Now that I've finally finished processing my Dahab photos, I thought I would write a quick report on my trip to Dahab this past November 16-23.
I had always wanted to dive in the Red Sea, but I though it was cost prohibitive to travel there and I had concerns about the security situation. I was trying to plan a dive trip with a friend from Italy. The costs for her to travel to Bonaire were prohibitive, so I started looking for something closer to Europe. After investigation, it became apparent that the Red Sea had everything we were looking for and was actually quite affordable. We chose Dahab because we both prefer shore diving and because Sharm seemed more touristy, built-up, and focused on nightlife and fancy restaurants (don't know if that's actually true). We were both concerned about the political and security situation, even moreso because we both travel on US passports. There is still a state dept. advisory against going to Egypt. But, I did lots of research, read reports on SB and TripAdvisor of people who had been to Egypt and Dahab very recently. The consensus was - there's nothing to worry about, especially if you avoid Cairo, Alexandria, and Luxor. We found this to be very true.
I'm tall and big and I don't like long flights, but I managed to get a pretty good itinerary. Only 2 flights - Baltimore to Istanbul, layover 7 hrs, Istanbul to Sharm. Shuttle to Dahab. I left Baltimore on Thurs. night at 11pm and arrived in Dahab around 5am Saturday morning. On the way back, we left Saturday morning 1am and I was home in Baltimore Saturday night by 10pm. Turkish Airways. About $800. Turkish Air was great - no problems, video on demand in each seat, meals, free whisky!, etc. Felt like I was in first class.
We decided to stay and dive with Red Sea Relax Resort & Dive Center. They also arranged the shuttle from Sharm to Dahab and back. I had a lot of questions beforehand - never having been to Egypt, Red Sea, or the African continent for that matter. Their communication via email was responsive, patient, and very helpful. We chose the double superior room and the 10 guided dives package. The room was small, the bathroom was quite small and more of a European style shower and so on. But, it was clean and well maintained and had a great view. The included buffet breakfast was on time and a great way to start the day. Falafel for breakfast! There was always drinking water and tea available. The resort's desk staff was extremely helpful - changing money, answering questions, advising on sights, etc. Really just anything. They even packed a box breakfast for our departure at 1am. The attached bar was a great place to get a beer after a day of diving. Cold 500ml beer for less than $2. The resort sits directly on the Dahab "boardwalk" and is literally steps from the Lighthouse Reef dive site. Everything you could need was within walking distance. Everyone we met was very friendly and I did not sense any anti-american sentiment. English was widely spoken - or at least widely enough. There was, however, a distinct sense of emptiness in most places. There are tons of dive centers, shops, and restaurants. Every single one was empty. And the shop keepers would beg us to come in and look around. We obliged some at first, but you can only eat dinner so many times in one night... There were some Russians and some UK tourists, but very few people from Europe and almost no one from the US. You could tell things had been built up for more traffic. We didn't exactly mind this, but it was somewhat sad to see.
We did all our dives with Red Sea Relax Dive Centre. We had 3 or 4 different instructors guiding us, but they were all great. If you're not diving the Lighthouse, the basic setup is - meet around 9am, gear up, load in truck, drive to site, do dive #1, break for lunch at Bedouin-style camp, do dive #2, come back around 3pm or so. The only thing I found a little frustrating was that I would have liked to do more dives! I am more used to Bonaire style, where we do 2am and 2pm and one night. But, I didn't request this and the others in the group didn't seem to want this, so I'm not faulting anyone. The dives we did do were awesome! We managed 11 dives in 5 days. Unlike some, I don't mind doing the same sites over and over in one trip. My main goal is to go slow and take macro photos. If you're shooting macro, you could literally spend an entire dive on one pinnacle and not see everything. My buddy's main goal was to descend slowly due to a history of trouble equalizing. RSR was very accommodating and never rushed us. Once they established we weren't reef crashers they let us do our own thing. Since I am a DM, they let me & my buddy go out on our own for a couple of the dives when our itinerary was different than the group. I found plenty of marine life - the shallowest parts of the reef were trashed, but once it got a little deeper, the reef seemed as healthy as reefs are these days. I had lots of thing on my "to see" list - crocodilefish, anemonefish, manta, cuttlefish. I was successful in most of these. We were pretty close in, so pelagics were rare. But gobs of interesting small stuff and soft coral! I had wanted to do the Thistlegrom wreck dive trip. RSR tried, but it was cancelled each day I could go, either due to weather or lack of enough people.
All in all, I really enjoyed the trip. After figuring everything up, it actually cost less than a week in Bonaire at Buddy Dive, possibly less than a week diving in Key Largo (even with the airfare differentials). Don't get me wrong - I love those places. But for variety's sake, I encourage others to look into this. Meals and dive costs were incredibly cheap, the hotel cost was about half of what a Motel 6 would be. I'm not sure why I waited so long - probably the 11 hour flight scared me. But I wish I hadn't.
Photo Album:
Dahab 2013 - a set on Flickr
I did a lot of research trying to ID exact species, but if anyone has corrections, please let me know.
Video:
Golden Blocks Scuba Dive - YouTube
Snorkeling Ras Abu Galum - YouTube
Dive Sites:
Lighthouse Reef (left out of dive center)//51 min/Max Depth: 21M/Min Temp 25C
Bannerfish Bay (right out of dive center)//58 min/Max Depth: 20M/Min Temp 25C
Moray Gardens North//57 min/Max Depth: 25M/Min Temp 25C
Moray Gardens South//58 min/Max Depth: 25M/Min Temp 25C
Eel Garden//48 min/Max Depth: 21M/Min Temp 23.3C
The Islands//52 min/Max Depth: 19M/Min Temp 22.2C
Lighthouse Reef Night Dive//42 min/Max Depth: 14M/Min Temp 18.8C
The Canyon//41 min/Max Depth: 31M/Min Temp 24.4C
El Bells/Blue Hole//43 min/Max Depth: 26M/Min Temp 24.4C
Moray Garden//53 min/Max Depth: 22M/Min Temp 22.7C
Golden Blocks//52 min/Max Depth: 20M/Min Temp 25C
I had always wanted to dive in the Red Sea, but I though it was cost prohibitive to travel there and I had concerns about the security situation. I was trying to plan a dive trip with a friend from Italy. The costs for her to travel to Bonaire were prohibitive, so I started looking for something closer to Europe. After investigation, it became apparent that the Red Sea had everything we were looking for and was actually quite affordable. We chose Dahab because we both prefer shore diving and because Sharm seemed more touristy, built-up, and focused on nightlife and fancy restaurants (don't know if that's actually true). We were both concerned about the political and security situation, even moreso because we both travel on US passports. There is still a state dept. advisory against going to Egypt. But, I did lots of research, read reports on SB and TripAdvisor of people who had been to Egypt and Dahab very recently. The consensus was - there's nothing to worry about, especially if you avoid Cairo, Alexandria, and Luxor. We found this to be very true.
I'm tall and big and I don't like long flights, but I managed to get a pretty good itinerary. Only 2 flights - Baltimore to Istanbul, layover 7 hrs, Istanbul to Sharm. Shuttle to Dahab. I left Baltimore on Thurs. night at 11pm and arrived in Dahab around 5am Saturday morning. On the way back, we left Saturday morning 1am and I was home in Baltimore Saturday night by 10pm. Turkish Airways. About $800. Turkish Air was great - no problems, video on demand in each seat, meals, free whisky!, etc. Felt like I was in first class.
We decided to stay and dive with Red Sea Relax Resort & Dive Center. They also arranged the shuttle from Sharm to Dahab and back. I had a lot of questions beforehand - never having been to Egypt, Red Sea, or the African continent for that matter. Their communication via email was responsive, patient, and very helpful. We chose the double superior room and the 10 guided dives package. The room was small, the bathroom was quite small and more of a European style shower and so on. But, it was clean and well maintained and had a great view. The included buffet breakfast was on time and a great way to start the day. Falafel for breakfast! There was always drinking water and tea available. The resort's desk staff was extremely helpful - changing money, answering questions, advising on sights, etc. Really just anything. They even packed a box breakfast for our departure at 1am. The attached bar was a great place to get a beer after a day of diving. Cold 500ml beer for less than $2. The resort sits directly on the Dahab "boardwalk" and is literally steps from the Lighthouse Reef dive site. Everything you could need was within walking distance. Everyone we met was very friendly and I did not sense any anti-american sentiment. English was widely spoken - or at least widely enough. There was, however, a distinct sense of emptiness in most places. There are tons of dive centers, shops, and restaurants. Every single one was empty. And the shop keepers would beg us to come in and look around. We obliged some at first, but you can only eat dinner so many times in one night... There were some Russians and some UK tourists, but very few people from Europe and almost no one from the US. You could tell things had been built up for more traffic. We didn't exactly mind this, but it was somewhat sad to see.
We did all our dives with Red Sea Relax Dive Centre. We had 3 or 4 different instructors guiding us, but they were all great. If you're not diving the Lighthouse, the basic setup is - meet around 9am, gear up, load in truck, drive to site, do dive #1, break for lunch at Bedouin-style camp, do dive #2, come back around 3pm or so. The only thing I found a little frustrating was that I would have liked to do more dives! I am more used to Bonaire style, where we do 2am and 2pm and one night. But, I didn't request this and the others in the group didn't seem to want this, so I'm not faulting anyone. The dives we did do were awesome! We managed 11 dives in 5 days. Unlike some, I don't mind doing the same sites over and over in one trip. My main goal is to go slow and take macro photos. If you're shooting macro, you could literally spend an entire dive on one pinnacle and not see everything. My buddy's main goal was to descend slowly due to a history of trouble equalizing. RSR was very accommodating and never rushed us. Once they established we weren't reef crashers they let us do our own thing. Since I am a DM, they let me & my buddy go out on our own for a couple of the dives when our itinerary was different than the group. I found plenty of marine life - the shallowest parts of the reef were trashed, but once it got a little deeper, the reef seemed as healthy as reefs are these days. I had lots of thing on my "to see" list - crocodilefish, anemonefish, manta, cuttlefish. I was successful in most of these. We were pretty close in, so pelagics were rare. But gobs of interesting small stuff and soft coral! I had wanted to do the Thistlegrom wreck dive trip. RSR tried, but it was cancelled each day I could go, either due to weather or lack of enough people.
All in all, I really enjoyed the trip. After figuring everything up, it actually cost less than a week in Bonaire at Buddy Dive, possibly less than a week diving in Key Largo (even with the airfare differentials). Don't get me wrong - I love those places. But for variety's sake, I encourage others to look into this. Meals and dive costs were incredibly cheap, the hotel cost was about half of what a Motel 6 would be. I'm not sure why I waited so long - probably the 11 hour flight scared me. But I wish I hadn't.
Photo Album:
Dahab 2013 - a set on Flickr
I did a lot of research trying to ID exact species, but if anyone has corrections, please let me know.
Video:
Golden Blocks Scuba Dive - YouTube
Snorkeling Ras Abu Galum - YouTube
Dive Sites:
Lighthouse Reef (left out of dive center)//51 min/Max Depth: 21M/Min Temp 25C
Bannerfish Bay (right out of dive center)//58 min/Max Depth: 20M/Min Temp 25C
Moray Gardens North//57 min/Max Depth: 25M/Min Temp 25C
Moray Gardens South//58 min/Max Depth: 25M/Min Temp 25C
Eel Garden//48 min/Max Depth: 21M/Min Temp 23.3C
The Islands//52 min/Max Depth: 19M/Min Temp 22.2C
Lighthouse Reef Night Dive//42 min/Max Depth: 14M/Min Temp 18.8C
The Canyon//41 min/Max Depth: 31M/Min Temp 24.4C
El Bells/Blue Hole//43 min/Max Depth: 26M/Min Temp 24.4C
Moray Garden//53 min/Max Depth: 22M/Min Temp 22.7C
Golden Blocks//52 min/Max Depth: 20M/Min Temp 25C
