Hurghada & El Gouna

Boats leave Hurghada Marina and Abu Tig in El Gouna in a morning convoy, run out to a mooring, and fit two dives around lunch on the back deck before turning for home in mid-afternoon. Nearer sites mean a short crossing and an unhurried start; the offshore wreck reefs are sold as separate, earlier trips that sail only when the forecast allows. Several resorts along this coast keep a house reef with a jetty, so an extra dive can be added from shore in the afternoon without booking a place on a boat.

This is a bay coast with offshore islands rather than one continuous fringing wall. Most sites are reef plateaus rising out of sand: a shallow coral top for the back half of the dive, sloping shoulders where the fish gather, and a steeper face on whichever side takes the current. Between them stand isolated pinnacles, ergs in local usage, small enough to circle in one dive. The wrecks work the same way, hulls broken along a reef edge offshore, most of them shallow enough to fit inside a single recreational profile.

The wreck run is what people book for. Abu Nuhas took its ships on the reef's exposed northern face, which is why the trip is weather-dependent and why the choice of hull is often made on the morning by wind and mooring space rather than the night before. Profiles are guided and mostly external, with light penetration where holds are open and lit. The other thing that shapes a week is price competition: courses are cheap, standards vary between operations, and it is worth asking about group size, instructor language and how many boats share a mooring before booking.

It suits divers who want plenty of straightforward diving on a modest budget, families where only one person dives, and anyone building hours before the harder southern trips. Depths are moderate, guides handle the navigation, and current turns up mainly on the plateau corners, which is what a new diver needs and what an experienced one may find repetitive after a few days. Choosing an operator that runs smaller boats to the further sites is the main lever for improving a week here.