Considering Red Sea for First Liveaboard. Questions...

[Christian]

Thanks for all the suggestions. My 'kids' are in their 20s, so not really kids any more. They are newish divers though. It is tough coordinating with everyone's schedle, so still looking at options. I thought we were going to book in late July, early August to take advantage of the warmer waters, but when we saw that the temp can be 105 to 110 degrees in Cairo and Luxor, we are having second thoughts.

Unfortunatelly, the nicest times for Cairo or Valley of the Kings and diving the Egyptian Red Sea does not coincide. But also be aware that the Egyptian heat is a dry desert heat. Not the sticky, tropical one you'll encounter in Florida or SEA.

 

[Sunn]

The Maldives look great but near impossible to fly to from Montana. I may see if we can move up the trip to July 2020 to take advantage of warmer weather.

not impossible, several possibilities everyday, but it's a long way... (32 hours MSO - PDX - SFO - SIN - MLE for example)

but july is not the best for Maldives (monsoons !), consider november to end april, and any websearch will give you plenty of liveaboards from +/- 1500 usd

in Egypt, you'll find liveabords from +/- 900 usd, and the trip will be a bit shorter (well... 27 hours at least, MSO - SLC - CDG - CAI) and july is again not the best, because it's too hot to visit historical sites ; for a liveaboard, no problem, there is always wind, it's always bearable in the shadow.

 

[Guitarcrazy]

MSO is a 3 hour drive from me, but not unbearable. It is looking like July may mean another close trip as the other options are not ideal. I am not sure we want to head towards Asia with all of the uncertainty with Coronavirus right now. Most of the flights connect through China, and now they are seeing multiple cases in Korea, Vietnam, and other Asian locations. Red Sea would be great for diving, but 110 degrees makes the rest of my family look at me like I have lost my mind. Might have to try Costa Rica or maybe the Antilles. We haven't been to Panama, CR, or the Antilles, so perhaps one of those locations will suffice. Also have never been to Los Cabos, but the marine park at Cabo Pulmo might be closed in summer? The dive ops I looked at showed no trips in July or August. I know, we are difficult.

 

[Wisnu]

Red sea diving is quite good and the historical top sites is even more amazing to me (note : I love scuba diving, around 100 dives / year in Egypt and Indonesia).

Considering your kids experiences – and also my personal preference, I’ll recommend Northern route and the wrecks. Summer is the best time for the North route, particularly Ras Mohammad.

Yes, the top sites attractions will be very hot but not that bad if you can join 4 days/3 nights Nile cruise (done twice) Aswan – Luxor or 5/4 for Luxor – Aswan. Very good value; big discount in Summer – and the nicest thing was – not many people.

We did the nile cruise twices, August and December. Certainly nice weather in December but I don’t enjoy when more than 1000 tourist flock at one location. Very difficult to take pictures without crowd of peoples on the back ground.

August was blistering hot but not as tough as our Utah grand circle trip in August where we spent most of the time on hiking.

If time permit, visit cairo – hopefully the Cairo grand museum will be open at that time.

Check my Egypt 2019 album:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmEqDMFZ