Dive Resorts in Sharm El Sheik (Sharks Bay Umbi Diving Village)

[Sharkbait07]

Greetings all!

My GF and I are planning to travel to Sharm El Sheik in October for a week long stay at a diving resort. Our focus is on diving and relaxation (we both have high stress jobs), so we're both looking for a laid back resort that isn't overly swamped with tourists (or worse, adventure divers).

Right now, we're looking at Sharks Bay Umbi Diving Village. The website looks good and the resort seems like what we're looking for in both location and amenities, but I'm checking around for feedback on their dive operation. Has anyone here been in the water with them before?

 

[Christian]

Sharm is quite these days. Most European countries do not fly directly to Sharm anymore, so you will not be swamped with tourists. I haven't personally been in Sharm/Naama in a very long time, only dived the sited from liveaboards departing Hurghada. But a guy who used to live and work there (2001-2015) described it as a ghost town.

 

[a_lamonta]

Hi, the last time I actually stayed in Umbi Village was in 2004, back when it was the only hotel in shark's bay and all around was sand (university days, we thought it was awesome to drag our mattresses out and sleep on the beach, 15 years later, I would wake up with a sore neck).

However I've been staying in the area every 6 months in the last 5 years, and recently completed a course with another school; but on the umbi beach, and know the Umbi dive team (Sunshine divers) very well. Caveat, I've never actually dived as a client of the school, but my dive center boat shares with them almost daily, and my regular dive guide is best buds with one from sunshine, so we've gone in the water as a combined group many times.

First, I'd split the hotel from the dive operation, those are 2 separate choices as any diver operator in the area will gladly pick you up from any hotel in the large area of Hadaba all the way to Nabq at the other end. On my last trip is switched dive operator to get one that could teach the course I wanted, but stayed at my usual hotel. They picked me up no problem.

However in order to answer, I would ask you what are you looking for?
For the dive center; are you more laid back and want to explore with a dive guide that is watching to bring you back in line only as needed, or do you prefer a more rigid structure where everyone is following the guide in a line? Egyptian dive guides tend to be more laid back (not unsafe, just less military). The extreme opposite are the german operations. Mind you I've also had an egyptian guide that gave us a 20 minute briefing including "when I say the maximum depth is 30m, I don't want to see anyone come back on the boat with 30.1m on their computers"... ummm yes sergeant!

On the hotel side, are you looking for a quiet area, a nice beach, night life and restaurants etc? What is important to you? There are so many options. Umbi is a VERY budget hotel - accommodations are VERY basic, but absolutely adequate if your only interest is diving. The major plus is that in that price range, they are directly on the water. If you want that same price range, but access to night life, you could go with Na'ama Blue hotel (or many other similar in the area), right in Na'ama bay for the night life, restaurants etc, same price, but 3 hotels back from a beach (15 mins walk).
If you want a nicer hotel and are ok with being further from the action, look at Hadaba and Nabq. A few dollars more per night, but a huge increase in luxury (beautiful marble bathrooms, large balconies etc). Just don't look for anything to do at night, unless you want to book a seat on a shuttle that will take you into Na'ama. Cheap but runs only 2 or 3 times per night, and takes 30-45 mins to get there.

 

[Sharkbait07]

Thanks a_lamonta, for your helpful and informed response!

We like a laid back guide who nonetheless adheres to safety standards. I'm retired military myself, so I inspect my dive buddy and require that they inspect me before every dive. That said, neither of us wants to dive in a conga line. We'll probably hire a private guide for just the two of us on at least a couple of our dive days.

We also like the idea of just being able to pretty much walk out to the jetty when it's time to dive, which is one of the reasons I'm asking about Umbi Village. As far as night life... we may take a taxi/shuttle in to Naama Bay on one night of our stay, but otherwise, we'd rather sit someplace quiet, drink a couple glasses of wine and chat. Naama Bay sounds like a lot of the other expat party towns we've both visited and we're not into it. We're not old, but we kinda act like we are, haha. Since I work abroad and she's in the States, we don't get the opportunity to spend time together very often. We're going to Sharm to dive and hang out with each other; everything else is secondary.

Neither of us really cares how fancy the hotel is; as long as there is hot water for showers, the AC works and the bed isn't too terrible, we'll be just fine. We're both very experienced travelers and we both prefer character over luxury. We're doing a relatively fancy hotel in Cairo before we come out to Sharm, anyway. Also, the Umbi Village folks have already said that they can put together a private beach dinner for just the two of us... that's about all the luxury I need.

 

[a_lamonta]

Got it. so based on that, umbi is a place where you can walk straight out of your room and into the water from the beach. However it is a sloping sand bottom (hence why my course was there, we considered that to be the "confined environment" portion of the course). Still nice, but I you'd be missing out if you did beach diving every day.
The shark's bay jetty is right on that same beach, you can exit your hotel and you're at the jetty for days where you are on a boat heading to Tiran islands. But for Ras Mohammed days, they will still bring you by bus to Travco jetty or Na'Ama bay jetty (20-30 mins, not a big deal and worth it to see all the areas and sites).

However I would mention that most beach front hotels have a house reef that you can jump on, and based on the ones I've seen, I would recommend that you check out Hadaba hotels too. There are a few where if you don't mind stairs to get down to the jetty (as opposed to the 75 feet of beach straight into the ocean at umbi), you are jumping right on some of the best sites in the area. There's a few hotels in particular that are right on Ras Um Sid, a gorgeous wall with great diving all around. While we're waiting for our boat to pick us up at the end of the dive, the people staying in those hotels are jumping from their hotel jetty no more than 25 feet away from us. I'm not sure which hotel is which, you'd have to look it up, but based on google maps, I would guess Al Fanar is the one right on the pick-up point, or any others in that area.
Hadaba is a more quiet area, without the hard rock cafe loud music type of places that you get in na'ama. It does however have Farsha and Sadiki café, two great spots on the cliff to go enjoy a drink and watch the sunset. Definitely not fancy, but well worth the view.