Which Red Sea live aboard itinerary?

[ArmoredDiver]

I've got a group of divers looking to dive the Aggressor live aboard in August 2015 and I'd love some insight from divers who have actually dove the Red Sea (preferably by live aboard and most preferably with Aggressor) as to which route to choose. Our dates are pretty flexible and during the month both their Southern Route/St John's and the more Northern/offshore route through Brothers and Daedalus/Elphinstone are available. I'd love to say that we could stick around and do the full 10 day package that covers both, but not going to happen this time. If you had to choose one or the other, which would you choose and why? Is one better than the other for big encounters? Wrecks? I noticed the Brothers route only allows one night dive, is this something you felt like you would miss out on or would you be good skipping the night dives and maxing out the daytime dives?

Thanks to all in advance!

 

[Tippytoes12]

Generally speaking the Brothers and Elphinstone and Daedalus have the big things. Night diving is not allowed because there might be big scary things around ! Having done this route twice I never missed doing night dives , three per day is enough. The diving there is incredible, cannot recommend it highly enough. There are wrecks on these reefs , but the big fish activity can be world class.

 

[sphyrnidus]

Night diving is not allowed because of the fact that they are marine parks and there are restrictions in the parks.
Brothers: two nice wrecks and in summer Hammerheads and Longimanus. The Deep South & St Johns involve a lot of sailing, even from Marsa Alam.
First time Egypt I would recommend the Brothers and Daedalus especially if you want to see sharks.
Deep South has nicer corals and interesting swims in "cave like" systems (not real overhead caves, but nice enough) and in the coastal bays you can see Dugongs and enormous turtles.
I don't know the Agressor, but have been there on quite a few liveaboards.
There was a discussion about the Agressor fleet recently (Maldives and in Egypt how they ran a ground on Elphinstone) There are quite a few very good operators out there like the Sea Serpent, Emperor fleet,The Blue Planet etc.

 

[whalerock]

Having worked on liveaboards for two years in the Red Sea, I would say go for the Brothers, Deadalus and Elphinstone. However you whave to be aware that all the dives out there are Wall dives, and not everybody like them. The two wrecks at the Brothers are great to explore at the beginning of the dive and than drifting along the walls.
Like other people said before there are no night dives allowed because of the Marine park regulations, but after 3 day dives where you go to 100 to 130 ft each time you dont really need a night dive. Having said that check with the operator if you could schedule 4 day dives.
There are quite a few good operators there and I would not focus just on one. Sphyrnidus mentioned a few which are good, I would add maybe Blue o Two to the mix. They also offre packages including flights from London.

Be aware that all divers should be experienced and have to have by marine park regulation at least 50 dives. I would say they should have much more, since you can have strong currents on the Brothers and need to be able to make a fast descent, which is maybe needed to reach the Numidia wreck.
Also everybody should be used to send up a DSMB.

 

[TSandM]

I loved diving the Brothers, and also Ras Mohammed and the northern wreck sites like the Thislegorm and the Rosalie Moeller (note: I am NOT generally a wreck diver!). On our second trip, we did Daedalus and Elphinstone, and they were fun (and I enjoyed the tour of the lighthouse on Daedalus) but I preferred the shallow habilis, or reefs that don't break the surface. We did not see any pelagics at Elphinstone or Daedalus, except an oceanic white tip who kept station directly under our ship, so they were really just big wall dives, and not the best ones I have done.

There's no BAD diving in the Red Sea, at least that I saw in our 17 aggregate days, but I thought the northern area was more interesting.

 

[ArmoredDiver]

Thanks everyone. Great insights and very much in line with what I'd already heard through other channels. Cheers!

 

[Finn_Diver]

Hi,

in August the best route will definitely be Northern wrecks-Ras Mohammed-Tiran. You will get Thistlegorm, big schools of fish at Ras Mohammed (and possibility for mantas/whale shark) and there will be hammerheads at Tiran this time of year. Also great night dives at this route.

In deep south the water will be in August too warm and sharks are gone.

Brothers and Daedalus are excellent always, so you can go there all year round.

 

[Freewillow]

Go north during the summer. Tiran and others

 

[Deitsch]

Ras Mohammed is good in the summer. You have the two spot snapper aggregation at Shark and Yolanda reef. Thistlegorm, Giannis D, Carnatic are all good wrecks and easy to explore.

 

[FinnMom]

If your divers want to see wrecks, go north. If they want a chance to see sharks and mantas, and also have the appropriate experience, go to Brothers/Daedalus. The northern route has enough fishes and beautiful soft corals etc to keep both the wreck-oriented and the fish/coral watchers happy.
The one time I was at Brothers/Deadalus we saw sharks on every single dive and mantas on almost every one.