Best House Reef in Marsa Alam?

Going this week to Hurghada and wanted to go south to dive in Marsa Alam. Probably take a bus.

We are looking for unlimited housereef diving while living in a village. The goal is to go dive with as little human interaction as possible as quickly as possible. We would like a reef with highest bio-diversity.

I have read online about Shagra Village as having the best house reef.
Is that so? Any comments on Um Tondoba village?

Have you been in Marsa Alam? Do yo have any other comments?

I don't have much to compare to apart from Shagra Village, but I've been there five times between 2002 and 2007 and have only good to say about the diving, the food and the operation in general.
The house reef is realy good and you can go diving with your buddy any time you like between 6 in the morning and 9 in the evening. Apart from that there's a few additional dive spots worth visiting that you can reach via boat or truck.
However, and this conserns me a bit, when I made a stop over in march on my way from Lahami to Hurghada some of the divers I'd met in Lahami stayed in Shagra for a week and they said that there were some areas with dead coralls around the marsa. The village have grown considerably since when I was there in 2007 and this might have taken its toll on the house reef. It is big though, so there should be vast areas with realy nice reef to explore.

BtW, I'm going there my self on the 12 of july, so maybe we'll meet up there.

tonyN, thank you for your reply! I have seen dead coral everywhere in my favorite spots all over the world- what about that coral bleaching in Thailand- terrible- and I think it is a combination of factors, with global factors the most decisive ones... The red sea corals love hot water, but how hot can they take it... there is even some effort to introduce them to other areas of the world because they are tougher towards warming...
Hope we cross paths in Marsa Alam! We fly to Hurghada, then bus, you ever done that?

black_sea:

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Hope we cross paths in Marsa Alam! We fly to Hurghada, then bus, you ever done that?

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Actually I haven't taken the bus from Hurghada, I've always had the trip arranged before hand and been picked up at the airport in Hurghada by staff from Redsea Divingsafari. If you know were you wanna go it's much more comfortable this way, ie to talk to the operator were you are going and have them arrange the transfer.
Let me know when and were you decied to go and maybe we run into each other.

Been at Shagra 3 times the last year, enjoyed all stays immensely. Planning another trip as I type this. I can't comment much on how it compares to the rest of the area, except for the sites offered on trips. Haven't done all optional sites yet, but so far the house reef is my favourite.