When you think about Egypt, the first thing that probably pops into your mind are the pyramids and the rich ancient history of the country. But did you know it’s also one of the best scuba dive destinations in the world? As divers, we knew this already, so besides the culture trip around Egypt, we also went for an amazing Red Sea Diving Safari in a gorgeous dive camp/resort on the Egyptian east coast.
We visited the Red Sea Diving Safari in Marsa Shagra in November to check out the beautiful underwater world of the Red Sea for ourselves. We chose for Red Sea Diving Safari because we heard very good stories and their camp looks incredible. Glamping tents on the beach, huts, spacious chalets, and a huge area to prepare your diving gear. In this blog, we tell you all about our experience.
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Red Sea Diving Safari
Red Sea Diving Safari has 3 different camps in the Marsa Alam area. Their most popular one is Marsa Shagra Village, 22 km north of Marsa Alam and about 260km south of Hurghada. This desert camp on the beach really focuses on all things diving. Upon arrival, after check-in, you can immediately check out the Red Sea since they have beach access to a huge house reef. In order to protect the underwater life everyone, including experienced divers, will join an introduction dive where they will tell you everything about the location and how to keep the reef healthy.
They offer packages for renting gear and you can stall it out at the preparation area. There are lockers for your gear and a huge drying area for your wetsuit and BCD’s. Also, you can find freshwater tanks to clean all your gear. After the introduction dive, you can dive in the house reef as much as you like, you can simply grab an air tank if you need one. But also if you want guided dives or boat dives they have plenty of options for you.
Reefs and Dive Sites
In the area are over 60 dive sites. The house reef can be accessed by the beach, others are a bit further down the coast and you can go by boat. There are also some cool offshore reefs pretty far out and they are amazing! For some other dive sites, you can go with a van to Marsa Alam and go by a big boat from there. Plenty of options, and we will list some of our favorites outside the house reef:
Elphinstone Reef
This Red Sea dive site is an offshore reef located about 9km into the sea and you can go there with one of the speed boats. It’s ranked in the top 10 dive sites of the world. It’s pretty cool to sail out on the sea surrounded by deep water and suddenly you find a reef. Around here you can often see big Oceanic White Tip Sharks which are so cool to watch. For this reef, you need to be an advanced diver with a minimum of 50 dives.
Shaab Samadai / Dolphin House
This reef is a bit further away. It’s about 45 minutes sailing from Marsa Alam but worth the visit! Also an offshore reef in the middle of the sea it’s formed like a big underwater bay and that bay is home to a large pod of dolphins. To protect the dolphins there are 3 zones. The first zone you can not access, it’s where the dolphins live. The second zone is for snorkeling and often the pod of dolphins comes out to swim there as well. The 3rd zone is for the boats and for diving, and besides seeing the dolphins while snorkeling, diving is incredible here too! There are many huge underwater reef pillars and a stunning underwater canyon where you can dive through. It was one of the favorite places we dived during our visit.
Sharm Abu Dabab
There is a lot of underwater life in the Red Sea and another incredible creature you can often find towards the dive site Sharm Abu Dabab is the Dugong. This large sea cow often hangs around here but, unfortunately, we couldn’t find it on our way over to the dive site but there were some dolphins hanging out with us when we sailed over there. And diving here was still very beautiful with a lot of different corals and plenty of fish.
There are many more stunning dive sites, but unfortunately, we only had 3 days to explore the Red Sea. You can find information about the other dive sites here.
Accommodation
Whether you want to stay in a nice tent on the beach with sea view and your feet in the sand, or want to be able to relax in a chalet with aircon, there is plenty of choice at Red Sea Diving Safari. When we visited we had the luck to stay in one of their new Deluxe Chalets. It was very spacious with a huge bathroom and big bedroom. Outside was a nice area to sit down and watch the surroundings after a nice day of being underwater. You can find all types of accommodation here.
Facilities
Besides all the facilities for diving, there is much more. It’s important to not forget your inner selves when you are out on and under the water all day. It’s a good thing that breakfast, lunch, and dinner are included! It was all so good! Plenty of variations and enough to choose from in their on-site restaurant. They also have a shop on site for necessities and souvenirs and there is a snackbar where you can drink during the day.
Furthermore, you can find several hammocks around the tent sites and areas to relax in the shade or sun. If you don’t want to go diving every day Red Sea Diving Safari also offer other tours, or if you need transport from or to Marsa Alam or Hurghada they can organize it too. We can recommend going with them since they have a fair price and it’s sometimes a bit difficult to find a good taxi for the long distance if you come from Hurghada.
Read all our other blogs about Egypt here!
We had an amazing time diving in the Red Sea and we can definitely recommend it. If you are into diving or if you want to learn it it’s both great. It’s completely different from the cultural experience of the rest of Egypt and that makes it so special. Feel free to leave your questions or tips below in the comments!
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