Dive the Sinai Peninsula

FOUR SEASONS SHARM EL-SHEIKH IS INCLUDED IN OUR BOOK, DIVE IN STYLE

Right at the southern tip of the peninsula lies the once sleepy fishing village of Sharm el Sheikh, now one of the prime resort towns on the Red Sea and close to the world-renowned dive sites of the Ras Mohammed National Park and the Straights of Tiran.

The place to stay here is the Four Seasons, an island of peace and security. The hotel itself consists of a cluster of whitewashed villas set on a hillside overlooking the Red Sea. There are 136 guestrooms and 64 suites, all of which have a private balcony or terrace, and the hotel is extremely family-friendly, with good facilities for children. There is also a 100-metre stretch of private, white sand beach.

A Daniela Steiner Spa offers a comprehensive range of all-natural treatments and massages, as well as a sauna, steam room, and gym. Several restaurants offer a choice of Middle Eastern and Italian cuisine.

An excellent dive centre provides diving instruction and daily visits to multiple dive sites, those of the Straights of Tiran being but 15 minutes distant, whilst the more distant sites of the Ras Mohamed Marine National Park make a wonderful day trip. In all there are at least 35 sites within easy range so you could easily spend a few weeks here without diving the same spot twice. A variety of other water sports are also available, while on land activities include volleyball and tennis on four floodlit courts. There is also a golf course nearby, and the hotel can organise a variety of excursions around the Sinai Peninsula, from camel rides in the desert to day-trips to St Catherine’s Monastery.

The prime reason for Sharm's superb world-class diving is its position at the point where the Red Sea splits, and helped as well by the plethora of wrecks that litter the coast. Understandably, given the constant sunshine and relative lack of time change, this has become a favoured destination for European divers.

The topography of the reefs varies from gentle slopes to full walls; the one thing they all have in common is that the top of the reef is only a matter of feet beneath the surface, making the sites good for snorkellers too. Corals, both hard and soft, abound and are in generally excellent condition, and in some instances amazing.

The variety of sea life is amazing, ranging from the trademark technicolour anthias to schools of hammerhead shark, jack and barracuda in season. Giant green morays are present on every dive, as well as lionfish of every size and colour. The colours are incredibly vivid and altogether there are nearly as many fish species as on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. There are also a number of wreck dives available if you want to poke around WWII vintage motorcycles and unexploded ammunition!