Diving Marsa Alam, Egypt

[Adr1an]

Yes but you obviously don't know the current transportation situation for Sinai to African side of Egypt and your input about that matter was wildly inaccurate.

 

[Mod63]

What is inaccurate about stating that it is either flying from Eilat via mupltiple stops or traveling overland, that with a ferry, then overland again to reach Marsa Alam. And that will take you a day. Google gives me around 9h overland and ferry

 

[Adr1an]

First - combining Egypt and Israel in one trip might be a hassle, depending on the sequence you can spend a lot of time at immigration in both countries
Second - flight logistics. There are no direct flights between Hurghada or Marsa Alam and Israel, you need to go through Cairo if your lucky; worst case is flying to Europe and back

I am talking about these bits. First one is pure bs (Immigration in Israel and Egypt won't give you a hard time if coming directly from one to another, regardless of the sequence) and second one is totally outdated as now you have both the Sharm to Hurghada ferry and several Sharm to Hurghada flights.

Most importantly, if one is coming from Israel AND wants good shore diving the obvious and rational choice is Dahab (less then 2hrs driving from Eilat). No reason whatsoever to go all the way to Marsa, particularly if not interested in boat diving (which rules out the most interesting Marsa diving sites)

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

Whatever the OP decides on doing, this sounds like an epic adventure and one I would gladly embark on.

Interesting note, when flying over Israel, the flight tracker function on the Royal Jordanian plane called out locations like Jerusalem, Gaza, West Bank but did not label Israel itself. Sometimes global pettiness can be so amusing.

 

[Adr1an]

It may sound epic if you live in the USA and looking at inter-continental flights (with their well known cost+time) just to set foot in the Middle East.
I have Eilat flights from my home town as cheap as 10$ one way from late October to late March (in this price it only includes 8kg of hand luggage but still...) so if it wasn't for the silly flight hours I'd probably be doing Dahab extended week-ends every month.
Of course, if I wanted to dive in the Caribbean I'd be looking at those 800$ return flight tickets .

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

It may sound epic if you live in the USA and looking at inter-continental flights (with their well known cost+time) just to set foot in the Middle East.
I have Eilat flights from my home town as cheap as 10$ one way from late October to late March (in this price it only includes 8kg of hand luggage but still...) so if it wasn't for the silly flight hours I'd probably be doing Dahab extended week-ends every month.
Of course, if I wanted to dive in the Caribbean I'd be looking at those 800$ return flight tickets .

I meant epic as road trip across numerous borders. Middle East or otherwise.

$10 plane tickets? That's cheaper than a cab ride home.

 

[Adr1an]

Indeed.
Ryanair has some 9.99 euro tickets to Eilat from Milan (Italy) as well, those may be well worth a look for US based divers who want to save some $ even if it involves moving between Milan Malpensa and Milan Bergamo airports. (tbh Milan is well worth a visit on it's own)

Just sayin https://www.alitalia.com/en_us/offers/all-offers/offer-detail.html?from=NYC&to=MIL

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

I love Milan but the diving sucks.

Maybe I misspoke. How's the diving in Lago di Como?

Diving Lake Como Italy???

and ScubaBoard delivers....

 

[Adr1an]

No, I'm afraid you missed what I meant. The idea was that Ryanair flies for peanut money from Milan to Eilat and Alitalia flies relatively cheap from New York to Milan. (and Milan being a tourist destination on it's own, well worth a visit for art/architecture/museums, not for diving).

Hope it makes sense now.