Red Sea

[Jonathan]

Live aboard is my advice - did shore based once and it was busier than Picadilly Circus.......

Try www.pisces-diving.com - great skipper, don't know who the DM is this year, friendly crew and great chef.

Avoid Thistlegorm unless you like an underwater scrap.....

And have fun........

Jonathan

 

[Christian]

If your travel agent reffers to any of the Egyptian Red Sea as "deep south Red Sea", beware! It clearly reveals that this person doesn't know a lot about Red Sea diving. Anything in Egypt, Jordan and northern Saudi is northern Red Sea. Sudan, Eritrea and parts of Saudi is central Red Sea and Yemen+Djibouti is southern Red Sea. Diving is possible in all countries, however many of them are a bit more complicated to arrange trips to. The easiest choice is Egypt (I'm not taking Israel into the picture since the diving there is inferior compared to the other countries) which has a lot of good diving. Sharm or Hurghada are in the northern part of Egypt, not very cosy places, but good if you want to be able to visit a pub at night.

However, for any seriuos diver a liveaboard is the best way. If you suffer from seasickness, try the camps in the southern part of Egypt, near Marsa Alam. Most diving is done from shore, but the african trench makes waters close to land very deep, so big fish is a possibility (like Ras Mohamed in Sharm El Sheikh).

For liveaboard diving, I would reccomend the MY Royal Emperor. It has nothing to do with Emperor Divers as indicated in an earlier posting, but is a very well run ship with AC, E6-processing, NITROX and even an rebreather for hire! The crew is flexible and the food good. www.royalemperor.com It is owned by a very nice egyptian gentleman who's name is Yasser El Moaffer, an enthusiastic diver who understands what a seriuos diver wants from a trip. My favourite dive area in Egypt is Brother Islands.

For a real adventure in the Red Sea, try the sudanese Red Sea. You can find a posting about this under UW-photography.

good luck

Christian

 

[vicky]

For so many reasons (pointed in previous posts).
It is ""compact". A few hours from point to point. You don't waste too much time moving from site to site. You have some of the most beautiful reefs in the world (Shark, Yolanda), some of the most interesting wrecks in the world (Thistlegorm...) and so on.
It is rather simple to organize everything, to get there and away, etc.

By the way, although I have read above that Eilat's dive sites (Israel) are considered inferior to Sinai (It's true, of course) let me point some of the creatures that are seen on a "common basis" (i.e almost every day): Dolphins, Spotted eagle rays, Barracudas, Stingrays, Electric rays, Octopusses, Squids, etc. Actually there aren't as many fish as in Sinai, but there are lots of species to be seen.
The last attraction observed about a month ago was a...Great White Shark! Although a youngster (approx. 2.5-3 meters) it is still a Great White. The shark was pictured and confirmed as a great white by many shark experts from all over the world.

So Eilat isn't such a bad choice after all..(But better going to Sinai...)

Have fun, whatever you choose (Hurghada, Sharm, Sudan etc.) all of them are wonderful places and you will not be disappointed in any of them. You only have to choose one of the best and more beautiful places in the world...difficult.

 

[Pierre Danielss]

www.dive.to/wildcat

 

[Diversauras]

I lived in Israel fo a year and did several hundred dives in the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat, down the Sinai and the northern part of the Red Sea from Sharm across to the Sha'ab ali area. I have been told it is better the further south you go, but that just boggles my mind.

I agree that a liveaboard is the way to go, unless of course you only plan to do a couple of dives a day and want to party in the evening. Our liveaboard was 5 days and we got in 18 dives, and it was the best week of diving I have ever had.

Good luck whatever you choose, I want to go the the Brothers and the Hurgada area on my next trip to the area but I'm doing COCOs in Feb so the Red Sea is at least a year off.

 

[ben arthur]

Like Parksie I've also been on the Emperor Mahy (last June) on a Sharm trip.

Had not previously been on a liveaboard but have to say that I was very impressed - nice boat, great food, crew were ok too.

Parksie - when you refer to Ian do you mean the young diving guide (he's only about 18 - 19) - think he's left now to do a course in marine biology in Plymouth.