Red Sea with kids - Hurghada, Marsa Alam or somewhere else?

[UFOrb]

Hi, we’ve decided to head out to the Red Sea in April or May next year with our 2 young kids.
We’re looking for somewhere with good, easy snorkelling on a house reef and good diving close by. We take turns staying with the kids so short dive trips are required, preferably 1 tank trips returning to the resort for SI.
We also need a child-friendly hotel with pools etc.
Our preference is probably for Marsa Alam /Port Ghalib but would consider Hurghada area.
Also is there any advantage going at the end of May (school half term) over April (Easter), or vice versa?
Many thanks!

 

[Altamira]

Ft. Arabesque at Hurghada is exactly what you are looking for on your Red Sea trip. Very nice house reef for diving and snorkeling. Safe, shallow, kid friendly water at beach leading to very nice and healthycoral formations accessible by snorkeling or walking out into waist deep water. On site excellent dive op (IDive) which had boats that go out daily for dives other than on house reef. Pools and very nice beach, with plenty of shade. Food is pretty good, much better than we expected, and the AI cost is relatively inexpensive for what you get which includes beverages and Egyptian alcohol. We spent five days there in April, and would choose Ft. Arabesque again on another Red Sea trip. You will not be disappointed.

 

[KenGordon]

Consider Red Sea Safari at Marsa Shagra - they have a very nice house reef which is easily snorkelled, and dived, directly from the beach. It is an ‘Eco’ resort with a mixture of small ‘chalet’ buildings and tents. There will not be old people dancing to disco music on pain of something nasty being done to them by the resort staff tasked with making sure everyone have ‘fun’. (The **** you have to deal with in between diving at ‘resorts’).

There is no pool though, just the sea.

 

[Sunn]

With kids, you could go to

Jungle Aqua Park - Pickalbatros Hotels

Jaz Aquamarine - Hurghada

good quality hotels and paradises for kids

 

[UFOrb]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

Consider Red Sea Safari at Marsa Shagra

That looks ideal... if we didn’t have young kids (they’ll be 3 and 6 yrs by the time we go).
We’d like somewhere with a pool and children’s play area to make life as easy as possible for the one staying with the kids while the other’s diving. From experience a child-friendly pool is much easier than the sea with 2 young kids, especially as the younger one thinks he can swim without an aid, but he can’t! Obviously happy to take them in the sea when we’re both around though.

 

[UFOrb]

There will not be old people dancing to disco music on pain of something nasty being done to them by the resort staff tasked with making sure everyone have ‘fun’. (The **** you have to deal with in between diving at ‘resorts’).

Haha, yeah that’s my idea of holiday hell!!!

 

[Christian]

I’ve brought my kids regularly to Marsa Shagra since the youngest was 4. It’s great, but not for all. No pool. But ideal because you can dive on the house reef and no need to go out with a boat. If you want to, one if the most dramatic reefs in Egypt is available in 20-25 mnts by speedboat — Elphinstone. 07:00 and 09:00 every morning. But kids need to be All Terrain to be happy.

My oldest girl in 2009 on Shagra house reef:

Visa bild - "Reef" - Fotosidan

She’s now AOW and been to Brother Islands, RasMo as well as to the Maldives twice with me. But it all started in RSDS Marsa Shagra Camp with lots of snorkelling and try dives when she was 7. Great, great place and fantastic people there.

 

[Wisnu]

You might consider malikia resort Abu Dabab, 30 minute drive south of Marsa Alam, swimming pools including. for kids, play ground, water park, yoga class and many other attraction for family (too much for us) and nice dive center. Full board package incl. free flow alcohol.
The house reef is nice, in my opinion better than Marsa Shagra house reef. Turtles is almost guarantee, good chance for dugong (not our luck) or dolphin (approached us in 2 m but at that time my camera set is 60mm macro
You can dive the house reed without boat, by boat (zodiac) or join their boat trip to further away dive site incl. elphinstone.

Here is the resort at night.

Abu Dabbab-5100091.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

with lovely sunrise

Abu Dabbab-5150785.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

and few pics - all taken from the house reef. We dived house reef only, mostly without guide.

Abu Dabbab-5120323.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Abu Dabbab-5100017.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Abu Dabbab-5140552.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Abu Dabbab-5130424.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

 

[UFOrb]

You might consider malikia resort Abu Dabab, 30 minute drive south of Marsa Alam, swimming pools including. for kids, play ground, water park, yoga class and many other attraction for family (too much for us) and nice dive center. Full board package incl. free flow alcohol.
The house reef is nice, in my opinion better than Marsa Shagra house reef. Turtles is almost guarantee, good chance for dugong (not our luck) or dolphin (approached us in 2 m but at that time my camera set is 60mm macro
You can dive the house reed without boat, by boat (zodiac) or join their boat trip to further away dive site incl. elphinstone.

Here is the resort at night.

View attachment 485065Abu Dabbab-5100091.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

with lovely sunrise

View attachment 485066Abu Dabbab-5150785.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

and few pics - all taken from the house reef. We dived house reef only, mostly without guide.

View attachment 485067Abu Dabbab-5120323.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

View attachment 485068Abu Dabbab-5100017.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

View attachment 485069Abu Dabbab-5140552.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

View attachment 485070Abu Dabbab-5130424.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Thanks for the info, and beautiful photos!

 

[scubajasonr]

For what you are looking for I could recommend Jaz Lamaya, which is close to Marsa Alam airport. We stayed there as a family last summer, and are going back again next year. Diving is with Coraya Divers who are based right next to the hotel, they have lots of options for diving. Either unguided house reef diving (you would need a buddy for this), guided house reef dives and then plenty of speedboat dives on areas within 10-20 minutes. The speedboats go from the end of the jetty. I have stayed in a few hotels on this bit of coast line and this definitely had the most convenient diving. Also the usual half day and full day boat trips which left from Port Ghalib. There are also early morning dives which I find work well with the family as I can go diving and be back for breakfast. The hotel is at Coraya Bay, which is well sheltered with access to the water from the jetty for snorkelling, or a nice sandy beach if you want to just go for a swim.

The hotel has a small kids pool and also access to the waterpark at an adjacent hotel which has a few small slides for kids. I can't remember what it had in the way of playgrounds as my two are a bit older at 9 and 13 and are happy spending all day in the sea and pool.

For a hotel house reef we found it really good, saw several turtles, an eagle ray, lots of blue spotted rays and my wife and son were lucky enough to see a whale shark cruising past!