Isn't Nuweiba very under-rated for diving experience and value?

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JimToronto

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Location
Toronto, Canada
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My wife(who does not dive) and I stayed at the Swisscare Hotel in Nuweiba from May 25 to 28, 2008, during what is still low season. We identified the hotel through TripAdvisor and chose it for the combination of an excellent scuba diving shop on premises (African Divers), beautiful beach and swimming pool, room spaciousness and cleanliness, friendly service, and good food – all at terrific value for the price. We found that the positive reviews on TripAdvisor were “bang on” and we had a lovely four days/three nights there.

I can also honestly say that one of the nicest dives – maybe even the nicest dive out of about 170 dives, that I have ever done anywhere in the world (and I have gone diving before in the Red Sea, in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, and many other places) was right off the beach close to the Swisscare hotel. The combination of large numbers and variety of beautiful fish and coral, excellent and comfortable equipment, easy beach access, depths up to 100 feet (30 meters) and beyond, and being with such a nice divemaster, was superb. The other three dives off the beach near the hotel were also very nice, but one was spectacular.

My wife and I also did an excursion to the marine park at Abu Galum, a two and half hour drive south, which is mostly off-road through the gorgeous mountainous desert terrain. I went there to do a wall dive on the prior recommendation of an Israeli friend and diver. Frankly, however, nice as the two dives were that I did there, the best were right near the hotel. But the drive through the wadis (dry river beds) of the Sinai mountains was breathtaking and worth the trip!

I have been diving for 28 years and I did a total of six dives with African Divers. In fact, I was lucky enough to be the only person diving on all three days that I dove.

The owners of African Divers, Sarah (from England) and Daniel are very nice and helpful, professional, and have excellent equipment.

I also decided on the spur of the moment at African Divers to take the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification course, just to do something a bit different. The course is not difficult, but gave me the chance to learn more about underwater photography, navigation, eco-systems and fish identification. Without even asking, Daniel color-corrected my photos (taken with their digital camera) and put them on a CD (and what a difference that made). For amateur photographers, I recommend asking about taking photography lessons over multiple dives, because one dive isn’t enough to get the hang of it.

My wife does not dive, like everyone else who was staying at the hotel while we were there. However, she had a nice time relaxing on the beach and by the pool and also had a massage. There is also nice snorkelling right off the beach. Because most of the diving that I did was right off the beach close to the hotel, it was also very convenient that I was not gone for nearly as long as would have been the case, had the dives involved a boat trip.

A last word about African Divers is that one should be prepared to pay Egyptian pounds in cash, because a premium is charged for use of a credit card. There is a bank in the Hilton down the road, so obtaining cash is not a problem, subject to daily withdrawal limits.

To get there, we crossed into Egypt from Eilat at the Taba border crossing. From the time that the Arkia airplane pulled up to the gate in Eilat to the time that we were through immigration on the Egyptian side was just 45 minutes. Crossing the border was no problem at all. Not many people use the border crossing these days, but the officials on both sides were friendly. Private cars are not allowed to drive across and therefore, travellers must take a short walk from one side to the other with their bags in tow. On the Egyptian side, a small fee of US$10 or US$15 per person must be paid in Egyptian pounds to an office half a kilometre down the road from the crossing and no credit cards are accepted. Best bet is to change money at the bank in the Taba Hilton, which is immediately adjacent to the border crossing.

We booked our stay at the Swisscare Hotel through Sarah and Daniel of African Divers and they arranged for a car to pick us up at the border for a drive that took less than an hour and a half.

Taba and Sharm el Shekh have become big tourist centres, with large numbers of charter flight visitors and most of the big hotel chains. Nuweiba lies in between and the hotel “strip” is isolated from both the town and the port themselves. There were obviously once great government plans for the hotel strip, which stretches over a mile and a half, from the Hilton to just past the Swisscare. However, construction was halted on some hotel facilities and never started on many of the tracts of land and the hotel adjacent to the Swisscare is now closed. Aside from the Hilton, the Swisscare and one or two other hotels, there was nothing else on the strip. So, guests should be prepared for being somewhat isolated. This is not a place to stay at for “action”. The upside is a fantastic bargain for divers and those just wanting to relax.

The Swisscare has two wings of 24 suites on either side of a big, clean swimming pool that has a gorgeous backdrop of the sea, beach and Saudi Arabian coastline on the other side of the Gulf on one side, and the rocky desert and mountains on the other. One wing had yet to open and therefore, only 24 suites were in operation when we were there. Each suite consists of two large adjoining rooms, each with its own bathroom and TV (though there was a problem with the satellite service the nights that we were there). The rooms were clean and the large bed very comfortable.

As others have said in their reviews on the TripAdvisor web site, the service at Swisscare is friendly and excellent.The food was fine, if not scrumptious. We had no complaints. We were pre-assigned the same table in the dining room for each meal and the tables were not very close to each other, making it difficult to have conversations with those at other tables (which most guests may, in fact, prefer).

We did not have children with us, but there were some families there with children from six or seven to eleven or so and they seemed to be having a good time in the pool, on the beach and snorkelling. But there were not enough guests at this time of year to provide organized activities for kids.

Bottom line for African Divers and the Swisscare Hotel: Phenomenal value for relaxation, great facility and service, and excellent diving!
 
Thank you for a nice report. Regarding value: How much did you pay for the diving and the accomadation?? (If I may ask..) Its just that its hard to know what you mean by good value without the price.... :)
thx
Martin
 
Thanks for a great report with many details :)
 
The cost of transfer from the border at Taba to the Swisscare hotel was 90 Euros return, prepaid through African Divers. When we arrived at the border, there were drivers offering to take us for much less, but it was not clear whether they would have departed immediately and gone directly to to the hotel, without looking for other passengers. My guess is that we could have done better, but the ride had been pre-arranged and it was a nice airconditioned van.

The cost of the hotel was 188 Euros (63 Euros per night) for three nights, with breakfast and dinner for two and tax included, in a double-room suite.

The cost of the diving was:
PADI advanced course including 5 dives.... 195€ + 10% tax
PADI course manual... 45€ + 10% tax
Supplement for excursion to Abu Galum... 40€/person + 10% tax



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Thank you for a nice report. Regarding value: How much did you pay for the diving and the accomadation?? (If I may ask..) Its just that its hard to know what you mean by good value without the price.... :)
thx
Martin
 
Christian,
Nuweiba is not cheap because, unlike Dahab and Sharm, it doesn't have a real diving industry; just a few centers and a couple of sites. Diving there is good if you're a site viewer who likes the small stuff (sea horses, sea stars, frog fish, etc...)
 
I stayed at the Swisscare a few months ago, pretty good, the owner serves guests at dinner and mingles in the evening. They only had dial-up internet at the bar, a little slow, but good enough to read e-mail.

http://www.swisscare-hotels.com/

The snokelling is okay, get a little cloudy when the ferry Jordon ferry is cruising by.

Even though I am a PADI hoe, I dived with the SSI shop down the road, saw frog fish on both dives, one dive being on the pipeline dive site.

When I crossed the border at Taba, I was approached by a guy and he spoke my name, SHOCKING, the driver was there picking up a guest and was instructed to keep an eye open for me, I planned on taking the bus down to Nuweiba ($3.00usd). Any way, I got a free ride.
 
Hey guys!

I have been diving in Nuweiba for many years, and still do on a regular basis. There are a couple of things I would like to clarify:

Nuweiba does indeed have a "real" dive industry, but no mass tourism like Sharm and Dahab. In fact, Nuweiba is very similar to what Dahab used to be 6 or 7 years ago.

Nuweiba has more than 20 different dive sites, which offer everything that made the Red Sea famous. There are spectacular drop-offs, huge pristine coral gardens, caves and caverns, all offering a great proliferation of fish species and undamaged coral. In addition, you find many species, which have already been extinct in other Red Sea dive destinations, due to mass diving tourism and environmentally unaware practices.

Dive prices in Nuweiba are not expensive and almost identical with the prices in the good Dahab dive centres. There are PADI 5star Resorts, as well as SSI centres and a TDI Technical Dive Facility. Diver groups are much smaller, and even major dive sites are not overcrowded like many sites in Dahab nowadays are.

Nuweiba is indeed very good for 'small stuff' like frogfish, sea horses, stone fish, octopus, spanish dancers and uncountable other species of nudi branches, however, in the right season the 'big stuff' is there, too. Just last week, there were several sightings of Hamerhead sharks, big feather-tail and leopard rays, as well as several grey reef sharks.

In my opinion Nuweiba does not lack anything, and, compared to Dahab, the diving is at least as good, if not better. Over the years I collected over 2000 dives, have been diving all over the world (including ALL the Red Sea locations), and I would always come back to Nuweiba for a high-quality, relaxed dive holiday. But that's personal preference, I guess.

I hope this helped.

ScubaDemon
 
I know this is an old thread, but I'd just like to report that I also dived with Daniel and Sara this spring, as a complete newbie. I enjoyed it a lot and I'm in fact going back to Nuweiba later this year for a few days of diving this autumn, when I return to Egypt.

I can only compare Nuweiba to the dark waters of Norway, so can't really say if the dive sites were better or worse than other places in the Red Sea, but all the places we went were suitable for OW divers with an 18 m limit. And I felt perfectly safe at all times.

Also, if you are looking for budget accomodation, I much prefer the beach camps in Tarabin to the camps in Dahab. You practically live on the beach. I always stay at Soft Beach, but I'm sure the other ones are fine too. African Divers will pick you up for free each day.

Also, it makes more sense to be based in Nuweiba for Ras Abu Galum or Mamlah day trips as it's much closer. But for longer trips in the desert, it seems to me like it's easier to organize from Dahab because there are many more travelers.
 
I wouldn't say its underrated. Its a very small place with a very small number of OK dive sites, nothing more.

Its got about 4 dive sites all very similar to each other. Granted they aren't crowded but its nothing special. The town itself is small and not a lot to do outside it.

2 days and you've "done" Nuewiba as far as diving is concerned.
 
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