Diving the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt

With striking coral sheltering abundant, colourful marine life, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula is arguably the Red Sea’s best diving area.

Avid divers have descended upon Sharm El Sheikh and the surrounding resorts of the Sinai Peninsula for decades. While this means the sites are busier and perhaps less pristine than in their emergent heyday, this area of the Red Sea is still deservedly renowned for some exceptional scuba spots. All levels of ability and experience are catered for, with an ever-increasing number of operators in Sharm El Sheikh in particular. Most of the major hotels have dive schools with their own preferred sites, often relatively close by for beginner’s dives, while areas such as the Straits of Tiran and Ras Mohammed offer world-class dives for advanced aficionados.

There are plenty of wreck dives to enjoy, including the submerged British vessel the Thistlegorm, which has been voted one of the Top 10 Dives in the World. There is a truly staggering array of marine life thriving in the Red Sea, from the smaller fish such as angelfish, butterflyfish and clownfish, up to larger species such as groupers, wrasses, rays, lionfish, pufferfish, barracudas and turtles.