Scuba Diving, Sharm El Sheikh

You can't go to Sharm and not do scuba or snorkel.
It's one of the most beautiful places to do so. It's like going to Paris and not going to the Eiffel Tower.
Despite the warnings and possible dangers of scuba, it's really safe, even for first timers like us.

Definetly a must do.

WOW, there is a whole new world under the clear sea. You can do some nice snorkling just off the beach at Sharm, but for a real amazing experience, get a boat trip and do an Intro Dive. I guarantee you will want to do your PADI course after your intro. For about £30 you get a boat all day, 2 snorkling trips and 1 Intro Dive. I used Anemone Divers (Discount if staying at Pigeon House). They were brilliant. Millions of fish, swarming around, corals, eels, everything. (See also warnings and dangers)

Well, there is not much to add. The Red Sea is a paradise for snorkeling and diving. If you are there, don't just stay at the beach, you have to experience this!

Buy a fish card, then you can also name the many colorful fishes you encounter.

Here I have seen the biggest moray ever (bigger than everything I have seen in real or on pictures or on TV), It's head was bigger than mine it was real thick and it must have been over 2 meters long, which is hard to tell, because it did not leave the holes in the coral completely. And this thing was curious! It followed me over several meters -always winding through the holes in the coral reef and reappearing somewhere else.
A giant moray my fish chart says. Puh.

This is Sharms real treasure, I think: the coral banks in front of the land.

The red sea has very clear water (because the sediments lie far down) and is thus -together with the fact, that the water is warm and rich on nutritients - a perfect place for corals and other sealife.

The diving - or even only snorkeling here is fabulous. There are not many places in the world where you can see so much in so little space and time!

Unfortunately it looked to me as if some hotels are not taking care enough of this treasure. Yes, they write that you should not walk on the corals in almost any language imaginable, but at the corals nobody is there to stop the tourists doing so - and if someone is, he is merely watching and saying nothing.
There are many places where the corals are already dead because of this. A real pitty!

So plase: save the environment for yourself and the next ones: DO NOT WALK ON THE CORALS! PLEASE!

Scuba Diving is what makes Sharm a major tourist attraction and its not difficult to see why.
The water is blue and clear, visibility is good and the unique location of the Red Sea means that it possesses a very diverse collection of sealife.

Diving allows you to see the kind of colours and wildlife that you had probably previously just seen in magazines and documentaries and in many ways is far more exciting than going on safari because of the proximity of the fish.

The experience of swimming with a school of fish or along with a giant sting ray is truly amazing and is an experience that I will always treasure.

There are many schools in Sharm that offer diving training and many of these are very reasonably priced. For the more experienced divers, there is also the opportunity to go on night dives and swim in wrecks!!

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The marvellous beauty of the Red Sea is very well known.
Even if you do not dive, you see a lot by snorkeling too.
We have dived the whole week with the Egyptian Divers.
The boat, the crew and our guide Mohammed were all fantastic!

The whole area is of uplifted coral, so all sites are close to shore as the coral starts at the waters edge. This means the shore reef extends 10-30 meters out at about 1 meter depth. The reef then drops vertically creating the typical walls of the area. These drop offs range from 10-800 meters. Care needs to be taken in crossing the reef if diving by shore and control of depth is needed during the dive.

This wreck of a British sail/steam cargo ship that sank on April 22 1876, was officially discorved in 1977. The ship lies bottom-up on the sandy sea floor, its bow pointing westward at a shallow angle to the reef. Cause of sinking: collision with reef.
Fish life on the wreck itself and on the reef , is exceptional.

Min. depth to wreck : 17m (upturned bows)
Max. depth to seabed: 32m (at stern)
Average visibility: 25-30m

Thistlesgorm is a British warship which sank with a full consignment of war supplies (tanks, jeeps, guns and a railway locomotive!) after being bombed during WWII (1941). The wreck was discovered in 1956 by Jacques Costeau.

Min. depth to wreck : 10m (at Bridge)
Max. depth to seabed: 31m (Railway Engine)
Average visibility: 25-30m

The local dives comprise all diving sites along the coast of Sharm el Sheikh, from Ras Nasrani in the north to Ras Cathy in the south.

These dive sites can be reached on by boat, between ten minutes and one hour cruising time. 28 different sites are available and can be visited on half or full day tours.