Planning a trip to Egypt, any reccomendations?

[lesages]

My wife and I are planning on going to Egypt sometime this fall and being a aquarium nut I wanna go diving. I'm not certified and don't have any experience other than my Dad showing me how to use a regulator in our pool when I was like 10 and snorkeling around Florida.

Any recommendations for hotels, dive boats, areas etc? I'm thinking about Sharm el Sheikh as there seem to be alot of diving things around there. I also wouldn't mind paying to get certified while I'm there.

 

[billsreef]

Haven't had the pleasure of traveling there yet. But I can recommend you look into getting SCUBA Certified locally before you go. You'll enjoy the diving more and have more time for other things while your there if you don't have to spend time taking lessons while there

 

[oceancowboy]

I'd second Bill's recommendation....get certified in the US first. Not only will it save you time, but you can select a version (ie. the amount of time it takes) that you are most comfortable with. This could be a course in a weekend or one that takes longer.

Sharm is fine. The Northern Red Sea is quite nice and most diving is good. I did a live-a-board out of their in 2001. Most of the sites are also easily reachable from land based options. For more info, I recommend a dive guide I ran across in the UK......it is a Globetrotter Dive Guide "The Red Sea" by Guy Buckles 1999. Good guide of the area and sites. I have seen it for sale in the US.

My personnal favorites were dives in the Straits of Tiran....lots of cool stuff....and close to Sharm.

One suggestion.......I would not recommend trying to dive the Thistlegorm wreck as a beginning diver due to depth and current. Don't even try unless you have advanced certification....not that one couldn't, but I would be concerned safety-wise. I had a friend with me when I went. I dived it (Adv certification plus quite a few dives), he didn't (had maybe 20 dives under his belt) and was glad he didn't due to conditions.

 

[lesages]

Thanks for the tips guys I live in Germany ATM and my German isn't exactly fluent and I'll have like a week of just relaxing at the resort so that's why I'm considering doing it down there. I'm gonna try to find an instructor who speaks some English around here though. Maybe with their English and my German we can communicate lol.

 

[villageidiotno1]

hey

i just got back from sharm (literally this week) the diving was amazing

id definately recomend getting certified before you go, with so much to see you dont wanna be staring at the tiles on a pool lol

i was on advanced open water when i went but onyl had bout 10 or 11 dives logged, i dont think it made much of a difference as its so bright you can be at 25 metres n think youre only at 5.

im gonna try get my pics up in the next few days

if your going just for the divin try n stay as close to naama bay as you can, i dived with emperor they were all english speaking and the guides were really good

 

[Wryknow]

You won't have any problem finding dive instructors that speak English there.