Diving in Hurghada

[rockinrobin]

My girlfriend and I will be in Hurghada over Christmas and New-Year.
We are both reasonably experienced divers, her more than me, and are looking to find a dive centre or centres to use. Boat diving plus trips to the Thistlegorm and Salem Express (yes, I know it's controversial).
So far, the itineraries and prices offered by Twins Divers, Dive Point and Diving World Hurghada seem the best, but I am looking for other peoples experience of them and any other suggestions.
Please post and comments and advice you think will help us.
Thanks

 

[dougaldiver]

Hi

Some great diving in Hurghada. I've been there a couple of times and dived with Emporer Divers. Great set up, well organised and good boats.

I've not dived the Thistlegorm from there (always from Sharm) but I think they do trips out. They also regualarly do trips to Abu Nahas to dive two of the four wrecks on that reef (usually the Carnatic and the Giannis D).

Numbers permitting they do a trip down to the Salem Express. To avoid a pretty long boat trip they take you by coach to their centre at Soma Bay from where the Salem Express is only about 30 minutes or so on one of that centres boats.

The Salem is a good dive. Treat it with respect, don't penetrate the wreck and allow yourself to recognise what happened. The boat was the quietest I had ever known when we came off that dive but it was worth doing.

When we did it we had a choice of a second dive on the wreck or diving Panorama Reef. The boat voted for the reef and that was also a fantastic dive with pristine corals and plenty of fish life.

 

[pvyzeren]

Trips to Thistlegorm only run "wheather permitting".

I always go to El Gouna, north of Hurghada. They run weekly trips to Thistlegorm and Rosaly Moller from there.
Thistlegorm is a long trip from El Gouna, would be even longer from Hurghada, so the boat will probably sail around 5am, 6am latest. Then 3 to 4 hour boat trip, two dives and a 3 to 4 hour boat trip back.

Take care, with the wind it will feel a lot colder than it is, so bring a blanket.

Have not done Salem, so can't tell you much about that...

there are some pics of Thistlegorm on my website, see http://www.kortlontje.com/English/enindex.htm if you're interested.

 

[zilch]

My girlfriend and I will be in Hurghada over Christmas and New-Year.
We are both reasonably experienced divers, her more than me, and are looking to find a dive centre or centres to use. Boat diving plus trips to the Thistlegorm and Salem Express (yes, I know it's controversial).
So far, the itineraries and prices offered by Twins Divers, Dive Point and Diving World Hurghada seem the best, but I am looking for other peoples experience of them and any other suggestions.
Please post and comments and advice you think will help us.
Thanks

Used Dive Point about 14 months ago whilst in hurghada, very happy with them. However we just did daily boat diving, and mostly to the South of Hurghada, so cannot comment on wreck trips. However the dive and boat crew are pretty good in my opinion.

Cheers

Jim

 

[AndrewK2]

I was in Hurghada two summers ago - awesome diving. I went with Divers International who have a shop in the Hilton Plaza there. They were really good and their dive boats serve great food daily - nothing like coming up from a dive to a great lunch. I did a night dive with them to along with my advanced open water course and the instructor was great and knew everything about the sites.

 

[Tamas]

... trips to the Thistlegorm and Salem Express (yes, I know it's controversial)...

how and why is it controversial?

When I was in Hurghada we dove with www.panorama-divers.com and had a great time, nice ship(s), good DM's and good food.
When inquiring about the Thistlegorm, we were told that they rarely go to it from Hurghada due to the long journey and potential seas....but have been known to do it if there is enough interest. So I guess you will have to look around to find the charter if you want to do it.

 

[dougaldiver]

The Salem Express is considered controversial due to the extent and recent nature of the loss of life. Many divers feel that it is not appropriate to dive a wreck where so many people died only 15 years ago.

I guess everyone has to make their own judgement. We discussed it with a number of people and got some honest views on what the Egyptians felt about diving on the wreck before deciding to do it.

 

[Tamas]

The Salem Express is considered controversial due to the extent and recent nature of the loss of life. Many divers feel that it is not appropriate to dive a wreck where so many people died only 15 years ago.

could be a valid argument, but on the other hand we often dive on other wrecks where life's were lost without any odd feelings or controversy - how is this any different?!

 

[dougaldiver]

Basically as I said primarily because it is

a) recent (1991 I think)

and

b) the loss of life was very large (several hundred people, I believe the real numbers are not known, and many bodies were never recovered)

Some of the people who work locally had friends and / or relatives who were lost on the Salem and some people believe it is not appropriate to dive a wreck under these conditions (I am not one of them although I do believe any grave site should be treated with appropriate respect)

 

[Tamas]

Basically as I said primarily because it is

a) recent (1991 I think)

and

b) the loss of life was very large (several hundred people, I believe the real numbers are not known, and many bodies were never recovered)

Some of the people who work locally had friends and / or relatives who were lost on the Salem and some people believe it is not appropriate to dive a wreck under these conditions (I am not one of them although I do believe any grave site should be treated with appropriate respect)

any and all wrecks have to be treated with respect especially the ones that sunk with a bodies on them.....but that doesn't mean they have to avoided.

I fully understand and agree with what you are saying, but lack to see the controversy behind the issue.

There are a number of other wrecks in the area (Thistlegorm for starters) that went down with souls on it amongst hundreds more that I dove on that even have mounds with crosses besides the wrecks where the bodies have been buried. I dive all wrecks with the same respect, do not touch, destroy and deface them in any way - for me it's a historical journey and not a sport.

But I can see how people who have a connection to the wreck somehow might feel otherwise, take the Fitzgerald for instance, the gov. of Canada forbid sport diving on it for the same reason.