Red Sea first timer

[Conce]

You know, Conce,

I already reached 50. :luxhello:
Can you swear you reach the same age?

Hehehehehehehehehe

I´m glad that it will take me some years to reach 50 ... Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah !!!!!

But unfortunately every year I feel more cold in the water!

 

[satellitediver]

Thank you to everyone who replied regarding diving in the Red Sea. It seems Sharm is a great place if you are looking for a package deal and Dahab is more tuned for Back Packers. Both offer exceptional diving for warm and cold blooded divers...lol

The next problem is getting there on short notice. It is best to have a least a month ahead in planning. Then trips can be booked at relatively inexpensive prices.

As I had no forwarning I am now deciding on if flying direct to Cairo for about 400 Euro and fending for my self from there, is what I am willing to take on. I may have to wait until next time I have off and plan earlier.

BUT! thanks again to the gang at SubaBoard and the many other threads that have been invaluable.

Satellitediver

 

[Desert Roos]

I think Dahab is a good option if you wana take things easy, the diving is as good as Sharm, yet much cheaper, and easy going....
I do not know where you are flying from, but if you are flying directly to Sharm, and planning to stay less than 14 days, then you do not need a visa.... I am sorry if any body didnt know....if you have plans to dive in Ras mohamed..or visit cairo, then you will need a visa, you will still get a stamp in your passport..its called (14 days sinai entry) since the camp david treaty Isreal/Egypt. everyone can enter sinai via Taba or Sharm airport without paying...customs know it...and they know the camp david treaty...
best of luck
george

I am trying to plan a trip to the Red Sea but only have a couple of days to decide. My dive partner is a new OWD and I a DM (PADI) as such I am stuck in deciding what to choose. Liveaboard, hotel and sites as I don't mind taking it slow but don't want to burden a group.
Anyone who can recomend who they have dived with and related cost, import date such as the need to buy a visa upon arrival would be greatly appreciated.

Satellitediver

 

[robcap]

I've been to SSH 4 times. ALways stayed in a hotel
year diving rating hotel rating
1997 DIVING WORLD 8 ?can't remember
1999 DIVING WORLD 4 kharamana 7
2001 SUBMALDIVE 8 unisharm 6
2004 THE CRAB 10 aida 5

please note that I am definitely a low budget traveller.
If money is not a problem go to Marriott or Savoy
Anyway all diving centers pick you up at the hotel in the morning (AROUND 8) and take you back in the afternoon (5PM)
try to go as many times as you can to RAS MOHAMMED (shark reef, yolanda reef, ras zatar), and TIRAN (woodhouse, jackson, gordon and thomas)

My choice would be THE CRAB, Italian run diving but they speak good English (quite amazing for Italians...).

By the way, go to Sharm, forget Hurgada.

Never done liveaboard, but I know Brothers Islands are wonderful!!!
Go South if you choose a liveaboard!


whatever info you need drop a line ....

ciao
r

 

[mania]

I.if you have plans to dive in Ras mohamed..or visit cairo, then you will need a visa, you will still get a stamp in your passport..its called (14 days sinai entry) since the camp david treaty Isreal/Egypt. everyone can enter sinai via Taba or Sharm airport without paying...customs know it...and they know the camp david treaty...
best of luck
george

Not only Ras Mohammed - also Tiran. With the so-called Sinai only visa you can't go to Tiran.
Mania

 

[kiwidiver.com]

Sharm is too crowded for my liking these days. The further south you go the better the diving. 40 dive boats each with 40 divers all tied up together on one bit of reef just doesn’t do it for me.

Try Emperor Divers Marsa Alam for the best of both worlds. The dive centre and boats are right at the hotel so no messy transfers, just stroll down from your room to breakfast overlooking the boats preparing to leave.


A short 15 – 20 minutes to most of the dive sites and if there are more than 2 boats within sight of each other it is unusual. And it is even rarer to bump into another group of divers underwater. Whereas Sharm and Hurgahda are diver soup.

And it is a well run dive centre with a professional team.

 

[diverLux]

With all due respect I have never seen 40 dive boats tied together with 40 divers onboard each at one small reef neither at the dive sites in Hurghada nor at Sharm El Sheikh. Why you are using excessive language I don't understand. On account of this, no-one will take your post or recommendations serious.
That said I find the dive sites at Ras Mohammed in Sharm El Sheik simply fantastic and while I was diving there we did encounter underwater traffic but not to the magnitude described here above.

 

[Tigerman]

I have never seen that much boats in one location either, and NONE as big as 40 divers..
6-7 boats at the local Sharm reefs happens as the serious dive ops WILL have you dive locally the first day to gauge your abilities before youre let into the national parks. Something that shows on the dive sites and I hope they keep this practice up to preserve the brilliant sea life in the area.

The only site that Ive dived that was truely "crowded" was the thistlegorm and that wasnt really much of an issue either as people arrive at different times and while one part of the divers are in the water, other parts have their SI..

As for the visas for Egypt, just get them at the airport.
If youre not spending much time planning, dive ops such as for example Emperor Divers does have "in resort packages" so you could just book some cheap flights and let the dive op arrange the accomodation for you. I usually dont play my trips more than a couple of weeks in advance and it works quite well.

 

[Ayisha]

When we get our visa upon arrival at the Cairo airport and we intend to dive at Ras Mohammed and Tiran Island, what should we ask for and what should our visa say on it?

 

[ArthurGerla]

If you arrive at Cairo airport or anywhere else outside the Sinai peninsula there is only one kind of visa. It looks like the entry visa sticker in this picture:

Buy it from the State Bank (Banque Misr) teller in the arrivals hall and not from any ticket tout. It should cost exactly US$ 15. You will get change in EGP if you pay in another currency.

The stamp on the lower left is the free "Sinai only" visa. The additional stamp on the upper left is what you get if at first you chose the free visa and then changed your mind and returned to the airport for the full monty ;-)