Red Sea diving vs. other parts of the world

[Tigerman]

The north red sea is not "OK" beyond the wrecks. Infact Shark & Yolanda in Ras Mohammed makes it to pretty much all the lists of top dive sites and theres plenty other great dive sites there. Also, there ARE sites where sharks are seen regularly. Reef sharks and hammerheads is seen on a regular basis in the strait of tiran. Ive also seen "above average large" thresher shark there - ok, lets be honest, it was bloody huge

If you go looking for it in the northern red sea youll be able to find mantas and other large rays, sharks, huge schools of fish, loads of corals, turtles and obviously all the usual suspects. Last few trips Ive seen on average a shark for each day of diving and its all been day boats out of Sharm El Sheikh..

 

[viakovlev]

Would it mean, that, in terms of marine life, the South may not be better than the North, just different? Most websites and posts say that the South routes are better. More pelagics, less damage... I am still confused.

 

[Solly]

How long do you intend to stay in Egypt allover and how much of that for diving?
north, aside from ras mohamed you are just there for wrecks.... Reef there is non comarable to the south sites... Still good but you main target would be wrecks.

south, very nice reefs especially if you go to remote sites, brothers, elphinstone and daedalus....

Pelagics.... In any dive, do you have a guarantee what u will see? Anyway late august is in the season and high probability you will see manythings... Still a probability...

of course go for a liveaboard if you target diving only..... If u look for relaxing, nightlife...etc. then use daily operators...

I can suggest if you have time to head for sharm elshekh, have a mini trip for 3 days targeting ras mo and thistlegorm.... Back to sharm, fly to cairo do your sight seeing then fly to hurghada or marsa alam for a week and i would suggest the golden triangle (brothers-daedalus-elphinstone) ...

another suggestion depends on your group number you can tailor a trip where you start in sharm, go to ras mohamed, dive thistlegorm, cross to abunahas wrecks and south to hurghada then do the brothers-daedalus-elphinstone and get to land in hurghada or arsa alam where you fly back to cairo.... This trip can take 8-10 days but you will cover it all !

 

[Tigerman]

So what youre saying is that theres nothing interesting in strait of Tiran? I certainly would disagree with that..

I think that might classify as a decent coral..

Taken from flicker btw and speaking of wich this entire set is ras mohammed, sharm el sheikh and strait of tiran.. Canon G7 Photobook candidates - a set on Flickr
All of the photos is shot without flash - my next set wont be

 

[viakovlev]

We were thinking to fly to Cairo, then do the pyramids, a short river cruise and then a week of diving. Nightlife is good, but it comes at a price: large hotels with lots, lots of people everywhere (sorry, we are pathologists and over the years got to like quiet deserted places). If it was possible, we would rather do night trips for night life rather than day trips for diving .

We will have time only for one route, either North or South. Doing both. Now brainstorming the ideas again,
-North and the South seems impossible due to the 6-7 day route, we need to pick one route
-The best wording is probably to pick a route, which would be rather special and unique for Red Sea. Something like pyramids underwater. Would it be Thislegorm or something else?

 

[TSandM]

I'd say if you like wrecks, do the northern itinerary. They are "real" wrecks, with lots of history (some are very sad). If you prefer marine life and really lovely underwater topography, go south.

 

[Imla]

I'd say if you like wrecks, do the northern itinerary. They are "real" wrecks, with lots of history (some are very sad). If you prefer marine life and really lovely underwater topography, go south.

However.. You WILL get lovely underwater topography on the northern route as well
check KING SNEFRO GROUP - Egypt (Very good live aboard company...) They can guide you on both north and south routes.

 

[FinnMom]

I've made exactly 1 trip, but it was just last week. We did reefs & wrecks, northern route with slight dip south from Hurgdaga to Safaga & the Salem Express & Panorama reef. I suspect I had an esp. good experience because the whole boat was a charter from Finland -a small diving communtity tends to see everyone in the community as "one of us" & behavior is at it's best: no one locked their room doors, valuable items could be left w/o worry, anyone was happy to help, loan zipper wax or a flashlight, etc.

We did a checkout dive but the guides immediately let everyone dive in buddy teams if they preferred and accompanied anyone who wanted a guide, even the 1 woman who didn't want to to go in or under anything, or be left alone while others went in or under anything. Then again maybe it's just that none of us "sucked" at diving.
I was left thinking I would prefer to never dive a day boat. It was sweet seeing 8 boats at the Thistlegorm, doing the afternoon dive elesewhere and arriving back a little later to be only 1 or 2 boats at the wreck. I also noticed a lot more dead & broken coral w/in an hour of the tourist ports (actually no where else but that close). Thistlegorm, Salem Express, Marcus, Giannus D, Carnatic & Rosalie Möller were great, the Kingston (mere remains of the ship) was a stunningly beautiful "aquarium" and the coral garden and wall were also very nice (saw turles). Bluff Point (saw both eagle rays & dolphins), Panorama reef, Umm Gammar, Ras Disha, Small Giftun (esp nice!) & Siyul Kibeer were all REALLY nice. El Fanous East was not so great.

Unless you already know which you prefer, I would do wrecks & reefs. I also wouldn't consider going unless I was AOWD/CMAS** or similar and had at least 50 dives experience. I rented a 15L tank for my daughter & doubles for myself (simply because I don't own a 2nd jacket BCD or a 2nd single tank reg set, also because I felt really good about diving a familar rig). It was actually very nice because it meant we could always dive the full hour and I still had gas to spare. I'd rent 15L tanks in the future too: I'm not flying all the way to Egypt to end a dive earlier than I could have for a pittance more cash.

 

[macrobubble]

Do a Ras Mohamed-Wrecks-Brothers trip with Snefro out of Sharm and you have the best of two worlds.

Shark feeding is an absolute no-no btw...

 

[Tigerman]

Do a Ras Mohamed-Wrecks-Brothers trip with Snefro out of Sharm and you have the best of two worlds.

Shark feeding is an absolute no-no btw...

Feedin ANYTHING is a big no-no, as is touching and taking..
Theres some rather NASTY fines to be had if you get busted doing it and if you try getting away from it with some baksheesh, that'll hurt like a bitch too - regardless of wether they accept it or not..