Red Sea Diving Safari – Marsa Shagra

A dive camp that became a village

Marsa Shagra began as a dive camp in 1990, set up by Hossam Helmy, who still runs the company, Red Sea Diving Safari. The original idea still holds: to let guests experience the Red Sea underwater and on land, while limiting numbers to what the reef can take. The village has changed a great deal in more than thirty years; it has stayed low-rise and turned towards the beach, with no large buildings.

The company runs two other villages on the same model further south, Marsa Nakari and Wadi Lahami. All three are PADI resorts (PADI: Professional Association of Diving Instructors, the international diver training organisation), and the company employs more than 350 people. Guides and instructors speak Arabic, English, French, Italian and German.

On the environment, Red Sea Diving Safari works with HEPCA (Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association, an Egyptian marine conservation association) and with the Red Sea protected areas authority. Guests are invited to beach clean-ups and responsible-diving workshops.

Diving without a boat, from morning to night

The house reef is the reason to come. It runs for more than 2 km north and south of the bay. Inside the bay the depth is 1 to 10 m, then the outer walls drop to 40 or 50 m. You kit up under the dive shade on the beach and walk into the water two metres away.

The rule is simple. On arrival, a guided orientation dive is compulsory. After that, certified divers dive unguided, within the limits of their certification, as often as they like: the first dives start at 6 am and the night dive ends around 8 pm depending on the season (local time). Zodiacs, small inflatable boats, also run to other points on the reef during the day.

A few requirements to know before you go:

• every diver needs a dive computer, a delayed surface marker buoy (inflated to signal your position at the surface) and an alternate air source; the computer is not required for entry-level courses;
• divers who have not dived for twelve months, or who trained with an agency other than PADI, must take a paid refresher course;
• a compulsory 7 € fee covers decompression-chamber treatment for 21 days, excluding hospital stays and transport, so dive insurance is still needed;
• bring your passport (or a copy), your certification cards and a recent medical statement.

Tanks are 12-litre aluminium, filled with air or Nitrox (oxygen-enriched air, which extends bottom time at shallow depths); 15-litre tanks are available for 3 € per dive.

Beyond the reef, the company lists more than 60 sites, reached by minibus or speedboat. The best known, Elphinstone, is an offshore reef 375 m long with walls dropping beyond 100 m; it is one of the excursions paid as a supplement on site.

Learning, from freediving to technical diving

The dive centre teaches from a first try-dive up to instructor level. Children start at 8 with PADI's Bubblemaker course. A resident AIDA instructor (AIDA: International Association for the Development of Apnea) teaches freediving at three levels, along a fringing reef that drops beyond 40 m. For technical diving, a PADI TecRec instructor (PADI's technical diving programme) teaches Tec 40 to Tec 50 and sidemount diving (tanks worn along the sides of the body). The company also presents itself as the first TDI facility (Technical Diving International, a technical diving training agency) in the southern Red Sea.

Adaptive courses are offered for divers with disabilities, and the whole village is wheelchair accessible. One chalet is adapted, with an access ramp, wider corridors and an adapted bathroom.

Tent, hut or chalet

The choice of lodging shapes the stay more than in a conventional hotel. Divers who want to live outdoors take the Royal Tent, the most popular, a few metres from the shoreline, with shared bathrooms; the hut follows the same idea with walls. In summer, or if you sleep badly in the heat, an air-conditioned chalet with a private bathroom is the better choice: the Superior Deluxe Chalets interconnect in pairs, a good option for a family. The Nano Suite, a recent category, adds a living room and a private terrace facing the sea.

Village life

The village is full board. The restaurant serves buffets, with vegetarian and vegan dishes, indoors or on a terrace facing the reef: breakfast 6 to 9.30 am, lunch 12 to 2 pm, dinner 6.30 to 9.30 pm. Soft drinks are included with meals, and the cafeteria serves water, soft drinks, tea and coffee from 6 am to midnight. Wine and beer are charged as extras.

In the evening, people gather at the Bawadi, a Bedouin lounge on the beach near the tents, for tea, a local beer or a shisha (cash only). Bedouin dinners and campfire evenings with Ababda musicians, a nomadic people of the Eastern Desert, can be arranged. A massage tent facing the sea completes the picture.

Sabaro's view

For whom: divers who want to log many dives without depending on a boat, beginners who want to learn in a sheltered bay, freedivers, wheelchair users.

Strengths: open access to the reef from morning to night; full training, from first dive to technical diving; a fully accessible village.

Good to know: comfort is simple in the tents and huts, which have fans and shared bathrooms; the mood is that of a divers' village, where people go to bed early.

Our advice: for an eight-day trip, the operator recommends no more than two villages. Sabaro suggests staying at Marsa Shagra for the house reef, and adding a few nights at Wadi Lahami if you want to dive the deep south.