Is Egypt Getting an Unfair Reputation When It Comes to Liveaboards?

[BoltSnap]

Food and cleanliness is excellent.
Water, softdrinks, juices, coffee, tea and snack (sweet and savory) are available all the time with no surcharge. Alcohol is not available, at least when i was there.
Full CCR and Trimix support, two zodiacs with robust and stable ladders and the boat has s lift. Step on it half submerged and you'll be lifted level to the lower level of the dive deck.
I found it to be very comfortable, altough if you have one of the two cabins that neighbor the engine room, the generators will sing you a lullaby since they run basically 24/7. It didn't bother me and i slept like a rock.
Safety is good, the emergency and dive briefings were very thorough. Life vests and fire extinguishers in every cabin, luggage or gear laying around on the floor is not accepted.

Potential shortcomings:
It's not the biggest boat, so stow your stuff smart and don't run around on the dive deck like a headless chicken
It's also not that cheap. A 7 night trip is around 1000-1200€, that's without cylinders (Al80 twinset 70€/week), Nitrox flatrate (150€) and some other small stuff.
But again, no limits regarding time and depth and an awesome crew, well worth it imo.

If they have no depth or time limits on dives, how do they schedule the dives during the diving day? Wouldn't people who stay longer underwater delay the rest of the diving day's schedule?

 

[BoltSnap]

On the liveaboards I've been on, there's plenty of time to get your dives in. Usually it's 2 dives on a morning site, and 2 dives in the evening. Breakfast follows the first morning dive and lunch follows the second.

After lunch the boat is moved to the site where the boat will stay overnight. Both afternoon dives are done before dinner, if someone wants to do a night dive they usually skip one of the afternoon dives.

The daily schedule of meals is clearly posted.

Diving makes people hungry. No one's going to miss lunch or dinner.

I know that, but I was speaking to @iliketopetsharks about the liveaboard he recommended, which doesn't have limits on dive time and depths for its clients.

 

[BoltSnap]

It's probably not a stretch to assume they work the same way.

So, if I stay shallow and I am good on air and can stay UW for 90 minutes on every dive, it is OK and the boat will keep their 4 dives per day schedule?

 

[BoltSnap]

I'm quite certain it doesn't work that way. Although no specific depth or time limitations are imposed, the daily schedule of meals and boat moving times are posted, and divers are required to plan their dives around that. I suppose one could sacrifice breakfast for a 3 hour rebreather dive but can't extend the dive to the point that the planned time to relocate the boat is delayed.

And no one is going to miss dinner. I can promise you that.

That's why I sought more clarification from him. Meal and sleep times are the most important aspects of a dive trip, especially on a liveaboard, for me.

 

[Jay_Remi]

That's one LOB operation out of 64 listed on liveaboard.com.

I'm feeling charitable - 4 out of 64.

That's a 6% success rate.

Are we ready to call that a win for the Egyptian dive industry?

To reiterate from my initial post, the LOBs I mentioned are from my personal experience and aren't meant to represent the entire industry or be statistically representative.

 

[iliketopetsharks]

If they have no depth or time limits on dives, how do they schedule the dives during the diving day? Wouldn't people who stay longer underwater delay the rest of the diving day's schedule?

On our trip, we did 2 dives per day, sometimes an additional night dive. Since this was in february, it got dark quite early and the night dives started at around 17:30.
Breakfast with freshly made Falafel (delicious!) was served before the first dive, at around 7:00.
Before or after the dive we relocated to the dive spot, since we stayed anchored in a sheltered location over night. When the wind was very bad, we did 2 dives at the same spot.
Average runtime was around 1h45, so no problem making it to lunch at 12:00.
Dinner was usually served at around 19:00, but if you're very hungry you can just take a snack.
Most of the time there were 3 main dishes with sides, salads and dessert available, but you can mix & match your own plate.
I was thoroughly impressed by what the chef achieved in this tiny kitchen in heavy seas!

 

[iliketopetsharks]

The weather (and coast guard) behaved quite unpredictable, but the crew didn't shy away from spending a lot of fuel just to get us to the best spots that were available for each dive!

 

[scubadada]

And now back to the initial thread topic, Egypt's liveaboard reputation.

I read a 2-part article this morning regarding the fire and sinking of the Thailand based DiveRACE Class E in the Similan Islands in April. The articles come from Dive Magazine and were written by @Crowley. Choosing a safe liveaboard from among the many available has been mentioned in this thread. I found this quote from the end of part 2 to be particularly applicable and at the heart of the matter:

"DiveRACE Class E is an excellent example of a fine liveaboard chosen by discerning divers for its good reputation, highly-praised crew and excellent safety record, because for the previous ten years, everything had been safe and successful. And then all of a sudden, it wasn’t..."

Survivors of Thai liveaboard DiveRACE Class E fire speak out - part 1

In April 2025, Thai liveaboard DiveRACE Class E caught fire and sank near the Similan Islands DIVE spoke to some of the survivors.

divemagazine.com

Survivors of Thai liveaboard DiveRACE Class E fire speak out - part 2

The second part of our report into the fire that claimed Thai liveaboard DiveRACE Class E in April 2025, as told to DIVE by survivors

divemagazine.com

 

[Living4Experiences]

It's sorta funny how you say "now back to the top of Egypt liveaboards" and then you post an article about Thailand liveaboards.

Well, the thread has deviated waaay off course, but I get @scubadada's point. He needed context about liveaboards when referencing the quote.

 

[TostitoBandito]

I think you can tell a lot about a place like Egypt just based on the economic conditions. Nobody should be surprised that safety is left by the wayside someplace where liveaboards have to price well under $2000 USD for week long trips to be competitive in the market. Combine that with a lot of corruption and lax oversight in the government and it's a recipe for disaster. This isn't solely an Egypt issue, as the same conditions can and do exist elsewhere on occasion. But what's maybe unique about Egypt is that the Red Sea has historically been an area with very high demand and supply for dive operators and boats, more than many other places. So when that demand cratered almost overnight, the amount of competition for the remaining supply of tourists combined to drive prices down much further than might have occurred someplace smaller with only a half dozen liveaboards operating.

And then consider that as the prices they could charge plummeted, their expenses remained largely unchanged, and nobody was really monitoring or enforcing regulations very well. So of course they're gonna cut every corner they possibly can outside of mandatory costs like fuel and food. Maintenance and safety are the first to go, because you can operate for a time without them. Cheaper and less experienced crew are also hired, which I'm sure has contributed to some accidents. Even with the malfeasance, I struggle to see how many operators are very profitable. Many are probably break even at best in these conditions.

What does this mean for divers wanting to go to Egypt? For many like myself it means just not going until the situation is demonstrably improved. For those who must go, you can stick to the higher-end operations and do your research to mitigate some, but not all, risk. In the liveaboard space you generally get what you pay for (to a point), though with the amount of economic pressure in the area I don't necessarily think the more expensive boats are immune from cutting the same corners as the bargain basement ones. It just might be less likely. So if you go just understand that you're rolling the dice much more than many other regions where profitability is less of a challenge for operators.