Best reef for snorkeling from shore?

[hg frogman]

To my surprise, I actually enjoyed snorkeling the Lighthouse on the last day of my trip. You need to swim past the first 100 meter to get lost of the hordes.

Eel Garden would be more shallow, maybe more kid friendly.

In Dahab the reefs that are not protected from the north wind (e.g. Eels Garden) have usually the best corals. So when you swim towards the north-east, crossing the underwater crest of the Lighthouse, 60 meters from the "beach" entry, you enter an area that is not protected anymore from the north wind and, yes, the corals are much better (not unlike Eels Garden). But as soon as there is some wind, i.e. often, you cannot snorkel there, or at least it's not easy.

There are regularly swimmers or snorkelers who DIE at Eels Garden (by drowning) so I wouldn't call it "kid friendly" (at least not all the time). It's fully exposed to the north wind and can be recommended only by calm sea. There are also some tricky tidal currents sometimes. Plus the table reef is wide to cross (but Bedouin kids from Assalah often play in the shallow area closed by the table reef, close to the beach, when the sea is not too rough).

 

[tacky]

You should probably heed hg_frogman's advice, I'm happy that he corrected my impressions.

The warmest water would be the furthest south you could get. Marsa Alam warmer than Hurghada and Hurghada probably slightly warmer than Sinai. Don't think there is any difference between water temperatures in Sharm, Dahab or Nuweiba.

Swisscare in Nuweiba has also attached African Divers, a very well run German-British dive center with all kinds of diving, from OW courses to tech available. I never stayed at the hotel, but it seems very well run and the food is OK and the pool looks nice.

If you had to stay at a resort, it would probably not be the worst choice and certainly much cheaper than the Hilton. Activities like Camel riding, desert safaris, quad biking etc. could also be arranged there. But Dahab has a better buzz.

I have lived about two yeras in Egypt, but never went to Hurghada / Gouna because I've been adviced that it's a mass tourism destination with a lot of hassle and few charms. So I can't share my experience I would think diving and snorkeling there is mostly by boat, though, but I could be wrong.

 

[hg frogman]

There are not many places left in Egypt with good and varied shore diving or snorkeling. That variety is what makes the Sinai quite special.

Sharm el Sheikh = mostly boat diving, but if you can manage to snorkel from the shore in Ras Mohammed National Park.

El Gouna, Hurghada and Safaga = boat diving.

There used to be some good shore diving in the South (Qoseir, Marsa Alam) at the time it was almost a desert and many dives were done from pick-ups. Also the water is warmer than in the Sinai (I'd say 23 or 24°C in the Sinai in December, 25 or 26°C at Marsa Alam). Now with big hotels built every 2 kilometers in the South you have less shore dive sites left (but I heard that the house reef of the Movenpick Hotel in Qoseir was huge and excellent).

But maybe check how it is around Hamata, there are probably a bit less hotels there.

 

[diverLux]

Shore diving is still done at El Quseir, the area is always quite windy and the dive sites are spread out wide . I went there twice this year, end of April and beginning of October. Stayed at the Flamenco Beach & Resort which is a neighbor to the Mövenpick. The area is still isn't build up much and looks desert, except the town of El Quseir is spreading out rapidly and the new housing area is one huge building site. Although it is nicely set by the sea it just lacks tourist infrastructure and needs a good clean up to say the least . The town is typical egyptian working town and is no where near as nice as Dahab.
Here is a link to the hotel web site: Flamenco Beach & Resort - Overview
The hotel is real good and lots of families with children go there. There is however no sandy beach , diving and snorkeling at the house reef is done from the pontoon . The Mövenpick is a great hotel and their house reef is famous.
Winter is coming don't forget and going further south a couple of hundred kilometres is not going to change much.

 

[Christian]

I went with my family (two girls, 4 and 7 at the time) to Marsa Shagra Camp in June 2009. It's a great place inmo. The house reef is surprisingly good and it starts just outside the beach. The staff can also take you to close by spots with their zodiacs.
However, there is nothing to do besides snorkeling, diving, reading ... So if you want shopping, sightseeing etc. There's not much on offer. But my kids loved it and they got to see turtles, a baby shark, stingrays and dolphins on dolphin house, which is a half day trip by truck and boat from Shagra. Can be quite windy in December and even though it's a short ride, quite uncomfortable for kids as they seem more prone to motion sickness.
There has been lots of development in the area over the last years and perhaps it doesn't offer the pioneer feel as it used to do, but it's still comparatively pristine. And the reef is still beautiful.

We did write an article about the trip for a couple of magazines in Sweden, aventyrliga familjer and allt om resor. You can find the first one on aventyrliga.se/arkiv, it's no 6/2009. Allt om resor doesn't have it on their web, but perhaps you can find an old copy, it's no 11/2009.

Good luck

 

[samaka]

Most members seem to agree on that Dahab is best... I won't disagree, firstly because it is really good and secondly I've got less experience from the Sinai side and happily leave advise for that part of the Red Sea to the experts form there Shadow, Crowley and co. Dahab is classic freediving location with plenty famous records set in the waters around there.

I don't see any reason to "stay away from" Hurghada, El Gouna, Safaga and other destinations on the mainland though. There are plenty of brilliant snorkel places along the Egyptian coast and there are hotels which are less crowded with neither animation-team nor banana-boats. If you want to go somewhere and just snorkel/freedive, eat and sleep Hamata might be a choice where you have the hotel with world class house reef and nothing surrounding but the endless desser, a Mosque, small school a hut selling biscuits, cigarettes and soft drinks called "super market".

For more info on locations check out WELCOME TO AZIAB whit info on Red Sea - Egypt - Diving and more.

Feel free to get back to me with questions.

Cheers
Anders

 

[diverLux]

To: Christian,
Great post, fantastic photos ! compliments.

 

[samaka]

I have to agree with Mr diverLux! Good job Christian!

.....a.....

 

[Crowley]

Have to agree with Samaka also - I personally think the best reefs are in Sharm - but it doesn't really matter where you go, you are still going to get some awesome snorkelling!

Cheers,

C.

 

[Christian]

I'd also like to add that if one or both of you are interested in doing some scuba as well, it might be worth considering how easy it is to get to a 'proper' dive site (time consuming), because that's really crucial when traveling with children and you have to split up every now and then for dives. I found that to be one of the winners with Shagra. At any time, as long as you have a buddy, which I found fairly easy to find on site, you can just pick up a tank, sign your name and dive plan on the dive board a venture into the sea. Minimum travel time and no need to plan, just sneak away for an hour at a time when everyone's in a happy mood. And then you have Elphinstone a mere 20-25 minute zodiac ride straight out from the camp. I'm an early riser (when I know I'm diving Elphinstone) ... so I took the 6 am zodiac every morning and was back to wake my wife and kids up for breakfast around 9 am.