We are a dive club planning a dive trip to Eilat in 2017.
We are looking for a dive boat to rent for a week which can take us diving to Taba and Aqaba from Eilat.
We plan on returning to our hotel in Eilat every day, we are not looking for a liveaboard.
Does anyone know such boat which can accommodate up to 20 divers?
Replies will be greatly appreciated.
As far as I know, there are no dive boat operations based in Eilat. Sure, about 1-2 dive clubs operate a small boat that can take something like 8 divers- mostly to a single dive site in the local nature reserve (dive site is called "Japanese Gardens"). I don't think there is anything that can cater 20 geared divers.
Moreover, I am not sure at all whether the logistics exist at all for boats passing back and forth between Aqaba-Eilat and Taba-Eilat. I am not aware of any traffic between Taba and Aqaba, neither (there is a ferry crossing Aqaba-Nuweiba, which is about 60km south of Taba). That is, passport control, visas, security check etc. Actually, although policy varies quite often (I'd even say on a whim...), both Egyptian and Jordanian authorities may frown upon divers trying to cross the land border with Scuba cylinders, sometimes also underwater cameras- I would be careful when planning such a trip for a rather large group, so you don't get unpleasant surprises.
And, I think that in Egypt they'd allow to operate only boats running under Egyptian flag. Not sure about Jordan, but I'd suspect they also won't allow such a thing. Anyway, it is not something common at all- there was a time several years ago when Egypt allowed a daily scuba boat from "Aqua Sport" club in Eilat to Coral Island / Jezirat Faraun only, and Aqua Sport have a branch that operates the boat in Taba anyway...
I don't think you can plan an Eilat-based boat diving operation for 20 divers at all- not even in Eilat itself. And it is not really needed both in Eilat and Aqaba the vast majority of dive sites are shore-based. Taba has only, say, 2-3 shore dive sites, plus a handful of good dive sites reachable by daily boat from a small local pier.
To summarize, I think it will be much easier to book Taba's boat, for example, for 2-3 consequential days, leave the gear on boat on the first day and use the border crossing every morning. Then repeat the same for Aqaba, so you cross the border every day with only a small bag and the whole scuba gear waits for you either on boat or a box in the dive club. For this matter, Taba is more easy and faster, as the crossing is both closer to town and you can actually walk your way to the dive clubs and/or Pier. Aqaba involves a taxi ride from crossing border to town.
P.S.
Oh, one last thing to consider- Hotel prices in Eilat are like x2, x3 or maybe even x4 higher than both Taba and Jordan. while one can appreciate the reason for basing your operation (a group of 20, is after all, an operation) in Eilat, it can be less of an headache and costs splitting the week between, say, 3 days in Egypt and 4 days in Jordan. While diving in Eilat has its advantages and is good, it is not really even close to being as good as Jordan and Egypt, so don't waste your precious time coming from abroad to dive in Eilat, IMHO.
And one last P.S. May I ask why not liveaboard? For example, a liveaboard from Taba to Dahab and back is actually an awesome experience!
