Hurghada Diving Review

Hurghada is the new popular scuba diving destination of Red Sea. It is the second main diving area in Egypt after Sharm El Sheikh. It was a quiet fishing village and is now growing and growing with many hotels, resorts and dive centers.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gr33ndata/515899695/

It is an ideal gateway to dive the Red Sea and is actually the main starting point for liveaboard trips to the South part of the Red Sea. It is also a popular place to learn scuba diving.

In this page you will find more detailed information about scuba diving in Hurghada.

Dive Summary

Hurghada offers very interesting scuba diving opportunities with many reefs to enjoy and wrecks to explore. The main diving areas are:

Local Dive Sites

There are nice reefs around Hurghada and especially around the nearby Giftun Islands. There are also few local wrecks such as the El Mina or the Salem Express a bit more far away. These dives sites are shallow and easy with good visibility and an interesting reef life. This is the perfect spot to learn scuba diving and many Europeans come here to get their Padi Open Water Certification or CMAS 1 Star. However, for the experienced divers, the most interesting dive sites are located Northern around Abu Nuhas for superb Wreck Diving!

Abu Nuhas Wrecks

There are four (Actually 5 but the last one is way too deep!) Wrecks on the Abu Nuhas Reef! The Wrecks (Kimon M, Giannis D, Chrisoula K and the Carnatic) are very close from each other and what is really interesting is that they come from different periods and are different kinds of ships. Moreover the wrecks are shallow with good conditions and it is possible for inexperienced divers to dive the Abu Nuhas Wrecks.

The Marine Life is great with Turtles, Barracudas, Jacks, Blue Spotted Stingrays, lion fishes and all the usual reef fishes of the Red Sea!

The Abu Nuhas Reef is located North of Hurghada. It is possible to dive these spots on a day trip but it will take from 2 to 3 hours each way to go there.

Rosalie Moller Wreck

The Rosalie Moller Wreck is a superb wreck dive! However it is quite deep, with the sea bottom at 50 meters and reserved to experienced divers. The Marine Life is amazing with lots of schooling fishes and pelagic fishes.

The Rosalie Moller is located a bit more North than the Abu Nuhas Wrecks and it takes about 3 hours to go there from Hurghada.

There are also other great dive sites such as the Dolphin Reef where Dolphins can often be spotted when scuba diving or when Snorkelling. A bit more South there is the superb wreck of the Salem Express but it is more easily reachable from Safaga.

Scuba Diving in Hurghada is great for underwater photography because of the very good visibility and beautiful wrecks to explore. However, it is not really the best place for Macro and Critter lovers. If you look for excellent Macro and Muck Diving, try the Lembeh Strait or Wakatobi in Indonesia and Mabul Island in Malaysia!

Moreover if you don’t like the crowd and if you don’t like diving with 20 other boats around you, it is maybe not the good place for you or you should consider taking a liveaboard for a few days.

The best dive sites around Hurghada are:

• Rosalie Moller
• Giannis D
• Carnatic Wreck
• Chrisoula K. Wreck
• Kimon M. Wreck
• Salem Express Wreck
• Dolphin Reef

How to dive Hurghada?

Liveaboards

Most of the liveaboards going to the Southern Red Sea start from Hurghada. You can dive the excellent and famous spot of the Brothers or Elphinstone Reef! However theses destinations are reserved to experienced divers. There are also Liveaboards going to dive the Northern Red Sea and visiting the sites of Abu Nuhas, Rosalie Moller Wreck, and the world famous dive sites of the SS Thistlegorm Wreck and the Ras Mohammed Marine Park.

Liveaboards are interesting if you don’t want to lose travel time to the dive sites, if you want to avoid the crowded dive sites and if you are a big fan of scuba diving. Moreover, they can be actually cheaper than Hotels+ diving day trips.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bay47/5505033841/

Best time to Dive in Hurghada

It is possible to dive all year round in the Red Sea. However the air and the water temperature can vary greatly throughout the year.

Water Temperature in Hurghada:

• From July to September, it is the hottest month with a Water temperature of about 28°C.
• The coldest month is February with a water temperature of about 21°C.
• From October to November, you can expect from 25°C to 27°C.
• From March to June the water is warming up with temperatures ranging between 22°C to 25°C.

Air Temperature in Hurghada

• In Winter, From November to March, you can expect temperatures ranging between 15°C and 35°C.
• During Summer, from April to October, air temperatures are much higher and range between 20°C to 45°C!
• February is the coldest month and August is the hottest one!

Hot Tip

• There is no really best diving season in Red Sea but if you don’t like crowded dive sites, try to avoid the high season from March to May and from September to November!
• The low season and maybe the best season if you don’t care about the heat is during Summer from May to August.

Credit

Scuba Diving conditions

The Sea conditions are generally excellent in the North of Red Sea.

Visibility: You can expect very good visibility all year round. It usually ranges from 20 m to 30 m depending on the dive site. At some places you can have up to 60 meters!

Water Temperature: it varies a lot. The coldest month is February and you can have a chilly 21°C. December and January also have water around 22°C. From October to November and from March to June, you can expect around 26 °C. If you look for warm water, prefer a trip from June to September with an average 28°C.

Current: it is generally gentle and local dive sites around Giftun Islands are perfect to learn Scuba Diving.

Snorkelling in Hurghada

The Red Sea offers good Snorkelling opportunities. Most of the dive centers in Urghada propose snorkelling day tours to some of the best sites around the nearby reefs and Islands. The Giftun Island is a popular Snorkelling place to observe shallow and beautiful coral gardens.

Hot tip

• When Snorkelling in the Red Sea, don’t forget your sunscreen and a T-shirt to protect from Sunburns!

Travel Guide

Now that you know all about the underwater world, you might want to start planning your scuba holiday! Check out our Hurghada Travel Review for information about how to get there, activities and excursions, where to stay, and more.

Dive spots in Hurghada