Sharm - boat trip worth it for beginner diver and snorkeler?

[Madhu R]

Hi

my wife and I will be visiting Sharm Al Sheikh in the first week of the new year. I dive, she doesn’t. I just have the basic OW certification and maybe 10 dives so I’m not trying to do any advanced dives. The question I have is whether shore snorkeling is “good enough” for her or whether she will get any additional benefit out of joining me on dive trips as a snorkeler (I.e., seeing more interesting stuff). Our ”fear“ is that the snorkel trips will probably be optimized for snorkeling and dive trips for divers

We’re staying at the Renaissance, which supposedly has pretty good shore snorkeling anyway….

I would probably want to do four dives total on this trip, or two days of diving. For me, at my basic level, same question- will I get anything extra in terms of interesting stuff to see underwater on a boat trip or should I just stick to shore dives?

 

[diverLux]

Hi,

why would you want to do advanced dives when you are inexperienced, there is plenty to see at OW level,
you will be assigned an experienced dive buddy, if you intend to dive Ras Mohammed ( a must ) you'll need the full 25$ visa, your wife will be accepted on the dive-boat ( money is money )

there is great shore diving and snorkeling at Ras um Sid just down the road from your hotel past the tall white light house,

I used to stay at the Jaz Fanara Resort ( next to the light house ) just across the street from the Renaissance,

happy diving

 

[Madhu R]

Thanks. To clarify, I’m not looking to do advanced dives.

Rather, limiting myself to 4 basic dives total, my question is - are there any boat dives that offer anything significant over and above shore dives near where we’re staying?

And the same question for snorkelers

 

[jborg]

I’ve been in Sharm twice, but certainly wouldn’t consider myself an expert. We stayed at Umbi, and the snorkelling on the reef just outside the hotel was top notch. Diving there was so-so, though - decent but nothing special. However getting on the boat to Ras Muhammad or Tiran gets you great diving - and probably equivalent snorkelling as outside the hotel, or possibly zero snorkelling as the boat doesn’t always anchor up close to the reef.

So I would say do take the boat for diving, and stay at shore for snorkelling.

 

[diverLux]

For Ras Mohammed and Tiran the dive boat leaves from an authorised harbour and is controlled by marine police, your dive centre will drive you there, I do not know of any other boat dives. Police came onboard our boat before departure to Ras Mohammed to check ou passport and visa !

get in touch with the dive centre at the Renaissance

 

[BoltSnap]

great shore diving and snorkeling at Ras um Sid

Um Sid is a great dive indeed. You can do 3 dives there; left of the pier, right and straight. When you start, go down deep towards your planned deepest depth and when you turn around come up shallow at your precautionary/safety stop swimming towards the pier to come out.

Note be careful when you go left that you don't go out into open sea and also be careful of depth since you can go to >= 30 meters.

 

[Madhu R]

Thanks so much for all the useful info. I’ll probably do one day of shore dives off Ras Um Sid to start and then either Ras Mohammed or Tiran for a boat trip

 

[Sunn]

Thanks so much for all the useful info. I’ll probably do one day of shore dives off Ras Um Sid to start and then either Ras Mohammed or Tiran for a boat trip

best option