Shore diving Marsa Alam is the quietest good diving in Egypt, and it is the reason a lot of divers come back to this coast rather than the busier north. Two dives a day, walked into from the beach, no boat to catch and no long transfer. Here is what a week of it looks like from the inside.
What a day looks like
Our Marsa Alam centre sits on Coraya Bay, and the standard day is two reef dives from the beach. You kit up on the sand, walk in, drop onto the reef with a guide and dive at your own pace. There is no boat schedule, so the surface interval is however long you want it to be.
That changes the rhythm of a diving holiday more than it sounds. You can dive at eight and again at eleven and still have the afternoon, or dive late morning and after lunch. Nobody is waiting on a marina slot.
The bays we rotate through
A week of shore diving here is not a week on one reef. Everything below is inside an easy drive of the base, and we move the entry through the week.
- Coraya Bay: the house reef, straight off the beach, and the one most days start on.
- Marsa Assalaya: a quiet bay north of the base with an easy entry.
- Marsa Egla: shallow coral gardens, and the bay we use most for training.
- Marsa Tondoba: sheltered, and the answer on a windy day.
- Gebel El Rosas: coral heads on sand with a lot of small life on them.
Who it suits
It suits certified divers who want a calm week, photographers who want to work a site properly rather than see it once, and anyone who has decided that boat days are the tiring part of a diving holiday.
It also suits training. Refreshers, Open Water skills and Advanced dives all go better somewhere you can stand up, and a nervous diver who can walk out whenever they want relaxes faster than one on a boat two hours from shore.
Gear, and what the day covers
The day covers both dives, tanks, weights, a guide and your transfer within the Marsa Alam area, and the marine park fees. Equipment rental is separate and charged per day, which we keep visible on the price list rather than hidden in the total.
Bring your own mask if you have one. On shore dives you get in and out through a shallow entry and you will be putting the mask on and off more than on a boat, and a mask that fits is the difference between a good week and a fiddly one.
Mixing in the boat days
Most guests here do not do a whole week of shore diving. They build a week out of it: shore days as the base, then the boat and speedboat days for the things you cannot walk to, which on this coast means Abu Dabbab, Marsa Mubarak, Elphinstone, Shaab Samadai and Sataya.
That is the argument for basing yourself in the south. The shore diving is the everyday, and the famous sites are day trips from it rather than the whole reason you flew.
Build the week around the beach
Start with shore days at the base and add the boat trips you actually want. Tell us your dates and we will lay the week out with you.
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