Tourist Boats, Ras Mohammed - Egypt

Depending on particular circumstances, it can get busy out there! particularly around Sharm el Sheikh with an awful lot of tourist boats going to the same places.

The best bet is to arrange such trips through a reputable diving school. Your hotel will probably provide such trips and the reps will be very keen on signing you up quickly to get their commission on selling the deals to top up their meager basic wage, you will however pay over the odds for this. They may try to worry you by saying if you don't book soon that you'll miss out. I've never had this problem as it's more likely that boat capacity will outstrip demand.

Trips arranged through a dive school will probably go to more interesting places, though are not necessarily for the absolute beginner, let them know exactly what you want and what your competence is.

It is possible to accompany such trips as a non-swimming passenger with the rest of the family/party, sitting on deck and reading or whatever, but anyone who I've seen do this has almost inevitably ended up looking bored to tears come the afternoon. I'd recommend that if you're not going into the sea, that you'd be better off having some personal space at the hotel while the rest go off on the boat and then meet up later on. On the other hand, there's little reason why almost anyone couldn't go in the sea, most boats have life vests for weak swimmers so you can float around at the surface and see plenty. After all this is one of the top 3 diving regions in the world with wonderful coral reefs and marine life, so it seems a shame to come all this way and not stick your head under the water with a mask on at least once.

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