28 Mar 2024
We initially booked the snorkeling, but added the beginners dive on a couple days before the excursion.
The transfer from the hotel was long, there was no air-conditioning in the minibus so we had the windows open, but this doesn't help when your stuck in traffic. The driver Elvis however was very nice and we felt safe on the crazy roads.
When we got to the boat, it seemed crowded, not enough seats for everyone mainly due to the diving equipment taking up a lot of space.
I have done a couple beginners dives before in Egypt, and it has always been one diver per person, so I was surprised when we were told we had one diver between me and my friend.
We had to jump into the water with the equipment on, which I was told we wouldn't need to do before booking, as I was told it would be from the beach.
We had a very brief tutorial at the back of the boat, but the sea was rough so this didn't help.
We then got back on the boat and went to shallower water near the beach.
My friend was very nervous and wasn't going to carry on, but the diving instructor took her arm and guided her. However this ment I was left behind a lot. I was struggling to swim down. The diving instructor eventually saw, and helped me down, but then swam off again. Felt like I was not being assisted as much as I should for a first dive. At One point I panicked as I swallowed some water and choaked and my goggles filled up, I struggled to swim to the surface by myself as in the panic I couldn't find the valve to inflate the jacket.
Everytime I've done the dive before I've had an instructor by myside to help me. So unfortunately I would not recommend this for beginner divers. I did not feel safe unfortunately
After the diving we went to a second site where we could snorkel, however the visibility wasn't good. Apparently the first site was good snorkeling, but I missed this as we did the dive, but didn't see much on the dive as wasn't relaxed.
I very rarely write reviews, but unfortunately felt the need for this as I didn't feel safe, and a bad experience can put me off from diving again