Mini-trip report: Dahab, Poseidon Divers (Meridien)

Just came back from a 1 week trip to Dahab (6-13 April 2009). What a great place. This was with my wife and 2 kids (ages 12 & 14). I have to say that we all loved it = the people we met, the diving/snorkeling, the excursions and the overall vibe.

In contrast to the last trip we made to Egypt, we stayed at an upscale hotel = le Meridien. Very nice place = well run, great service, yet relaxed. The Meridien is located south of town, about halfway between the "lagoon" (Hilton, etc.) and Happy Life Village. Very peaceful and a very beautiful setting with the aquamarine water in front of the hotel and the desert mountains starting just behind it.

I did 8 dives with Poseidon Divers, the onsite dive operator at le Meridien. Poseidon has a location at Meridien as well as in the lighthouse area in Dahab town. I brought all of my own gear with me, but it appears that they have a full selection of rental gear as well. The selection of diving varies depending on what you are looking for. There is a small pier at Meridien from which Poseidon runs 1 tank boat diving trips each day at 9:30, 12 and 2:30. They will go out even if only 1 diver is interested. The boat is a small speedboat (~8 meters long) equipped to handle about 8 divers at a time. The most divers I encountered on the boat during the week was 5. On 2 trips, it was just me and my own private divemaster = VERY NICE. The boat trips leaving directly from the resort focus on the reefs directly north (Napoleon reef) and south of the hotel. Boat rides are no more than 15 minutes one way, with the boat returning to the hotel after every dive. Entry is via back-roll; exit is via a sturdy portable non-fins ladder hung over the side of the boat = hand your weights and fins up, and up you go. The health/quality of the reefs was generally very good on these dives = mainly smaller, macro fish life, although Napoleon reef is the home of some big Napoleon fish that we saw from a distance. Poseidon also provides a divemaster to guide you on all dives. I did 6 of my dives via these boat dives.

There are many other choices for diving in Dahab with Poseidon = both shore and boat diving. I also took a 2 tank trip to the famous Blue Hole while I was there, diving the Canyon and Bell/Blue Hole shore dive sites (10 minute car ride from Meridien to Poseidon's Dahab town location where we picked some other folks up; 15 minute further drive via jeep north of Dahab town). The Canyon site was relatively cool, but can get overcrowded since everyone wants to make the drop to 30 meters inside of the narrow Canyon itself. The highlight of the entire trip for me was the Bell/Blue Hole dive. The Bell is a narrow chute about 200 meters north of the main Blue Hole site that drops from the shore straight down to a depth of about 30 meters. When you pop out of the bottom of the chute, you are on the outer ocean wall of the Blue Hole (drops from 6-7 meters straight down into the deep blue 300-500m abyss) = absolutely fantastic dive site. Beautiful, healthy soft and hard corals and great small/medium fish life (right hand picture below of yellow soft coral is from this dive). When I first arrived at the Blue Hole I'll admit I wasn't expecting much given how many cars and people I saw when we arrived (most ended up being snorkelers). As we emerged from the water, the entire group was amazed at what a beautiful site it was (and some of our group were widely-traveled divers). We also ate lunch at the Camel restaurant at the Blue Hole site = good sandwiches and some of our group had a nice long apple shisha smoke after our dives....nice and relaxing.

My wife and daughter (12) also took a 2 day PADI scuba diver course (sort of a Ž½ OW course) with Poseidon. My wife commented on how well she thought the course was run (thanks to Dominic, their dreadlocked instructor) and how patient he was with both of them.

We also took a few excursions: Quad biking with Quadroads (my son was in heaven), Mt. Sinai climb/St. Catherine's monastery (my wife did this on her own with a guide = loved it) and a day trip to Petra (both with Embah safari).....all were fantastic. The trip to Petra was rather grueling for one day (4:45AM hotel pick-up....arrived back at the hotel at about 10:30PM), but what an experience. Petra is a pretty amazing place.

We loved our vacation in Dahab...and certainly hope to make it back someday soon

Subsequent edits...water temps averaged right about 21C the entire week, although I saw a couple of readings of 22C. Visibility was variable but generally good at about 20 meters...closer to 30m at deeper sites. I bought a new 5mm full suit for this trip and was comfortable; that said, I was only doing a max of 2 dives per day. I never wore a hood, but did wear the tropical weight gloves I have. Virtually all the DMs I saw during the week were wearing hoods and/or hooded vests under their suits. I also saw several DMs/instructors that were wearing drysuits. Poseidon offers both 12L and 15L tanks.

Dahab is nice. As you mentioned its all small groups diving. This time of year most centres are 1 on 1 or 1 with 2. At most even in summer you may get a group of 4 at its biggest. As nearly all the dive sites are shore based and taxis are cheap the diving is cheap and easy. There are a few boat sites but generally these aren't the best anyway.

Bells to blue hole is a nice wall dive (and interesting entry). Inside the blue hole itself is little to see below 10m so most of the interest in that dive is the outside wall, its nice especially early morning lit up by the sun.

Islands is probably the best dive site for healty hard corals and shallow with lots of light.

Water is currently 21c as you mentioned and im really envious of the guides in drysuits as im freezing every single dive so far in my 3mm vest, 5mm semi dry and 3mm shortie on top with hood.

Its a very relaxed resort especially when compared to the gaudy, tacky chaos that is sharm and is geared up for diving. The restaurants accept you still in wetsuits, all the taxi drivers know the individual dive sites, the sites theselves are clearly sign posted with the safe entry/exit routes across the reef etc.

Got some more photos here

Dahab is nice. As you mentioned its all small groups diving. This time of year most centres are 1 on 1 or 1 with 2. At most even in summer you may get a group of 4 at its biggest. As nearly all the dive sites are shore based and taxis are cheap the diving is cheap and easy. There are a few boat sites but generally these aren't the best anyway.

Bells to blue hole is a nice wall dive (and interesting entry). Inside the blue hole itself is little to see below 10m so most of the interest in that dive is the outside wall, its nice especially early morning lit up by the sun.

Islands is probably the best dive site for healty hard corals and shallow with lots of light.

Water is currently 21c as you mentioned and im really envious of the guides in drysuits as im freezing every single dive so far in my 3mm vest, 5mm semi dry and 3mm shortie on top with hood.

Its a very relaxed resort especially when compared to the gaudy, tacky chaos that is sharm and is geared up for diving. The restaurants accept you still in wetsuits, all the taxi drivers know the individual dive sites, the sites theselves are clearly sign posted with the safe entry/exit routes across the reef etc.

Got some more photos here