Well, it has been a week since I got back and this is the first chance I have had to log in and really do something besides skim through posts so .....
Hotel: Lahami Bay
Rating : 5 stars on the Egyptian scale, 4-4.5 on the European scale
Where: So far south that there isn't anything else... yet
Lahami Bay is a nice hotel that is still under construction, 2.5 hours by bus south of the Marsa Alam airport. From what I could see, there are about 200 rooms available, most with some view of the sea. Our room was quite comfortable with 2 queen-size beds althogh there were only 2 of us and, since we are married, we share the same bed (surprise! :* )
The hotel runs on Half-board meaning that you have Breakfast and Dinner from a buffet style restaraunt. There are also 2 other restaraunts on the grounds where you can eat lunch or snacks if you want. The quality of the main restaraunt is quite good although it is really "Europeanized" in the cuisine. The Pizzeria is rather dodgy and I would avoid eating there. I think I broght back something with me from there that we don't want to go into right now :yack The seafood restaraunt made a good Club Sandwich. Other than that, when you take the full-day boat trip, you can get lunch on the boat (for 25 Egyptian Pounds /$5 / 3 Euros) and it was local and good.
If you book through a German Tour Operator (i. e. Thomas Cook, Neckermann, etc.) the price seems to be about 1000 Euros LESS than if you book the same trip via Santurismo (the Italian operator).....
The dive shop, run by Ocean Pro, is really very good. You are provided a hanger, box, and a place in one of 5 available "Wet Rooms" to stow your gear between dives so you don't have to lug it to the room. All the guides were professional and fun to be around but don't let the fun fool you. They DO know what they are doing. I got my NITROX cert (they teach to TDI standards) and then dove EAN32 for the most part. The dive sites are varied and there are sufficient boats available at this time of year so that there was not a problem getting on one. The one thing that you DO have to plan for is that, if you DO want to go on the all-day boat, you have to register by 17:30 the previous day. This is not due to the dive shop but rather to the requirement to register each diver with the Egyptian Coast Guard so they are not doing this to be annoying but rather to comply with the law..... Each dive was preceded by a detailed briefing concerning thesite, what one can expect to see, etc.
The boats: They have at least 5, 3 of which were running while I was there. One was getting ready to go into dry dock for painting (it is the low season now) and one had a blown-up engine and was awaiting the replacement to be trucked down from Cairo. They usually run up to 15 divers per boat so it can get a bit crowded and, if you are a dedicated 6-8 packer, you will NOT want to go there but I personally had no problems with it and the boats were never that crowded when I was there.
Dive sites included the world famous Sha'ab Claudio which is just too cool for words. It is a 3/4 cave system of corals with occasional openeings to the surface. There is plenty of light but a torch helps.
Critters included so many Blue spotted rays that they got to be common, a couple of Giant Morays, and all kinds of small fish.
Other than that, I saw people in anything from 5mm Shorties to 7mm Half-dry. I wore a 5mm full and was WAY too warm but I don't get cold easily. The current was also a bit odd while we were there. Normally it runs N-S and is fairly light. The entire week we were there it was running W-E or E-W and at a pretty good clip. Since the diving is NOT set up to be a drift dive (you have to get back to the boat), the amount of reef covered before you have to turn around was lower than normal. Even the guides said that this was really unusual. The boats compensated by tying up to different parts of the sites than normal but you still had to "fight the current" a little either on getting to the reef or back to the boat.
I will post pictures in my gallery later but there are not a lot of good ones. I bodged up my camera settings a bit and the White Balance is off. What I can "PhotoShop" together will go up.
All in all, I can recommend the hotel and the diving without reservations.
Cost with flight (on Condor) from Frankfurt with room was about 550 Euros per person for 1 week.
The Hotel Web Site and the Dive Shop Web Site are here and have price information, etc.
Cheers,
Bret
Hotel: Lahami Bay
Rating : 5 stars on the Egyptian scale, 4-4.5 on the European scale
Where: So far south that there isn't anything else... yet
Lahami Bay is a nice hotel that is still under construction, 2.5 hours by bus south of the Marsa Alam airport. From what I could see, there are about 200 rooms available, most with some view of the sea. Our room was quite comfortable with 2 queen-size beds althogh there were only 2 of us and, since we are married, we share the same bed (surprise! :* )
The hotel runs on Half-board meaning that you have Breakfast and Dinner from a buffet style restaraunt. There are also 2 other restaraunts on the grounds where you can eat lunch or snacks if you want. The quality of the main restaraunt is quite good although it is really "Europeanized" in the cuisine. The Pizzeria is rather dodgy and I would avoid eating there. I think I broght back something with me from there that we don't want to go into right now :yack The seafood restaraunt made a good Club Sandwich. Other than that, when you take the full-day boat trip, you can get lunch on the boat (for 25 Egyptian Pounds /$5 / 3 Euros) and it was local and good.
If you book through a German Tour Operator (i. e. Thomas Cook, Neckermann, etc.) the price seems to be about 1000 Euros LESS than if you book the same trip via Santurismo (the Italian operator).....
The dive shop, run by Ocean Pro, is really very good. You are provided a hanger, box, and a place in one of 5 available "Wet Rooms" to stow your gear between dives so you don't have to lug it to the room. All the guides were professional and fun to be around but don't let the fun fool you. They DO know what they are doing. I got my NITROX cert (they teach to TDI standards) and then dove EAN32 for the most part. The dive sites are varied and there are sufficient boats available at this time of year so that there was not a problem getting on one. The one thing that you DO have to plan for is that, if you DO want to go on the all-day boat, you have to register by 17:30 the previous day. This is not due to the dive shop but rather to the requirement to register each diver with the Egyptian Coast Guard so they are not doing this to be annoying but rather to comply with the law..... Each dive was preceded by a detailed briefing concerning thesite, what one can expect to see, etc.
The boats: They have at least 5, 3 of which were running while I was there. One was getting ready to go into dry dock for painting (it is the low season now) and one had a blown-up engine and was awaiting the replacement to be trucked down from Cairo. They usually run up to 15 divers per boat so it can get a bit crowded and, if you are a dedicated 6-8 packer, you will NOT want to go there but I personally had no problems with it and the boats were never that crowded when I was there.
Dive sites included the world famous Sha'ab Claudio which is just too cool for words. It is a 3/4 cave system of corals with occasional openeings to the surface. There is plenty of light but a torch helps.
Critters included so many Blue spotted rays that they got to be common, a couple of Giant Morays, and all kinds of small fish.
Other than that, I saw people in anything from 5mm Shorties to 7mm Half-dry. I wore a 5mm full and was WAY too warm but I don't get cold easily. The current was also a bit odd while we were there. Normally it runs N-S and is fairly light. The entire week we were there it was running W-E or E-W and at a pretty good clip. Since the diving is NOT set up to be a drift dive (you have to get back to the boat), the amount of reef covered before you have to turn around was lower than normal. Even the guides said that this was really unusual. The boats compensated by tying up to different parts of the sites than normal but you still had to "fight the current" a little either on getting to the reef or back to the boat.
I will post pictures in my gallery later but there are not a lot of good ones. I bodged up my camera settings a bit and the White Balance is off. What I can "PhotoShop" together will go up.
All in all, I can recommend the hotel and the diving without reservations.
Cost with flight (on Condor) from Frankfurt with room was about 550 Euros per person for 1 week.
The Hotel Web Site and the Dive Shop Web Site are here and have price information, etc.
Cheers,
Bret
not of the queen size beds of course :mute
