Red Sea Diving in Egypt: Where to Go and the Best Time to Dive

Where to dive in Egypt's Red Sea: the main areas

Pick your base by the dives you want, because each stretch of coast reaches a different set of sites. Sharm el-Sheikh sits about an hour by boat from Ras Mohammed and is closer to the Thistlegorm than Hurghada is. Hurghada is about 2.5 hours from the Abu Nuhas wreck reef. Marsa Alam and Port Ghalib are near Elphinstone, which Dive The World calls the only site in the south where day trips are feasible. The Brothers, Daedalus, Zabargad and Rocky Island are protected offshore parks, and you reach them by liveaboard.

The table lists the signature dives with the depths their sources publish. Where two sources disagree, both figures are shown, so plan on the deeper one. For other regions, see our destination guides. The Thistlegorm's wartime story is told in our five best dive sites article, so this guide sticks to planning.

When is the best time to dive the Red Sea?

Any month works, so the choice is between cooler, windier winter water and a warm, busy autumn. Emperor Divers describes mid-November to the end of March as cooler with stronger winds, April to June as the time for manta rays and the occasional whale shark, and September to mid-November as one of the most popular periods, because the sea is still warm and the air is no longer hot.

The averages below come from seatemperature.info, which calculates them from the past 10 years of data. February and March are the coldest months at 22-23°C; August is the warmest at 29-30°C. Emperor says Marsa Alam runs about 1°C warmer than Hurghada, and the averages show a gap of 0.3-1.1°C. Individual years stray from the mean: the lowest February figure in Hurghada's series is 20.7°C (69°F).

On suits, Emperor says many divers are comfortable in Lycra, a 3mm or a shortie in the warm months and prefer a 5mm full suit in winter or when making several dives a day. Our wetsuit thickness guide shows where those lines fall.

SS Thistlegorm: depth, requirements and getting there

Plan the Thistlegorm as a 30-33 m boat dive with possible current, and bring a logbook that shows at least 20 dives. Master Liveaboards says the CDWS set that minimum to protect the wreck, together with a ban on sitting, standing on, touching or kicking the structure.

The published depths differ slightly. PADI's site page gives 30 m (98 ft) as the maximum, the Thistlegorm Project says around 32 m at the deepest point, and Dive The World lists 16-33 m. Dive The World puts the wreck 40 km (3 hours) from Sharm el-Sheikh and 65 km (4.5 hours) from Hurghada, and recommends diving it early in the morning from a liveaboard, before the day boats arrive.

Going inside is an overhead dive. Dive The World describes a route through holds 1 to 3 using internal doorways at a maximum of 25 m, in holds with silt on the floor. Without wreck penetration training, stay outside: the deck cargo and the two steam locomotives that PADI places on either side of the hull are enough for a full dive.

Nitrox is common on this wreck. With the rounding our nitrox calculator uses, EANx32 has a maximum operating depth (MOD) of 33.7 m at a ppO2 of 1.4 bar, which covers the 33 m seabed figure with 0.7 m to spare. The best mix for 33 m at 1.4 bar is also 32%. At 30 m the equivalent air depth (EAD) on EANx32 is 24.5 m, so your nitrogen loading resembles an air dive 5.5 m shallower. The margin to the MOD is small, so watch your depth when you drop to the sand.

Sharm el-Sheikh and Ras Mohammed

Sharm el-Sheikh suits a group of mixed experience, because Ras Mohammed has both sheltered shallow sites and deep walls about an hour from port. Dive The World rates the park's diving from beginner to advanced, with visibility of 10-40 m and currents from moderate to strong.

Egypt declared Ras Mohammed a protected area in 1983. The park covered 97 km² at the time and 480 km² now, of which 345 km² is sea. Diving is allowed only in designated areas, and visitors must leave the park by sunset.

Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef, the park's best-known dive, runs from 5 m to 40 m and deeper. Other park sites include Anemone City, Jackfish Alley with its caves from 5 m, Ras Ghazlani as a drift and Ras Zaatar, whose walls drop past 90 m.

Hurghada, Safaga and Marsa Alam

Hurghada's classic day trip is Abu Nuhas, a reef 40 km north of town with four wrecks: the Carnatic (sank 12 September 1869), the Kimon M (1978), the Chrisoula K (1981) and the Giannis D (19 April 1983). Dive The World gives 3-32 m across the four. For the Giannis D it lists 13-24 m while PADI gives 30 m as the maximum, so ask your guide for the planned depth.

Safaga's best-known wreck is the Salem Express, a passenger ferry that struck Hyndman Reef late on 14 December 1991 and sank. The official death toll is given as 464 by Dive The World and 470 by Wikipedia, and many of the dead were never recovered. Dive The World says the wreck was declared a maritime tomb and that penetration is forbidden outside the cargo area. Wikipedia notes that diving it remains controversial; if you go, treat it as a grave.

From Marsa Alam, the day-boat headline is Elphinstone: a 375 m reef with drop-offs past 100 m and, according to PADI, a constant current over its plateaus. PADI lists oceanic whitetips in September-November, scalloped hammerheads in June-August and mantas in March-April. Master Liveaboards says night dives are not allowed there.

Sha'ab Samadai, the 'Dolphin House' reef near Marsa Alam, runs under its own rules. HEPCA took over its management in 2013 after a decree from the Red Sea governor, and says the management plan split the reef into zones, capped access at 200 visitors a day and set a visitor fee that funds park services and moorings.

Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone: how much experience do you need?

You need at least 50 logged dives, because Egyptian law sets that minimum for the four offshore marine parks: the Brothers, Daedalus, Zabargad and Rocky Island. Operators add their own bar. Emperor Divers and Regal Dive ask for PADI Advanced Open Water or equivalent plus 50 logged dives on their Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone trips, and Emperor wants guests comfortable in drifts and currents.

Night diving is forbidden in the marine parks, so expect three dives a day there. Emperor puts the Brothers about 60 miles offshore. For Daedalus, Dive The World says about 80 km from Marsa Alam and Emperor says about 52 nautical miles (roughly 96 km).

Big Brother's two wrecks start in recreational range and continue far below it. The Numidia, a cargo ship almost 138 m long lost on 20 July 1901, lies down the reef from about 10-15 m to 75-80 m, depending on the source. For the Aida, sources disagree on the year (1957 according to Red Sea Diving, 1953 according to Seawolf Safari) and on the depth (7-65 m, 25-60 m and 30-65 m). With 40 m as the CDWS ceiling for recreational divers, you see the upper sections only.

Oceanic whitetip sharks are the reason many divers book this route. Dive The World puts their peak at October-December at the offshore sites and May-June at St John's, and hammerheads gather at Daedalus in summer. Elke Bojanowski, the biologist whose photo-ID catalogue held more than 560 individual whitetips by July 2009, called October and November the main season. Her encounter rules, published by HEPCA:

• Do not feed or bait sharks, and do not get in the water while feeding is going on.
• Stay calm; if you decide to leave the water, do it calmly and in order.
• Control your buoyancy, and avoid ascending straight up to the surface above a shark that is swimming around you.
• Keep looking around; if a shark circles you, turn with it and keep eye contact.

Day boat or liveaboard?

Stay on land and use day boats for the coastal reefs, the Abu Nuhas wrecks and Elphinstone. Book a liveaboard for the offshore parks, which are liveaboard-only, and for a quieter early-morning Thistlegorm.

Emperor's Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone trips run seven nights from Hurghada or Port Ghalib, between March and November. Dive The World says a Red Sea safari normally makes four dives a day including a night dive, with two or three on the first and last days. A week of repeated nitrox dives also adds up oxygen exposure, which our CNS and OTU liveaboard week works through.

Marine park fees come as a government reef tax. Master Liveaboards adds it to the invoice at booking, while Regal Dive lists $90 per trip, paid on board, for one boat on the southern route. Check which of the two your quote includes.

Egypt's dive rules: depth, SMB, medical and chambers

Most rules come from Egypt's Chamber of Diving and Water Sports (CDWS), and operators often add stricter ones of their own. These are the ones that change how you pack and plan:

• Depth: Emperor Divers guides recreational dives to 30 m or your certification limit. Under CDWS rules, divers with deep certification, a qualified buddy and insurance that covers 40 m may go to 40 m.
• No solo dives and no decompression dives. Emperor asks divers to be back on the boat with at least 30 bar.
• SMB: CDWS requires every buddy team diving on its own to carry a signal buoy; on a guided dive only the guide must carry one (ORCA Dive Clubs). Emperor and Master Liveaboards go further and require a dive computer and an SMB for every diver on every dive.
• Medical: a diving medical examination or a medical statement filled in on site is mandatory. ORCA notes a certificate is valid for 2 years up to age 40 and 1 year above it.
• Chambers: Master Liveaboards lists recompression chambers in Sharm el-Sheikh (2), Hurghada (2), Marsa Alam (2), Dahab, El Gouna, Hamata and Safaga, and warns the list can change.
• Moorings: HEPCA says its mooring system has grown from 100 buoys to more than 1,600 along 860 km of coast, so boats tie in rather than anchor on the reef.