Dive Locations/Trips in the Red Sea Region - Where to go?

[Oldbear]

Hello Red Sea Divers,


I will be working in Kuwait for a few months and upon completion of my contract I thought I would spend about 10 days diving the Red Sea Region.

I pretty much know I want to visit Sharm plus at least one other town. I also want to do a 4-5 day Liveaboard, allow a few days for daily dive trips, and in a day or two non-diving and see the antiquities. :egypt:

I am PADI certified for EAN, Deep Diver and Wreck Diver so that makes wreck diving a good possibility. I understand that Sharm is much more developed and that is fine. I can go high-end resort, small quiet hostel or anything in between. I am mainly going for the diving.
:banana:

I would be interested in hearing from folks who are familuar with the region what they think:

• What are the better Liveaboard trips?
• What is a nice second town to visit and what makes it special?
• What are nice daily dive trips - dive sites?
• Any suggested places/activities to go or visit while in Sharm or a different town?

I am hoping to make the trip around February/March/April and in between revolutions. I greatly appreciate any insight than you could share.


Thanks,


Michael

 

[Vassilis Vlachopoulos]

Have a look to the following thread to get some initial input

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/red-sea/397294-dahab-sharm-el-sheikh.html

 

[Searcaigh]

Check out Dive Aqaba, some good Tek and wreck diving there to test your skills

 

[Oldbear]

Check out Dive Aqaba, some good Tek and wreck diving there to test your skills

Searcaigh,

Looks good and something I am very interested in. Unfortunately, I want to stay in Egypt for the diving portion of this trip. I have other business interests to conduct at the same time. But I am interested in TEC Diving and actually I already have Dive Aqaba booked marked in my Favorites/Dive Folder. I looked at them about 6 months ago. So maybe it will work out in the future.

Thanks

~ME~

 

[Oldbear]

Have a look to the following thread to get some initial input

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/red-sea/397294-dahab-sharm-el-sheikh.html

Vassilis,

Thanks for the link...much of what I was looking for was mentioned and covered by others there. This was so helpful and insightful.

I greatly appreciate you passing it along to me...and other.

~ME~

 

[Oldbear]

Does anyone have any Liveaboard experiences out of Sharm or Dahab? Or are Liveaboards a waste of time in this region?

I like the Liveaboards just because of the high quantity of dives...:dance3:

 

[Crowley]

No personal experience of the liveaboards in terms of actually being on one - but not necessarily a waste of time.

During a North Safari you will cover a lot of the same dive sites that are available as daily trips from Sharm - Tiran, Ras Mohamed, Thistlegorm etc. - but you also have a chance to dive these reefs early in the morning, or in the case of Thistlegorm, at night, which is not offered by very many centres - if any at all - these days, and if they do, there will be a minimum number of pax before the trip can go ahead. Some safaris do make it as far North as Dahab, but it's not so far away by road from Sharm, and a few days there will cover the best of it.

Diving, wise, pretty much everything is available from Sharm, including day trips to Dahab where you will in all probability dive at the Canyon and the Blue Hole, but if you have the chance to spend a few days in Dahab, you will find excursions to see the best that Dahab has to offer, and it's a super cool place to chill out and relax.

Dahab and Nuweiba are readily accessible by bus or taxi or official excursion, and day trips (overnight) to Cairo, Luxor and Petra in Jordan are offered by the hotels. Very touristy of course, but generally well conducted from what I hear and unless you're a student of historical artifacts, probably just about enough to satisfy your need-to-know quota. Other things include the inevitable quad bike and camel excursions, often to visit "traditional" Bedouin - as a tourist once upon a long time ago in Sharm I quad-biked out into the desert to be served traditional Bedouin tea by a traditional Bedouin wearing a traditional Bedouin New York Yankees baseball hat. :cool2:

For specific Sharm info - please feel free to contact me - will help as best I can with Dahab and other locations.

Cheers

C.

 

[Oldbear]

Crowley,

Wow...great information. Thanks a bunch. Also interesting link ... www.aziabmedia.com

 

[TSandM]

Don't know about out of Sharm or Dahab, but we've done two liveaboard trips out of Hurghada and had a ball. The northern itinerary of the Red Sea Explorers boat goes to the sites Crowley mentioned, but also goes out to the Brothers, where I thought the diving was absolutely beautiful. I can't say enough good things about the boat and its management. Were I to go back, there is no question what boat I would use.

 

[Searcaigh]

Searcaigh,

Looks good and something I am very interested in. Unfortunately, I want to stay in Egypt for the diving portion of this trip. I have other business interests to conduct at the same time. But I am interested in TEC Diving and actually I already have Dive Aqaba booked marked in my Favorites/Dive Folder. I looked at them about 6 months ago. So maybe it will work out in the future.

Thanks

~ME~

Old Bear,

Let me know when you plan to go over, I will be going back again next year, they are a great bunch of people.

As far as temperatures go, Aqaba is cold compared to the southern parts of the Red Sea, it doesn't start to get warm until June, something to consider if you are bringing your own wetsuit.

Cheers

Searcaigh