Soma Bay/Safaga & Emperor Divers

[Vagabonding]

I'm in the begining stages of planning a trip to Egypt for Spring of next year. I've read through this forum and there is a ton of information - so thanks for all those that have posted prior.

We plan on visiting cultural/tourist spots along the nile and then take a bus from Luxor to the Red Sea. As of now we are focusing on the Safaga/Soma Bay resorts for day diving and total relaxation for about 5 days or so. Has anyone had any experience with the day boat diving in the Soma Bay/Safaga area or more specifically with Emperor Divers? I've read quite a few comments about their liveaboards -- but we don't think we can fit one into our schedule/budget at the moment.

Thanks for any responses.

Cheers
Ben

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

Ben,
Safaga is a nice diving spot. Daily diving depends on the number of divers to snorkellers and intros.

 

[swisstrav]

good choise. in my opinion, safaga represents the whole of the red sea. you have reef blocks (tobia arba) you have trop offs like elphinstone (middle-/panorama reef and you have wreck (salem express).

i enjoy the day trip boats very much. in safaga i dive with ducks, but there are much more ops which offer propably the same service. i uesed to stay at holiday inn. food has gone down on the scale but for a dive resort still ok. have a look in to the lotus bay hotel. soma bay i have never been.

 

[dougaldiver]

I was in Soma Bay in August for a week. Stayed at the Sheraton.

Emperor run a very professional operation. The dive centre is well appointed and the boat is a good example of a large egyptian day boat.

The boat diving is also organised a little differently to most places I have been in Egypt with the boat going out for full day trips on some days and coming back in at lunch time on some days. This allows a lot of flexibility in scheduling your diving.

Dive guides are optional (if you want to be guided you can, if you prefer to do your own thing you can do that to).

Some of the sites are excellent and I would definately recommend having a morning or afternoon off from boat diving and doing the house reef