Red Sea Dive Sites

[mermaid78]

Hi everyone! I'm headin to London in July and also plan go to the Red Sea for a week of diving (after July 20th). I know there are many dive sites/tour operators but hope you can recommend some of the best for someone who has just completed their Adv. Open Water & hopes to enjoy some wreck &/or reef diving in a not-too-touristy/not-too-old folk-home atmosphere on a student budget (a lot to consider I know). I've got a free flight to Cairo so any suggestions from there would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for ya time!!

[bam bam]

I have been to Egypt, though only to one spot so I'm a little bias.

Anyway, you can easily get a reasonably priced bus from cairo, to a place called Dahab, on the east coast of the sinai. It is great diving around there, lots of reefs, a few favoraites, the Blue hole and fish boll. there are loads of other places along the coast there.

that's the diving, the only problem with place is that it is touristy, but you'll find some great deals with accomidation and dive companies, due to it being touristy.

Well there's on idea, pitty about the skeatchy spelling

Sam
p.s. there is another thread around here with some things on the red sea.

[Pekka]

I have been freediving in the red sea for couple of times, I can't tell you much about different companies, but I talked to the one dive quide who was from Sweden and she told me that Ras Mohammad is the place to go diving......they have seen "everything" in there... if you look at web site:

http://www.cyberegypt.com/redsea/redsea.htm

you should find the place...
To avoid turists.....dude Egypt lives on turism...I don't think you can escape turist populated diving sites...althoug as I went on few divetrips in Sharm El Sheikh they went on places where we were the only ones at one reef....or site what ever it was but in Hurghada....there was whole bunch of us on almost any site...So I would recomend Sharm El Seikh, from there you can go on a day trip to Dahab if you want to see the blue hole... the trip from Cairo to Sharm El Seikh costs about 10£ or something like that ...it is 8hour by bus....better get your ticet in time....
Good luck with diving!

[Maria]

Hi,

I´ve been to Egypt twice, once in Marsa Alam and once in Sharm el Sheikh. In Sharm there are a lot of dive centers and a lot of divers, which means not healthy reefs. The best dive sites are around Ras Mohammed.

Marsa Alam is just a small place in the middle of the dessert in the south of Egypt, but the diving is GREAT. The reefs are healthy, not lot of people but lot of fishes and other seacreatures. There is a dive center called Red Sea Diving Safaris, who has three camps in the south of Egypt. I´m sorry, but I haven´t the web site address.

I hope this can help you.

/Maria

[Stephan Whelan]

The Red Sea is a difficult place to find "non-tourist" areas in at the moment. With it being so close and affordable from Northern Europe, a lot of people go there.

Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada are the most "tourist-orientated" in Eygpt - Sharm for example has a Hard Rock Cafe - but is very well equiped. Dahab is great, very relaxed (I was almost horizontal most of the time there) but can be a bit too Hippy at times - plus everyone seems to thrown there rubbish into the sea - so the near shore is pretty grim in town. The Blue Hole is an excellent site to see though!

It is difficult to recommend one specific place. I've been to Eygpt numerous times - both as an impoverished student (although i'd be looking after a group of 30 fellow impoverished students as well) and as a slightly better off worker. You can have fun and great diving on both budgets.

However, no matter what you decide - let us know how you get on!