When I told people that we were going to Egypt on a father/daughter scuba diving trip, I got a lot of weird looks. Why? Well, because most people associate Egypt with the Sahara Desert, pyramids, and camels…not the ocean.
But, if you look at the map, Egypt is more than that; it’s actually connected to two large bodies of water, the Mediterranean AND the Red Sea! And lucky for us, the Red Sea has some of the best diving in the entire world.
I did a lot of reading about the best place to go diving. Egypt has several great locations, but the top three and most well-known are probably Sharm el-Sheik, Hurghada, and Marsa Alam. They also do a lot of diving off of liveaboards!
I ended up choosing Marsa Alam for a few reasons; one being that it is probably the lesser known of the three so it is said to not be as crowded, thus having better dive conditions. It is also known to have the best chances to spot dolphins!
There are a few different options of getting here. There are many locations through Europe that offer direct flights (Egypt is a popular vacation destination for Europeans), or you can also get a direct flight from Cairo. However, since we were already in Luxor prior to this leg of our trip, it didn’t make sense for us to go all the way back to Cairo and then back down.
After quite a bit of research, I decided the best option would be hiring a private car transfer, especially since we didn’t feel comfortable driving by ourselves. As I mentioned in my Luxor blog post, I booked a tour and transfer directly with Emo Tours and paid extra to be upgraded to a large van so that we could haul our luggage with us all day. Since we had everything with us already, after the tour ended our driver was able to start the journey!
I will be honest; the drive was not pleasant. Not only was it about 4.5 hours long, but Egypt doesn’t really have “speed limits”…they have “speed bumps” to force people to slow down. The first hour or two of the drive was spent with my head bobbing around and being jostled everywhere that my neck hurt SO BAD, I ended up putting my neck pillow on and popping some ibuprofen halfway through! Once we got away from all the towns along the Nile though and made it to the desert, it was much smoother and felt more like an interstate. It was kind of intimidating looking around though and seeing nothing but sand and rock for miles and miles. As much as I didn’t like to think about it, Egypt has a history with terrorism unfortunately and we were well aware that there was a possibility of bad people hiding out there, ready to pick off unsuspecting tourists.
Despite our driver going about 95 mph almost the entire way, we managed to make it in one piece to our resort. I booked the Concorde Moreen through booking.com, and if I thought the hotel in Luxor was nice…oh boy, this place was WAY better!
As soon as we starting checking in, they were bringing us fruity drinks and whisking our luggage off to our room. I know that’s typical for an all-inclusive, but for someone that is used to staying in Airbnb’s, that kind of service is always so shocking for some reason! They not only just seemed genuinely happy to have tourists there after the nearly two years of the pandemic, but also were thrilled to have Americans visiting because that doesn’t happen very often. Our room was very nice and had a large balcony, the food was good, it was right on the beach, and was just overall a very nice, peaceful resort. After we got checked in, we went straight to bed, because we had diving to do the next day!
Now, truthfully the main reason I booked the Concorde Moreen is because it has a dive shop right next door. When you’ve been on several dive trips, you learn that being close to a dive center makes it so much easier, especially if you don’t have a car. Their shop is called ORCA Dive Club and is fairly well known, having multiple different locations around the world.
I had been emailing with their owner, Erik, for a few months prior to the trip so they were expecting us. We woke up and had breakfast then got ready for our 11am checkout dive, which is a dive that some shops require to check your skills, equipment, etc. Their staff was very helpful and we can honestly say it’s one of the best shops we have ever been diving with. My dad and I both loved the setup there and they were always so friendly!
Another reason I chose Marsa Alam is because it offers a mix of shore diving and boat diving. We LOVE shore diving, especially since our trip to Bonaire a few years ago. There is nothing better than being able to toss your gear on, jump right off the dock, and be surrounded by pristine corals!
Their house reef was super easy to navigate on our own without a guide, with most of it being a steep coral wall with a few canyons. The coral was absolutely beautiful and we saw a lot of life, including multiple eels, lion fish, sting rays, and more.
Funny story (though it wasn’t at the time)…I was trying to squeeze as many dives in as I could because I wanted to hit 100 dives during this trip. Our third day we were going to do 2 boat dives, so I needed to get a certain amount of shore dives before then to reach it. During my last shore dive, as soon as I did my giant stride into the water and started to descend, I realized my tank felt loose. I reached behind me and discovered my tank strap had broken, meaning my tank was only attached to me by a small strap at the top and my regulators! My dad was in front of me and hadn’t noticed yet, and I was already down to 26 ft deep at this point. I had no choice but to hold my tank in place and stay where I was and wait for him to turn around to check on me! When he realized what was going on he swam back up and helped me hold my tank and get back onto the dock.
Scuba diving is one of those activities that though it is fun and exciting and I absolutely love doing it, you have to be aware there is always that risk. It has the potential to become dangerous very quickly. I’m thankful that I was able to recognize something was wrong and stay calm until I was able to get out of the water. And to be quite honest, when I got out, I was MAD. Not only because I knew my BC was broken beyond repair, but I needed that dive to be able to hit 100!
I got fitted for a rental and my dad talked me into getting back in the water to test it out before the boat dives tomorrow, and I reluctantly agreed, although I was pretty grouchy. As we were walking back down the dock my dad said “I bet you see a turtle on this dive”. I rolled my eyes but secretly hoped he was right because they are my absolute favorite animal. And what do you know…5 minutes after we got in, we saw one! I guess that was my reward for getting back in the water!
The next day we got up early and loaded up in the dive shop’s van to be taken to the boat for the boat dives that day. We were headed out to Dolphin House, a very popular site, in hopes of spotting a dolphin.
I have been diving with reef sharks in the Bahamas and whale sharks in the Philippines, but this dive was one of the most exhilarating I have done, because on the way there we found out we would be jumping off the boat…while it was still moving! Unfortunately, we didn’t see dolphins underwater but we did get to see them from the surface. We also got to see 3 white-tip sharks and tonsss of clownfish (which are my favorite fish!). On our last dive, which was our favorite, we went through a coral canyon (very similar to a cave) that had openings at the top where light could shine in. Pictures honestly don’t even do justice to how beautiful it was! I literally felt like a mermaid.
I always get a few questions about my camera equipment on dive trips, but I am by no means a professional photographer! I have two cameras; a GoPro Hero 6 (they have much newer versions) that I prefer for shooting videos or “large scale” pictures, and my Olympus TG6 which is better for closer up, more detailed shots. I don’t have a strobe so whenever I need extra light, my dad will usually hold a flashlight up for me. And of course, both cameras are in waterproof housing. I strictly take pictures for fun to document the things we see!
The diving in Egypt is excellent and has some of the best coral conditions I’ve ever seen. I hope and pray that the dreaded bleaching doesn’t start to ruin it like it has in some places. I want our oceans healthy enough so that we can continue to enjoy them for many generations to come! I highly recommend diving with ORCA Dive Club if you visit Egypt. Not only did they take great care of us, but the shop was sweet enough to make me this cool t-shirt after I hit my 100th dive!
Our last full day in Marsa Alam was spent relaxing on the beach, checking out of the dive shop/prepping our gear for the journey home, and getting our covid test. Fair warning, communication wasn’t great with the staff at the resort about the covid test situation, as multiple people told us different times for when to show up. Thankfully the doctor was able to get it straightened out for us and expedited our swabs to get them done in time. I included one of my favorite pictures from the trip of my dad getting swabbed and the doctor giving a thumbs up in the background because I thought it was hilarious!!!
The next day the resort called a taxi to take us to the Marsa Alam airport. This airport is pretty new and they put it far enough away from town that there weren’t any hustlers there to bother us, which was nice. We made it through to our gate quickly and boarded our one-way flight with EgyptAir, which I had booked directly with them here.
Another funny (and very lucky) moment during our trip was that our flight in Cairo was delayed an hour and a half, which meant when we landed in Qatar, we would probably not make our connecting flight because they had already started boarding. The app even notified me we had already been bumped to the next flight seven hours later as well. But as we were getting off the plane, there was a Qatar Airways employee holding a sign for our next flight to Chicago and said to us “if you guys can run, we are going to try to help you make it”. He escorted us and two others through the airport and we made it just in time! Unfortunately, our luggage didn’t, but it was delivered to us via FedEx about a week later. Huge shoutout to Qatar Airways for their outstanding customer service, there is definitely a reason they are the #1 airline and airport in the world! I have never missed a flight before so this was a whole new experience for us to literally run trying to make it in time, so I feel pretty lucky!
Overall, we had a great time diving in Marsa Alam! It was such the perfect ending to this epic, father-daughter adventure in Egypt! My dad is one of my favorite travel buddies, and even though he was a nervous wreck to travel here, even he enjoyed it and was thankful that I pushed him out of his comfort zone. It is definitely a trip that we will talk about for years to come!
Visiting Egypt is something that I never thought would be possible for a small-town girl from the Midwest, but my dream came true! I can’t wait to see where my next adventure takes me. As always, thank you for reading and hope this blog has inspired you to go see the world!
