Recommend a Hotel in Sharm With a House Reef

[Nick of Bristol]

We have booked a flight to Sharm, but we are now looking for a reasonably priced hotel with a house reef !

Sharks bay, Naama Bay, Nabq Bay it does not really matter.

Would anybody have recommendations ?

Thanks in advance

Nick

[ssteve]

more info req
kids?
non divers
time of year
etc

ssteve

[Nick of Bristol]

thanks steve

We are all divers (SD+) from SSAC
No kids
And we will be in town from the 1st April2010

[Steve in Sharm]

Naama Bay hotels dont have house reefs, all they have is a long sloping sandy beach, you'd be better off in Nabq, Sharks Bay or Hadaba if house reef diving is what you're after.

Woz has just been out here and he gave the Sharks Bay Hilton a decent write up.

Regards

[Woz]

Was impressed with the hose reef at the Hilton, Sharks Bay. We had an explore of the reefs on each side and they were all sandy bottoms with the occasional clump of coral. The Hilton reef had lots of big coral heads- was easy to do 2 or 3 dives on it. Lots of lion fish, morays, antheas, glass fish, rays etc. Wouldn't like to spend a week on it, though. The dive centre did RIB drop offs to heads around 300m away then you dived back to the jetty at HSB which worked well.

I also booked a days boat diving (we did 3 dives on Local South but Ras Mohammad and Tiran are popular too) and a day out diving the Thistlegorm (dived it twice with another dive on Ras Mohammad on the way back in).

If you just shore dive Sharm I reckon you would get bored quickly. Boat diving is the way to go.

[Roz]

If you just shore dive Sharm I reckon you would get bored quickly. Boat diving is the way to go.

For me the most impressive house reef has got to be Ras Ghamila at the Baron Resort. "Ghamila" means beautiful in Arabic and it truly is. This reef makes me think of a quintessentially English Garden, something akin to Wisley or Kew. Big rolling lawns (fine sand bottom) framed by large hedges (Porites) and borders with a mix of planting (coral reef) and the odd tree/bush (coral head). And buzzing between the flowers (corals) are bees (various fish). In my imagination I wouldn't have been at all surprised to have seen Mr Darcy aka Colin Firth strolling around the garden. I never ever tired in diving this site and I dived it a lot.

Woz made a good point though. Just diving a house reef, beautiful though it may be, would be a waste when you have some other pretty awesome sites, a boat ride away.

Note - absolutely no idea what so ever what the Baron Hotel is like.

[robscubaproxlt]

HILTON sharks bay should be cheap as chips at the moment, 5 star, really good food, all inclusive for the price of a similar 3 or 4 star half board or all inclusive, lots to do and a great complex with own reef and boats to dive with. I did another 5 star in namma in August no where near as good for £100 less Il always try to get in the Hilton sharks form now on:0)

[Woz]

If you do go to HSB, they will insist on a check out dive before you can use their "buddy system" (just nicking cyls and weight). You need to be AOW + 25 dives or equivalent (OD + 25 is fine but check your insurance).

The "new bit" is a way from the beach but there is a regular FLBB (Fat Lazy Ba$tard Bus- Missus Woz christened it that!) running up and down all day. We stayed in the "old bit" in a family suite and loved it. Excellent quality room, a walk to the beach, the restaurant wasn't as mental as the "new bit" and don't forget to have a proper cut-throat shave a couple of times while you are there. It's brilliant and leaves your face as smooth as a baby's bottom.

Unlike my bottom.

[Gasgow]

Been to Sharm twice and did dive Sharks Hilton, although stayed in Oriental in Nabq, sharks was far better than the house reef in Nabq.

Would back up the others though, in Sharm you gotta get out on a boat to really appreciate it, if you want only to shore dive look at Dahab about an hour north, this is shore dive heaven and I've been 3 times, nearly all shore diving up there and a lot more laid back (fewer arrogant Russians), can be really cheap too and lots of good eateries (I really don't like All inclusive so prefer this)

Probably my Favourite red sea dive of all time (wrecks excluded) was Dahab Canyon see link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6VdqhcwPIE&feature=related

[steve.w]

i agree with .roz
ras ghamilia is a fantastic dive . i dived it 3 times when in sharm march 2009
the marine life is fantastic . saw a big turtle 2 days running .this was my first time to the red sea so i was well impressed .did not do any boat dives so unable to compare.
we stayed at the baron palms resort 2 mins walk from the beach and dived with sinai divers on the resort .

hope this helps

[Eddie Clamp]

i agree with .roz
ras ghamilia is a fantastic dive . i dived it 3 times when in sharm march 2009
the marine life is fantastic .


Ras Ghamila. Only done it once and it was from Liveboard Juliet and quite close to shore but came upon this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGdvQ4FxFlA . A good dive!

Strange action. Smallgrouper after a Lionfish eggs IMHO but others have stated different :rolleyes: