Trip Report Red Sea Aggressor and Nile Queen Aggressor December/January 2021/22

[Parlem]

Here is a video clip of our dolphin encounter posted by my friends:

Is that Shaab El Erg, by any chance? It doesn't look like it ...

 

[Christian]

I recall reading of near-empty tourist sites in people's trip reports going back years, maybe a decade or even two. They sure seemed uncrowded during my trip a few years ago. Asking about this, I was told the decline began long ago with the 1997 Luxor attack, and then of course 9/11/2001 had an effect, and then there have been a couple of other incidents. And now Covid.

Not sure exactly what tourist-sites that was reffered to in those reports, but what I can say, is the tourism in the Sinai penisula, Sharm El Sheikh etc., has a lot less tourism compared to 15 years ago. They have had a mixed bag of troubles (political unrest and other things that is bad for tourism) in the 10's, peaking with the 2015 Russian charter that was blown up. There has been practically no direct flights to Sinai from Europe (or anywhere) over the last 6-7 years and if you want to visit it means going to Cairo and change to a domestic Egypt Air flight. I haven't been there since way back myself, but friends who used to work there and now has moved on say Sharm El Sheikh has turned into a ghost town comapared to what it once was. The upside is that the Sinai sites has been much quiter and can offer experiences closer to what it "used to be". Then came Covid.

 

[Trailboss123]

Is that Shaab El Erg, by any chance? It doesn't look like it ...

I believe it was a dive site called El Zaryb. Don't remember exactly.

 

[tridacna]

How big was your group?

 

[Johnoly]

Wow, great full-detail trip report and the dolphin video is outstanding!!

 

[Trailboss123]

How big was your group?

We had 5 of us for week 1 and then 2 more joined us for week 2 of diving and week 3 on the Nile Queen.
We were the only ones on the Nile Queen. Made things pretty easy.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Thnx for posting

 

[bvbellomo]

Just curious - where was your land based Philippines trip? Is there a trip report on here? I really want an Indo liveaboard trip, but am considering Tubbataha if the Philippines open before Indonesia. I haven't seen much about land based Philippine options.

 

[jonhall]

Great report. I live vicariously through trip reports like yours to places I doubt I will ever go.

 

[drrich2]

Sorry, double post.