Egypt in August: bad idea?

[scubajasonr]

Thanks for the comments everyone! Any favorite Liveaboards?

It depends what you want really. This year I am going on an Emperor boat as that seems to give the best quality for the money, boats are a bit older, but food and guides are good. Also Emperor do attract more English speaking guests. If you want to spend more then Scuba Scene is worth a look.

 

[Tim@DiveAdvice]

Emperor is great price/quality balance. As to the heat: as you know the schedule on a liveaboard is always very heavy diving focused, so not a lot of outdoor activity anyway. I don't think it makes that much of a difference. What hasn't been mentioned here is that this is high season, and you will get a lot of other divers on the best divesites.

 

[Alex Ouroboros]

I’ll be going on emperor later this year and have done in the past, if you want a fair bit of diving the liveaboard is the best option by far, just Google about and you will find quite a few, most Brit scuba clubs run at least one trip out on one each year, as do the Germans, Italians etc, I’d look up the options and choose your itinerary, “wrecks and reefs” ie thistlegorm, Abu Nuhas wrecks, and “southern reefs” ie Daedalus reef, brothers, elphinstone reef if you want salad and sharks, are both very enjoyable there at other itineraries of course but every firm out there run their version of the above.
Best of luck enjoy

 

[Jai Bar]

Egypt has superb diving, August is as good as any. Water us warm enough to enjoy diving with a shorty or rashguard only- no weights and all that I think is more fun

Temperature outside is hot but dry- some places the wind is hot it feels like a hairdryer. Just more incentive to spend time submerged.

Regional war?? By August hopefully no wars going on. Anyway, you won't feel any of it in Hurghada. It is too far away.

Enjoy the vacation!

 

[Tippytoes12]

We would not dream of going to the US because of gun crime. There is no war in Egypt BTW!

 

[Tippytoes12]

We went to Sharm in July 2022 and did a liveaboard and just before that a five day boat trip in July 2023 with Emperor from Port Ghalib. It was horrendously warm, but the diving Sharm was magnificent, we had a visit from a juvenile whaleshark at Ras Mohammed on the last day. The loveaboard was awesome, we had three days at Daedalus and saw hammerhreads on almost all of the nine days there. We also had an oceanic manta and a lengthy snorkle with 30 plus dolphins. The diving is well worth the very high temperatures.

 

[mrdee]

Hi
We are planning a trip to Sharm in August as well. Arriving via Cairo for couple of days to see the Pyramids. I guess the Summer heat will mean an early start in Cairo for tours.

Any recommendations for good dive shops/outfirts in Sharm? we are a group of relatively inexperienced open water divers (only ever dive on vacation) Looking to get lot more diving experience under our belts. I would also like to do an enriched air course so any suggestions grateful received.

Any point in bringing my 5mm full length wet suit with me? Used it for all my dives in Bali in August and felt very comfortable. but Egypt seem much hotter. Would like to save a bit of weight for my checked luggage

 

[tmrqs]

Hi
We are planning a trip to Sharm in August as well. Arriving via Cairo for couple of days to see the Pyramids. I guess the Summer heat will mean an early start in Cairo for tours.

Any recommendations for good dive shops/outfirts in Sharm? we are a group of relatively inexperienced open water divers (only ever dive on vacation) Looking to get lot more diving experience under our belts. I would also like to do an enriched air course so any suggestions grateful received.

Any point in bringing my 5mm full length wet suit with me? Used it for all my dives in Bali in August and felt very comfortable. but Egypt seem much hotter. Would like to save a bit of weight for my checked luggage

I dived 3mm shorty in August at Sharm - that was plenty!

 

[GF99/99]

Hey everyone. We are debating a trip to Egypt to dive the Red Sea, somewhere like Hurghada. Our schedule would put us there in August, and I’m concerned it will be miserably hot when above water. Anyone have experience visiting during this time of year? Advice? Thanks!

I was in Dahab in August. As everyone else said it’s a dry heat. Yeah its hot but personally I did not find it that bad (keep in mind I mostly live in Indonesia so im used to very hot tropical temps, and before that I lived in Australia super hot as well so maybe I have a different opinion on heat). I don’t see why August would be a big turn off for a diving trip.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

We would not dream of going to the US because of gun crime. There is no war in Egypt BTW!

As much as I would love to dive the waters of Egypt, I just cannot justify any support to the economy of a country that as a society has no concept of women having equal rights and even today has little to no repercussions for horrendous atrocities against women.