Scuba diving in Marsa Alam offers the perfect blend of untouched reefs, crystal-clear waters, and unforgettable marine life encounters. Marsa Alam is located on Egypt’s southern Red Sea coast, and this remarkable destination helped it to earn a reputation as one of the top diving hotspots in the country. 

From vibrant coral gardens and thrilling offshore dive sites to close encounters with dolphins, dugongs, and sharks, Marsa Alam has something for every diver. In this article, you will explore six reasons why scuba diving in Marsa Alam deserves a place on your diving bucket list.

Reasons to Experience Scuba Diving in Marsa Alam

Scuba diving in Marsa Alam offers something for every diver. Here are the top reasons to experience scuba diving in Marsa Alam:

• The Incredible Coral Reefs That Worth Exploring.
• The Incredible Dolphin Encounters. 
• Meeting the Ocean’s Top Predators (Sharks).
• Experience the Magic of Diving with Dugongs.
• Dive in a Protected Marine Environment. 
• Unique Dive Resorts.

1. The Incredible Coral Reefs That Worth Exploring 

Marsa Alam’s stunning coral reefs alone are enough to make it worth the trip. The reef that runs along the shore from Port Ghalib south offers a home to the colourfish. With your snorkel gear, you can easily spot several marine life, such as turtles, squid, and rays. If you are a scuba diver, you can access any number of dive sites from shore, like, the Marsa Abu Dabbab, and Marsa Shagra House Reef.

Further offshore, dive sites like Sha’ab Abu Dabbab 4 & 5 and Long Canyon feature patches of corals rising from the seafloor. These reefs are a good choice for divers looking for a short speedboat ride to their dive site. The reef canyons also create excellent opportunities for underwater photography.

In addition to that, the coral reefs in Marsa Alam boast easy diving, making it an excellent setting for Open Water courses and also a good choice for new scuba divers looking to master their scuba skills.

2. The Incredible Dolphin Encounters 

Sha’ab SamadI is considered a popular excursion from Marsa Alam that is also called Dolphin House. Dolphin House is regarded as a highly protected area where there is a wild population of spinner dolphins in addition to frequent number of bottlenose dolphins.

Dolphin House is a protected underwater lagoon that is divided into three zones by local authorities.

• Section A: is the section immediately inside the lagoon. Swimmers, scuba divers or boats aren’t permitted to enter section A. 
• Section B: is demarcated by buoys just outside of Section A. As a snorkeler, you can interact with dolphins when coming out of Section A. Scuba divers and boats aren’t permitted to enter section B. 
• Outside of Section B: scuba divers can dive in the water and small boats can use the mooring lines.

A typical dive trip begins with a stop at the mooring area, where divers first snorkel to look for dolphins near Section A. Then, divers can enjoy diving in the near two lovely and easy dive sites. Of course, there’s always a chance that dolphins will swim by during the dive. Swimming and diving with wild dolphins is a magical experience that every scuba diver shouldn’t miss on any visit to Marsa Alam.

3. Meeting the Ocean’s Top Predators (Sharks)

The southern coast of Egypt is famous for sharks. During the right time of year, you have encounters with oceanic whitetip sharks, hammerheads, and reef sharks throughout the region. Whale sharks are also occasionally seen. Actually, the southern Red Sea is a must for shark lovers.

When talking about scuba diving in Marsa Alam, we should mention that it is one of the best dive sites in which you can practice scuba diving with sharks in the Red Sea. You can visit Elphinstone Reef dive site which is located around 15 minutes from shore by speedboat, you will be in a seemingly different world. Depending on the season, you can spot hammerheads in spring months or oceanic whitetip sharks in summer and fall months around this underwater plateau.

Even when you aren’t looking for encounters with sharks in the blue, Elphinstone Reef is also a beautiful dive site with its gorgeous soft corals covering the wall, which drops to around 100 meters. If you want to conduct a perfect dive here, begin with a negative entry, then drift along the wall and spend 20 minutes searching for sharks on either the south and north side of the reef, depending on the current.

Because of the quite strong currents at Elphinstone in addition to the nature of the dive allowing for little error, only scuba divers with an advanced open water certificate and 50 dives are permitted to dive here.

4. Experience the Magic of Diving with Dugongs 

When scuba diving in Marsa Alam this means you are diving in one of the world’s best destinations where you can practice swimming and scuba diving with dugongs. Dugongs live here in a small population (only five seven dugongs) along the Marsa Alam coast from Port Ghalib to Wadi Lahami Diving Village. These marine mammals are related to manatees, and feed on the sea grass fields just offshore, and scuba divers usually have encounters with them when coming up to breathe or when swimming between grass patches. 

Because dugongs are few but regularly seen, local skippers know where to look for them. Therefore, both snorkelers and divers have a good chance of seeing these gentle animals up close. 

5. Dive in a Protected Marine Environment 

Marsa Alam was once a quiet coastal area with very little development until scuba divers kept visiting the city several decades ago when the town began to blossom. The area has grown around scuba diving, with strong efforts to protect both the reefs and marine life.

At any resort you visit here in Marsa Alam, you’ll find the beach entry is limited to a small area to prevent any trampling on the coral reef from the visitors. Large areas of the coastline are closed to swimmers, snorkelers, and divers to protect the reefs. Besides protecting the coastline, local organizations, such as HEPCA, are working to protect marine life, including dolphins and turtles. 

The area also supports recycling, and most resorts are reducing the use of straws and other single-use plastics. These initiatives are working together in order to create a healthier underwater world.

6. Unique Dive Resorts

As a city developed by divers for divers, scuba diving in Marsa Alam is regarded as an optimum diving experience. This is especially noticed at the dive resorts in the region.

Most of the dive centers in Marsa Alam offer an innovative “unlimited diving” program. The idea is that you pay one price for a day to practice scuba diving, and you conduct unguided dives on the house reef of the resort as often as possible. This usually means both you and your dive buddy will get about four dives each day. 

Then, when you want to go further to dive sites, such as Dolphin House and Elphinstone, you simply need to pay a small fee for the guide and boat trip. 

Besides that, because of the remote location, many dive resorts offer all-inclusive packages, so you don’t have to worry about going out of the resort to buy your food or drinks. Together, unlimited diving and all-inclusive resorts make for a relaxing and enjoyable scuba diving holiday.