Marsa Alam

[SimonJ]

Am planning on going to Marsa Alam in June to dive and do my rescue dive course. My current plan is to go to the Kahramana hotel and either dive with the local dive school, or dive with Emperor divers at Sol Y Mar.

Was hoping to get peoples opinions on Marsa Alam, the diving and the hotels available. Also, does anyone know if there is a good selection of local restaurants or are the only places to eat in the big hotels?

All help and thoughts gratefully appreciated

 

[dennisg]

Check out the British Divernet forums (www.diverforum.co.uk), and do a search on the 'Destinations Talk' and you'll find tons of posts to do with Marsa Alam, by loads of divers who've been there.

regards

Dennis

 

[SimonJ]

Thanks Dennis, there is some great information on there! Can't wait to go.

 

[swisstrav]

hi simon

kahramana is a nice hotel. however stepping out of the hotel there is sand only. drive to marsa alam takes approx. 20 min. very small village.

in my opinion stick with local div op. they are ok. sol y mar i don't know. just make sure they would pick you up.

must do: early mornig dive at the elphistone reef

good luck
swisstrav

 

[DesertEagle]

I stayed at the Kaharamana in December 2000. The hotel is very nice and it has a few restaurants to choose from. Shore diving from the campground next to the hotel makes it a good place to learn. Elphinstone is a truly amazing dive but when I was there the dive center required 50 logged dives. They would probably let you dive at the dolphin house which also has great corals.

Aside from diving, horseback riding is probably the only other activity.

Make sure to stop at a regular store before you get to the hotel. Stock up on water because the hotel probably charges around LE6 for a bottle that can be had for LE1.5 somewhere else.

 

[Sylvie]

I stayed at the Kaharamana in December 2000. The hotel is very nice and it has a few restaurants to choose from. Shore diving from the campground next to the hotel makes it a good place to learn. Elphinstone is a truly amazing dive but when I was there the dive center required 50 logged dives. They would probably let you dive at the dolphin house which also has great corals.

Aside from diving, horseback riding is probably the only other activity.

Make sure to stop at a regular store before you get to the hotel. Stock up on water because the hotel probably charges around LE6 for a bottle that can be had for LE1.5 somewhere else.

HI

I was at Marsa Alam a few months ago and agree with DesertEagle. There is not much to do outside the hotels, except diving, horseback or camel riding and perhaps quad biking. I believe the local marine park authorities made the regulation about requiring 50 logged dives before diving Elephinstone. The currents there are known to be rough and the water is very deep. Moreover, divers (including instructors) tend to loose track of their depth while following oceanic sharks, and can see saw up and down between 5m & 60m without realising it. Not exactly a wise diving practice!

Dolphin House is a much easier dive in comparison. It's only 15m deep, and there are no currents, so it's a good place for beginners. The atols are very pretty and offer some nice passages. Most of it sandy but there is some sea grass, and if you're lucky, you might see sea horses there. Of course, you have a very good chance of seeing dolphins! When I was there, we saw about 60!

 

[dennisg]

The 50 minimum dive limit on Elphinstone is a good one. Because of the shape of the northern end of the pinnacle, any current washing down from the north tends to split on hitting this front face and can cause down currents along the steep wall faces of this dive site. You do need to get down very fast otherwise the currents will wash you back down the pinnacle and you won't get to where the sharks are. You’re then left to the demise of good fortune in hoping to see sharks swimming by you on the southern parts of the dive (of which there is always a good chance if you keep looking down into the deep water below and out into the blue water adjacent to you).

It's not a scenario any newly qualified, inexperienced, or slow thinking divers would want to find themselves in. Especially as the tendency is for the first dive of the day to be done on this northern end where the general dive pattern is a rapid descent down the ledges to around the 40m mark where the sharks are generally found schooling. The second dive of the day here is generally a shallower slow swim back along the protected inside face of the pinnacle.

If you're going to dive here, be aware of the potential for a narcosis hit from the fast descent into deep water. Keep a keen eye on your depth, time, and air supplies. If you do get caught in a down current, simply quickly swim out away from the pinnacle at right angles to the current, inflating your BC to give you initial extra buoyancy, until you are safely away from the danger zone. Control your buoyancy carefully as you ascend towards the surface again, and be mindful of any extended safety stops you might want to make at the 5m mark.

Elphinstone is an awesome dive! I wish you clean water and calm currents when you visit here, although it is the currents that attract the sharks in the first place so it’s a bit of a catch 22 scenario again. Further south at Wadi Gamal (dived from the Shams Alam resort), there’s another deep-water pinnacle similar to Elphinstone called ‘Sharb Sharm’ which is an awesome dive too, even better than Elphinstone in my opinion and a little safer as the shape of the northern face doesn’t allow the formation of any down currents. Here you’ll also find hammerhead and oceanic white tip. Many of the live-a-boards visit it on their deep south travels, although it is easily accessible by day boat from Shams Alam.

Happy diving

Regards
Dennis

 

[SimonJ]

Thanks Sylvie and Dennis...really appreciate your feedback. Sounds like Elphinstone is a great dive, but one that needs considerable care. My wife and I both have sufficient logged dives, and it sounds not dis-similar to diving the Bianca-C in Grenada, where we entered the water negatively bouyant in order to make a rapid desent. There were currents on that dive too...but not down currents, so will be very careful. Mind you the opportunuty to see Hammerheads and Oceanic Whitetips is not one I am going to pass up

Thanks again, really appreciate your advice

 

[PDiver]

Hi there,

I did my Divemaster certification last year in Marsa Alam with ExtraDivers. The great thing about that place is that there is an amazing house reef where you can dive whenever you want and independently, provided you have more than 20 logged dives. Just there you could see tons of different species: nudibranches, turtles, moray eels, napoleons, sting and eagle rays, while snorkeling early in the morning I saw a young dolphin and a sea horse, and other people even saw a whale shark!

There are a few hotels around the diving center: Coraya Beach, Solaya and Domina - Coraya is definitely the one to go for.

As people said before, the sites around Marsa Alam are great - Dolphin House is a unique experience for swimming with the dolphins (even though while I was there they closed the bay to snorkelers), Elphinstone is the most "wow" site where I went diving, Abu Dabab is also interesting as you have the chance to see dugongs (sea cows), and there are lots of other sites along the coast that are well worth going to.

In general, and from what I heard from tourists who came, it is still very well preserved vs places like Sharm or Hurghada, and most of the time (apart from DHouse and Elphinstone) you are alone on dive sites, which is quite a plus!

Enjoy it!!