Anyone been to Coz and the Red Sea?

[scubafreaky]

I have done the majority of my diving in Cozumel. I go there every year and have been doing so for the last 6 years. This year I am headed to Sharm el-sheik in Eg. to dive. I have few questions...What are the crowds like in Sharm...I hear it is packed with divers, is it comparable with Cozumel? Are there more or less divers in Sharm? Next what is the diving like in terms of currents and such? I have read there are currents there but cannot distinguish if it is surge being refered to or drfit diving like Coz. I have also dove the west coast of Mexico and the Channel Is. Just looking for a frame of reference between the two areas. I'm sure they differ tremendously, however, I am also sure there are some similarities. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Andy_G]

I've done both and IMHO Sharm "feels" like it has more divers but probably hasn't, the dive boats are larger than most of the Coz boats, with 16+ divers on a lot of the boats, and the boats will stay out most of the day with the surface interval spent tied to the reef or steaming to the next site.

Currents depend very much on what sites you dive but having checked my old log books I'd say it's stronger in Coz (and also drift diving is not the norm in Sharm, most of the boats will tie up to special anchor points on the reefs) I don't go to Sharm much anymore and tend to go to Hurghada which is further South and a little more "Egyptian" . If you need a good dive op try Oonas Divers (www.oonasdivers.com)I'm sure you'll have a great time

 

[Diplomat Bob]

I've been to both places once and vastly preferred Coz. (Which is why we are coming back in April.) Sharm has beautiful hotels, a fun downtown area, and beautiful reefs, but the crowds are just crazy. We rarely saw much in the way of interesting sealife--generally all scared away (or eaten) by the time our boat arrived. during one dive I was in "traffic"--divers above and below bumping me, as far as the eye could see--it was crazy. As we motored around you could see the hotels went on for miles. i would second the recomendation for Hurghada or--better yet--a live aboad. We met a dive travel agent who said he only does live aboads at this point because diving at Sharm is just not worth it. Supposedly the sea life is still there, just have to get away from the crowds. I am by no means an expert diver, but got tired of the many people who just had no control.

But we really loved Egypt--our hotel forget to send a cab, so a number of random cabdrivers telephoned the hotel for us, the restaurants and stores were great, the hotel was top-notch, and the coral was amazing. And the dive boats lunch included a fried eggplant dish that was just amazing. first time I have ever enjoyed eggplant.

 

[Andy_G]

Hi Bob,
Fried eggplant? you must have been on one of the upmarket boats , I always went out with Egyptian skippers and it never ceased to amaze me that a 15 yr old cabin boy/deckhand could produce enjoyable 2-3 course lunches in a galley half the size of my office desk!
I definitely agree with you Coz over the Red sea any day of the week

 

[300bar]

Hi Bob,
Fried eggplant? you must have been on one of the upmarket boats , I always went out with Egyptian skippers and it never ceased to amaze me that a 15 yr old cabin boy/deckhand could produce enjoyable 2-3 course lunches in a galley half the size of my office desk!
I definitely agree with you Coz over the Red sea any day of the week

Gee Andy you must have a small office desk

 

[Andy_G]

sounds like we've definitely been on the same boats out of hurghada

 

[bnajdrovsky]

I've not been to Sharm itself, but did a live-aboard trip out of Hurghada with Colona Divers, and I go to Cozumel every year, so I think I have at least some perspective on this. I'd say that the Red Sea diving compared favorably to Coz, but Cozumel still wins in the end. My understanding is that the Ras Mohammed Marine Park around Sharm el Sheikh is quite nice, so I wouldn't mind going back to Egypt at least one more time to check it out. There's also quite a bit of diving activity around Dahab, which is a bit further up the Sinai. As I said, I went out of Hurghada, which is located on the east coast of Egypt, about 3 hours south of Suez by car. There are also flights directly to Hurghada, because it's somewhat of a resort town with lots of tourist class hotels.

Anyway, my impression was that Cozumel has somewhat more abundant marine life, at least in terms of the larger critters such as turtles, rays, etc. however with a lot of the Cozumel reefs currently damaged by the two recent hurricanes, I'd expect that Red Sea reefs to probably be in somewhat better shape, at leat in the near term. I'm sure Coz will recover soon enough, though. I will second the suggestion above to consider a liveaboard, because that's the best way to see the best reefs. I remember our last dive back in Hurghada before we returned to port (site called "Aquarium"), the reef was half dead and had about 7 dive boats on it with divers milling everywhere, however the reefs that we saw further south were very nice, and we were the only divers there. I was pretty happy with Colona Divers as well. They are a scandinavian op and are located at the Hotel Magawish resort. For our liveaboard safari, we had only 6 divers and 2 divemasters, so it was a very comfortable and enjoyable experience. I'd go with them again if I had the chance.