Northern Red Sea & Dahab

The Northern Red Sea and Dahab itinerary provides some of the most historic wrecks like the Thistlegorm combined with the famous Ras Mohamed National Park and Dahab including the famous blue hole. 20 dives will be offered during the week and the chance of a Bedouin dinner at Abu Galom ashore one evening.

Shaab el Erg: Shaab el Erg, also known as “Dolphin House”, is famous for dolphin sightings; it is not uncommon for a school of dolphin to join the dive. The reef drops down to a coral garden at 40 feet/12 meters with marine life like nudibranchs, tuna, trevallies, jacks, scorpionfish and sea turtles.

Dunraven: The Dunraven was a Victorian steam and sail ship carrying spices, cotton, and timber from India. Dunraven hit the reef during a dispute between the Captain with his wife and his First Mate and subsequently caught on fire. It sank in 1876 beside the reef, upside down, and broken in two parts. Inside the wreck are schools of yellow goatfish and giant morays. The hull is covered with corals and full of marine life, like schools of batfish, nudibranchs, pipefish and the rare ghost pipefish. The wreck rests at 50 - 95 feet/15 - 30 meters depth.

Ras Mohamed National Park: The park is located at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula. It was declared a protected area in 1983. The jewels in the crown of this national park are Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef. Shark Reef offers the chance to dive with grey and blacktip reef sharks. It is also home to huge numbers of reef fish and some larger pelagics such as tuna. Yolanda Reef is named after the shipwreck. On the plateau, at 32 - 82 feet/10 - 25 meters depth, are scattered remains of toilets and baths. Anemone City is a wonderful shallow dive at 40 feet/12 meters depth. The Shark Observatory is awesome with plenty of whitetip reef sharks and huge barracudas. The dive sites in Ras Mohamed offer an abundance of reef fish, scorpion fish, multiple macro critters, as well as hard and soft corals. The whole area is a big fish territory.

Thomas Reef is the smallest reef in the strait. The reef’s ends are vertical walls with a large plateau at 82 feet/25 meters depth on the south eastern side. This plateau is covered in colorful coral and has a fence of gorgonian fans longnose hawkfish can be found.

Jackson Reef: Jackson Reef is the northern most reef in Tiran and is well-known for the Cypriot cargo ship The Lara that sank in 1985; some remains of the wreckage can still be seen on top of the reef. The west site has a forest of spectacular gorgonian fan corals at 65 - 100 feet/20 - 30 meters depth as well as many different kinds of reef fishes. The most spectacular and colorful coral garden is at the southwest site in 50 feet/15 meters depth. It is very common to encounter sea turtles, whitetip and grey reef sharks.

The Blue Hole is a drift dive that moves southward until you reach the Blue Hole. The entry point “Bells” is a small crack in the reef-table that continues under water like a chimney down to 28 m and can be exited at any depth. You continue the dive along a fantastic wall covered in coral overhangs surrounded by the full variety of Red Sea fish.

The Canyon is a famous drift dive. Big colonies of star coral, gorgonians, as well as soft and black corals. You may also come across butterfly fish, angelfish and clownfish. The Dahab Canyon is the classic canyon, an essential dive for all fanatics of caves and cavern diving. The Canyon is itself quite a phenomenon. Up to 10 meters high and virtually closed over at the top, it snakes its way up from the depths, to emerge in a large glassfish filled coral dome. The Canyon dive site offers an easy entry and exit point through a shallow, sandy lagoon.

Gabr el Bint ranks among one of the most attractive sites of North Sinai. There are two dives different dives here depending on the weather and conditions - The right side, also known as the dark side, features a steep wall that drops down to about 60m cut by numerous sandy ravines and overhangs. The drop-off is adorned with healthy table corals. The left side is a far more colourful featuring a virtual forest of gorgonians. Usually drop down to about 20-25m swimming along massive boulders protruding from the drop-off which attracts dense shoals of anthias and glassfish.

Gordon Reef is the most southerly reef of the four islands and has a different topography from the others offering both a shallow plateau and drop-offs. There is a huge variety of reef fishes and the chance to see sleeping whitetip reef sharks on sandy patches. At 13 - 16 feet/4 - 5 meters depth, there is an eel garden. The top of the reef, with its lighthouse, is also home to the wreck Louilla that lies almost parallel to the wreck on Jackson Reef.

SS Thistlegorm: The SS Thistlegorm is the most famous of the Red Sea wrecks. The English cargo ship (423 feet/129 meters) was bombed by German aviation on October 6,1941 in the area of Shaab Ali. She was transporting supplies destined for the British fifth army based in Alexandria, as well as armored MGs vehicles, motorcycles, jeeps, trucks, rolling stock, airplane parts, stacks of rifles, radio equipment, munitions, and a plentiful supply of Wellington boots. Now the wreck is an artificial reef on a sandy bottom at 104 feet/32 meters depth and is home to an enormous variety of marine life with large schooling fish. Additionally, the wreck provides a hunting ground for giant tuna and snappers.

Shag Rock: At the northern side of Shag Rock is a small wreck on the sandy seabed at 50 feet/15 meters depth. Kingston was a British cargo ship and sunk in February 1881. Exploring the ship starts at the stern, the rests at 50 feet/15 meters depth. The dive route continues into the hull, easily accessible as the wooden bridge is gone, and the area is well illuminated by sunlight. The remains of the engine room with the boiler still intact are still visible whereas the bow area situated at 13 feet/4 meters depth was destroyed. The fauna here is particularly interesting and includes surgeonfish, nudibranchs, jackfish, groupers, snappers, sea turtles, whitetip reef sharks, and eagle rays. Pods of dolphins are regularly spotted in this area as well.

Giftun Island - One of the famous dive sites in Hurghada is Small Giftun Drift, also known as the Polics Station. It offers a great wall drift dive finishing with a coral garden plateau and stunning coral reef with lots of marine life of varying types. Huge gardens of gorgonian fan corals. eagle rays, moray eels, turtles, shoals of goatfish, scorpionfish, porcupinefish and stonefish.

Deluxe Stateroom Lower Deck

7 cabins (13 spots) available

$1,349

Suite Lower Deck

1 cabin (2 spots) available

$1,649