Which liveaboard route to choose when problems with equalizing ears?

[dutchgirl]

Hi all! After our excellent first liveaboard last year we are looking now at a liveaboard in Egypt in April or May this year. We never went to Egypt before, so we're real newbies with respect to the routes. We are both AOW divers with 50+ dives each, so all of the sites should be accessible to us "legally", but as my boyfriend always has troubles equalizing, we want to avoid routes where negative entry or very fast descends are required.

I read that especially Elphinstone and Daedalus have strong currents, so I think we better avoid that route, but do you have any suggestions or advice for us which route would be suitable? If there are a few dives during the entire week which cannot be done by my boyfriend that's ok, but it would be a shame if it is an entire day or more. Some wreck sites would be nice, but shouldn't be the majority of the trip. My boyfriend likes macro diving, while I like the bigger stuff.

Hoping someone can help us make a decision

 

[KenGordon]

Elphinstone and Daedalus are huge offshore reefs which are usually drifts. They start at maybe 5m and run to lots. The dive is along a wall and you can choose your depth. This means you are not very rushed in getting deep fast. There is stuff to see immediately.

Some dives might get directly deep, for example looking for hammerheads in the blue, but taking your time there probably will not be a problem either.

The oceanic white tips like to hang about fairly shallow, so they might be an encouragement to your boyfriend to take decongestants.

An excellemt shore based option is Red Sea Safari at Marsa Alam. You can dive very good reefs directly off the beach.

 

[dutchgirl]

Thank you! Good to know that maybe we don't have to cross Elphinstone and Daedalus off the list and will then also look into Marsa Alam, hadn't thought about that!