Malta or Red Sea in March?

[scott laddiman]

HELP!
I where do you recommend I go for a diving holiday in March?
I may have the chance of a Red Sea (Northern) Liveaboard or I could do a shore based holiday in Malta.
I have done the Red Sea before in November but the problem is this time I will be taking my wife who has never done a liveaboard before.
I have been told that a drysuit is recommended for Malta at that time of year and it can be windy and not very warm.
The Red Sea on the other hand will be better but would it be sufficently better to put my wife on her first liveaboard??
Malta or a Red Sea Liveaboard???
Your comments about the weather and diving in both places at that time of year would be kindly recieved!!

[Steve Walker]

I have done the Red Sea before in November but the problem is this time I will be taking my wife who has never done a liveaboard before.
I have been told that a drysuit is recommended for Malta at that time of year and it can be windy and not very warm.
The Red Sea on the other hand will be better but would it be sufficently better to put my wife on her first liveaboard??
Malta or a Red Sea Liveaboard???

Livaboards are only a problem if you (or rather your wife) is especially prone to being seasick or concerned about being in a somewhat confined space with other people for 5 or 6 days.
Personally I'd say do the RS livaboard
Cheers

[Ben Burville]

I've done both Malta & Red sea at that time of year.
No comparison! Go to Red Sea. Malta (esp Gozo / Blue hole etc) is OK but the weather will not be good then, water cool and marine life very sparse by comparison.
Personally I wouldn't do the live aboard with your partner. I'd do a land based out of Sharm.
I've dived Sharm (about 7 times) Hurghada / Marsa Alam and others but if you like marine life I'd do Sharm and concentrate on certain sites. (I'm going back in April!)
If you want more info than e-mail.
Ben.

[Jeanne]

Hi Scott,

Happy New Year!

About your dilemma, I too would advise a RS trip against Malta. I dived in Sharm and Dahab in March '93 (geezz, 10 years ago!) and I can tell you I was glad of my 7mm semi-dry 2-piece, the water was a mere 22?C. It does not get much warmer I don't think unless you go much further south (El Qseir, Marsa Alam and beyond). Malta as all Western Mediterranean destinations in winter are notoriously unreliable for weather (I had SNOW in Tunisia in February once, to quote an extreme case). Malta's diving is simply not in the RS league, at any time. Underwater scapes are impressive enough but every fish of any size has been fished out to extinction.

As for live aboard, I may be failing to see what the objective is here, other than be together at some stage on board, but I have seen this before. A non-diver would quite quickly get bored out of their skull, and that is assuming they are good at living on a boat in the first place, don't mind confined spaces, haphazzard A/C at night, the potential 'attentions' of the crew when things are quiet (ie. when you've all gone diving), and the excessively boring tales of divers when they finally resurface from their 3-4 dives a day. If they are not, the boredom will soon graduate to despair.

My suggestion would be this:

If you want a holiday, where you have the opportunity to do day boat or shore based dives, where your wife can do some superb snorkelling too, short liveaboard trips (2-3 days) on your own or with your wife, you can't go wrong with a primarily shore based holiday out of Sharm, Hurghada or Marsa Alam. If you like wrecks and scenic then do Sharm, it's got the lot and more, if you like wrecks and more restricted scenic, do Hurghada, it's a shorter trip to the wrecks. If you like mind blowing beauty and pristine, uncrowded, dramatic sites, do Marsa Alam. All have fantastic land-based and water-based infrastucture to keep both diver and non-diver very happy!

Happy diving! I am off to Marsa Alam in May, if I can get my other half to agree dates with me!

Jeanne

[scott laddiman]

Ha! Maybe I should have clarified something!
My Wife is also a diver (BSAC Sports 35M max) and is nut's on wrecks.
The idea is to have a diving holiday away from our 2 year old Son.(we both need a break!) The main concern from my Wife is not being able to contact home to find out how he is but I have told her we could use the satillite phone on board if needed.
I have done a shore based trip from Hurgarda and I am not keen on doing that again as the diving was nothing like my Liveaboard I had done earlier.



Thanks for you suggestions.

Regards,
Scott.

[alison boler]

Scott
There is absolutely no comparison imo. Go on the liveaboard to the northern Red Sea! The wrecks are really good and it will be a lot warmer both in and out of the water at that time of year than Malta - plus a lot more to see in the water. And you will get to spend a really great chill break with your wife, away from all the hustle and bustle of the land. Re keeping in contact: you should find that your mobile phones - providing you have international roaming - will work throughout other than the odd day when you are in the middle of the straits. We have never had a problem using ours to speak to the kids when they were younger. In fact, one time when I had a birthday on board, the divemaster connected his laptop to my phone and used it to email home a photo of me with the birthday cake they had made me.

BTW, also imo for future, the day diving out of Sharm and Marsa Alarm is much better than that out of Hurghada and the place themselves are MUCH nicer too. Both of them are places we would - have - had a family holiday with non divers along. Hurghada is a bit more of an "acquired" taste and not very attractive IMO obviously.

Have a great time.

Allie

[Adrian Kelland]

BTW, also imo for future, the day diving out of Sharm and Marsa Alarm is much better than that out of Hurghada and the place themselves are MUCH nicer too. Both of them are places we would - have - had a family holiday with non divers along. Hurghada is a bit more of an "acquired" taste and not very attractive IMO obviously.

Have a great time.

Allie

Another reason ATM for liveaboards is to get you away from the Sharm area. I have been reading comments that diving has been banned in a large area due to the plane crash. How this affect day boats, or for how long, I don't know. A liveaboard gives you so much scope, and even the possibility of diving the Rosalie Moller.

edit: Tiran and the Gardens open again

Adrian