Red Sea diving: where to go, when, and what it costs

The Egyptian Red Sea is a diving destination because of a set of accidents of geography: it is warm, it is deep close to the shore, almost no river runs into it to cloud the water, and the reef begins within a short swim of the beach in places. Visibility commonly runs between twenty and thirty metres, the coral is shallow enough to snorkel over, and the coastline has enough sites that a diver can spend a fortnight moving between them.

It is also organised. Egypt has been taking recreational divers since the 1970s, agencies and dive centres are everywhere along the coast, and the standard is high enough that a nervous beginner is looked after and an experienced diver can be disappointed only by their own planning.

Where the sites are

Three coasts, three characters. On the Sinai side, Sharm El Sheikh is the boat-diving base: Ras Mohammed at the southern tip, the reefs of the Strait of Tiran, and the Thistlegorm, a wartime supply ship sitting upright with its cargo still in the holds. Dahab, further north, is the shore-diving town: reefs at the end of the beach road, the Canyon and the Blue Hole, and the calmest place in the country to learn.

On the mainland, Hurghada is the biggest and the easiest to reach from the Nile, with the Giftun islands and a chain of reefs a short boat ride away. South of it, Safaga and Marsa Alam lead to the offshore marine parks: the Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone, which is where the liveaboards go, along with the dugong and the dolphins of the far southern bays.

Marsa Alam is the quietest of the bases and the one closest to the long southern reefs: Elphinstone, with its wall dropping far out of sight and its reef sharks, sits a short boat ride from the shore, and the bays to the south hold seagrass where dugongs graze and dolphins pass through. Further still, the Fury Shoals and the reefs off St John’s are almost exclusively liveaboard territory, which is why the week-long boats run south in the winter and north to the wrecks in the summer.

When to go

Diving runs all year, and the season you want depends on what you want: the clearest water is generally in spring and autumn, the warmest in late summer, and the least expensive in the middle of the southern summer when the air is punishing and the hotels are quiet. Winter in the north of the Red Sea is cooler than people expect at depth, which means a proper wetsuit rather than a rash vest, and it is why the liveaboard fleet moves south for the winter.

Learning, and the ladder of levels

An open water course takes three or four days, starts in shallow water, and ends with a licence that lets you dive to eighteen metres with a buddy anywhere. Almost every resort has several schools, which keeps prices down and makes it easy to compare teaching, and the shore-entry sites at Dahab and Hurghada are the friendliest places to learn in the region.

From there the ladder is straightforward: advanced certification for the deeper sites and the wreck, then specialities for the things you find you like, then technical training if the deep walls and the arch at the Blue Hole appeal. That last step is where divers get into trouble, because the sites look achievable, so the advice is the one every honest instructor gives: train for it before you dive it, not after.

What it costs, and what is not included

Egyptian diving is inexpensive by European standards, which is why people take their courses here rather than at home. The price of a day generally covers the boat, the guide, tanks and weights, food and water; equipment hire, marine park fees, nitrox and the crew tip are usually extra, and the extras are what a budget forgets. Liveaboards cost far more and include almost everything for a week, including the fuel that makes the offshore parks reachable.

Ask what is included before you book, ask whether the boat has oxygen and a first aid kit aboard, and check the insurance. Travel policies frequently exclude diving below a stated depth, and a decompression accident is the most expensive thing that can happen on a holiday.

The rules that matter

The reef is the asset. It is protected in the marine parks, it is fragile, and a fin kick or a hand on the coral can undo decades of growth, so buoyancy control is the skill worth learning properly, and reef-safe sunscreen is not a marketing detail. The other rules are the personal ones: dive within your training, do the safety stop, never fly for twenty-four hours after your last dive, drink water, and cover up more than you think you need to.

Diving is the reason a lot of people come to Egypt for the second time, and the Red Sea is the reason they come back for a third. Start on a shore reef, take the course, work up to the wreck and the walls, and leave the deep sites until you can do them well.