April 2008 Archives

Hurghada was founded in the early 20th century and, until a few years ago, was a small fishing village. Now it's gone on to become one of the foremost tourist resorts of the Red Sea coast.

Today, Hurghada is known as a party town, particularly among Europeans. Life begins at night in Hurghada with its many restaurants and clubs. But which restaurant do you choose that offers high standards of service, quality of food and atmosphere compared to other restaurants? Emperor Divers has been in Hurghada for 15 years and has seen first hand the growth, development and changes within the resort. We also have knowledge and experience in fine dining and the best places to go so we can share this with you to help to make sure that you have the best holiday that you can.

Emperor Divers has teamed up with what we consider to be a selection of the best restaurants in Hurghada, which offer a variety of cuisine. Make your reservation directly through Emperor Divers at the dive centre and we will ensure that your table is ready then let the restaurant do the rest. All you need to do enjoy your meal.

When you make your reservation, you will receive a reservation voucher and also a map of the particular restaurant with instructions written in Arabic and English to make your taxi journey all the easier.

Recommended restaurants:

• Hed Kandi - stylish European beach bar offering mixed menu during the day and evening.
• Bulls - very popular Steak House but also offering a variety of food from around the world.
• Café Del Mar - smart chilled out European restaurant with many different styles of food.
• Papas 2 - part of the largest chain of bars in Hurghada, it offers an extensive mixed menu including pork products.
• Tuscany - the finest most exquisite Italian restaurant in Hurghada.
• Drifters - the only restaurant in Hurghada that changes its menu every two days to bring you the freshest food of the highest quality.

Emperor Hurghada has a whole selection of trips and activities that you can 'do in a day' - how about...

• The Graveyard - wreck trip to Abu Nuhas
• The great wreck - SS Thistlegorm
• An early morning dive followed by a relaxing afternoon at your pool or beach
• Make it a 'hat trick' and do 3 dives
• Dive in silence try a dive on any of the 3 rebreathers we have here
• Have a longer bottom time - complete a Nitrox course
• Capture your memories - complete a PADI digital underwater specialty course or if you're nifty with a camera then rent one and take away your pictures on a CD
• Or do it at night and join us for a different array of fish life

While the Red Sea has some of the best coral reefs in the world, some divers also want the added thrill of exploring wrecks. Well in Hurghada, you can do both! Whatever your diving experience there are wrecks to suit everybody.

At just 9m to the surface is the wreck of the former liveaboard, Belina. Teeming with life, including large shoals of barracuda, batfish and rabbitfish, the wreck can be explored easily and makes an ideal third dive of the day. In the main harbour, less than 5 minutes from Emperor Divers' new centre, are the wrecks of El Mina, an Egyptian minesweeper in 30m sunk back in the six-day war between Egypt and Israel. Excalibur, another liveaboard vessel sits in 21m and is full of glassfish and the recently sunk Mohammed Hasabella is a fishing trawler in 33m of water.

Further north is the ship's graveyard of Abu Nuhas reef with four wrecks: The Giannis D, Carnatic, Chrisoula K and Kimon M all with a maximum depth of 27 metres. Going deeper is Egypt's first artificial wreck reef, the Hebat Allah, lying in 27-45 metres and is ideal for advanced divers and technical divers. The reef of Shaabruhr Umm Gamar is the final resting place of two wrecks for the technical diver. The wreck of Colona IV lies at 62m and the support vessel, Gulf Fleet 31, lies at a maximum of 103m. Trimix divers are regularly seen decompressing at the southern end of the reef.

The last wreck in Hurghada's daily region, and the most recently discovered by Emperor Divers' own Tekstreme dive team, is that of the huge ferry, Al Qamar Al Saudi Al Misri. Going from 65-83m this is an unforgettable dive. It's impossible to describe any of the wrecks in detail here so look out for individual wreck features in this blog over the coming months.

Book now for a unique shore-based underwater photography course with Ocean Visions, Maria Munn.

The proof is in the pudding as one of Maria's past course guests, Mark Harrison, has been voted for having Picture of the Month in Sport Diver magazine with a photograph he took in Kuredu Caves, a Maldivian Island last May. His photography, in his own words, was very hit and miss until he came on an Ocean Visions Photography Course which certainly helped.

Mark Harrison

For more information, contact reservations@emperordivers.com


Royal Photographic Society award for photo instructor
Maria Munn of Ocean Visions has been awarded a Licentiateship from the Royal Photographic Society for her own portfolio, which was submitted recently. Interestingly, four of the ten photographs submitted were taken with a compact camera and a variety of Inon Lenses and Strobes. There will be Inon Equipment available for guests to try out at the Nuweiba Photo Workshop to show guests how their photos taken with a compact camera can stand out from the rest.

Things have come on a long way since the doors opened to Hurghada's new centre.

One of the main benefits is the marina directly outside the dive centre, which gives guests both easy and ready access to Emperor's fleet of day boats and safari liveaboards. Plus the addition of an area that we have been able to designate as a confined water training area.

It's always a bonus in a confined water area to have a good selection of marine life that gives guests something to enjoy as they complete their training. Hurghada is lucky enough to be able to boast a fair selection of fish life and has found a clownfish in a red anemone, at least two resident peppered moray eels, spotted snake eels, unicorn fish, pipefish, cuttlefish, short fin dwarf lionfish and a huge number of Indian sea hares - and that's just for starters. When busy work schedules allows, Emperor instructors are cleaning up this area in an effort to attract even more species. For divers who like to go deeper, Tekstreme are also benefiting from this facility as they can quickly move out of the shallows and into the outside of the marina to dive depths of more than 45m!

Back on land, the most recent additions to the dive centre include sun loungers on the roof terrace ready for the summer whilst work to complete the bar and snack area also located on the roof will start very soon.

Date: 15/05 - 22/05/2008
Cost: Liveaboard 1075 Euro pp + Course 160 Euro pp

Emperor Divers has launched a new liveaboard safari where you can choose to learn about the fundamentals of underwater ecosystems and why marine life behaves the way it does. Why are some fish monogamous and others polygamous and why should that affect their colouring? No prior knowledge is needed.

On the same safari, Peter Bergquist, a well known underwater photographer featured in a number of international magazines and books, will lead a new digital underwater photo course teaching the basics of underwater photography for beginners and intermediates, so no prior knowledge is needed.

So you can take both or one or the other - now that's variety!

The Eco and Photo courses run side by side and take place on Gold Fleet liveaboard Emperor Majesty with air-con ensuite cabins and salons, a large dive deck and sun deck, Jacuzzi/hot tub plus two towels and a bathrobe each!

Email info.safaris@emperordivers.com to book your place today.

The Dugong survey is going strong with more and more details coming in from guides and guests alike. Recently, the team has seen pairs of Dugongs and identified the same individual as a 'local' at one of the closest sites. The ever popular Abu Dabab shore dive has also given some amazing encounters with Denis and Lucy the two resident Dugongs.

The photo of the week competition always causes debate over which diver has taken the best picture but this fabulous one was taken by a non-diver happily enjoying a day out snorkelling! So it just goes to prove all that gear does not make the perfect picture. Well done to all our budding photographers.

With a new stand promoting Emperor's dive resorts and liveaboards plus a new online booking station, the show proved popular as visitors liked the idea of booking their diving there and then.

This year's liveaboard competition was won by Maria Gostynska who will be jetting off to Marsa Alam courtesy of Emperor and Sportif. Here's what Maria had to say when she found out she'd won...

"What an amazing surprise winning this competition was! Especially as a Red Sea liveaboard was exactly the holiday my partner and I were next planning and were actually at the Dive Show researching the various options! Although I've been lucky enough to dive in several far flung places, my favourite to date being Fiji's mesmerising Great White Wall, I love the Red Sea and am immensely grateful to have such a fantastic diving destination a mere 5 hour flight away. I've been to Eilat, Taba, Sharm and Dahab and also spent a happy Christmas at Marsa Alam's lovely Coral Bay Diving Hotel when it had just opened but I've never been further offshore than Elphinstone so am really looking forward to this trip. Many thanks Emperor Divers and Sportif!"