Best Diving in the Red Sea?

[Nivek Llekots]

Hi All,


I've recently returned to Europe after spending six years working as a dive guide in the Caribbean.


Now having settled back into life in the Netherlands, I'm looking to take my first dive vacation in the Red Sea, and would like to get feedback/advice from other experienced divers who have dived there. I'm a PADI dive master with more than 2000 dives under my belt, all of which have been done in the Caribbean area, so I'm pretty experienced, although I understand that the Caribbean is a pretty easy enviroment in which to dive regarding, temperature, visability, current, etc.


So here are my questions:


- Location, where should I go to get the best diving experience?
- Shore based or Live a Board?
- Time of year, visability, water temperature, wild life diversity?
- Recommended operators?


I know it's a big ask but if anyone can help me it would be much appreciated.

 

[Solly]

all answers will be on personal preference basis, whoever favors shore dives will suggest it and so on... so the questions is, what do you expect to have?
Just diving or mixing diving and seeing people? alone or with family? kids?

My personal preference is a liveaboard (alone diver) and then answer an important question: reef and fish or wrecks?
for reef head south (brothers, elphinstone, daedalus, st. john...) for wrecks then go north to abunahas and thistlegorm

what is your vacation length, budget?

my ideal vacation would be 2 weeks, have few days in sharm elshekh diving tiran, ras mohamed, thistlegorm and abu nahas wrecks then fly to hurghada or marsa alam to join a liveboard cruising south.... many choices

 

[sphyrnidus]

With Solly, there is a lot of diving to do in the Red Sea. Wrecks go North, Big fish Brothers, beautiful corals go South. Although the two wrecks at Big Brother are nice also. I'm lazy so I do only liveaboards: dive, eat, sleep, repeat. Shore based diving: if you want for instance dive the Thistlegorm, you have to get up at 4 am carry your stuff to the ship and arrive at 7 am to find on busy day's already 5-6 ships there. Btw it used to be 15 ships a couple of years ago..
I did my first 1300 dives in the Carrebean, but I like the Red Sea far better than Curacao and Bonaire. The diving is however not a lot harder mostly. Sometimes more current, but viz is good and the water is almost as warm, most times of the year. If you want to see movies, look for my nickname sphyrnidus on youtube. Next month we are going again, the Deep South tour.

 

[large_diver]

If you like beautiful corals, more unspoiled diving and much fewer people, the "deep south" itinerary (St. John's area) is the way to go.

I've done 2 land-based (Dahab, Marsa Alam) and 1 live aboard trip (Deep South). Liveaboard was the best. There are some dive camps such as Red Sea Diving Safari in the Marsa Alam area that can get you a high volume of dives with some very good quality…but a liveaboard is hard to beat in terms of convenience, quality of diving and dive volume.

Temps will vary depending on location. Our Dahab trip was in April…..water temps in the 21C range

Shore based in Marsa Alam was in the beginning of October = 28C water temp

Liveaboard (Deep South) was end of June = 27C water temp

Hope this helps.

 

[Nivek Llekots]

Hi Guy's,

Thanks for the great feedback! I'm travelling alone and am looking to spend at least a week and up to two weeks on this vacation, I wouldn't say money was no problem, but I'm willing to pay a little more to get the best possible diving. Diving wrecks although fun is not my first choice, I would prefer to see pristine reefs with abundant sea life, and if possible some of the larger pelagics. So from what you have all said, it sounds like going South on a liveaboard is going to be my best option.

Can anyone help me with the following:

- recommended liveaboard operator
- best time of year, temp, vis, etc.

Thanks again!

 

[mala]

check out Blue02.

The deep south trip is pretty popular

 

[Solly]

Blue o2,emperor, agressor started deep south trips....
check this site for info about weather, viz, what is expected WELCOME TO AZIAB

 

[sphyrnidus]

Blue Planet, Emporor fleet. Important is to a) find a big ship >33-35 m, especially when going South. B) try to book a cabin on top instead of down below.
Depending of the time of the year bring a wet suit of 5-7 mm. Only in the summer a 3 mm is warm enough.

 

[diverLux]

Hi,


Spend a week in El Quseir for unspoilt shore diving before you go on a live aboard, stay at Roots Camp with the Pharaoh Dive Club, this is a small outfit and we are always the only ones at the dive sites and would split into small groups when the centre gets busy. Serib Kebir, just to name my favored dive site, is awesome.


Fly into Hurghada ( 120 km ) or Marsa Alam ( 70 km ) June and October get my preference. If you choose to go in April and time permitting visit Luxor in the Nile valley it's only 3 hrs on the Quseir - Qift road.


If you fancy some night life check out El Gouna, 30 km to the North of Hurghada, it's all off-shore diving here from day boats. The massive Sha'ab El Erg will keep you busy for a couple of days. On your off day go for kite surfing at famous Mangroovy Beach , it's a small holiday town, I like the vibe and go there once a year. Before the events it used to be awful busy.

 

[kassj0peja]

I am also thinking about doing my first dives in the Red Sea. I heard so many good things about Elphinstone, the Brother and Daedalus but are they better than the Deep South?
I like good visibility, corals (especially soft corals) and colors. Wrecks are not that interesting for me and if the reef is beautiful I don't have to see big fish. I wouldn't mind an Oceanic Whitetip though.
Are some of the above mentioned divesites accessible on daytrips?