Red Sea diving holidays

From

£540

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7 Days excluding flights

More info:From £540 per person, based on 2 people sharing a Garden Room for 7 nights on a B&B basis including 10 Guided Dives.

Tailor made

“This Red Sea diving holiday is all about you – with intimate groups led by top class PADI professionals who will tailor each dive according to your needs. ”

Highlights

Tailored dives | Max 4 divers to one PADI instructor | 5* gold palm, family-owned resort | Daily beach breakfasts | Bars & restaurants of Dahab within easy reach | Options for boat safari, Ras Abu Glaum national park visit, candle-lit Bedouin dinners and help with celebrating special occasions

Description of Red Sea diving holidays

Join us for the ultimate, individually tailored Red Sea diving holiday where dives are scheduled to fit in with what you want to learn. Our PADI instructors are all top-class professionals and will make sure you get the best out of your experience, spending time working on the areas that you wish to improve - from buoyancy and air consumption to building your confidence at depth.

As well as first class guided diving, we also offer several PADI course options, including the PADI Advance course, PADI specialities (including photography, night, and deep dives), PADI Rescue course and PADI EFR course which will teach you all the most important aspects of first aid. For our individually tailored dive holidays, you can let our instructors know which elements you are most interested in and they will focus on those.

Your base throughout throughout your holiday will be in our beautiful boutique family-run 5* Gold Palm resort, set on the beaches of the famous Eel Garden area in Dahab, Red Sea. Just 10 minutes’ walk from the restaurants and bars of the main bay of Dahab, we are close enough to enjoy the vibrant bustle but far enough away to enjoy the stars.

While staying with us, there are several accommodation options available within our grounds including sea-view rooms, garden chalets and two family and friends’ suites. All rooms are fitted with air con, wet room style showers and include breakfast which can be enjoyed on the beach (we recommend trying the lemon sugar pancakes)! Our restaurant is open all day, serving freshly cooked local delicacies to satiate post-dive hunger.

All dive holidays can be supplemented with additional activities which we are more than happy to arrange. From boat safaris to explore un-spoilt reefs and expeditions to the remote national park of Ras Abu Glaum to unforgettable candlelit Bedouin Dinners at the top of the Wadi where you’ll get the chance to make fresh Bedouin bread and enjoy post dinner fireside games.

Please get in touch with us for the latest prices and flight advice.

Travel Team

If you'd like to chat about this holiday or need help finding one we're very happy to help. The Travel Team.

01273 823 700 Calling from outside the UK? rosy@responsibletravel.com

Map

Departure information

Operates all year. Courses can be tailor made to suit your budget and requirements as necessary

Single use plastic-free:

We feel in many ways that scuba divers and even snorkellers are most aware of the impact of plastics on our oceans as they see the effects for themselves first-hand. We have been aware of the issue for quite some time and as such have put a number of plastic reduction and eradication schemes into place at our resort.

preserving food:

We use re-useable tubs for our food and try to use paper for preserving food stuffs. Glass pots are used for our jams and butter at breakfast and ceramic dishes for our ketchup.

Bags:

We provide cotton bags in guests’ rooms for local shopping, so they can say ‘no’ to plastic shopping bags. We also use these and cardboard boxes to transport the shopping we do for the club.

Tea & coffee:

Our rooms also feature a coffee and tea making tray without any plastic in sight. We offer coffee in a jar and a carton of milk, rather than the single use plastic pots.

Straws:

We have been plastic straw-free for more than 3 years now. We have also persuaded many cafés and restaurants in Dahab to follow suit and go ‘straw free’ too….and our 3 kids 11,14,19 are all committed to this and regularly make sure the cafes are on track.

Water bottles:

We use glass bottles with purified, filtered water throughout our club. Glass re-fillable water bottles are provided in the guests rooms and we have water stations available 24 hours a day for re-filling. We do ask guests to bring their own re-fillable water bottles for their own personal use but do also sell vacuum cooler bottles 500 ml if they forget or don’t have any. Even our restaurant will only sell water from glass bottles and we also provide a fill up service for a small fee, for guests not staying with us.

Rubbish:

As well as picking up rubbish whenever we see it, in or out of the water, we also are heavily involved in many local schemes to improve Dahab. One of these, ‘Plastic Free Planet’, is run by a Sea Shepherd member and involves the local kids being paid to pick up rubbish. This scheme means that the kids who would have been fishing for money are now employed to pick up rubbish. This raises awareness of the problem with the next generation as well as keeping the beaches super clean.

Education:

We continue to look for ways to reduce our impact on the environment, both with reduced plastic use as well as energy saving techniques. Our biggest goal alongside these is to raise awareness, not only amongst guests, but also our team who are both Egyptian and Bedouins….and the effect of this growing awareness is starting to show.

Change Making:

In response to Responsible Travel's call to reduce no single use plastics, we conducted some research and are pleased to say that we have managed to eradicate plastic drinking bottles at our resort. We now provide glass water bottles both in the guest rooms and our restaurant, have re-fillable steel bottles for sale and offer refill stations throughout our club.

Vouchers

Accepted

Responsible tourism

As the pioneers of responsible tourism, we screen every trip so you can travel knowing your holiday will help support conservation and local people.

We have managed to STOP using plastic water bottles..we provide glass bottles with purified, filtered water throughout our club. Glass re-filable water bottles are provided in the guests rooms and we have water stations available 24 hours a day for re-filling. We do ask guests to bring their own re-filable water bottles for their own personal use but do also sell vacuum cooler bottles 500 ml if they forget or don’t have any. Even our restaurant will only sell water from glass bottles to outside guests and we also provide a fill up service for a small fee, for guests not staying with us.
We employ Egyptian, Bedouin and Nubian workers here, they are our chefs, team members, dive instructors, safari guides meaning that a wider range of people benefit from our guests. We feel a massive responsibility to the environment we work in, as it is so precious.

We are not flighty dive club owners just looking to make a fast buck and move on. Our home is here in Dahab and we are raising our family here too (now two girls & a boy) since 1997.

All our children are very aware of how precious this environment is and as they are bi-lingual, they are able to chat away to the locals about why it is wrong to fish, why not to throw rubbish in the sea etc which, when coming from a kid, is most effective.

We pick up any rubbish we see both underwater and above water too...on every dive.

The very fact that we dive with small numbers (4-1 ratios) also means we can instruct more effectively about environmental impact issues like, good buoyancy, tidy equipment (not dangling and hitting reefs) no sand kicking (stopping the reef feeding). We also are passionate about our fish and pass on lots of aquatic information to each customer. We believe you will leave us a better, more responsible, non coral bashing, informed, and environmentally aware diver and person.

We recycle all our waste; food items go to our goats, bottles, cans and plastic are collected here in our recycle bins and taken to re-cycle units in Dahab. Environment notices are posted in rooms and welcome folder to be more aware of the local best practices.
Cotton shopping bags are provided in each room to remove the need for plastic.
We encourage our guests to bring their own bottle and re-fill it at one of our water points, saving a massive amount of one time plastic use.
We are asking our guests to not use standard sunscreen which is causing harm to the reefs and advise the best types to not cause damage.

The Impacts of this Trip

By employing local staff we help a much wider number of people...here in Egypt most families still rely on the main breadwinner, so by making sure this person is employed and well paid, we ensure that whole families, which rely on this income are supported too. By paying them a fair wage and passing any tips on to them, we are not taking advantage...our staff are like our family to us.
We recommend the local restaurants, because as well as having our own, we want our guests to go and enjoy meals at one of the may locally owned places.
Our diving groups often go out for the day, which means utilizing a beach cafe, so we encourage our guests to eat and drink there too as they are using the facilities.
Our overnight safaris use local boats and boat operators and once at our destination we use local transport, shelter and food preparation.
We support local environmental causes such as the famous 'Don't mess with Dahab' campaign aimed at reducing plastic use.
We encourage guests to buy locally made items rather than imported items and there are so much talented crafts in Egypt, sold in the local gift shops. We offer a small discount upon showing they are from our club, via their key fob or business card.

Environment

Community

The Impacts of this Trip

Climate

4 Reviews of Red Sea diving holidays

4.5 out of 5 stars

SHOW

Reviewed on 12 Mar 2020 by Charlotte Wilson

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

Diving at the canyon- just thousands of multicoloured fish flitting over multicoloured coral

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?

Yes, the company employ local people. The beach cafe doesn't serve fish (to reduce pressure on the reef) and all water comes from filters to use fewer plastic
bottles.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?

Excellent! Brilliant diving- all easy access shore dives. Ahmed who was guiding my dives was brilliant- he could spot a seahorse at a hundred metres and find
stonefish amid identical rocks! The accommodation was lovely, breakfast was amazing and the private beach fantastic for snorkelling from.

Reviewed on 19 Aug 2019 by Lia Williams

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

A glorious combination of a low key friendly and welcoming atmosphere combined with some simple but delicious homemade food, clean and simple accommodation and wonderful scuba diving with a fantastic teacher.

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

Don’t expect frills. Do expect a genuine warmth and an unpretentious environment. The family who run this place love it and look after the people who visit as if they are family. too. It and they are very very special.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?

Yes I do. They employ local people, they have banned single use plastic and they are contributing to helping keep the Red Sea from coral die out. It’s a battle. Plastic is a global enemy.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?

I travelled alone as a woman and I’ve rarely felt more comfortable or relaxed. One of the best holidays I’ve ever had. And my dive instructor Ahmed was brilliant. As was the diving. Highly recommended.

Reviewed on 20 Apr 2015 by Ben Moss

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

Having never undertaken a scuba holiday before I was eager to find somewhere beautiful, friendly and, moreover, safe and professional. This holiday certainly surpassed all these criteria.

Everything the club provided was of the first order, be it the fantastic dive instructors, who never failed to make my holiday fun and engaging; the well-thought out and delightful accommodation; safe and well-maintained equipment; and the friendly, caring and enthusiastic staff.

The restaurant there is also of a high standard. Being right on the beach and only 3 metres from the hotel, Food Urge is an enchanting place to eat. Their Bedouin seating areas are wonderful for relaxing in, drinking tea and recalling the many wonders seen during a dive that day.

The holiday provider has my complete endorsement; the family who run this establishment make every effort to create a memorable and fun experience for you. Although it sounds an over exaggeration, this traveler has never stayed at a more friendly place. I would definitely come back to say with the crew again and explore more of the Red Sea - perhaps the Blue Hole!

Thanks for a wonderful holiday!

10, 000 pts!

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

1. Book as early as possible to get cheaper flights to Sharm.
2. Bring your sun glasses and hats, especially for boat safaris.
3. There are cash machines in Dahab, so no need to bring a lot of cash.
4. No need to bring your own equipment unless you really want to, or need to.
5. Don't buy the food on the plane - it's grossly over priced for what you get. Just by sandwiches at the airport in the UK and ask the owners to prepare you something for the flight.
5. Take a jumper if you're going in April or earlier (+ trousers). It was warm but the wind occasionally make it a tad chilly during the evenings.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?

Defo. 99% of the staff, including drivers, were locals. The food was freshly prepared and locally sourced. Great efforts are made to be reduce the impact on the environment.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?

I had a wonderful experience at the centre and Dahab. The friendly and professional diving instructors, facilities, accommodation and eager and caring staff made for a highly memorable holiday. I would defo go back when I can and wouldn't hesitate to recommend the place to anyone thinking about a scuba diving holiday.

Reviewed on 07 Jan 2012 by Amanda Okill

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

The diving was fantastic. This is definitely the place to go if you want to dive and snorkle. It’s a great location too, near the main stretch but far enough away to allow you to enjoy your peace and quiet. The staff are amazing, really helpful and fun to be around. They went out of their way to ensure I had a good time.

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

No particular tips. This is an ideal place for friends, small groups and the independent traveller. It also caters for disabled travellers (one of my diving companions was a wheelchair user). Some rooms and showers are kitted out for wheelchair users.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

I would say so, food was locally soured, reasonably priced. We were given tips on how to respect the environment.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?

Fantastic, it was just what I needed.