Marek K
Contributor
See previous thread here for a report on the Dahab Hilton. The on-site dive operation is Sinai Divers.
We spent two weeks diving with them, 17-31 July 2007. Very, very satisfied.
Almost all the diving in Dahab is, of course, shore diving. You and your equipment are transported by jeeps/Land Rovers to sites anywhere from a few minutes to a half-hour away. This is terrific for those, like my wife, who get very sea sick.
We signed up for 10-dive packages ("Dive Boxes") in advance, which saves about 10% over individual dive booking. You can't purchase packages once you're there, only individual dives. You also can't get a refund of un-used package dives, or transfer them to even another member of your family; they will give you credit for future trips, though. The 10-dive packages also include 5 free "house reef" dives.
Nitrox (32% only) is free for qualified divers; they have a membrane compressor set-up. Plenty of tanks available, both air and Nitrox. Almost all the valves I saw were DIN, but I also saw a couple of yoke-type valves. A lot of their guests from Western Europe had yoke regulators, and most of their rentals appeared to be yokes; screw-in adapter inserts were readily available.
All the 12-liter tanks are aluminum, unfortunately... that, and the somewhat-increased saltiness of the Bay of Aqaba, meant I was carrying significantly more kg on my BC. They also have a few 8- and 15-liter tanks. They appeared to do tech fills too; I saw some doubles rigs and mysterious large gas cylinders.
First place at the Red Sea where I've seen anyone diving with BP/Ws... even so, it was maybe 10% of the rec divers.
(Hey, I even saw BP/Ws on a group of three pink-finned (I swear to God!!) divers all huddled together, churning up the bottom and whacking a reef block through inattention. The dive guide was going for them, but they churned their way off before he could reach them. )
Like the Hilton itself, the Sinai Divers operation never looked swamped with guests. There was the normal morning and afternoon rush, but not bad at all. The counter personnel were always very friendly and eager to help. No one ever asked for or even implied baksheesh.
We brought all our own equipment, except tanks and weights. So we can't vouch for the quality of the rental gear... but everything looked fine, and I didn't hear any complaints.
Guests are issued large plastic crates for their equipment, which in turn are stored in locked lockers. Keys are hung up on a board in the shop; I didn't hear of anything going missing.
There are assigned hangers for drying BCs and wet suits, and pegs on the wall for booties -- not quite enough pegs.
There are three rinse tanks; with one dedicated to regulators, computers, and cameras. Two spigots and a hose are at the rinse tanks, and I saw them changing the rinse water a couple times per day.
The operation has rest rooms with showers.
The Hilton's physician is also in the same building; but he takes the customary afternoon off, with only emergency call taken. There's a hyperbaric physician within walking distance (apparently the director for DAN in Egypt), with a pharmacy nearby. Oh, there's also a new chamber in Dahab... I'd thought the closest one was in Sharm.
The standard language with the operation is English -- absolutely all the staff speak fluent English, and dive briefings are conducted in it. Second language would be German; with individual staff members also speaking like French, Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese.
The normal routine is two shore dives per day, leaving the shop at 09:00 and 13:00. There are all-day 2-dive trips to some of the farther sites, like Blue Hole. As expected, you're supposed to sign up for dives the day before... but we never had any problem with last-minute sign-ups the same day. The standard is one guide per seven divers; if they have more divers signed up, up to 14 per trip, they add a guide. (Obviously, finding an available guide might be a problem for them at the last minute.)
Night dives (which we didn't do) are also available; as are all-day boat trips (ditto; except for the SS Thistlegorm, which we did do with my son), and all-day camel safaris (ditto; our daughter wanted to so bad, but it was just too hot). All at additional price.
The vehicles they use are pretty beat-up (no surprise), but were clean and seemed to work fine. No blown tires, no break-downs while we were there. A good indicator of vehicle maintenance is that the windshields were always spotlessly clean. On the other hand, the only vehicle gauges that seemed to work were engine temperature and voltage... but what else do you need? Stinkin' seat belts?? The beds of the vehicles (side bench seats) were all shaded.
Gear set-up and suit-up always take place on mats which are brought along on each trip. About half the local dive sites have overhead shade, which is nice; the rest don't. If the dive site is a ways from the road, carts are available for the gear and tanks. The drivers and guides handle the heavy lifting, with assistance from guests not required but obviously appreciated.
The sites we/I dived were Lighthouse, Moray Garden, Three Pools, Islands (a favorite), Coral Garden, Eel Garden (weird!), Golden Blocks, SS Thistlegorm (what can I say? ), Canyon, and Bells (what a cool wall!!) --> drifting to Blue Hole (bit of an anti-climax, with visibility not so great at the depth we were). Maximum depths were 106 ft. at the bottom of Canyon -- no swim-through; and 95 ft. just off the bottom at Thistlegorm. Our son went to 104 ft. during his Deep Dive for his AOWD.
They have a "house reef," which is a bit of a misnomer. There's a buoyed-off swimming area, where descents and ascents have to take place (because of the boaters and windsurfers in the bay!), but the bottom is mostly sandy or sea-grassy. There are a couple of large clay jars where anemones, Nemos, and small morays have moved in; our son saw a sea horse on one of the buoy lines. There are also a few small coral blocks (on the order of a few meters across) outside the buoy line to which you can navigate; even though they're only about 20-30 meters away, you need your compass because of the relatively poor visibility in the bay. This is worth a few dives, particularly since they're included in the packages; they allow for nice leisurely dives on lazy days, observing the small stuff.
Wife and I did our PADI Nitrox course while there. We had our English manual and DVD with us already, and particularly the Imperial Nitrox tables. Sinai Divers had all course materials in English, as well as all the other common languages; and the test in Imperial if required. It was pretty much self-study, with Knowledge Reviews turned in; the instructor did discuss anything needed, and went through analysis. They don't do any Nitrox dives as part of the course.
All the recreational diving is guided, with two-person buddy teams -- you're expected to stay with the guide (except for the house reef, where buddy teams can go alone if the shop determines they have a minimum of experience not to get their heads chopped off by a boat or wind-surf board). I didn't see any option for independent diving. That's too bad, but like I said the max is seven divers per guide...
On the other hand, there's no time limit per dive... the only limit is the supply of the gas hog in the group (which was usually me ). Most dives averaged just over an hour.
I'd be glad to discuss any further details of any of this.
Were we happy with Sinai Divers? Absolutely. Would we go back again? Ditto. And we certainly will.
--Marek
We spent two weeks diving with them, 17-31 July 2007. Very, very satisfied.
Almost all the diving in Dahab is, of course, shore diving. You and your equipment are transported by jeeps/Land Rovers to sites anywhere from a few minutes to a half-hour away. This is terrific for those, like my wife, who get very sea sick.
We signed up for 10-dive packages ("Dive Boxes") in advance, which saves about 10% over individual dive booking. You can't purchase packages once you're there, only individual dives. You also can't get a refund of un-used package dives, or transfer them to even another member of your family; they will give you credit for future trips, though. The 10-dive packages also include 5 free "house reef" dives.
Nitrox (32% only) is free for qualified divers; they have a membrane compressor set-up. Plenty of tanks available, both air and Nitrox. Almost all the valves I saw were DIN, but I also saw a couple of yoke-type valves. A lot of their guests from Western Europe had yoke regulators, and most of their rentals appeared to be yokes; screw-in adapter inserts were readily available.
All the 12-liter tanks are aluminum, unfortunately... that, and the somewhat-increased saltiness of the Bay of Aqaba, meant I was carrying significantly more kg on my BC. They also have a few 8- and 15-liter tanks. They appeared to do tech fills too; I saw some doubles rigs and mysterious large gas cylinders.
First place at the Red Sea where I've seen anyone diving with BP/Ws... even so, it was maybe 10% of the rec divers. (Hey, I even saw BP/Ws on a group of three pink-finned (I swear to God!!) divers all huddled together, churning up the bottom and whacking a reef block through inattention. The dive guide was going for them, but they churned their way off before he could reach them.
) Like the Hilton itself, the Sinai Divers operation never looked swamped with guests. There was the normal morning and afternoon rush, but not bad at all. The counter personnel were always very friendly and eager to help. No one ever asked for or even implied baksheesh.
We brought all our own equipment, except tanks and weights. So we can't vouch for the quality of the rental gear... but everything looked fine, and I didn't hear any complaints.
Guests are issued large plastic crates for their equipment, which in turn are stored in locked lockers. Keys are hung up on a board in the shop; I didn't hear of anything going missing.
There are assigned hangers for drying BCs and wet suits, and pegs on the wall for booties -- not quite enough pegs.
There are three rinse tanks; with one dedicated to regulators, computers, and cameras. Two spigots and a hose are at the rinse tanks, and I saw them changing the rinse water a couple times per day.
The operation has rest rooms with showers.
The Hilton's physician is also in the same building; but he takes the customary afternoon off, with only emergency call taken. There's a hyperbaric physician within walking distance (apparently the director for DAN in Egypt), with a pharmacy nearby. Oh, there's also a new chamber in Dahab... I'd thought the closest one was in Sharm.
The standard language with the operation is English -- absolutely all the staff speak fluent English, and dive briefings are conducted in it. Second language would be German; with individual staff members also speaking like French, Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese.
The normal routine is two shore dives per day, leaving the shop at 09:00 and 13:00. There are all-day 2-dive trips to some of the farther sites, like Blue Hole. As expected, you're supposed to sign up for dives the day before... but we never had any problem with last-minute sign-ups the same day. The standard is one guide per seven divers; if they have more divers signed up, up to 14 per trip, they add a guide. (Obviously, finding an available guide might be a problem for them at the last minute.)
Night dives (which we didn't do) are also available; as are all-day boat trips (ditto; except for the SS Thistlegorm, which we did do with my son), and all-day camel safaris (ditto; our daughter wanted to so bad, but it was just too hot). All at additional price.
The vehicles they use are pretty beat-up (no surprise), but were clean and seemed to work fine. No blown tires, no break-downs while we were there. A good indicator of vehicle maintenance is that the windshields were always spotlessly clean. On the other hand, the only vehicle gauges that seemed to work were engine temperature and voltage... but what else do you need? Stinkin' seat belts?? The beds of the vehicles (side bench seats) were all shaded.
Gear set-up and suit-up always take place on mats which are brought along on each trip. About half the local dive sites have overhead shade, which is nice; the rest don't. If the dive site is a ways from the road, carts are available for the gear and tanks. The drivers and guides handle the heavy lifting, with assistance from guests not required but obviously appreciated.
The sites we/I dived were Lighthouse, Moray Garden, Three Pools, Islands (a favorite), Coral Garden, Eel Garden (weird!), Golden Blocks, SS Thistlegorm (what can I say?
), Canyon, and Bells (what a cool wall!!) --> drifting to Blue Hole (bit of an anti-climax, with visibility not so great at the depth we were). Maximum depths were 106 ft. at the bottom of Canyon -- no swim-through; and 95 ft. just off the bottom at Thistlegorm. Our son went to 104 ft. during his Deep Dive for his AOWD.They have a "house reef," which is a bit of a misnomer. There's a buoyed-off swimming area, where descents and ascents have to take place (because of the boaters and windsurfers in the bay!), but the bottom is mostly sandy or sea-grassy. There are a couple of large clay jars where anemones, Nemos, and small morays have moved in; our son saw a sea horse on one of the buoy lines. There are also a few small coral blocks (on the order of a few meters across) outside the buoy line to which you can navigate; even though they're only about 20-30 meters away, you need your compass because of the relatively poor visibility in the bay. This is worth a few dives, particularly since they're included in the packages; they allow for nice leisurely dives on lazy days, observing the small stuff.
Wife and I did our PADI Nitrox course while there. We had our English manual and DVD with us already, and particularly the Imperial Nitrox tables. Sinai Divers had all course materials in English, as well as all the other common languages; and the test in Imperial if required. It was pretty much self-study, with Knowledge Reviews turned in; the instructor did discuss anything needed, and went through analysis. They don't do any Nitrox dives as part of the course.
All the recreational diving is guided, with two-person buddy teams -- you're expected to stay with the guide (except for the house reef, where buddy teams can go alone if the shop determines they have a minimum of experience not to get their heads chopped off by a boat or wind-surf board). I didn't see any option for independent diving. That's too bad, but like I said the max is seven divers per guide...
On the other hand, there's no time limit per dive... the only limit is the supply of the gas hog in the group (which was usually me
). Most dives averaged just over an hour.I'd be glad to discuss any further details of any of this.
Were we happy with Sinai Divers? Absolutely. Would we go back again? Ditto. And we certainly will.
--Marek
