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Nile Cruises Luxor to Aswan: Routes, Boats and Prices
Classic Egypt Tours: Cairo, Luxor and Aswan Itineraries
Nile Cruise and Red Sea Holidays: Two-Week Egypt Trips
White Desert Tours from Cairo: Oases and Desert Camping
Short Breaks in Egypt: Three and Four Day Cairo Trips
Tailor-made Egypt Tours: Private Trips Built Around You
Top 10 · Trips and the sea
The best diving in Egypt is on ten Red Sea sites. The famous wreck is the SS Thistlegorm. The best reef walls are Shark and Yolanda at Ras Mohammed, and the Straits of Tiran give the best drifts. Abu Nuhas has four wrecks, and the Blue Hole and the Canyon are in Dahab. For sharks, go to Elphinstone, the Brothers and Daedalus. Fury Shoals has easy coral. Some suit new divers. Five of them ask for far more experience, and we mark which ones.
We chose the sites that come up again and again on our own diving pages, from Sinai down to the deep south. The list mixes wrecks, walls, drifts and the offshore reefs where sharks gather.
For each one, we give the experience it asks of you. Card depths follow PADI: Open Water divers train to 18 metres, Advanced Open Water to 30, and Deep Diver to 40, the recreational limit. Local rules can be stricter, and operators set their own minimum experience for the harder sites.
We give no prices and no guarantee of animals. Sightings depend on season, current and luck.
The Thistlegorm is a Second World War cargo ship lying at Sha'ab Ali, in the Strait of Gubal. Day boats reach it from Sharm el-Sheikh and from the Hurghada side.
It is a long crossing and an early start. The dive is deeper than the reefs near town, and current over the wreck is common.
Level: experienced. Good operators ask what you have logged before they take you.
Shark and Yolanda are two pinnacles at the tip of Ras Mohammed, about 20 km south of Sharm. They are dived together as one drift along the wall, across a sandy saddle.
The Yolanda was a freighter that ran aground here in 1980. The hull later slid into deep water, but its cargo stayed on the reef, including toilets and basins now grown over with coral.
Level: confident recreational divers, as there is often current. You need the full Egyptian visa to enter the park.
North-east of Sharm, the Straits of Tiran hold four reefs in a channel: Gordon, Thomas, Woodhouse and Jackson. Water moves through the channel, so these are drift dives.
The drifting is very good. The boats are also among the first to be cancelled when the wind is up.
Level: experienced. This is not where to spend a brand new Open Water card.
Abu Nuhas is a reef in the shipping approach to the Gulf of Suez. Four wrecks lie along its northern side, mostly at roughly 5 to 30 metres.
The Giannis D lies broken in three, with its stern still easy to read. The Carnatic, a P&O steamer lost in 1869, is grown over and open enough to swim through.
From Hurghada or El Gouna it is a full day, about two hours each way. Level: the shallow wrecks suit Open Water divers, and the deeper parts need an Advanced card.
The Blue Hole is a sinkhole roughly 100 metres deep, a short drive north of Dahab. Most divers enter at a point called the Bells, drop through a short chimney, then follow the wall back into the hole.
Below it, at around 55 metres, the Arch links the hole to open water. That is a technical dive, beyond recreational limits, and divers have died trying it.
Level: Open Water for the Bells and the rim. Stay within your training.
The Canyon is a narrow crack in the reef that you can swim into. The walls are close on both sides, so good buoyancy control matters.
Like most Dahab diving, you reach it by pickup truck and walk in from the shore. No boat is needed.
Level: Advanced Open Water, with confident buoyancy.
Elphinstone is a long offshore reef north of Marsa Alam town. It has steep walls on both sides and a plateau at each end, with open water below.
It is dived as a drift in current. Oceanic whitetip sharks are most likely here in autumn. It is often the first site cancelled when the wind gets up.
Level: experienced. More divers get out of their depth here than anywhere else on the coast.
The Brothers are two small islands far offshore in the central Red Sea. Divers reach them on liveaboards, boats you sleep on for about a week.
They are known for oceanic whitetips, hammerheads and reef sharks. The IUCN Red List rates both oceanic whitetips and scalloped hammerheads as Critically Endangered.
Level: advanced, with operator minimums. Hammerhead months vary, so ask your operator what they have seen recently.
Daedalus is a single reef further south than the Brothers, out in open water. Like the Brothers, it is reached by liveaboard and known for sharks.
Southern liveaboard routes leave from Port Ghalib and Hamata, which is why many divers fly to Marsa Alam.
Level: advanced, with operator minimums. Sightings are never guaranteed.
Fury Shoals is a group of shallow reefs, coral gardens and swim-throughs south of Marsa Alam. It suits ordinary recreational divers well, with no great depth and a lot of healthy coral.
Sataya, at its southern end, is a horseshoe reef where spinner dolphins rest. Treat dolphins as a possible bonus, and follow the no-touch, no-chase code.
Level: Open Water. This is the best site on the list for newer divers.
Sharm el-Sheikh for Ras Mohammed and Tiran, Hurghada for the wrecks of the Strait of Gubal, Dahab for shore diving, and Marsa Alam for the southern reefs and sharks.
For most divers, Shark and Yolanda at Ras Mohammed. For wreck divers, the Thistlegorm. For sharks, the Brothers and Daedalus on a liveaboard.
Yes. Many sites are sheltered with mild current, and an entry-level course usually takes three to four days. Fury Shoals, the Lighthouse in Dahab and the house reefs are good places to start.
Yes, from Sharm el-Sheikh or the Hurghada side. It is a long crossing with an early start, and current is common, so operators usually ask what you have logged.
No. Day boats and shore diving cover most of this list. You need a liveaboard for the Brothers and Daedalus.
The rim and the Bells entry are ordinary recreational dives. The Arch, at around 55 metres, is a technical dive where divers have died. Stay within your training.
Buy dive insurance, since many travel policies exclude diving. Ask the centre where the nearest recompression chamber is. For travel advice, check the current US State Department and UK FCDO pages on Egypt.
Entry rules, opening hours, security advice and exchange rates all move. Check them at the source, not here.
Written and checked by the Nile Trip Guide editorial team · Last reviewed . Entry rules, prices and opening hours change — check anything critical against the official sources linked on this page.
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