The Red Sea 

Overview: 

The “Under­wa­ter Gar­den of Eden” and undoubt­ed­ly one of the won­ders of the under­wa­ter world, the Red Sea is blessed not only with incred­i­ble marine life, sparkling corals and sto­ried ship­wrecks, but this mag­i­cal par­adise is etched in reli­gious and spir­i­tu­al leg­end. Stretch­ing some 1,200 kilo­me­tres from the Ara­bi­an Penin­su­la to the tip of Africa the Red Sea is also hailed as where the “Ocean meets the Desert” — with the close prox­im­i­ty to the Red Sea’s East­ern Desert of Wadi al-Gimel pro­vid­ing some of the most strik­ing and stun­ning land­scapes on the plan­et – as well as a beau­ti­ful sun­set – the Red Sea’s high­lights stretch beyond its incred­i­ble reefs, with the long nar­row sea also being home to some white sand beach­es, resorts and islands, a tow­er­ing monastery and even some Roman ruins. Yet there’s no doubt the pin­na­cle of any trip to the Red Sea is its under­wa­ter par­adise – with the diverse ecosys­tem and corals, reefs and wrecks being home to more than 300 species of coral and 1,200 species of fish and ani­mals – includ­ing dol­phins, sharks, Man­ta Rays and Tur­tles – who effort­less­ly glide amongst some of the great­est dive spots on the plan­et includ­ing the famed SS Thistle­gorm and Yolan­da Reef – mak­ing the Red Sea one of the most spe­cial and spir­i­tu­al places on the plan­et and an undoubt­ed won­der of the world.  

His­to­ry: Tru­ly Mag­i­cal, the Red Sea has a rich his­to­ry – hav­ing once act­ed as a cross­roads the three con­ti­nents as an impor­tant port of call for both traders as well as act­ing as a hub for com­mu­nal and spir­i­tu­al vis­its from neigh­bour­ing Mus­lim coun­tries – and being steeped in mys­tery and adven­ture with tales of pira­cy, adven­tures – and wars all being cen­tred along this nar­row pas­sage­way. Yet per­haps the most famous tale sur­round­ing the Red Sea is that of the part­ing of the Red Sea by Moses in the Bible – with Moses lead­ing the Isralites to the bank of the Red Sea when being pur­sued by the Egyp­tians and stretch­ing out his hands to part the waters before him to allow for safe pas­sage.  

For­tu­nate­ly for divers today – the Red Sea is not known to part in such a man­ner, and while the beau­ty of the Marine life below the waters lay rather undis­cov­ered until the emer­gence of oil on the red sea’s banks in the 1980’s the last decades have seen the beu­aty of this incred­i­ble won­der – which also marks where the Gulfs of Suez and Aqa­ba meet – come to light and become a true haven for divers and adven­tur­ers.  

Div­ing: Thanks to the Red sea con­tain­ing some of the hottest – and salti­est waters on the plan­et – and as a result of a cou­ple of ship­wrecks and some stun­ning coral, the Red Sea is now one of the great­est undis­put­ed top dive loca­tions – with the marine bio-diver­si­ty, com­bined with the vis­i­bil­i­ty, ease of access and thou­sands of kilo­me­tres of dive sites mak­ing the Red Sea not just a great dive spot but one of the most impor­tant  — and frag­ile – under­wa­ter jew­els on the plan­et.  

While the waters – which can be explored both through land dives, boat dives and live­aboards – offer incred­i­ble vis­i­bil­i­ty, the joy of explor­ing the Red Sea is in it’s increi­d­ble – and often guar­an­teed sight­ings of marine life – with their being 10 species of sharks, giant four species of giant tur­tles, 800 species of fish – and best of all the famous, curi­ous and incred­i­bly pho­to­genic Red Sea Dugong all of which are explored on mul­ti­ple dif­fer­ent reefs, cave dives, and across a vast eco-sys­tems of liv­ing organ­isms.  

So spe­cial are the dive sites on the Red Sea that they con­sis­tent­ly rank amongst the best in the world – with the wreck of the SS Thistle­gorm in par­tic­u­lar­ly hav­ing a well-deserved rep­u­ta­tion as a jew­el of the Red Sea, with the sunken ship – which was heav­i­ly bombed in the sec­ond world war being ful­ly explorable beneath the waters and also being home to a range of colour­ful and curi­ous fish and the Red Sea Dugong. Like­wise, the dives at Elphin­stone Reef – which is home to species of sharks and a tow­er­ing 700 metre reef wall is equal­ly unique – the dive at the Dahab blue hole offers a chance ot head 130 metres down into the reef and a sink­hole accom­pa­nied by Marine Life and the Shark & Yolan­da Reef see’s you glide across the Red Sea accom­pa­nied by sharks, bar­racu­d­as and Dugongs all while sus­pend­ed atop dia­mond coral – for a tru­ly spir­i­tu­al expe­ri­ence in the warm waters of the Red Sea.  

Explore: Along­side the Dives, the Red Sea is also a true Oasis of adven­ture activ­i­ty and sights – with the warm weath­er and waters offer­ing a top des­ti­na­tion to kick back at a resort, get your kicks wind­surf­ing and para­sail­ing, explore ancient monas­ter­ies and even head into the cool sands of the Egypt­ian desert – with the rolling sands of the Wadi al-Gimel desert – which is ful­ly explorable on a 4x4 or by Camel – offer­ing an immense desert expe­ri­ence, a glo­ri­ous sun­set and tru­ly epit­o­mis­ing the Red Sea as being a place where the ocean meets the Desert.  

A place of both a rich his­to­ry and leg­end, and a place with a sto­ry still to be writ­ten – the spec­ta­cle of land and tru­ly awe­some under­wa­ter adven­tures on some of the best dive sights on the plan­et undoubt­ed­ly make the Red Sea a spe­cial and spir­i­tu­al place, with the dia­mond reef – which is in con­stant need of pro­tec­tion – of the Red Sea offer­ing some of the most pris­tine waters on the plan­et and which com­bined, with the rolling desert, rich tapes­try of his­to­ry and the chance to relax at some of the most pre­mier resorts avail­able undoubt­ed­ly makes the Red Sea not only the true under­wa­ter gar­den of Eden but a stun­ning won­der of the world.  

Where:

The place where both the ocean meets the desert – and where the gulfs of Suez and Aqa­ba meet – the 1200 kilo­me­tres of the beau­ti­ful Red Sea stretch across sev­er­al MENA and African coun­tries – includ­ing Eritrea, Israel, Jor­dan, Sau­di Ara­bia, Sudan and Yemen – with explor­ers find­ing access to these incred­i­ble waters are acces­si­ble from mul­ti­ple diverse coun­tries.  

Yet in our view – the best of the Red Sea, in terms of leg­ends, access, cost and of course incred­i­ble div­ing is found in Egypt, with a series of resorts that lie from the South Sinai Penin­su­la of the famed town of Sharm el Sheikh to the south of Marsa Alam – offer­ing true lux­u­ry and com­fort and access to the stun­ning dive sites of the Red Sea.  

In fact, we’d advise bas­ing your­self in one of five towns when explor­ing the Red Sea, with the first port of call for trav­ellers often being the sleepy and qui­et town of El Quseir – where you’ll find incred­i­ble reef div­ing thanks to pro­tect­ed sta­tus – or the overde­vel­oped and bustling streets of Hurgha­da – where you’ll find great access to the Dol­phin reef house reef and incred­i­ble live­aboards to explore the best of red sea div­ing.  

From either town you can then make your way to Sharm el-Sheikh – which offers easy access to the great dive spots found on the straits of Tiran and the Thistle­gorm wreck, the town of  Dahab where either begin­ners or those seek­ing a full dive expe­di­tion are advised to stay thanks to the easy shore access or Marsa Alam in the south – where expe­ri­enced divers are able to nav­i­gate tough cur­rents to explore some of the world’s best dive sites.  

Getting There: 

Tru­ly spe­cial, the beau­ty of the Red Sea’s under­wa­ter marine par­adise is matched by both its afford­abil­i­ty and ease of access – with the resorts and beach­es that lie on the banks of the Red Sea hav­ing gained a deserved rep­u­ta­tion of being easy to reach.  

While bus­es and trains are avail­able from inside Egypt to reach the towns lying off the coast of the Red Sea, due to con­sid­er­a­tions of safe­ty, cost and time – we’d rec­om­mend fly­ing out to the Red Sea to begin your explo­ration – and you can find reg­u­lar­ly dai­ly flights to the main inter­na­tion­al air­ports of the Egypt­ian Red Coast – which are Hurgha­da, Marsa Alam and Sharm El Sheikh – and which offer a great way to get quick­ly into the Red Sea resorts to begin explor­ing the marine eco-sys­tem of the Red Sea.  

As well as fly­ing direct into the Red Sea air­ports, you can also find mul­ti­ple con­nect­ing flights into the Red Sea air­ports from both Cairo and Lux­or, which gives you a chance to com­bine your trip to the won­der of the Red Sea with a chance to explore the rst of Egypt and two addi­tion­al won­ders of the world.  

Once with­in the Egypt­ian Red Sea area, you’ll need to decide on which town you want to head to – based like­ly on your dive and stay pref­er­ences, how­ev­er we’d real­ly rec­om­mend head­ing to Sharm El Sheikh first, and then head­ing from there to one or mul­ti­ple of the oth­er four towns – Dahab, El Quseir, Hurgha­da and Marsa Alam – to explore fur­ther increi­d­ble dive sites.  

From the towns them­selves and when it comes to get­ting around and from town to town in the Egypt­ian area of the Red Sea, your best option is to use a taxi or bus that can fer­ry you up and down the coast from resort to resort when required, how­ev­er it’s essen­tial that you car­ry bot­tled water with you at all times, make sure you agree on a price before­hand, make sure you check your change – and we’d real­ly encour­age female trav­el­ers to not trav­el by them­selves in any form of trans­port in Egypt.  

For those at the resorts and when it comes to div­ing, you’ll find a range of pack­ages on offer – from sin­gle day shore dives, to boat dives, to live­aboards on boats – which are great ways to reach the off the beat­en track dive spots on the Red Sea, so we’d advise being sure to shop around and look at the dive spots list­ed below – to make sure you get the absolute best expe­ri­ence pos­si­ble when vis­it­ing the immense won­der of the world of the Red Sea.  

Best time to Visit: 

While the incred­i­ble marine life and coral is open all year round, for those trav­el­ing to Egypt we’d advise tim­ing your div­ing explo­ration to coin­cide with the best of the Egypt­ian weath­er – with a trip in the peak of sum­mer which being in June see­ing the land and sea con­di­tions too hot – and almost guar­an­tee­ing and uncom­fort­ably hot expe­ri­ence, and the con­di­tions in win­ter see­ing the nights drop to uncom­fort­ably cold tem­per­a­tures – and even mak­ing div­ing less enjoy­able with cool waters.  

For this rea­son, we advise tim­ing any trip to the Red Sea and Egypt as a whole to take place between April to May or Sep­tem­ber to Novem­ber – which will give you the best weath­er con­di­tions to enjoy your trip.  

Div­ing between these times will also like­ly see you head­ing to the Red Sea out­side of the main sum­mer sea­sons tourist sea­son – which will save on costs – and it’s also con­sid­ered one of the best times to head to the Red Sea for favourable div­ing con­di­tions, with the vis­i­bil­i­ty, tem­per­a­ture and best of all the Marine life all at their absolute best – giv­ing you the absolute best of the Red Sea if you head to this incred­i­ble won­der of the world between April to May or Sep­tem­ber to Novem­ber.  

How long to stay:

A mag­i­cal won­der, the Red Sea is a true divers par­adise – and lends itself to both short mul­ti-day trips, week­long vaca­tions – and even dive expe­di­tions that can stretch into the weeks and months – as the full vast of this 1,200-kilometre stun­ning marine eco-sys­tem is explored.  

Yet in con­sid­er­a­tion of costs, work com­mit­ments – and the toll that mul­ti­ple days can have, we’d rec­om­mend putting aside at least six full days to explore the Red Sea. The six days – which is two more days that Israelites took to reach the Red Sea in the bible, will give you enough time to take on the very best of div­ing in the Red Sea – includ­ing tak­ing on the dive sites of the SS Thistle­gorm Wreck and Elphin­stone Reef, whilst also tak­ing on a live­aboard to vis­it the dive sites – and the sharks of The Broth­er Islands or the Daedalus Reef before end­ing with a trip through the incred­i­ble sad­dle at the Shark & Yolan­da Reef.  

Whilst these six days will see a lot of div­ing – and give you at least one day off to enjoy the resorts of the Red Sea  — and explore the mag­ic lake and desert of Wadi al-Gimel, it’s also entire­ly pos­si­ble – espe­cial­ly for dive enthu­si­asts to stay longer to explore oth­er incred­i­ble dive spots, or for those on a strict time sched­ule – spend few­er – with a 2–3 day itin­er­ary at the red sea giv­ing you a chance to sam­ple one or two dive spots. 

But in our opin­ion, to give your­self enough time to explore the tru­ly incred­i­ble – and diverse — marine won­der­land, while fac­tor­ing in enough time to recov­er from Dives – we’d encour­age explor­ers to bud­get six days to explore the incred­i­ble under­wa­ter par­adise that is the Red Sea. 

Top Tip:

A mag­i­cal won­der and a tru­ly incred­i­ble marine eco-sys­tem, the Red Sea is best accessed from the resort towns of Egypt which lie on the banks of the sea, with any explo­ration of this incred­i­ble won­der not only requir­ing a secu­ri­ty assess­ment, con­sid­er­a­tion of the scorch­ing weath­er – but also giv­ing con­sid­er­a­tion as to the nec­es­sary safe­ty pre­cau­tions and prac­tices when under­tak­ing div­ing.  

So to make sure your explo­ration of this under­wa­ter gar­den of Eden is as enjoy­able as pos­si­ble, and that any dive expe­di­tion and stay in the Egypt­ian side of the Red Sea is as safe and relaxed as pos­si­ble we’ve round­ed out our top tips when vis­it­ing and div­ing on the Red Sea – to help make sure you get the absolute best expe­ri­ence at this incred­i­ble won­der of the world: 

Be Safe – First­ly and most impor­tant­ly, any trip to the Egypt and the resorts of the Red Sea must first con­sid­er the safe­ty aspects of the region, as despite increased secu­ri­ty and an empha­sis on mak­ing tourists feel wel­come, there has unfor­tu­nate­ly been ter­ror­ist attacks across the whole of Egypt over the last few years. For this rea­son we strong­ly encour­age trav­ellers to check gov­ern­men­tal alerts before trav­el­ling and ensure they a reful­ly aware of the cur­rent polit­i­cal and social cli­mate before head­ing to Egypt.  

 - It’s also strong­ly rec­om­mend­ed to make sure that you stay in well respect­ed and renowned resorts or hotels when vis­it­ing the Red Sea, with some of the accom­mo­da­tion in out­skirts of cities – and in Hurgha­da being con­sid­ered unsafe and hav­ing a rep­u­ta­tion for pos­si­ble dan­ger for tourists.  

 - We’d also strong­ly encour­age you to stay vig­i­lant across the Red Sea, while the Egypt­ian side of the Red Sea has a rep­u­ta­tion for being incred­i­ble friend­ly and wel­com­ing of explor­ers, we’d advise that you take pre­cau­tions with your valu­ables to pro­tect them from pick­pock­ets and theft and solo female trav­ellers are not advised to board taxi’s by them­selves or trav­el out­side after dark.  

The Weath­er - The Red Sea is famed for its warm waters – which in some cas­es can reach 33 degrees centi­grade, and the same weath­er can hit the banks and resorts along the Red Sea – with the days are known for being incred­i­bly hot while the nights can see you chilly and cold. For this rea­son it’s essen­tial that you come pre­pared for the weath­er – first­ly with the cor­rect cloth­ing – includ­ing sun­glass­es, shorts and t‑shirts for the day, and a good jumper and jeans for the weath­er. Sec­ond­ly you’ll also need to come pre­pared with plen­ty of sun­screen and – the high­est SPF you can find – as the harsh sun will burn instant­ly, so we’d rec­om­mend also com­ing with plen­ty of Aloe Vera for any pos­si­ble burns.  

Food and Costs – It’s also strong­ly advised not to drink any tap water or ice cubes, with the only drink you should take being any­thing bot­tled – and like­wise we’d advise being care­ful with the food you take, with those known to have del­i­cate stom­achs advised to eat care­ful­ly and bring some Imod­i­um – just in case !. We’d also advise being on your guard when you pay for any­thing – from food, to taxi dri­ves to sou­venirs, make sure you check the price in advance and be sure to check the exact change and mon­ey giv­en back to you.  

Scu­ba Div­ing – Final­ly there’s no doubt that the cen­tre – and high­light of your trip will – be the incred­i­ble scu­ba div­ing you under­take on the Red Sea. To make sure this is enjoy­able – and safe as pos­si­ble we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend that first­ly you ensure you have good healthy insur­ance that cov­ers full scu­ba div­ing. It’s also essen­tial that any dives are under­tak­en with rep­utable scu­ba div­ing com­pa­nies (look for reviews) – espe­cial­ly for those inex­pe­ri­enced or who are under­tak­ing scu­ba div­ing for the first time. We’d also strong­ly advise you to go with a trust­ed dive bud­dy and to make sure to test all your equip­ment before jump­ing into the water – as well as being sure to fol­low good and safe dive prac­tices.  

Final­ly for the best expe­ri­ence – we’d real­ly rec­om­mend con­sid­er­ing explor­ing the Red Sea waters on a live­aboard, which will give you access to some of the best, remote and pho­to­genic dive spots on the Red Sea – and be sure to hire or come with a high-qual­i­ty under­wa­ter cam­era – so that you can cap­ture both your expe­ri­ence and the full beau­ty of the daz­zling coral, curi­ous and incred­i­ble marine life that lies in the under­wa­ter par­adise of the true won­der of the world that is the Red Sea.  

Cost:  

Despite its vast size and the stun­ning under­wa­ter par­adise that awaits you at the incred­i­ble won­der of the world of the Red Sea, the resorts that dot the Egypt­ian banks of the sea and the scu­ba div­ing activ­i­ties across the warm waters have devel­oped a well-deserved rep­u­ta­tion as being whol­ly afford­able and offer­ing great val­ue for mon­ey – with the Red Sea being one of the most acces­si­ble and cost friend­ly won­ders – par­tic­u­lar­ly for trav­ellers based in the Mena or Euro­pean regions – on the plan­et.  

Start­ing with the cost of flights to the Red Sea, and we’d rec­om­mend fly­ing into the Sharm el-Sheikh or Hurgha­da Inter­na­tion­al Air­ports to get your­self to the resorts and dive sites on the Red Sea. From across Europe and Mena you can grab tick­ets for as low as $100 Usd return on an off peak month, and as lit­tle as $200 Usd and you can then expect to pay between $10 — $20 Usd to get to the banks and resorts on El Quseir, Hurgha­da or Sharm el-Sheikh.  

For those trav­el­ling inter­na­tion­al­ly from North Amer­i­ca, Asia or Aus­tralia, you can expect your cost of flights to be more expen­sive – and we’d rec­om­mend con­sid­er­ing fly­ing into Cairo first to explore the great won­ders that await you there, before tak­ing a domes­tic flight to the Red Sea. For these trav­ellers you can expect to pay between $700 — $1000 Usd for a return flight – although it’s entire­ly pos­si­ble to get these num­bers down if you can get a cheap flight into Europe and then trav­el onwards direct to the Red Sea.  

Once in the Red Sea and at the Egypt­ian resorts – which real­ly is the best place to explore the incred­i­ble under­wa­ter par­adise of the Red Sea from – you’ll need to con­sid­er the cost of accom­mo­da­tion, and this can range from bud­get back­pack­er hos­tels and pri­vate rental apart­ments – from $15 — $25 Usd a night, to the more indul­gent resorts – par­tic­u­lar­ly in Sharm El-Sheikh where prices can range up to $500 Usd a night, with their also being more mod­er­ate­ly priced com­fort­able resorts avail­able as well, and of course the option of live­aboard boats for those tak­ing on the advanced div­ing sites on offer.  

For div­ing itself, the Red Sea – par­tic­u­lar­ly on the Egypt­ian side is one of the most afford­able and cost con­ve­nient places in the world to dive, with a sin­gle day div­ing (2 dives) start­ing from $45 usd includ­ing equip­ment, and each sub­se­quent dive after­wards like­ly to cost around $40 Usd – giv­ing you the chance to take on mul­ti­ple dives at a low cost.  

The Red Sea is also, in our opin­ion, one of the best places to con­sid­er get­ting your dive licence – and for a 3–4 day PADI course you can expect to pay $450 Usd – includ­ing the the­o­ry test, mul­ti­ple dives and the prac­ti­cal test at the end – after which you will be a ful­ly cer­ti­fied Scu­ba Div­er.  

The Red Sea dive cen­tres also offer the chance to explore these waters for those with­out a licence, with intro­duc­to­ry dives start­ing from $90 USD – where you can expect a ful­ly guid­ed and safe scu­ba expe­ri­ence, and for the more advanced divers night dives come in at around $45 USD – and for those set on spend­ing a cou­ple of days on a live­aboard boat where you get to not only sleep on the incred­i­ble Red Sea but also take on mul­ti­ple dives, you can expect to pay around $150 Usd a night for each night on a live­aboard – which is well worth it to give you access to some incred­i­ble and hard to reach dive sites.  

Fac­tor­ing in around $30 Usd for meals, anoth­er $100 Usd for a trip to the sands of Wadi al-Gimel – $50 for under­wa­ter cam­era hire and pho­tos and $40 Usd for a well-earned mas­sage and treat after all that div­ing, for those trav­el­ling from the Europe to Mena region we’d advise set­ting aside $1000 Usd for a 7 week trip on the Red Sea – which includes mul­ti­ple dives, a stay at an indul­gent resort and a cou­ple of dives on a live­aboard – which will give you the absolute best of this under­wa­ter par­adise.  

Fun Fact: 

Along­side being home to some of the most immense dive sites on the plan­et – giv­ing explor­ers the chance to explore a true under­wa­ter par­adise and thou­sands of species of fish – 10% of which are endem­ic, as well as mul­ti­ple species of tur­tles, sharks, man­ta rays and spot the elu­sive Red Sea Dugong across hun­dreds of species of daz­zling and emer­ald coral, the Red Sea is home to some of the salti­est and hottest water in the world – reach­ing a scorch­ing high of 33 degrees centi­grade.  

It is this com­bi­na­tion of burn­ing water, com­bined with the mix­ing of the salt water with the algae that cre­ates the spe­cial red colour that glis­tens in some parts of the sea – and from where the sea takes its name. With the name itself also being steeped in leg­end, as along­side being one of the most trav­elled trade routes on the plan­et and the car­go gate­way between Europe and Asia, the Red Sea is the sight of one of the most impor­tant spir­i­tu­al and reli­gious events – as it was on the Egypt­ian banks of the Red Sea where Moses part­ed the waters to allow his fol­low­ers safe pas­sage and to escape from the Egyp­tians in the Old Tes­ta­ment.  

With this com­bi­na­tion of stun­ning coral and marine life, deep burn­ing red waters and spir­i­tu­al leg­end com­ing togeth­er to make the Red Sea a tru­ly spe­cial and mag­i­cal place.  

Best Dive Spots & photo spots: 

A true par­adise of under­wa­ter activ­i­ty and life, the incred­i­ble marine eco-sys­tems of the Red Sea are its undoubt­ed high­light – with the daz­zling 300 species of coral com­bined with the colour­ful 1,200 dif­fer­ent species of fish and curi­ous marine wildlife – includ­ing tur­tles, dol­phins man­ta rays, sharks and the icon­ic red sea Dugong – all of which are found amongst coral walls, blue holes and ship­wrecks in clear and vis­i­ble waters – mak­ing the Red Sea one of the best Dive loca­tions on the plan­et.  

It is this under­wa­ter oasis that stands as the pho­tog­ra­phy high­light on the Red Sea – with the Red Sea being not only incred­i­bly acces­si­ble and afford­able, but for those with­out a dive licence, it’s undoubt­ed­ly one of the most incred­i­ble under­wa­ter spots on the plan­et to learn to Scu­ba – mean­ing that this incred­i­ble under­wa­ter gar­den can be enjoyed by all.  

Once kit­ted out – includ­ing with an under­wa­ter cam­era in hand — and with dif­fer­ent lev­els of div­ing avail­able – includ­ing chal­leng­ing dives for the expe­ri­enced and more gen­tle guides for oth­ers —  the incred­i­ble and jew­el of an under­wa­ter par­adise under the Red Sea awaits you, and owing to the vast size and thou­sands of coral reefs that call this won­der home, we’ve picked out our top 10 dive sites on the Red Sea to help make sure you cap­ture the full beau­ty – and have the high­est chance of snap­ping the life team­ing in the waters – of the incred­i­ble won­der of the world of the Red Sea: 

The SS Thistlegorm Wreck 

The most famous dive site across the Red Sea, the SS Thistle­gorm is a sunken British World War II car­go ship – which thanks to its upright posi­tion 33 metres down on the seabed floor,  now stands as first­ly an under­wa­ter muse­um — thanks to the vast sup­ply of mil­i­tary equip­ment, includ­ing armed vehi­cles, motor­bikes, trucks and caches of guns and sec­ond­ly as a par­adise of marine life – with bright­ly coloured croc­o­dile fish, bar­racu­da, snap­pers, stingrays and fam­i­lies of Tur­tles all known to favour the shel­ter of the wreck.  

It is thanks to this com­bi­na­tion of his­to­ry and life that the SS Thistle­gorm is one of the tru­ly great under­wa­ter pho­to loca­tions on the plan­et – with an explo­ration of the ship and guar­an­teed wildlife sight­ing ensur­ing that explor­ers are able to snap incred­i­ble marine pho­tos. Yet, it was only recent­ly that a jour­ney through the SS Thistle­gorm was pos­si­ble, with the wreck – which is con­sid­ered one of the best in the world – which was dis­cov­ered by the famous explor­er Jacques Cousteau in 1956 hav­ing remained both secret and off lim­its to divers until the turn of the cen­tu­ry.  

Eas­i­ly reached from the resort par­adise of Sharm El Sheikh – and best explored on a live­aboard div­ing cruise, the SS Thistle­gorm has a well-deserved rep­u­ta­tion as one a divers par­adise and a tru­ly great place for divers to snap pho­tos of not just pho­tos of his­to­ry but of an under­wa­ter eco-sys­tem team­ing with daz­zling kalei­do­scop­ic coral, fish and marine life – for what is undoubt­ed­ly the quin­tes­sen­tial and pic­ture per­fect snap of the life and beau­ty of the Red Sea.  

Elphinstone Reef 

 An under­wa­ter gar­den of beau­ty, the reef at Elphin­stone – named after a British Admi­ral – is tru­ly one for those look­ing to snap marine life – with the reef famous for its large con­cen­tra­tion of ham­mer­head and ocean­ic white tip sharks – with it being one of the few places on the plan­et divers can get up close to and snap close-up shots of these mag­nif­i­cent Apex preda­tors.  

Along­side the sharks, you’ll also find large con­cen­tra­tions of pho­to­genic Man­ta Rays, Hawks­bill Tur­tles, Napoleon Wrasse and thanks to the famed 700-metre and 600 metre reef walls you’ll also find oceans of small­er but equal­ly pho­to­genic fish life – includ­ing large shoals or tuna, bar­racu­da and even a shot at a sar­dine run – all of which make for incred­i­ble pho­tos. 

The reef itself with it’s famed reef walls and daz­zling emer­ald hard and soft corals is equal­ly stun­ning – with the 42 metre dive depth giv­ing you a true chance to explore all of the coral, caves and even cliffs that the beau­ty of the Elphin­stone reef has to offer – and no doubt snap incred­i­ble pho­tos along your way. A great spot for drift div­ing, the Elphin­stone reef s best explored at sun­rise – when the team­ing ani­mal life is at its peak – and you can reach it on either a day trip from Marsa Alam – or an a live­aboard which gives you mul­ti­ple chances to pho­to­graph this incred­i­ble dive site in all its glo­ry. 

The Brother Islands  

A remote and almost untouched par­adise – the twin broth­er islands, affec­tion­ate­ly nick­named the big and lit­tle islands – are one of the great­est spots on both Red Sea and the plan­et in which to encounter untouched coral and reefs and come face to face with an array of Shark Life – includ­ing Grey Reef, Ham­mer­head, Whitetips and Sil­ver­tip sharks – with the islands rep­re­sent­ing one of the best places for a div­er to grab a pho­to of them­selves along­side a Shark – which is undoubt­ed­ly a pho­to­graph­ic shot that will last a life­time.  

Home as well to thou­sands of curi­ous and bright­ly coloured coral and fish – who for those div­ing on the big island make for an incred­i­ble accom­pa­ni­ment to explor­ing the twin wrecks of the Aida II and the Numidia, dives on the Broth­er Islands are made all the more spe­cial thanks to the remote­ness and hard to access loca­tion of the islands – mean­ing that it’s not uncom­mon for divers to be able to explore the islands with only their dive bud­dies – which again adds to the romance and beau­ty of shots tak­en at these islands.  

A true oasis of plant and ani­mal life, the broth­er islands are best explored on a mul­ti-day live­aboard board­ed from Hurgha­da and Divers under­tak­ing an explo­ration here are rec­om­mend­ed to be expe­ri­enced owing in large part to the unpre­dictable cur­rents and the poten­tial­ly dead­ly ani­mal life you’ll encounter. Yet for those who make the plunge into this true under­wa­ter par­adise expect to sur­face with a like­ly close encounter with an Apex preda­tor and some tru­ly incred­i­ble under­wa­ter pho­tos.  

The Blue Hole 

A tru­ly immer­sive and adven­tur­ous dive – and one that gives you some of the best under­wa­ter pho­tos on the plan­et, a jour­ney to and into the blue hole of Dahab is tru­ly incred­i­ble – with this mys­ti­cal oasis that sits in the shad­ow of Egypt­ian moun­tains see­ing Divers descend into the 130-metre bright blue sink­hole and giv­ing them the chance to snap an almost oth­er­world­ly and illu­sion pho­to of the beau­ty of the won­der of the Red Sea. 

A dive suit­able only for advanced and expe­ri­enced divers, owing to unpre­dictable cur­rents and dan­ger­ous depths of the hole, you can expect a dive into the blue hole to begin with a con­trolled descent almost 30 metres down through a small tun­nel known as the “arch” – before under­tak­ing a gen­tle drift with the cur­rents and then fol­low­ing a reef wall before emerg­ing into the tru­ly incred­i­ble clear blue waters of the Blue Hole – where an incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty of this vast and deep under­wa­ter oasis awaits you. 

For those want­i­ng an extra spe­cial pho­to – do be sure to ask your guide before hand to take you into and through the Blue Hole before hand – where you can snap both pho­tos look­ing up and down the hole – and get an incred­i­ble shot of your­self with­in the warm and blue waters of a Blue Hole – for a tru­ly unique pho­to.  

Pop­u­lar as well with free-divers who use the blue hole for world record attempts, the Blue Hole is eas­i­ly explored on a day trip from Dahab – and for those that get the oppor­tu­ni­ty to dive in this tru­ly incred­i­ble and unique dive spot you can expect not only an immer­sive and adven­tur­ous expe­ri­ence but the chance to snap incred­i­ble pho­tos of one of the Red Sea’s nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­na.  

Thomas Reef & Canyon 

The chance to dive with­in an under­wa­ter Canyon and explore nar­row under­wa­ter caves and tun­nels, the canyon of Thomas Reef is one of our picks of the mighty reefs across Tiran – which rep­re­sents the absolute best of the 8‑mile nar­row pas­sage­way of Egypt’s strait.  

A dive that begins with you fol­low­ing the cur­rent and drift­ing atop daz­zling emer­ald coral team­ing with thou­sands of fish life – and if you’re lucky the occa­sion­al tur­tle, you’ll fol­low the pas­sage­way round until you reach a clear­ing – where an explo­sion of black and bright green coral awaits you. From here you can expect glo­ri­ous pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of both rich marine life and a thriv­ing eco-sys­tem – before fol­low­ing the coral round to the high­light of this incred­i­ble dive – the open­ing of the Thomas Canyon.  

An open­ing that pro­vides an incred­i­ble panoram­ic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty of deep blue waters set against marine plant life and coral – with the chances of being pho­to­bombed by dol­phins, tur­tles, reef sharks or sea-dongs also high, the Thomas Canyon is a tru­ly mag­i­cal place – sur­round­ing you in crys­tal clear water with some of the world’s best coral and marine life – and a place where you can undoubt­ed­ly cap­ture some of the best under­wa­ter pho­tog­ra­phy on the plan­et.  

The Seven Sisters 

Mov­ing from Egypt to the banks of the Red Sea in Jor­dan, and for those with­out a dive licence or who are knew to div­ing – the well name Sev­en Sis­ters which lies at the head of the gulf of Aqa­ba in the shad­ow of the same named town, offers some of the gen­tlest but equal­ly stun­ning explo­ration of the under­wa­ter par­adise of the Red Sea. 

Suit­able for both snorkellers or intro­duc­to­ry divers, this shore dive see’s explor­ers head instant­ly into the reef, with the shal­low depths, warm weath­er and clear vis­i­bil­i­ty below pro­vid­ing incred­i­ble con­di­tions to spot emer­ald coral, shoals of fish – and even the occa­sion­al tur­tle, reef shark and Man­ta Ray – pro­vid­ing incred­i­ble – and as equal­ly stun­ning as oth­er dive sites – of the mag­ic of the Red Sea.  

For those want­i­ng an extra spe­cial dive, under­wa­ter expe­ri­ence and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty – we’d advise seek­ing out the sunken Amer­i­can anti-air­craft tank, which was pur­pose­ly sunk to cre­ate an arti­fi­cial reef – which is now home to nat­ur­al fam­i­lies of bar­racu­da, tur­tles and nemo fish – giv­ing you one of the most team­ing places of life any­where on the Red Sea – and guar­an­tee­ing you a tru­ly incred­i­ble pho­to of mag­ic of this immense won­der of the world.  

Daedalus Reef 

Stun­ning­ly well pre­served, the unique and inac­ces­si­bil­i­ty of the grand Daedalus Reef – which clocks in at over 50 miles – is one of the most spe­cial and iso­lat­ed reefs on the Red Sea, with the lack of tourism – the reef can only be explored on a live­aboard – and tough dive con­di­tions con­sti­tut­ing to a pris­tine and in some places untouched under­wa­ter par­adise team­ing with thriv­ing coral and rare and beau­ti­ful marine life – which com­bine to give explor­ers some of the best and unblem­ished under­wa­ter pho­tog­ra­phy on the plan­et.  

Chief amongst these incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties is the chance to cap­ture incred­i­ble open sea pho­tos of true Apex preda­tors – with vast sight­ing of ham­mer­heads, white tip and thresh­er sharks all com­mon, and explor­ers get­ting the chance to glide along­side moun­tains tuna and bar­racu­da, all set against the back­drop of tow­er­ing and glow­ing coral walls  for a unique and tru­ly spe­cial expe­ri­ence and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty. 

Best accessed from the div­ing hub of Marsa Alam – and then explored over a course of mul­ti­ple day, the Daedalus Reef is undoubt­ed­ly one of the tough­est dives across the Red Sea – with strong cur­rents, chal­leng­ing reefs and preda­tors all lurk­ing beneath the sur­face, yet for those who take the plunge and enter into the crys­tal clear waters of the Daedalus Reef you can expect an almost untouched under­wa­ter par­adise with some of the best div­ing and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties across the Red Sea await­ing you.  

Jackson Reef 

The best reef on the Egypt­ian side of the nar­row pas­sage of the straits of Tiran, the Jack­son Reef is one of the best div­ing day trips avail­able across the Red Sea – with hard and soft flu­o­res­cent corals being home to vast and diverse marine life – includ­ing shoals of tuna, bar­racu­da and cat­fish and some of the rare and endem­ic species of the Red Sea includ­ing octo­pus, moray eels, tur­tles and three dif­fer­ent species of sharks. 

Famed for it’s immense coal – includ­ing the always pho­to­genic gor­goni­ans and fire coral – which in our view is one of the most stun­ning coral col­lec­tions across the whole of the Red Sea, the Jack­son Reef also offers one of the best wreck dives on the plan­et – with the Cypri­ot Lara Freighter, which sad­ly sank in 1981, lying on the depth of the Jackson’s Reef sands – and which can now be explored by advanced divers on a ded­i­cat­ed dive, with the pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of this incred­i­ble wreck being some of the great­est avail­able to wreck divers.  

Best explored by divers who have based them­selves in Sharm el-Sheikh, the waters of the Jack­son reef are known for being clear and warm – but also come with per­il with the strong cur­rents of the Straits of Tiran known to be incred­i­bly chal­leng­ing – so while the waters of the Jack­son Reef do offer an under­wa­ter par­adise to be explored and pho­tographed, it should only be done so by expe­ri­enced divers.  

Shaab Sataya  

The home of the Dol­phin, the vast and kalei­do­scop­ic reef of Shaab Sataya is the place to go to snap pho­tos of the beau­ti­ful, curi­ous and friend­ly spin­ner dol­phins – with the shal­low sur­face reefs pro­vid­ing per­fect con­di­tions to both snorkel, dive, observe, inter­act and take pho­tos with the guardians and friend­liest res­i­dents of the sea in their own nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment.  

Incred­i­bly accus­tomed to humans, the Spin­ner Dol­phins of Shaab Sataya the Dol­phins stay close to the sur­face of the Shaab Sataya lagoon – but you’ll also find deep div­ing at Shaab Sataya  which descends some 65 metres and offers div­ing and pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties in between inter­ac­tions, with vast swarms of tuna, nemo fish and daz­zling coral – includ­ing a mes­meris­ing and illu­mi­nat­ed coral wall – that extends some 3 miles down in the waters of the Red Sea also found in the depths of Shaab Sataya.  

A soft and gen­tle dive and reef, Shaab Sataya is best accessed as a day trip from Marsa Alam and thanks to the spin­ner dol­phins whose friend­ly and curi­ous nature afford for incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties, it is undoubt­ed­ly one of the must explore – and must snap pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties – across the whole of the Red Sea.  

Shark & Yolanda Reef 

Two Reefs side by side, the Shark and Yolan­da Reef’s are two of the most adren­a­line induc­ing dives on the plan­et, with the reef dives, which see you nav­i­gate your way over an 800 metre deep coral wall – team­ing with kalei­do­scop­ic and daz­zling plan­et life, through shoals of reef fish, man­ta rays, bar­racu­d­as, tuna, snap­per and sharks, even see’s you sus­pend­ed in the mid­dle of the ocean atop a shin­ing marine eco-sys­tem on a pas­sage known as the ‘sad­dle’ — mak­ing for a tru­ly spe­cial expe­ri­ence and a chance to cap­ture under­wa­ter pho­tog­ra­phy like no oth­er.  

Tru­ly spe­cial the coral life at the reef’s of Shark & Yolan­da are known for being both illu­mi­nat­ed and pho­to­genic, with the reef’s also being unique in that both their pin­na­cles rise to with­in a few feet of the sur­face of the Red Sea before drop­ping the 800 metres down to the bot­tom of the ocean – a tru­ly rare phe­nom­e­non for coral reef’s but one which cre­ates the spe­cial sad­dle which explor­ers can nav­i­gate.  

Along­side the spe­cial sad­dle, you’ll also find anoth­er incred­i­ble oppor­tu­ni­ty to wreck dive, with the Yolan­da Reef tak­ing its name after a sunken freighter that lies a quar­ter of the way down on the reef, and which while being out of the dive lim­its for most divers, frag­ments of the wreck can be seen in the shal­low waters – which have now become home to stingrays and angelfish – giv­ing you an up close expe­ri­ence and chance to cap­ture these mag­nif­i­cent marine life at home.  

You’ll also find the wreck Jolan­da across the reef’s – which usu­al­ly serves as the cli­max of a dive into the reef’s of Shark & Yolan­da, with the sunken ship – whose quar­ters are still in tact and which offer a known rest­ing and feed­ing place to colonies of sharks. Eas­i­ly accessed from Sharm el-Sheikh, the rich marine and coral life team­ing in the reef’s of Shark & Yolan­da are tru­ly mag­i­cal – but are also chal­leng­ing in parts, with the tough cur­rents and drifts – which assist your pas­sage across the ‘sad­dle’ being poten­tial­ly dead­ly, and we’d cau­tion that only expe­ri­enced divers should attempt explor­ing this reef below the shal­lows.  

Tru­ly spe­cial, the reef’s of Shark & Yolan­da are in our opin­ion one of the top 10 dive sites in the world, with the adren­a­line induc­ing sad­dle being an expe­ri­ence like no oth­er – and thanks to chance to get up close and per­son­al and pho­to­graph the rich marine life that lie in these incred­i­ble won­ders, there’s no doubt that the Shark & Yolan­da encap­su­late all that is spe­cial about the Red Sea, and under­line exact­ly why this stun­ning under­wa­ter par­adise is a true won­der of the world.