Diving in Sharm el Sheikh: Ras Mohammed & Tiran

Diving in Sharm el Sheikh means diving the Red Sea's greatest hits. Where Hurghada trades on value and easy reefs, Sharm sits at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba with the walls, the current and the wrecks, a short boat ride from a marina full of day boats that have been running the same legendary sites for forty years.

Ras Mohammed

The national park at Sinai's southern tip is the reason people book. Shark and Yolanda Reef is the dive: two pinnacles rising off a plateau, a wall that falls away into deep blue, and in summer a wall of schooling snapper and barracuda so dense it dims the light. The Yolanda half adds a genuinely odd finale: the scattered cargo of a wrecked freighter, including a famous field of bathroom fixtures on the sand at 20 metres.

Current is part of the experience. These are drift dives where the boat drops you upstream and collects you downstream, which is exactly why the fish are there.

The Straits of Tiran

Four reefs (Jackson, Woodhouse, Thomas and Gordon) sit in the channel between Sinai and Tiran island, catching the water that moves through it. Steep walls, hard coral in excellent condition, and reliable big-fish sightings: reef sharks, eagle rays, turtles, and on Jackson's northern plateau in summer, hammerheads for the lucky. The current here decides the plan more than the map does; a good guide reads it and you enjoy the ride.

The Thistlegorm

Sharm is the shortest run to Egypt's most famous wreck. The SS Thistlegorm was a British merchant ship bombed in 1941 and sank with her war cargo intact: motorcycles stacked in the holds, trucks, rifles, a locomotive blown clear onto the seabed. She lies at around 30 metres in the Strait of Gubal, usually as an early-start two-dive day: one outside, one through the holds. It is regularly rated among the best wreck dives in the world, and it is the single strongest argument for arriving in Sharm with an Advanced certification already in your logbook.

Who Sharm suits

Certified divers with some hours, mainly. The famous sites carry current, depth and blue water, and they reward divers who are comfortable rather than merely qualified. Sharm does teach — the sheltered bays around Na'ama and the local house reefs run courses daily — but a first-time diver gets more from Hurghada or Dahab, and then comes back here properly equipped.

Seasons and costs

Water runs 21-22°C in winter to 28-29°C in late summer. The summer months bring the schooling spectacle at Ras Mohammed; spring and autumn bring the best all-round conditions. Prices are Egyptian: roughly €35-45 a guided dive, €70-95 for a two-dive day boat, and a Thistlegorm day typically €90-120 with the longer run.

Plan the last day around your flight — the 18-hour rule is unforgiving of Friday departures, and our Egypt trip guide covers the whole week's shape.

Booking

Egypt is on the expansion map; bookable offers start in Cyprus today. As Sharm centres join Diving Scanner, their day boats appear in the same search — prices upfront, small deposit online, balance paid directly to the centre, reviews only from divers who actually dived.