There are more dive sites Hurghada boats can reach than any one week can cover, and most lists you find online read the same because they were copied from each other. This one is shorter and it is ours: the reefs we dive most weeks, what you actually see on each of them, and who each one suits. It should help you tell your guide what you want out of the day, which is the single thing that most improves a dive here.
You do not pick the site, and that is a good thing
On a normal boat day the captain picks the sites in the morning, on the wind and on where the other boats are going. That sounds like a loss of control, and it is the opposite: the wind decides which side of a reef is divable, and a plan made three days ago on a laptop ignores it.
What you can steer is the kind of diving. Tell us at pickup that you want coral gardens and shallow light, or that you want a wall and some current, or that you have a camera and want to be somewhere quiet, and the site choice bends around it. Groups are small, six divers to a guide at most, so a group with a shared answer usually gets it.
Small Giftun, the one everybody remembers
The reefs around Small Giftun island are the classic Hurghada day, and they are popular for a reason. Coral gardens sit in ten to eighteen metres with sand channels running through them, the light is superb through the middle of the day, and the fish life is dense rather than dramatic: anthias in clouds, groupers, big shoals of goatfish, plenty of turtles.
It suits everybody. Newly certified divers get shallow reef with no current to worry about, and photographers get the best natural light of any site in the area. If you only dive one day in Hurghada, this is the day we would put you on.
Abu Ramada, the fish soup
Abu Ramada Island and the ergs around it are where you go when you want fish rather than coral. The pinnacles hold glassfish in numbers that block the light inside the swim throughs, and the sandy side draws stingrays, snappers and the occasional eagle ray passing along the drop.
The south side is sheltered when the wind gets up, which is why it appears on so many winter days. It is comfortable for any certified diver, and it is a good second dive after something deeper.
Sha'ab El Erg, the dolphin reef
Sha'ab El Erg is a big horseshoe reef north of Hurghada with a resident pod of bottlenose dolphins in the lagoon. They are wild animals with a bay they are attached to, not a show, so we say the site and never promise the sighting, and we stay out of the lagoon when they are resting.
The diving stands on its own without them. The eastern side has coral gardens in eight to fourteen metres, and the site is shallow enough that a long dive is easy on air, which is why it is often the day we run for guests who want a relaxed second dive.
Abu Nugar, for the coral itself
Abu Nugar is a cluster of small reefs with hard coral in genuinely good condition, which is not something to take for granted anywhere in the world right now. It is shallow, easy and quiet, it rarely has current, and it works as a check dive on the first morning of a diving week when nobody wants a hard start.
The wrecks, and the honest version
Hurghada has real wreck diving, but the two famous ones are not part of a normal boat day and you should be suspicious of anyone who tells you otherwise. The SS Thistlegorm sits in the Strait of Gubal and needs its own long trip, and the Salem Express lies off Safaga, an hour and a half down the coast. Both are worth arranging properly rather than squeezing in.
Closer to home, our wrecks tour runs a full day on the wrecks around Hurghada with two guided dives, and it is an Advanced level day: there are swim throughs, the light drops fast inside, and a torch changes the dive completely. If you are certified but new, do a reef day first and book the wrecks later in the week.
How to choose, in one minute
If you are still deciding what to ask for, this is the short version our guides give at the desk.
- First dives after a course, or a nervous refresher: Small Giftun or Abu Nugar, shallow and calm.
- You want fish and structure: Abu Ramada, then a shallow reef as the second dive.
- You want the best chance of dolphins: Sha'ab El Erg, early, and manage your expectations.
- You are Advanced with a torch and a taste for tight spaces: the wrecks tour.
Tell us what you want out of the day
Pick a boat day, tell your guide at pickup what kind of diving you are after, and the site choice follows you rather than the other way around.
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