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Red Sea Diving

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

bdurrett

Colorado Transplant
Sep 19, 2002
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OK... for all you well-travelled divers out there.... I have a question.

The boss (my wife who has a PADI Open Water card) and I (NAUI OW1 and PADI AOW) are planning a dive trip for late spring/early summer of 2003, most likely to the Red Sea area.

Considering that my wife has dived 10 times (all in Hawaii where she did her OW training, including a night dive and a Nitrox trial dive) and I had a waaaaay too long dry spell before we were in Hawaii (I dived every time she did, including the night and Nitrox dives, but only had about 10 under my belt in the previous 10 years :( ), the question is:

Where would you go and why? We are considering liveaboards as well as day trips. We also do not own our own stuff outside of the basic ABC's (that could be changing soon though ;) if I can convince the boss to let me loose with the Credit Card for an hour or two) so gear rental would be needed.

Any and all information/opinions/experiences would be appreciated!

Thanks, :t
Bret
 
Hey Bret,

just did my Open Water Diver in Taba which is all the way up the coast from Sharm to just below Eilat/Israel.

I'm obviously not an experienced diver, but it's worth taking a boat out to Maxwell's (formerly known as Hamburger Hill) which is a raised plateau several hundred meters in diameter - depth is just about 18m which is perfect for your wife's level - viz was great with huge table corals and abundant fish and plant life; moray eels, clusters of lionfish, wrasses, breams you name it.

Just to top off this great experience, we got to see two eagle rays "dancing" at the surface from the boat...beautiful

The guys to get in touch with are:

Vanessa
Sinai Services Head Office

Sultana building - Naama Bay - Sharm El Sheikh - South Sinai - Egypt
Phone: 0020 69 600 145/ 245 - Fax: 0020 69 600 144
Email: sales@sinai-services.com - www.redseacollege.com
 
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Bret-

Just sent you and e-mail, but then saw this thread. I did a quick little search and found a website for you. Try http://www.cameldive.com/ and see if it answers some questions. My experience with them was very good. If I went back to Sharm I'd go with Camel.

Cheers,

-Michael
 
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THANKS!

Hey you two!

Thanks for the information. The boss is a little hesitant to do the Liveaboard thing thinking that it will be uncomfortable ! (She hasn't seen the photos of the boat cabins, etc. yet) but she is also worried about being seasick so we might use hotels as a base. The Camel Divers looked interesting and their prices looked good. I also read that there is a new base that opened int he deep south, 40 klicks south of Marsa Alam Anybody know much about it? The write up was great but for a magazine article, I would expect the base to pull out all the stops.... "Your experience may not necessarily be the same as ours!"
 
Option to a livaboard

Just an option if there is a little reluctance to a whole week on a boat (although it is the best way to do some of the wrecks!)
explorers.co.uk have a option where you do 4 days in a hotel and 3 days ion the boat, best of both worlds!
Check the web site out. Good value too
 
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Hi Bret, check out my reasons to go to Dahab here; http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19246
The shops are good, inexpensive, and there is also cheap, guided shore diving right in town! This way you guys can work your way up to getting out on the boats. If you go on a liveaboard, then get on one that goes far south, to the virgin areas. All the spots around the Sinai, etc can be reached easily by day boats.
Have a good trip!
Erik Y.
 
I completed my open water referral in Egypt & can highly recommend Dahab. I went through Club Red and felt their service was excellent. In fact, I had so much fun diving when I was in Egypt, that I proceeded to do my advanced whilst out there. Admitedly that was in '95, so things might have changed a bit, but in general the diving around Sharm El Sheik and Dahab is great. I have heard good reports about Camel Divers too.

For liveabords I would also recommed booking a couple of days on board a boat which gives you the best of both worlds - and then if your wife enjoys the liveaboard experience, you could always extend the length of time you are on board!

Wherever you end up in Egypt, you're sure to have fantastic diving!
 
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Hi Bret,
wish you great holiday in the Red Sea, if you looking for chilled out and relaxd diving then Dahab the place, also you can do camel dive safari for one day or 2 days and you can check some of the web site there www.desert-divers.com
there you can dive from the beach or Camel or Boat or Jeep
 
The whole Red Sea is great. You can spend years and years diving in new places every day. The only places I would not go are: Dahab and eilat.
dahab, because of the lack of dive services and eilat, for the same reasons and also because of the lack of marine life.
sharm is also very crowded with very poor facilities for boats. Basically all boat leave from one place which makes very long waits in the morning.

Hurghada on the other hand, has a diving center in almost every hotel, with a private jetty.
Best thing would be to choose the dive hotel, based on the dive center.
I would say to go to the PADI web site and look for the 5 star or the gold palm dive centers in Hurghada. Also gold palm IDC or CDCs. Those are the highest ranking dive centrs from PADI. Then check out thier web sites and send them an e-mail.

You might like what you see, but the swiftness of reply is what will make your mind up!

This is a proven way of choosing a dive center that you have not heard first hand of from a person you know well.
 
Well, I want to push this one back up top.... We went instead to the Maldives last year and loved it. Now I am trying to get to the Red Sea (preferably South i. e. Marsa Alam, Al Quesier, Bernice) for November..... Any thoughts/ tips?

Thanks, :wave
Bret
 
they now have liveaboards out fo jeddah & Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.

I was just on one, very very cool.

Dream Divers they were called.
 
Jeddah is just about the best diving in the world, I would expect southern Egypt to be similar but Ive not been there so not sure
 
We've decided on Lahami Bay in November. We almost picked Kahramana Blondie Beach until the article came out that they have dug up 10,000 cubic meters of their house reef. We decided that we wouldn't support that kind of environmental unawareness with our money..... :rcard
 
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