located? Were you shown where the escape hatches were and able to test them?