Sharm el Sheikh - local dive sites vs others

I'm planning a cruise to the Middle East next year, and our itinerary calls for us to stop one day in Sharm el Sheikh. Naturally I want to go diving! I've been trying to read up on the possibilities and have emailed one dive op so far, Camel Dive Club, to find out what they offer. I read on their website that they insist that you spend one day diving their "local" dive sites, described as follows: "These easy, relaxing dives enable you to check weights and buoyancy, and re-orientate yourself to the underwater world," before they will take you out on a boat to dive the other famous sites in area. Since I'm only going to be there for one day, and this will probably be the only time I ever get to the Red Sea, I really don't want to spend my day there "re-orientating" myself at less-than-desirable dive sites. I'm a frequent diver, with (by then) probably well over 250 dives under my belt, and will have already done two other days of diving in the Red Sea (Aqaba and Safaga) prior to this port stop.

My question is: is this standard practice for Sharm el Sheikh? Are there other dive ops who would waive this requirement for an experienced diver? And if not - how DO these local sites compare with the other dive sites in the area?

Thanks for any insight you can give me!

The big professional outfits like Emperor, Camel, Oonas etc will often adhere to 'standards' like this one. But if you have amassed more than 100 dives in the last year as your profile suggests you should be able to find a dive op willing to take you out to Ras Mohammed or the Straits of Tiran. Especially if you are willing to pay for a personal guide. Just shop around, and don't settle for a 'local site'.

ArtherGerla - thanks for the advice. I kinda figured that I shouldn't settle for the local sites, but I wanted to hear it from someone familiar with the area.

Anyone have any recommendations for a dive op or guide who would be willing to waive the local dive site requirement?

Leejnd:

Anyone have any recommendations for a dive op or guide who would be willing to waive the local dive site requirement?

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Lee,
I'm operating in both Dahab and Sharm El Sheikh. Visit SCUBA diving vacations and liveaboard trips in the Red Sea for more info and in case you're interested, contact me.

Red Sea Shadow - your website is infected with a virus. When I attempted to access it, I got the following message:

WARNING: ProxyAV has detected a virus in this file!
Virus: "Trojan-Downloader.HTML.Agent.ij" found!
URL: SCUBA diving vacations and liveaboard trips in the Red Sea

Care to explain?

Leejnd:

Red Sea Shadow - your website is infected with a virus. When I attempted to access it, I got the following message:

WARNING: ProxyAV has detected a virus in this file!
Virus: "Trojan-Downloader.HTML.Agent.ij" found!
URL: SCUBA diving vacations and liveaboard trips in the Red Sea

Care to explain?

Click to expand...

Thanks for your message.

I accessed the site from different PCs using different softwares (Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer) with no virus warnings.

The file you're trying to access is a plain HTML file. The virus message you got is because of a link made to a video on You Tube. If that's the case, then you might get the same virus message on the Jeep Dive Safaris link.

You can try the following link as a starter then browse through the site. Camel diving in Dahab; dive safaris to Ras Abu Galoum and Gabr El Bint, Sinai, Red Sea, Egypt

Thanks for the explanation. I'm no tech wiz, so when I see a warning like that I get nervous. My office network wouldn't even let me access your site. I'm at home now and don't want to chance it from my home computer - I'll try the link again tomorrow from my work computer (which I'm sure has a better firewall than I do!).

OK. In case you need any help, drop me a line.

Leejnd:

I really don't want to spend my day there "re-orientating" myself at less-than-desirable dive sites. I'm a frequent diver, with (by then) probably well over 250 dives under my belt, and will have already done two other days of diving in the Red Sea (Aqaba and Safaga) prior to this port stop

Click to expand...

I have a nice idea, there is a dive op that has more than one branches, like Diving world. you can dive with them in safaga and in Sharm el sheikh without wasting your time in check dives. Or only if Red Sea Shadow accept, he can be your private DM for the tripe. regardless of the virus on the website, he is an excellent diver and he is well experienced in diving with in the Red Sea. This also will save you time in check dives and give you flexiblity in traveling.

Thanks for the input. I was able to get on his site, only not his home page - I think it's a problem with a link on his page.

I'm looking at all the options. I saw that some dive ops offer dives in both locations, so that's a good possibility. Only problem with that is that I may not dive in Safaga...definitely in Aqaba, but possibly not Safaga. To dive in Safaga, I'd have to skip a visit to Luxor/Valley of the Kings, so I'm still deciding what to do.

Thanks for the endorsement of Red Sea Shadow - that's definitely something I'm considering!