Six of the Best Dive Sites in Dahab

Egypt’s Red Sea, with excellent visibility, year-round warmth and mature, largely unbleached reefs, has by far the best diving available on a short-haul flight from the UK.

Sharm and Dahab, thanks to the general absence of current, that outstanding visibility and marine life that, while not up to the standards of the Golden Triangle, still impresses, make excellent spots for adults and – yes! – kids to learn to dive.

But there’s also more challenging diving available, from the wreck of the Thistlegorm and the lethal Arch in the Blue Hole, to, if you have the budget for liveaboard diving, sites in the Tiran Straits such as Jackson Reef.

Diving in Dahab can be very affordable, with some dive packages working out at as little as 15 euros per dive. I like Dahab as a base for diving not just because it’s such a gorgeous, chilled-out town, but because sites are less busy with snorkellers, glass-bottomed boats and similar.

Be aware, though, that equipment may not be well-maintained – gauges, in particular, are really ropy, so it’s worth dropping 100 euros on a computer in one of the dive stores by the Lighthouse if you don’t already have your own.

Here’s three of the best dive sites in Dahab for advanced divers, and three goodies that are suitable if you’re only open water. To get to Dahab, you’ll need to fly to Sharm-el-Sheikh: it’s worth booking a pickup from your hotel as the touts at the airport can be a royal pain.

THREE OF THE BEST DIVE SITES IN DAHAB (ADVANCED)

The Blue Hole

Probably the Sinai’s most famous dive site, because of the many deaths there, the Blue Hole is an almost flawlessly circular sinkhole, around 130m deep in the centre, with a dramatic coral wall on the far side that drops down almost a kilometre, and the lethal Arch at around 50m.

The coral at the Blue Hole is not in the best condition, with almost none left on the inside, but the entry at the Bells is incredible. From the shore, you swim down a very narrow fissure — called The Bells because tanks clang along the sides — invert and drop through a chimney, emerging at around 27m onto a jawdropping wall that falls away into the black.

Most people who die at the Blue Hole do so attempting the Arch, an awe-inspiring swimthrough at a depth that is beyond PADI’s recreational diving limits, on air alone without support. It’s only suitable for very experienced tech divers using trimix, or CIMAS/military-trained divers with support divers waiting at the other side, but reportedly provides awe-inspiring views of the wall.

Ras Abou Galoum

In my experience, this site has some of the better coral around Dahab, not least because it’s hard to reach. It’s possible to drive a very long way round by road, but most operators use camels to carry both divers and kit. There are beautiful shallow coral gardens, a couple of very gentle “drift dives”, plenty of blue-spotted stingrays and, at night, absolutely lovely Spanish dancers.

What makes Ras Abou Galoum one of the best dive sites in Dahab is the Sinai desert experience, sleeping Bedouin style on mats on the beach, eating fresh-cooked Bedouin fish and bread, and hanging out in the shade looking out over the blue. You need to bring drinks with you – the Bedouin will, of course, provide tea – and, if you’ve never ridden a camel, it’s a very non-cheesy way to do that.

The Thistlegorm

Tying with the Blue Hole for the position of the Sinai’s most famous dive site, this is really best reached from Dahab as part of a liveaboard trip, although boats do make the 3-4 hour return journey when there’s sufficient demand, not least because it repays multiple dives.

Discovered by Jacques Cousteau during the 1950s, the SS Thistlegorm was sunk by German bombers in October 1941, while carrying a cargo of transport, now transformed into a marine habitat. Currents can be extremely strong on the descent, but disappear once you’re inside the enormous holds.

Trains, motorbikes, cars and more, all overgrown with ghostly coral, provide a weird time capsule, and connoisseurs have dived this classic wreck hundreds of times and found something new on every dive.

THREE OF THE BEST DIVE SITES IN DAHAB (OPEN WATER)

Penguin Divers House Reef

I’m a bit of a slob when it comes to diving, and there’s something really pleasant about being able to suit up, walk in, enjoy a great dive, walk out again, wash up and then watch the sunset with an ice-cold beer. You’ll need to dive around high tide, though, as the entry is over a shallow bed of coral.

While there’s plenty for advanced divers here – I’ve seen enormous blue-spotted stingrays at around the 35m mark – there’s a lot of lovely corals, soft and hard, on the wall itself, and tons of pretty reef fish, along with lionfish and scorpionfish.

If you haven’t discovered the joys of nudibranchs, the brighly coloured sea slugs with their almost endless permutations, this is a great place to geek out on them – and, if your air consumption’s not brilliant, you can get a lot of bang for your buck by hanging out at 6-10m and enjoying that lovely little wall.

Lighthouse

Ever fancied doing parkour? Swing right from the Lighthouse, follow the sandy bottom along, past the amphoras full of coral and the odd scorpion fish, and there’s an entire underwater playground, used for buoyancy training but more fun when you’re just playing, IMHO.

Wire frame tunnels and climbing frame structures offer the chance to practice your buoyancy, and, whisper it, your speed, or simply go a little bit crazy and work on your somersaults. Because if you haven’t done a somersault or several underwater you really haven’t lived, and with no coral to be harmed you can be as silly as you like.

Golden Blocks

The coral at this site, a little way south of Dahab, is a lot more tired than it used to be, but the coral blocks still retain their colour, and there are plenty of morays, not to mention the odd napoleon fish.

Star of the show, here? The big gorgonians, with their colourful lace framework. The best is at a depth only suitable for advanced divers, but there’s a nice one at 18 metres if your air consumption is good enough.

Looking for things for kids to do in Dahab? Go here. And if you’re looking for CIMAS diving in Dahab go here. Underwater pictures are copyright Sus van der Walle, others are my own.