Itinerary Highlights

  • Sheer walls richly covered in colourful pink and red soft corals, elegant red gorgonians, vertical cliffs, overhangs, small caves and drop offs at Elphinstone. Likely oceanic white tip encounters.
  • Mountainous Daedalus with pristine, hard coral formations and a strong chance of spotting schooling hammerheads and grey reef sharks.
  • Fury Shoals, a vast reef system to explore such as Sataya’s resident spinner dolphins, famous swim-throughs and huge porites corals at Sha’ab Claude, mazes and friendly turtles, fantastic coral gardens and much more that will simply blow you away!

This trip offers you some of the best diving in the Red Sea and includes Daedalus, Fury Shoals and Elphinstone. With less distance to travel than some routes, you have more time to dive these iconic sites and there is less chance of seasickness with shorter sailings and secure moorings. Depending on prevailing weather conditions your guides will pick sites suitable for night dives outside the Marine Park.

Heading first to Fury Shoals, we may dive around the Marsa Alam area or perhaps dive Sha’ab Sharm with its wall dives and white tip reef sharks. Oceanic white tips and silky sharks can sometimes be found in the blue and turtles often visit the south side before heading further south. At Fury Shoals, we have more time to explore the vast reef system than other itineraries afford. Of course we will dive the classics such as Sha’ab Claude (a.k.a. Claudio) with its famous swim-throughs and huge porite corals, Malahi with its mazes and friendly turtles and Abu Galawa Soraya with its fantastic coral garden and a wreck of a private sailing boat smothered with glass fish. Sataya with its resident spinner dolphin population is a must for snorkelling between dives, as well as having some good underwater offerings, and on top of that we can spend time exploring less dived sites such as Sha’ab Hamam (Stairway to Heaven), Abu Galawa Kebir with the Tien Hsing wreck, Gota Sataya and if the weather is kind there are some submerged reefs that can be moored on such as Habili Sameh that will blow you away!

Daedalus Reef, part of the Red Sea offshore Marine Park, is a large, oval reef with a lighthouse and is the furthest offshore reef in the Egyptian Red Sea. Its deep walls and drop-offs offer some of the most spectacular diving. Daedalus has mountainous, pristine, hard coral formations. There is also a strong chance of spotting schooling hammerheads, especially from May to November, and grey reef sharks.

Of course no trip to the South would be complete without stopping at world famous Elphinstone, with its sheer walls covered in soft corals, and likely encounters with oceanic white tip sharks. Depending on the experience of the group and the weather, you may even get the chance to dive it at the beginning and end of your amazing trip!

Dive Sites

Click dive site markers for detailed descriptions.

Dive sites & areas that we may visit are subject to weather conditions.

Daedalus
Fury Shoals
Abu Dabab
Elphinstone
Marsa Shouna
Marsa Alam Airport
Port Ghalib

Also Important

Check Dive & Depart Port Ghalib

Once onboard there will be a safety briefing, crew introduction, complete and check dive paperwork, cabin allocation and boat orientation. Our boats moor in port on arrival day departing early next morning. The first dive is a check dive near port.

Return to Port Ghalib

On the last diving day, 2 dives are available in the morning whilst observing the rule of no diving within 24 hours of reaching altitude. We return to port at approximately 1pm and moor here overnight. Evening-time pack up diving equipment, visit the marina and settle any outstanding bills ready to depart for the airport or hotel the following morning.

Itinerary Experience

Intermediate, 30 dives
We recommend that you have 30 logged dives to join this trip and you should be comfortable diving in drifts and currents as they can vary from gentle to strong. Many dives are below 18m therefore we recommend having advanced experience or taking your PADI Advanced Open Water course on board. Booking a private guide may help divers unsure of their suitability for the trip to maximise their enjoyment. Divers may find some dives challenging and may be asked by the Cruise Director to skip dives that are not suitable for their diving experience.  Diving is from zodiacs to give precise entry and exit points.

Learn to Dive Guarantee

Love it or your money back! When having a go at something new it’s essential that you feel confident and comfortable with the idea. The Emperor team is so certain that you’ll love learning to dive with us that, at the end of the first day of tuition if you decide not to proceed, we’ll give you your money back.

Please read our full Terms & Conditions (PDF).