Red Sea first timer

[satellitediver]

I am trying to plan a trip to the Red Sea but only have a couple of days to decide. My dive partner is a new OWD and I a DM (PADI) as such I am stuck in deciding what to choose. Liveaboard, hotel and sites as I don't mind taking it slow but don't want to burden a group.
Anyone who can recomend who they have dived with and related cost, import date such as the need to buy a visa upon arrival would be greatly appreciated.

Satellitediver

 

[DutchDown]

I'll recommend Camel Divers in Sharm el Sheik. I dove there with a group of friends in January. But there are a number of operators in Sharm who also have very good reputations. You will need a visa to dive Ras Mohammed because it's a marine sanctuary, but you can easily buy the visa on arrival in the airport. We also spent a day diving The Canyon and Blue Hole in Dahab. Wonderful dives!
I wish I could offer more help, but I don't know the specifics of your trip. And I've only gone to the Red Sea one time. You might want to check the destinations forum at www.divernet.com for more information as well.
Hope you and your partner have a wonderful trip!

Phil

 

[satellitediver]

Thx, Phil.

I will check out the website you suggest.

SD

I'll recommend Camel Divers in Sharm el Sheik. I dove there with a group of friends in January. But there are a number of operators in Sharm who also have very good reputations. You will need a visa to dive Ras Mohammed because it's a marine sanctuary, but you can easily buy the visa on arrival in the airport. We also spent a day diving The Canyon and Blue Hole in Dahab. Wonderful dives!
I wish I could offer more help, but I don't know the specifics of your trip. And I've only gone to the Red Sea one time. You might want to check the destinations forum at www.divernet.com for more information as well.
Hope you and your partner have a wonderful trip!

Phil

 

[mikelegurra]

i spent a week in dahab, diving with poseidon divers.

i had a great time, the staff at poseidon are the friendliest i've met all over and the prices in dahab (lodging, food and diving) are the cheapest in egypt.

also you don't have to drive for over an hour to get to the blue hole and the canyon.
lots of good diving sites and the relax feel of the town has won me over and, if avoidable, i'll never go to sharm.
i might drive down to sharm for some of the dive sites, which are supposed to be also very good, but always with dahab as "base camp".

there are a lot of dive sites, for all levels of experience, and you don't have to worry if you only want to do shallow dives because there's a lot of fish and coral even at shallower depths.


you can check some of this at www.poseidondivers.com and some photos of dahab at www.pbase.com/maiquethai/dahab


visa: if you can get it at your own country it will save you some time on arrival. in portugal we got it for €20 vs €25 at sharm airport. the biggest save was the hour it took to process all the people you flew with us. by the time they were done we were already in dahab...

 

[stefo2]

visa: if you can get it at your own country it will save you some time on arrival. in portugal we got it for €20 vs €25 at sharm airport. the biggest save was the hour it took to process all the people you flew with us. by the time they were done we were already in dahab...

Mikele, the visa on arrival in Egypt is only EUR 15, if they made the people on your plane pay 25 it was a rip-off.
As for saving time - every time I arrived in Sharm all the other people on the plane with package holidays booked had to get in line to have their tour represenatives sort out their visas (before getting in line again at passport control). All I had to do was walk to the bank counter, buy the visa stamps and proceed to passport control - 5 minutes. Not worth the hassle of sending off the passport to the embassy at home.

 

[mikelegurra]

Not worth the hassle of sending off the passport to the embassy at home.

i didn't think about sending the passport because their embassy in portugal is in lisbon and i just had to drive there and get it stamped. not a lot of hassle.
obviously if you have to mail it it's a lot more trouble... sorry for forgeting that.

as far as visa procedures at the airport i guess they did it differently with our plane. everybody just went to the line and got the visas and then to passport control.
this is what they told us because, as i said earlier, we were well on our way to dahab when they were done...

 

[DutchDown]

My experience was the same as Stefo's. 5 minuted from plane to airport exit. I didn't watch the others from my flight so it might have been that they weren't getting visas.
But now I have a real problem...my buddies want to go back to Sharm and I am thinking along the lines of Dahab this time.

Phil

 

[cottim]

i didn't think about sending the passport because their embassy in portugal is in lisbon and i just had to drive there and get it stamped. not a lot of hassle.
obviously if you have to mail it it's a lot more trouble... sorry for forgeting that.

as far as visa procedures at the airport i guess they did it differently with our plane. everybody just went to the line and got the visas and then to passport control.
this is what they told us because, as i said earlier, we were well on our way to dahab when they were done...

Hi,

Can you tell me where in Lisbon is the embassy?
Going there sure beats the waiting at the airport.

Also, does anybody know the water temperature in September, at the Red Sea
Thanks

 

[Conce]

Also, does anybody know the water temperature in September, at the Red Sea
Thanks

I did a liveaboard through north routen of Sharm el Sheik the second week of August this year. I was very surprised with the water´s temperature - I was expecting warmer - the average was 27º/28º but the lowest was at 25,1º Celsius - and with the wind at the end of the dives I felt cold (wet suit of 2mm) after everydive. I would do a liveaboard with 5 or 7 milimiters.

But this is very relative because there were people wearing a wet suit of 0.5 milimiters and never felt cold .

By the way I really enjoyed the liveaboard trip - Aisha boat - I did. I was afraid of too many people in the water ... In some places it is true but the dive sites are so beautiful that the trip is worth.

 

[cottim]

Obrigado Conce,

my problem was september, not august, though!