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When you ask people about the best places in the world to go diving, you can guarantee that the Red Sea will be on their list!
The Red Sea takes its name from periodic algae blooms that take place here, painting the sea reddish, and not, as some believe, from the red-dyed Egyptian mountains that surround it. It is a real paradise for divers, with warm water, relatively calm waves and clear visibility.
The Red Sea is considered one of the seven submarine wonders of the world, as it is home to more than 100 species of invertebrates and over 200 species of soft and hard corals. This is the basis for a marine ecosystem comprising more than 1,100 species of fish, of which many cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Diving in the Red Sea is a unique experience.
The Red Sea offers an unforgettable chance to observe tropical marine life in crystal clear water, from sharks and dolphins to gorgonian. There is a huge variety of underwater life, depending on where you dive. You can spend your diving holidays on shallow reefs, with high walls full of life or on unique wrecks. In some places the reef extends far into the sea, forming labyrinths, plateaus, lagoons, caves and real gardens.
In an instant you can be in a coral garden at the top of a hill, in order to encounter a wall falling hundreds of metres into the sea. The abundance of sea life and the varieties of reef depth in the Red Sea are unbeatable for many divers.
Diving in Egypt is generally a great attraction and everyone has their favorite place here. Some say that Sharm el Sheikh and Dahab on the Sinai Peninsula are the greatest attraction of the Red Sea. Legendary diving sites such as Ras Muhammad and wrecks such as Thistlegorm and the Tiraean Strait are accessible from Sharm el Sheikh, while the Blue Hole in the Dahab area is a place of diving pilgrimages. There are more than 10 interesting wrecks in the whole area, and you can also find big fish, such as barracuda and eagle rays, as well as sea turtles and sharks.
For divers who have seen everything the Northern Red Sea has to offer, we recommend going further south as the quality of diving is even greater. Hurghada and Marsa Alam are great diving destinations at the group of Abu Nuhas wrecks, or at The Brothers, Daedalus Reef, or St. John's, you can meet sharks. These are places that will delight even the most experienced divers with their beauty. These places in the southern part of the Red Sea are the best places to meet eye to eye with a great whitetip or huge shoals of fish. There is also a large number of caves and tunnels to explore.
Dive sites in Egypt can be explored in two ways:
A stay in resort allows you to locate many diving attractions and visit them when you feel like it. With this option you can combine holiday diving in Egypt with a tour of the land attractions of this country, which are many. You could visit the sphinx and the pyramids, the temples in Luxor or take a cruise along the Nile ... in the meantime enjoying the underwater flora and fauna during the dives in the Red Sea.
Staying on the ship (liveaboard safari) is the best idea when you want to go further and see more. These trips can offer the best in northern Egypt (Sinai Peninsula and Hugharda wrecks) or the southern part of the Egyptian Red Sea. Breathtaking marine life and great sceneries await you.
In Egypt, you can dive all year round but the temperatures vary a lot. From June to August, the water may be 30 degrees Celsius, but in February it drops to 22 degrees. You need to obtain the right clothing for the season - in winter 5-7 mm full length suit, in summer 3 mm, shortie or full wetsuit.
Air temperatures in Egypt range between 40 degrees Celsius in August to 20 degrees in winter (December - February), which may affect the choice of season to visit.
The whale shark season lasts from May to the end of July, when you can meet these majestic creatures mainly in the northern part of the Red Sea, but here and there in the south. The warm summer months are conducive to many marine animals. Plankton blooms and attracts mantas, and turtles also nest in this period. The summer months are also great for meeting hammerhead sharks.
Winter months are beneficial due to the less extreme temperatures, better visibility and for many people, especially Europeans, a visit in the winter means an escape from frost. Many marine life, including grey reef sharks, dolphins and dugongs, are present throughout the year, and some even prefer the colder water!