Best reef for snorkeling from shore?

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JeanieB

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Hello,

Planning on going diving/snorkel & freediving in Egypt in december. We know the diving is great but where should we stay if we would like to:

* stay close to the beach
* snorkel a good (not just OK) reef from shore
* avoid snorkeling under banana boats and jet skis if possible

We are travelling with our kids 7 & 11 years old and quite skilled snorkelers and freedivers.

Hurghada/El Gouna/Marsa Alam/Sharm - we dont know.

We would very much appreciate advice on accomodation also. We never stayed on an all-inclusive hotel before but if there is a last minute-offer we might make an exception.

But if anyone knows a more laid back hotel, in a nice village without the worst mass tourism we would be happy to check it out. (but maybe the kids will apreciate a pool).

Anyhow - good snorkeling on a house reef is prio 1!
 
Dahab.

No other place like this for snorkeling with kids in Egypt: varied, interesting, generally easy, nice Bedouin cafes, some insights in the Bedouin culture (kids usually like some camel outings), beautiful land scenery. And Dahab is still a big village (though growing quite fast) i.e. neither a pharaonic resort lost in the middle of nowhere, nor Las Vegas.

Good place for diving as well (though not the best in Egypt IMO). Generally easy, not much current, varied topography, nice hard corals; a few entries can be wavy but many others are well protected from the waves and then always easy (e.g. Blue Hole).

Top spots for snorkeling (and diving) from North to South are Bells to Blue Hole (drift), Blue Hole's saddle, Rick's Reef (drift), Abu Talha, Eels Garden (beware on these two last spots, high tide preferable and calm sea necessary otherwise it's dangerous), the Islands. Less beautiful, but still enjoyable for many, are the spots of the South (Moray Garden, Three Pools, etc) that are well protected from the prevailing wind. Also you can join a one-day trip on a boat and enjoy Gabr El Bint (very nice diving and good snorkeling, colourful corals). Or a 1h30 camel trip for diving and snorkeling at Ras Abu Gallum.

Around Dahab there is IMO no top-notch (coral-wise) and really convenient "beach" or "house reef" for snorkeling (Eels Garden albeit nice is not always practicable due to the wind, Dahab's bay is not great, South Laguna where the Hilton is has no good corals and is packed with windsurfers, and most spots around the Southern Oasis don't have very healthy corals).

You mostly need to go to the good spots by car (like the divers do) but everything is nicely organized accordingly, so this is not a problem. You can go for the day and do snorkeling and/or diving at different sites with your lunch in a Bedouin cafe, or you can go for 1/2 day and eat in your hotel, up to you. You can also hire a guide to take care of the snorkeling kids while you dive (the kids can even follow you at the surface and watch you diving in many places, e.g. Bells to Blue Hole). Of course you can also do snorkeling with the kids between the dives (spots are the same for diving and snorkeling), or instead of diving.

By the way, hotels' "house-reefs" usually don't stay nice for long. Sewage and runoff from the hotels (during the construction of after) severely damage the corals. Nice shore dives are from a desert shore. I wish the Egyptian authorities were able to understand and have some respect for that :(.

Plenty of accommodations in Dahab. Main decision to take is whether you stay inside Dahab proper (e.g. Nesima Resort) or 3 km outside at the South Laguna (e.g. Hilton). I prefer inside Dahab: Nesima Resort is calm, not too big (50 rooms), has a beautiful pool and a good restaurant. Outside Dahab feels more like in the middle of nowhere, but that is up to families' choice.

Have a nice trip.
 
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I agree, Dahab is good for snorkelling.

Another great family friendly destination is Nuweiba, excellent snorkelling (and diving) at the Hilton and Swisscare house reefs.

More chilled and laidback places between Nuweiba and Taba also has good reefs.
 
Agree and disagree with some points above... I think the best of the reefs avalilable without a safari boat are located in Sharm, both for diving and snorkelling... BUT in sharm you will have to go on a boat to see most of them, and it is a very busy and very expensive resort these days. Glass bottomed boats are everywhere, as well as the evil speedboats and their bouncing banana customers.

If you don't want mass tourism - then for sure Dahab. Marsa Alam could be considered but there is next to nothing there and Dahab, although small, is reealllly cool (I just got back from a weekend break there, and I work in Sharm!). Easy snorkelling is available from the shore in the town centre, and the blue hole is a short journey by jeep or camel, if you can stomach camels. :D

Relaxed, chilled, some GREAT places to eat - there is a Thai restaurant there which is the only place I have visited outside of Thailand that can cook *real* Thai food!

Dahab has some big 5 star all inclusive hotels but it caters to a backpacker-style market as well so there are plenty of cheap, well maintained, basic accomodation available as well. I prefer to work in Sharm but I would rather hang out in Dahab and I always say if I could put the diving in sharm in the town of Dahab I really would be living in Paradise!

It will be cold in december though! For a frozen European visitor then the daytime should be nice and warm but Dahab is a very windy place and the evenings can get very chilly indeed - bring some warm fleeces! :D

check out www.dahab-info.com for mroe info

Hope that helps,

C.
 
Thanks all of you for your informative answers!

One question - is there big difference in the water temperature between the different places? Where is the warmest place to be in December?

Dahab seems just right for us. Only one thing that worries me - the wind! I hate when its windy when its also a bit chillly. On the other hand we saw many nice hotels with good rates & also many freediving instructors.

If we choose Dahab it seems like we should choose nearby lighthouse reef (easy entry, beach & no strong currents). The laguna looks nice but many windsurfers is not so much better than banana boats.... Strong currents at eel garden might not be a good choice with the kids.

What would be your second choice after Dahab, with our preferences?

I will check Nuweiba up and look into Marsa alam (although it´s nice with an authentic village).

Looking forward to hear from you again!:D
 
If we choose Dahab it seems like we should choose nearby lighthouse reef (easy entry, beach & no strong currents).

What would be your second choice after Dahab ?

Dahab is quite small, so you can reach the Lighthouse area by a 10 minutes walk from pretty much any hotel in Dahab proper (but not from the South Laguna, you'd need a taxi then).

The Lighthouse area can hardly be called a "beach", the corals are very average, and overall this urban site is noisy, crowded and quite dirty (IMO it's a shame that the authorities in Dahab don't keep it clean). By the way, Mazbat is much more noisy (especially at night) than Assalah, the south of Mashraba, the South Laguna, or the Southern Oasis.

I have heard that Marsa Shagra Camp (close to Marsa Alam and not far from Elphinstone) has a beautiful house reef, but that was a few years ago and, as I said, I doubt house reefs stay nice for long. I doubt that Marsa Alam, as a village, has any interest at all.

Nuweiba may well be worth checking out, but I don't know the place well. It's calmer than Dahab. That might be my choice.
 
To my surprise, I actually enjoyed snorkeling the Lighthouse on the last day of my trip. You need to swim past the first 100 meter to get lost of the hordes. Lots of Lionfish and a few other interesting species (memory fails me).

Not so sure how kid friendly this reef is though, it's deep, dropping down 20-30 meter. Eel Garden would be more shallow, maybe more kid friendly.

If I stayed with kids in Dahab I would definitively stay on the Assalah side, as hg frogman suggests. No snorkeling in the Lagoon, I think. You can't really go wrong with Dahab, lots of activities for the kids and a nice buzz. Also, off season, these days, so the atmosphere will be even more chilled :)

In Nuweiba the house reefs are definitively in better condition than in Dahab. Only thing is that you'd have to settle for a resort style hotel, the backpacker places in the town has no good house reefs. A good thing about both the Hilton and Swisscare house reef is that they are shallow, so snorkelers get to see a lot more of what's down there than further down. Could be a bit of current when the boat passes from Aqaba, though.

As I said before, there are also nice reefs especially for snorkeling between Taba and Nuweiba.
I haven't stayed at any of the camps, so can't really recommend any, but Basata has a steady group of followers.

Sorry to repeat myself, just trying to add a little detail.
 
OK, thanks again (no problem with repetitions ;-)). Maybe Eel garden would be a better choicie, if the currents are easy to avoid (once /twice daily at tide or what?).

Will check Nuweiba and surroundings closer. This swisscare place looked fine, a pool for the kids, but not too fancy.

Do you know where the warmest water is (not unimportant this time of year)?

And should we avoid Hurghada/El Gouna etc. ?

Sorry about these endless questions!



Do you know if there
 

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