liveaboard / landbased in Red Sea?

[Suzana]

I am planning to visit the Red Sea for the first time and have a couple of questions...

1) I have been on two landbased dive holidays so far, and I am now getting keen to go on a liveaboard.
My only worry is that I don't know how my stomach will react...
The ideal solution would be to stay in a hotel for half a week and on the boat for the other half.

Does anybody know of a tour operator offering a good deal for this type of holiday? Shall I mention I am flying from UK.

2) My other question is where in the Red Sea to go??? All areas seem to have great attractions so it is hard to choose.

As a diver - I am mostly interested in marin life and easy diving on 'pretty' colorful reefs and walls. Although I don't mind them, wrecks are not a high priority. Shall I also mention that my partners dream is to see a shark.
When it comes to life on land - I don't really mind. I like peace and quiet as well as having a few bars around.
As for experience - We have done the PADI advanced course, but we have only clocked up about 25 dives, so we can go a bit below 18m but we are still not experienced enough for really advanced diving.

So to all experienced dive travelers - what sounds like the best spot for me in the Red Sea?

3) Finally what is the best time of the year?

Any tips would be helpful!

Suzana

 

[nickjb]

The simple answer is that it is all good. The Red Sea is fantastic. Good, easy diving in a relaxed environment.

The most common live aboard trips are Northern tours and Southern tours. The Northern tours have lots of wrecks and easy reef dives with (usually) calmer seas and the southern tours go to less dived reefs (away from the day boats) but are more suceptible to the weather. The Southern dive sites can be quite deep but there is plenty of shallow diving too. Get a good boat (search the net for reviews) and you will get good food and hotel standard accomodation. To get you started I'll recommend the miss Nouran.

For sharks it is just pot luck. They are supposedly more common down south but are around Sharm and Ras Mohamed too.

You can do partly land partly shore. This is usually in Sharm or Hurghada (The main live aboard ports).

On Land I love Dahab. Relaxing and peaceful with enough nice bars and resteraunts to keep you going. One of the best things is that all the diving is shore based so you just stroll of the beach and you are there. In Sharm and Hurghada you will dive from a day boat and be out all day. Sharm and Hurg. both have a nice lively atmosphere, though.

Mid summer can get a bit too hot. Spring and Autumn is best for weather. Water is fairly warm all year round. The wind can get a bit cold in winter (especially if you are wet)

Try Crusader Travel for a good deal.

 

[SubMariner]

To date we have twice done the Royal Emperor Liveaboard for their Northern route.

IMHO it's the ONLY way to do the Red Sea. Good boat (100' steel hulled) great crew, wonderful dive guides, excellent food. What more could you ask?

However, I would book my holiday out of the UK. The pricing is MUCH cheaper that way. Get yourself an inexpensive flight to the UK and then do your pre-arranged holiday from there to Egypt. It really makes economic sense.

Here are some links:

http://y42.briefcase.yahoo.com/pgdaley2001
Our Pictures including the Red Sea

http://www.royalemperor.com/
Royal Emperor (look for us in the photo log for Mar 9-16, 2001; no people shots for our 2002 trip)

http://www.diveworld.com/boats/redsea/royemp/home.htm
Diving World

Cheers!

~SubMariner~

 

[Christian]

I'll second Sub Mariners vote for the Royal Emperor. If my memory serves me right, it is Diving World who are their agent in the UK. It is one of the better ships I have been on with a flexible skipper, good cabins (esp. the top suite), tasty food, helpful crew and a very nice diveguide from New Zeeland who knows places like Brother Islands inside and out. However with only 25 dives experience, many of the sites that the Royal Emperor visit on their southern routes might be a little bit too advanced.

A liveaboard from Sharm El Sheikh in the Sinai area would of course be a great introduction to the Red Sea. Unfortunatelly I don't have any reccomendations regarding a specific liveaboard ship for this area, but there are several quality operators like Sinai Divers, Red Sea College etc. that for sure have very good ships. You should have a fair chance of spotting a shark or two around the reefs in the Strait of Tiran or in Ras Mohamed. When a shore in this area, there are plenty of bars, restaurants, hotels and other touristic facilities ... If that's a pro or a con, I leave for yourself to decide.

Another more rustic alternative is landbased diving on the southern Egyptian coast. Here is little else besides diving to do. One place is Marsa Alam (Marsa Shagra), which is situated about 400 kilometers south of Hurghada (another well developed area with lots of dive boats and hotels). Just a short boat ride from Marsa Alam is Elphinstone reef which is one of the better reefs in Egypt shark spotting. I have personally seen a range of spieces there, from the whitetip reef shark to schooling hammerheads and the oceanic white tip (longimanus). I have never lived and dived from shore in this area, but have done several liveaboard trips, so I can only comment on the diving. Not the dive operations. There are a few dive camps even further south, towards Port Berenice.

Diving is good all year in the Egyptian Red Sea, but generally the closer you get to the warmer months, the better it gets with its peak in july/august, providing the best diving conditions with blue skies, warm waters, good viz and plenty of marine life activity. The chance too see sharks is also greater during summer months, especially hammerheads that seems to migrate north to Egyptian waters from the central and southern Red Sea. Some complain it gets too hot, but personally I have never had any problems when visiting in july, august. However I have mainly been on liveaboard trips during theese periods which of course makes it more bareable.

Good luck with your trip

Christian

 

[neilstewart]

Hi Suzana

Its all good in the red sea. Supposed to be more sharks down south but you won't get there on a 3 day liveaboard trip. Still possible to see sharks in the north. Last June I saw 2 hammerheads and a silky on a 6am dive in RasMo (Shark & Yolanda reefs). The straights of tiran are supposed to be a good spot as well but personally I have not seen any sharks there on the 8 dives I've made in Tiran.

Although its not advertised on their web site I think Emperor did do 3 day liveaboards on a couple of their boats out of sharm and Hurghada www.emperordivers.com maybe email and ask them.

How are you on the day boats? I don't think there is that much difference, but perhaps I've just been lucky with the sea conditions. There is medication you can take with you if you need it. My advice would be to just go for the full week, you really won't regret it. Dive, eat , chat, dive, eat chat, dive, eat chat, dive, drink, sleep.

Neil

 

[Conor]

I'm no expert, have only seen Taba and Eilat in the extreme north. To be honest life outside of the water was fantastic in Eilat, crap in taba (from what I heard) whereas the diving was considerably better in Taba.

I'm off to Dahab myself in a couple of weeks (YAHOO!!) having gone through a similar set of choices (see thread )

My gf isn't sure of her sea legs and I concluded that the first day of a week long live-aboard wasn't the place to find out. So I am aiming to get her on a day boat a couple of times to get comfortable and if she likes it then next time we will do the whole trip on a boat.

I got the impression that Hurg and Sharm are great fun and great diving but a bit hectic in getting to and from the boats, I didn't want to make that all of my trip, Nuweiba and Taba I have heard are way too remote with little facilities or entertainment. So that left Dahab and Marsa Alem, both of which seem to have a nice mellow atmosphere. I have chosen Dahab as it has a little more out of the water activity.

The thread has some URLs to have a look at for bargains, info etc. also have a look at divernet (www.divernet.com).

 

[Diversauras]

I spent a year in Israel and dived all up and down the Sinai plus we did a 5 day liveaboard in the North part of the Red Sea. I love the convienience of the liveaboards, and you do see things that aren't accessible with beach dives or day trips, but if you are really worried about your sea legs then I would suggest Dahab and Sharam. Dahab is to die for.

 

[clive francis]

Christian once bubbled...
However with only 25 dives experience, many of the sites that the Royal Emperor visit on their southern routes might be a little bit too advanced.

Another more rustic alternative is landbased diving on the southern Egyptian coast. Here is little else besides diving to do. One place is Marsa Alam (Marsa Shagra), which is situated about 400 kilometers south of Hurghada (another well developed area with lots of dive boats and hotels). Just a short boat ride from Marsa Alam is Elphinstone reef which is one of the better reefs in Egypt shark spotting. I have personally seen a range of spieces there, from the whitetip reef shark to schooling hammerheads and the oceanic white tip (longimanus). I have never lived and dived from shore in this area, but have done several liveaboard trips, so I can only comment on the diving. Not the dive operations. There are a few dive camps even further south, towards Port Berenice.

Christian

Christian, having done several liveaboards down south, then you are well aware that Elphinstone is not a walk in the park dive!

she also mentioned she cant dive below 18m, Elphinstone is at least 30m (thats where you get dropped in) and to see the sharks then 40m is nearer the mark.

Elphinstone suffers from currents and swell, not recommended for a novice, while you advice was well meant, i think you gave bad advice on this occasion.

Suzana go to oonasdivers.com check out the southern dive villages, excellent diving i know i went there last year and planning to go back within the next month, if you stick to the shore diving then they are safe as houses and we saw white tips, i snokeled with black tips.

build up your dives 3/4 a day then end of the week go to Elphinstone or do another easy one and go to dolphin house reef and snorkel with the dolphins on the inner reef and dive the outer reef and see the white tips.

i saw more in two days at marsa than i did (fish wise) on a northern liveaboard for a week.

the fish you see on a northern liveaboard in small groups 2 or 3 max school in their masses (picaso's, triggers, angel's banner's the lot)

 

[Christian]

"Christian, having done several liveaboards down south, then you are well aware that Elphinstone is not a walk in the park dive!

she also mentioned she cant dive below 18m, Elphinstone is at least 30m (thats where you get dropped in) and to see the sharks then 40m is nearer the mark.

Elphinstone suffers from currents and swell, not recommended for a novice, while you advice was well meant, i think you gave bad advice on this occasion.

Suzana go to oonasdivers.com check out the southern dive villages, excellent diving i know i went there last year and planning to go back within the next month, if you stick to the shore diving then they are safe as houses and we saw white tips, i snokeled with black tips.

build up your dives 3/4 a day then end of the week go to Elphinstone or do another easy one and go to dolphin house reef and snorkel with the dolphins on the inner reef and dive the outer reef and see the white tips."

No, Elphinstone can be a quite demanding dive, but it's an easier dive than e.g. the north point on Little Brother or Deadalus Reef, which are dives on the southern routes of Royal Emperor and other liveaboards. My idea was if she wants to try a dive with good chances to see sharks, which was indicated in Suzannas post, Elphinstone is a better start than Brothers. And you also suggests she try a dive on Elphinstone in the end of the week if she feels comfortable, so I guess my advice wasn't that bad.

 

[clive francis]

yes, she wouldnt be able to go straight out and do elphinstone, no operator would do that with testing her, and if they did they shouldnt be operating!

if she went to marsa alam she would get a lot of experience and predives to a deeper depth and even do her deep dive special then get to go to elphinstone.

we were not allowed to go unless we had dived 30 to 40m before and more than once. we had 3 to 3m swells at elphinstone, and they made no bones about dragging us out if we did not follow exactly what they did and said.

not only can there be severe currents there, there are on ocassions man eaters there, on one trip they told us they saw a 5m tiger and on another they saw 2 mako's, so control and confidence is a must.

but having only dived to 18m (having done advanced i find that hard to believe though) it would be too much to ask.

and you dont need to go to elphinstonme to see sharks we saw them a few times from our shore based and then on the dolphin house dive.