First post... I have been a very lazy diver during the past 20 years. During my recent honeymoon in Polynesia I accidentally ended up on a dive with 24 sharks. Thus, I'm on fire again. Problem is that my wife hates my new fascination. How do I best mix a comfortable family vacation with some guaranteed shark sightings in the Red Sea region?
Red Sea Sharks
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You are going to be pushed to get guaranteed shark sightings AND have a comfortable family vacation in the Red Sea.
Go on a liveaboard into the Sudan and you will get grey reefs, hammerheads, silkies and silvertips, with a high possibility of tigers too. However, that is off a liveaboard, so not ideal for a family vacation.
You can do the Marine Parks of the Egyptian Red Sea in September/October/November time and possibly get hammerheads, oceanic whitetips and grey reefs, plus others if you are lucky, but this is never guaranteed, and again, a liveaboard is involved.
Or you could go for June/July time to Sharm. Good for a family vacation, and if you are lucky, at that time of year, you generally get the blacktips chasing the barracuda shoal off Ras Mohammed, and you might see the hammers off the back of Jackson in the Straits of Tiran. Neither a guaranteed, but I have seen both, several times in a week, on trips the last few years around that period.
Mark
Go on a liveaboard into the Sudan and you will get grey reefs, hammerheads, silkies and silvertips, with a high possibility of tigers too. However, that is off a liveaboard, so not ideal for a family vacation.
You can do the Marine Parks of the Egyptian Red Sea in September/October/November time and possibly get hammerheads, oceanic whitetips and grey reefs, plus others if you are lucky, but this is never guaranteed, and again, a liveaboard is involved.
Or you could go for June/July time to Sharm. Good for a family vacation, and if you are lucky, at that time of year, you generally get the blacktips chasing the barracuda shoal off Ras Mohammed, and you might see the hammers off the back of Jackson in the Straits of Tiran. Neither a guaranteed, but I have seen both, several times in a week, on trips the last few years around that period.
Mark
Thanks Mark!
As You already indicated, I don't think a liveaboard is very popular with the wife. Are there other family-friendly resorts near Europe with better shark-soighting guarantees? Planned time for trip is November and max distance is 6hrs from Heathrow.
As You already indicated, I don't think a liveaboard is very popular with the wife. Are there other family-friendly resorts near Europe with better shark-soighting guarantees? Planned time for trip is November and max distance is 6hrs from Heathrow.
I think you have to forget the word 'guaranteed' as it is wild animals. The only good alternative within 6 hrs from Heathrow is the Egyptian Red Sea. If I where you, I would check out the Marsa Alam-area in south of Egypt. Things are happening fast in that region and there are a few resort alternatives that should be suitible for a family, considered the others are happy with resort-life. Not much else to do there. From there you can reach Elphinstone reef with dayboat, which has been a pretty reliable place for shark encounters over the years. Grey reef sharks, whitetip reef sharks, silvertips, oceanic whitetips and scalloped hammerheads in summertime. I also saw a threasher shark on the north plateau this june, but that was the first and only time and I have never heard of threasher sightings on Elphinstone before. But it lies just next to the deep waters of the african trench, so almost anything is off course possible. Other reliable shark reefs in Egyptian waters are reachable by liveaboard only.
good luck
/christian
good luck
/christian
I've never stayed in the resorts or the dive camps, only done liveaboards in that area. For divers, the general landbased reccomendation seems to be Red Sea Safaris Marsa Shagra Camp, as they're supposed to have a very nice house reef, reachable from shore, which they offer unlimited diving on. And Elphinstone is conviniently located just a 30-45 minute boatride from the camp. For a family, I'm not sure which is the preffered place. I guess you might want a pool and some other 'classic' resort facilities. I have small children (2 and 4) and plan to take them to the Red Sea in a couple of years. I will probably choose Marsa Shagras (or a similar place) so that the kids can explore a nice, bustling coral reef, snorkeling from shore. I think it beats a pool 7 days a week. And daddy can sneak of to Elphinstone a few times during the week.
/christian
/christian
If you are looking to go in November, then Marsa Alam might be a good option, as Christian suggested.
You are there at the right time for the oceanics on Elphinstone. Might not see many other species was there in July and we got one solitary whitetip reef shark, but 11 liveaboards, two fast RIBs from shore and seven normal dayboats!!!
However, as a compromise between family-friendly resort and half-decent diving, then it is a good option.
Try the Coral Beach Diving Hotel, at Port Ghalib. It is a large hotel, with good kid's facilities, and it has a satellite office for Emperor Divers on-site. It does day trips to Elphinstone and Sha'ab Samadai (Dolphin House Reef), as well as the normal dives to fringing reef, etc. Regaldive offer it, as I am sure other operators do as well.
I cry when I dive Elphinstone now. I originally did it years ago, when only liveaboards did it, and if you had two boats on it, it was considered busy. Every time I dived it, we had shoals of hammers off the northern plateau, silvertips and silkies down the sides, and oceanics on the south plateau. It was one of my favourite dives in the Egyptian Red Sea. Now it is a shadow of its former self. The corals are still awesome, and you never know what you might get, but I am sure you know what I mean.
Mark
You are there at the right time for the oceanics on Elphinstone. Might not see many other species was there in July and we got one solitary whitetip reef shark, but 11 liveaboards, two fast RIBs from shore and seven normal dayboats!!!
However, as a compromise between family-friendly resort and half-decent diving, then it is a good option.
Try the Coral Beach Diving Hotel, at Port Ghalib. It is a large hotel, with good kid's facilities, and it has a satellite office for Emperor Divers on-site. It does day trips to Elphinstone and Sha'ab Samadai (Dolphin House Reef), as well as the normal dives to fringing reef, etc. Regaldive offer it, as I am sure other operators do as well.
I cry when I dive Elphinstone now. I originally did it years ago, when only liveaboards did it, and if you had two boats on it, it was considered busy. Every time I dived it, we had shoals of hammers off the northern plateau, silvertips and silkies down the sides, and oceanics on the south plateau. It was one of my favourite dives in the Egyptian Red Sea. Now it is a shadow of its former self. The corals are still awesome, and you never know what you might get, but I am sure you know what I mean.
Mark
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I recommend going to Marsa Alam. You can dive both Elphinstone and Abu Dabab from daily boats with high possibility of seeing sharks in both sites.
Unfortunatelly, I agree with Mark here. As the number of boats and divers have increased, fewer sharks are spotted - it's not like 10 years ago. But you should still have a fair chance of seeing some sharks on Elphinstone though. The reef is still beatiful, except for damaged coral on the south plateau where the wall meets the plateu. And you can still see amazing things there. I had a threasher shark, two hammerheads and a mantaray in this June.
/christian
/christian
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