Easy Guide to Egyptian Liveaboard Itineries
Here is the Dummies Guide to Itineraries in the Egyptian Red Sea
Having lived, worked and dived all over Egypt during the last 16 years I thought I’d make it easy for you work out which is the best Red Sea itinerary for you:
Wrecks and Reefs – this a trip where you dive some great reefs but also a number of wrecks including the SS Thistlegorm. This is one of the most famous dive’able wrecks in the world as it was discovered by Jacques Cousteux. The British supply ship was on its way to supply munitions to the allied forces in Africa when it was bombed by the Germans. It now lies in 30m of water and you can still see the motorbikes, trucks, steam engines and plane wings in the ship. Ideally you need to be Advanced with 20 dives to do this trip.
Best of wrecks – this is for true heavy metal fans and as the name suggests involves diving lots of wrecks. Some of the wrecks are on reefs and act as artificial reefs but if you want to see lots of marine life and coral then this is probably not for you. Ideally you need to be Advanced with about 35 dives for this trip (the Deep specialty certification is also useful as one of the wrecks is around 40m)
Simply the Best – This is one of my favourite itineries if you like adrenalin fuelled dives. The trip focuses on reefs hundreds of miles out to see. Due to the rich nutrients this means the coral life is excellent and it attracts large pelagics such as sharks, tuna etc. There is also an option to do a ‘Project Shark’ version of the trip where you are accompanied by a member of the Red Sea Shark Trust (aka the Shark Lady). She does really interesting presentations about sharks and the future conservation. I’ve done about 5 trips with her and never get bored – if there are sharks in the water she knows where to find them! There can be some exciting drift dives here so for this trip you need to be ideally Advanced open water with 50 dives+
Deep South – This takes you to some of the more remote and pristine reefs in the Red Sea. It’s great if you want to see lots of corals and aquarium like dive sites. It is much more relaxed then Simply the Best and can be enjoyed by anyone who is Advanced or more
Daedulus & St. Johns – Daedulus is one the adrenalin dive sites found on ‘Simply the Best’ and is where you tend to get schools of 20-30 hammerheads. Other large pelagics often swim by and every dive is different. St. Johns are some of the pristine reefs found in the Deep South itinerary so is a good mixed bag.
Brothers and Elphinstone – These are 2 of the 3 highlights that make up the ‘Best of the Red Sea’. Brothers are 2 small islands in the middle of the Red Sea where you often see large grey reef sharks and Threshers. Elphinstone often has Hammerheads and other pelagics visit this site. Ideally you need to be Advanced with 50 dives for this trip.
If you are interested in a Red Sea liveaboard then please get in touch as we have many group trips as well as trips for individuals and couples.