Southern Red Sea liveaboard

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tamas970

Contributor
Messages
610
Reaction score
59
Location
Switzerland - way too far from warm seas:(
# of dives
100 - 199
Dear All,

I have some time (and found reasonably priced air tickets to Hurghada) and planning my first liveaboard on the Red Sea. As I found in
most forums, the South is where the jewel case is kept, thus I am heading to Hamata.

Does anyone know how ground transport works in Egypt? The transfer prices offered I found so far are little bit on the pricey side. Are
there any (safe+reliable...) public buses routing the coastline?
 
There is dive ops that will have the opportunity to arrange transport for you from the airport to the port of departure. Come to think of it, I wouldnt use a dive op that wouldnt...
 
They do, I was just curious, if their 150+EUR offer could be beaten in a country where gas sells for 0.5EUR/l and the wages of the drivers
are also in the basement... Besides, I arrive 3 days before the ships departure, I may use the time to stop by and check out other places along the way.
 
it IS a 5-hour journey by car (allow for that to be african hours) so it would probably cost a bit - I do think 150 euro sound steep though..
 
set it up with your dive operator, he should have the required transportation to reach hamata in time for the boat arrival (most probably boat is having another trip and will just drop divers to land and pick you (and your trip mates) up)

If you are arriving 3 days earlier, are you planning to dive in these days?
Hurghada is nice to stay for a couple of days but if you are diving deep south then I wouldn't recommend diving hurghada as it will seem poor compared to south....

On the way down you will pass by safaga (couple of really nice drop off dives panorama and abo kefan, and the famous salem express wreck.... the drop off dives, you will find similar and even better deep south, as for the wreck I have not seen anything like it deep south)
Quseir and marsa alam... mainly shore dives with just reef.... still you can pass by elphinstone near marsa alam, but again with the very low probability of seeing sharks there as it is too cold (assuming you will be coming soon) then the dive is comparable to other dives deep south.....

let me know if you have any questions.
 
As an example, red sea diving safari charge 135 € for a hurgada-wadi lahami ( a few km south of hamata) for one person, return included (decreasing price depending of the number of people).
 
I definitely plan to dive on the free days before, I need to warm up a bit, because I haven't been in the water for 3 months by now. Actually I planned the last week of March. I don't miss the sharks too much, I am a bit afraid of them:) My only encounter was an angelshark in Gran Canaria so far, but that's a very peaceful (and lazy...) creature:D. I'll definitely shift to the south on my day of arrival, Marsa Alam seems to be a reasonable stopover. Besides, my op (Emperor) offers a free transfer from there, thus I only have to find my way to Marsa.

set it up with your dive operator, he should have the required transportation to reach hamata in time for the boat arrival (most probably boat is having another trip and will just drop divers to land and pick you (and your trip mates) up)

If you are arriving 3 days earlier, are you planning to dive in these days?
Hurghada is nice to stay for a couple of days but if you are diving deep south then I wouldn't recommend diving hurghada as it will seem poor compared to south....

On the way down you will pass by safaga (couple of really nice drop off dives panorama and abo kefan, and the famous salem express wreck.... the drop off dives, you will find similar and even better deep south, as for the wreck I have not seen anything like it deep south)
Quseir and marsa alam... mainly shore dives with just reef.... still you can pass by elphinstone near marsa alam, but again with the very low probability of seeing sharks there as it is too cold (assuming you will be coming soon) then the dive is comparable to other dives deep south.....

let me know if you have any questions.
 
Does the airline happen to have charter tourists, and by extension transfers? Might be worth looking into..

As far as Emperor goes, they are not the cheapest, but you do get what you pay for. Had a wonderful reefs and wrecks trip with superior last summer :)
 
I'll check the airline. Price was important for me, but more important the route.

I just realized, that end of March/beginning of April is the high season for sandstorms:(. Maybe that's why the actual
trip is cheap and there are lots of free places. - I'll check if I could go earlier.
 
You do not want to dive in jan feb in the red sea. Windy and Cold. They are some regular flights to marsa alam. In fact, from my natve town, Brussels, there is a plane that does Hurgada/Marsa Alam with the same plane.
 

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