Trip Report Review of First (for me) Liveaboard in Egypt: Brothers/North Route

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Thanks for the well-written, super informative trip report!

Interesting to see that you chose to schlep your guitar with you--which do you carry-on the flights with you, your dive gear or your guitar??

Did you look into any other dive travel agents besides liveaboard.com, and if so, why did you choose to book with them?

Got any links for info. about the new boat you referenced at the end of your report?

So, I started playing guitar seriously when I turned 50, and it became an ultra obsession, so I dont go anywhere without one now. I normally travel with an acoustic, but three days before the Egypt trip, I cracked the neck of my travel acoustic. So I decided instead to bring my cheap Fender Squier, which had the advantage of being more compact, playable with either headphones or small travel amp, and sturdier for travel purposes. I carried my dive bcd, reg, and prescription mask in my roller carryon, and my Olympus Tough 5 and dive light kit in a backpack as the “extra” item, and I checked the guitar as my second piece of luggage, in a sturdy Gator case.

During the long drive from Cairo to Hurghada, the guitar really helped to pass the time. My buddy rode in the front with our kind driver, who entertained himself with his phone part of the way, and other times played some truly awesome Egyptian music.

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Excellent report and photos. Thanks for taking the time to post it for us. I will be doing a Red Sea live aboard next June and your stopover in Cairo has me considering this as an option now. Current plan is to stopover in Istanbul for a few days to get over jet lag and explore the city and then fly into Hurghada and then a few days in Luxor and Nile, either on the front end or back end of our diving, which will be out of Marsa Alam and diving the deep south. Look forward to your next report!
 
Thanks for the well-written, super informative trip report!

Interesting to see that you chose to schlep your guitar with you--which do you carry-on the flights with you, your dive gear or your guitar??

Did you look into any other dive travel agents besides liveaboard.com, and if so, why did you choose to book with them?

Got any links for info. about the new boat you referenced at the end of your report?

In answer to your other questions: it seemed to me that Liveaboard.com had a near-monopoly as a portal to Egyptian liveaboards, and my experience with them was pretty positive. They are a virtual company, and they have reps all over the world, so you can reach someone 24 hours a day. They were a little reluctant to put me in direct touch with the specific boat I’d booked until around two weeks before the trip, but they were good about passing information in both directions. One word of caution is that reviews on Liveaboard.com are selectively abridged by staff before posting, so you are unlikely to read many negative comments. In my review on their site, I mentioned as a pet peeve that I thought breakfasts on my boat were disappointing compared to the very nice lunches and dinners, and they did not include that.

I will also say that during the week I saw at least 12-15 other liveaboards, and they all looked like clones of each other. Meaningful reviews of specific liveaboards would be very helpful in selecting among them.

The new boat I mentioned is the Sea Legend. The owner has his own website at Home - Dive Pro Liveaboard. However, the Sea Legend is not yet taking bookings, it just had a soft open, and finishing touches were still being done when we toured the boat. It looked really awesome though. I will update the post when they start taking bookings.
 
Excellent report and photos. Thanks for taking the time to post it for us. I will be doing a Red Sea live aboard next June and your stopover in Cairo has me considering this as an option now. Current plan is to stopover in Istanbul for a few days to get over jet lag and explore the city and then fly into Hurghada and then a few days in Luxor and Nile, either on the front end or back end of our diving, which will be out of Marsa Alam and diving the deep south. Look forward to your next report!

That sounds like a great trip! I might suggest doing Luxor on the back end of the liveaboard, only because at the end of our trip, we were wishing we’d had some in-country recovery time before flying back. Look forward to your report!
 
thanks for posting this

would you do recommend i do the long drive from Cairo or just fly?

Did you spend your last night on the boat or in a hotel?
 
Nice and exhaustive report. Thanks for the info over the Sea Legend.

Liveaboard.com has no monopoly at all ! it's just an easy way to sell for the owners / tour operators, an easy way to book, and it results in higher prices than contacting directly with the boat / dive center.

As european, I didn't know Liveaboard.com, and I'm surprised by the very high cost of organizations such as Aggressor or others (this is not an attack against these operators, I'm sure they can justify the price). But I consider that the sea is the same for everyone, thus, why sould I pay twice the price for the same divesite ? I'm not interested in having someone waiting for me at the end of the dive with a bath towel, I still can handle it myself....

For those wanting to go to Luxor, notice that, due to security enforcement, an official authorization is needed to go from the Red Sea governorate to Qena governorate (just provide a copy of ID or passport to your driver, he will arrange it).
 
Thanks for the very detailed report. How about the hidden costs (as in things that had to be paid on top of the 1000$)? I'm not talking about tips, of course.
 
Thanks for the very detailed report. How about the hidden costs (as in things that had to be paid on top of the 1000$)? I'm not talking about tips, of course.

I found very few hidden costs (somewhat surprisingly). There was some confusion on the liveaboard.com website about whether nitrox was free — in some parts of the page it said free, elsewhere it said (optional). I asked Liveaboard.com to spell out on the receipt that it was free, and indeed, it was free. The boat charged a few dollars for beer and wine (I think $3). Aside from that, I can’t think of other costs. The park fees were not included in my boat rate but that was stated clearly up front, and I think those were something like $100.

At the Mena Hotel, the breakfast was included in the room rate as a promotion but the hotel put it on my bill nonetheless. I pointed out the error and they immediately took it off.

I tipped very generously for good service but definitely don’t include that in my calculation of trip costs — you can tip whatever you want.
 

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