Info on Egypt
 

We are booked in April 2008 on Collette's Splendor of the Nile. Has anyone taken this tour? Any feedback? Also, for women, is OK to wear capri pants and longer shorts or skorts or should I only wear pants? I'd like to respect their customs, but yet be comfortable and not overheated. Any guidance would be appreciated.

In Cairo, you'll want to wear long pants, loose-fitting capris or skirts. Also want to have shoulders and upper arms covered. Once you're on the Nile Cruise - skorts or longer shorts are fine.

We visited the great barrier reef off of Queensland in Australia a couple of years back as well as the Ningaloo reefs in the West of the country.

We are looking at a visit to Egypt in late May 08.

Our question is , has any one dived the red sea and the Great Barrier Reef and if so how do you compare the two and do you have any recomendations for diving in the red sea.

Thanks
54fun.

We lived in Egypt for 5 years. My husband has nearly 500 dives. I only have around 80. We been to the Great Barrier Reef, Belize, Honduras, Maui, and various others. The red sea is amazing! The best diving requires going on a boat. There used to be some great shore dives, but these areas have the problem of tourists stepping all over the coral and destroying it. You'd have to check out which areas are better now.

Dahab is my personal favorite. The canyon is the best.

There are many wrecks to view and the amount of sea life is unbelievable.

The barrier reef was beautiful as well, but I'd have to vote for the Red Sea just based on the variety and the abundance of things to see.

OOPS!! Sorry, the one time I didn't preview my post.

That would be my husband has 300 dives...not 500!!

Sorry!

Many thanks for that Maadimom.
We expect to be in Egypt for approximately 10 days.

We would like to dive and or snorkel for around 5 days before touring.

Would you recommend we base our selves at one particular place?
I have read lion fish are very common in the red sea.

Have you had many encounters with these magnificent creatures?

Getting excited.
54fun.

Most people base themselves in the Sharm-el Sheik area. There are many dive companies here as well as all the basic tourist things. You can do shore dives, boat dives including wrecks and drift dives. I prefer Dahab, but you are more limited there. We only have done shore dives from here as facilities are less available.

OMG!! Red Lion fish are everywhere. If you do a night dive, you will see tons of them. At least we did.

Once had about 40 hammerheads swimming below us. That was exciting! I was very nervous, but what an experience.

The best wreck dive is the Thistlegorm. It is a ship that sunk during WWII. It still has tanks, cycles, etc. strapped to it. It is over 100ft dive, however, and pretty far away so takes the entire day just to do it. Very worthwhile. Saw lots of Crocodile fish on the hull.

I forget the name of the ship, but another was carrying a load of toilets. There are toilets scattered across the ocean bottom. Great picture...sitting on a toilet at the bottom of the sea!

For the snorkeling, beware of the urchins. I swear they are the most abundant thing in the Red Sea.

I hope you enjoy yourself. It's a great place to go.

Wow !!! That’s about 39 hammerheads too many for me. Lol
We have snorkelled and dived with over 20 huge Manta Rays at once and whale sharks ( harmless ) off Ningaloo on the west coast of Australia but the ole hammers have been known to become a little excited at times I have heard.

The lion fish must be amazing.
What do you mean about Urchins.
One of us was going to be snorkelling only.

We experienced Sea Urchins within the reef in Australia but they cannot move, they are just in holes in the reef. Our guide was sticking them with a knife which sent the fish into a feeding frenzy.
By the way thanks for all the great info.
54fun.

The urchins are trouble for the snorklers. They have very long spikes here and lots of people somehow manage to step on them.

A few lion fish have been know to be hiding near entrance points as well. We had a friend whose daughter managed to hit one with her leg. Not a very pleasant experience.

Hope you have great fun!

Oh, and the hammerheads don't seem to be to aggressive, but I did find out that you can scream with all your gear on under water!!