Recently in Hurghada Category

Highlights from the Red Sea Bash 2007 in Hurghada, Marsa Alam and Sharm El Sheikh

 

Its popularity grows each year so, back by divers' demand, it's your chance to join in the annual Emperor Red Sea Bash.

Book today for Hurghada, Sharm or Marsa Alam and get set to enjoy some great diving and fun events throughout June and July.

Win lots of prizes including:

• 1 x 5-day dive pack per centre each week (at a dive centre of your choice)
• 2 x 3-day dive packs per centre each week (at a dive centre of your choice)
• FREE Nitrox
• FREE dives
• FREE beer
• FREE BBQ
• FREE Emperor T-shirts (for those must-have fashionistas) for everyone who checks in!
• Dive accessories
• Special reduced-rate trips
• Quiz nights
• UK dive magazine subscriptions
• And last but by no means least - Impressive Prizes for the incredibly popular Underwater Treasure Hunt

A weekly service between Glasgow and the popular resort of Hurghada is being launched on November 5 by FlyGlobespan. The airline already offers a weekly flight from Edinburgh to Sharm El Sheikh.

Click here for more information.

 

 

 

And now you can also fly from Birmingham to Hurghada. Thomas Cook Airlines has added the destination to its Birmingham International airport summer programme, with flights now leaving on Thursdays.

Frank Pullman, managing director of Thomas Cook Airlines, said: "We have analysed demand for flights in the region and because we have a fleet of 42 aircraft, we have been able to adapt our schedule so that we can offer more choice with exciting new destinations."

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
• Help the environment and join a ReefCI course at the centre
• 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.

Reef Conservation International (ReefCI) and Emperor Hurghada have joined forces to help monitor and survey the reefs with the help of local volunteers and visiting divers in order to add to an international database and also to help existing local organisations in protecting and surveying the coral reef ecosystem.

From 1 day right up to 6 days or more, it's possible to complete a number of educational programs including looking at coral bleaching and disease, human impacts on the reef and the identification of key species, which offer an indication of the overall health of the reef ecosystem. Already, a number of 1-day educational programs have been completed at Emperor Divers and some guests have so far completed the full 6-day. One of these guests, Rosemary Winnett, has already booked to come back only 8 months after completing her first course to conduct another 6 days of reef monitoring. Many thanks go to her for her willingness and efforts in helping to monitor and protect Hurghada's marine ecosystem.

For more information, please contact Emperor Divers' in-house marine biologist, Paul Vinten at reefci@emperordivers.com or visit emperordivers.com/hurghada_reefci.php.

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.

Starting from 1 April, budget airline EasyJet is now offering a route to Sharm El Sheikh from London Gatwick. They are also offering flights to Hurghada until April.

Baggage allowance is 20kg with an extra allowance of 12kg for diving equipment for £30 return. EasyJet charges £7.98 per item checked in the hold per flight.

Flights will run every day of the week except Fridays and Sundays. They will also take group bookings on line for up to 40 people.

Check out their website for prices and details: www.easyjet.co.uk

As we've mentioned once or twice before, Emperor has teamed up with ReefCI so that you can dive AND help the marine environment at the same time. Based in Hurghada, the courses vary in length and, indeed, depend on what you want to get out of them.

For more information go to www.emperordivers.com/hurghada_reefci.php or email reservations@emperordivers.com

Emperor Divers is now located in new custom-built premises at the Touristic Harbour El Mina, which is next to the main ferry port and close to the main shopping area. But the best bit is that it's 30 minutes closer to the most popular dive sites such as Abu Nuhas, Thistlegorm and a stone's throw away from Giftun Island. All that you need is now under one roof - the training school, dive centre, shop, liveaboard and day diving offices are together - and you can join us for a relaxing drink or snack on the roof top terrace* and take in the fabulous views of Giftun Island.

Because the centre is closer to some of the best dive sites, it means you can enjoy more flexible diving with half-day or one-day boat trips with the centre's new fast boat diving* or on the familiar decks of Pegasus or Pharos.

Both budding and experienced divers will enjoy Hurghada; whether it's day diving, doing one of the day trips below, learning to dive, taking your diving further or technical diving with Tekstreme.

Hurghada is renowned for its stunning scuba diving, snorkelling on coral reefs and wrecks, watersports and beaches. For hustle and bustle, try the local markets or vibrant nightlife.

* Available from March 08

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