David Hartman will be giving a presentation on Egypt-Red Sea dive travel Saturday August 28, 2010 at 6:00 pm at Sterling Silver SCUBA in Sterling, VA. Mr Hartman’s presentation will cover information on touring ancient Egypt and the Red Sea as a dive destination as well as details on Sterling Silver SCUBA group trip to Egypt on June 25-July 10, 2011. Please call Kevin Davenport at Sterling Silver SCUBA to reserve a spot in the seminar (703) 731-0257. Guests are welcome.
Sterling Silver Divers Egypt-Red Sea Group Trip page:
15 Day/13 Night Itinerary: Cairo, Luxor with 7 Night Southern Red Sea Liveaboard -Simply the Best with Blue O Two aboard the M/V Sea Sound
Darlene and Afiffi, I wanted to thank you BOTH so much for such a wonderful trip and for all the extras you do that make things special. This trip was full of them and I felt like royalty! And of course for each of you for taking such good care of my mother both in the business class upgrade and Afiffi taking her shopping and looking out for her. She has a blast and considers this the trip of her lifetime. I am so glad that I could take her…er…more correctly that she would finally go on one of my trips…and that it was yours! She has been showing her pictures to everyone and has been like a little kid. She may have even sold the trip to her doctor…I will try to follow up. Hey word of mouth business is the best.
In any event you both exceeded my expectations and the trip was magnificent. I hope to book another group for you soon and another trip for us to Egypt in 2012. I will also look at the other options you have sent for variety. Thank you both again! It was amazing!
Learning Through Travel’s group VIP tour to Egypt and the Red Sea in September 2009. Slide show created by Robert and Jeanne Downey. The 13 Day/11 Night trip included visits to famous antiquities in Cairo and Luxor and a 7 night liveaboard in the Northern Red Sea. Download the flyer at the link below for information on our 2010 Egypt-Red Sea VIP Tour (dive professionals and group leaders only)
Check out a video of Emperor Elite as a European dive group goes south to the Sudan border. The 8-minutes teaser includes marvellous views from reefs of Elba, Abu Fendera, St. Johns, Fury Shoals, Elphinstone including sitings of silky shark, crocodile fish, scorpionfish, octopus, ‘popcorn crab’, nudibranch and even underwater treasures (captain’s bell!).
Emperor Divers thanks to Kai Kaasalainen for this superb video. Watch it here.
Congratulations to Matt M. of Aurora, CO on winning Learning Through Travel’s grand prize of a 7 night liveaboard trip for two to the Egyptian Red Sea with 2 nights in Cairo, Egypt. Matt won the prize at A-1 SCUBA Center’s May Sale Event this past weekend in Englewood, CO (just South of Denver). The A-1 event was fantastic with hundreds of attendees including over 200 people at the LTT Egypt-Red Sea trip presentation on Sunday afternoon and over 300 people in attendance for the grand prize giveaway. A-1′s Egypt-Red Sea trip next April is sold out thanks to the May Sale Event and now the dive shop may book a second trip for 2011 to Egypt later in the year.
As a tour operator one of the most important things to us is customer care and making sure that our clients feel comfortable and looked after in resort. The importance of this is shown in the way we have structured our business… we are the first British diving tour operator to operate and manage our own Red Sea liveaboard fleet. With offices in both the UK and Egypt, we make quality of service paramount, from initial enquiry to ground operations. Providing accessible channels for communication and feedback is essential to customer satisfaction and care; we offer a fully accountable service from start to finish.
This unique business structure was key to our customer care during the recent volcanic disruption.
Our customers unable to fly out of the UK… We had just less than 60 divers due to fly out from London Gatwick to Egypt on Friday 16th April. The flight was marked as ‘delayed’ on Friday and this delay continued into Saturday and Sunday. Throughout this period we kept in constant contact with our clients and offered them partial refunds for the holiday time lost; this partial refund increased as the delay progressed. On Sunday when the flight was still delayed we took the decision to cancel the trip and offered our clients the opportunity to transfer their trip to another week anytime within our published schedule dates (end 2011). This offer was very well received and we have now successfully re-booked the majority of clients.
Our customers stranded in Egypt… On Fridays our clients have day use of the Marriott hotel while waiting for their flight. When the news came that the flight was going to be delayed until at least the next day, clients were transferred back to our boats (Marriott marina) for dinner and to stay the night.
When it came to light that the flight was going to be very delayed and there would be no-one travelling out from the UK or back from Egypt anytime soon, we came up with a plan to try and make the best out of a potentially disastrous situation for our stranded guests. This plan involved the following options…
1. Another liveaboard safari
or
2. Local activities such as golf and quad biking, Free use of the Marriott facilities including the Health & Fitness centre, followed by a mini safari later in the week if the situation did not improve.
All of these activities were provided at a very minimal cost.
As a tour operator we have certain legal responsibilities and a duty of care to our guests which we believe we far exceeded. In most circumstances being stranded abroad can be tough both physically and mentally, not to mention frustrating and costly. Most of this frustration is caused by uncertainty and lack of information or communication from your tour operator. We did everything possible to make sure that all guests were kept up to date on the entire situation as it unfolded, made sure everybody was safe and looked after, provided assistance when needed, provided a free laundry service and generally tried to make the whole experience as stress free as possible for our guests.
This volcanic disruption enabled us to put our business ethics into practice and the showed the lengths we will go to. We are very pleased that we were able to help our guests make the most of this unexpected turn of events.
Congratulations to Kirstin McKinney from Sparta, NJ on winning Learning Through Travel’s free liveaboard trip to Egypt for two on Blue o Two to dive the Red Sea including two nights in Cairo. The free trip to Egypt was offered at the Beneath the Sea Expo last weekend in Secaucus, NJ. Kirstin is so excited she could hardly breath!!! We look forward to seeing Kirstin on one of Blue o Two’s luxury liveaboard dive boats later this year. Check out Blue of Two’s liveaboard dive boats at the link below: www.blueotwo.com
This new 7-day safari will take you to sites where few, if any, boats venture. There will be some known dive sites but the aim is to discover new ones! Magnificent drift, reef and wall diving, caves, plateaus and the blue. Dive into an underwater world that is unique in both its variety and its sheer number of species. Here’s what you can expect to visit on a typical Gulf of Aqaba North Cruise. Some dive sites might not accessible due to weather conditions.
Day 1
Transfer to the boat. Welcome on board, cabin arrangement and boat-briefing. Day 2
Sail early morning. Check dive/skills review is made at a local dive site. The boat then sails to the Straits of Tiran. Day 3
Passing by Dahab you can visit the famous sites of the Bells, Blue Hole, Canyon, Eel Garden or the Islands. South of Dahab, within in the Nabq National Park, Gabr el Bint features a steep wall and colorful coral gardens. Two dives are possible here. These dives are among the most attractive in Sinai. Dive Gebel El Aswad, an underwater mountain only accessible by boat. Day 4
One of the highlights is the Ras Mamlach area, home to the most northern dive sites of the Abu Galum National Park. Amazing fan corals, table corals, soft corals followed by a steep wall. Barracudas and jacks pass by in the blue of the Gulf of Aqaba. Day 5
Dive sites in the Nuweiba area include Marsa El Muqabila and Ras El Shaitan with its incredible mountain scenery. Closer to Nuweiba is El Magana, this site is famous for sea grass beds with small marine species such as nudibranches and seahorses – a superb location for macro photography. Other dive sites include the M.F.O. Pipeline, Abu Lou Lou and the Sinkers, an old Israeli buoy with chains that are covered in beautiful soft corals. El Mazrique has a landscape of coral hills and valleys and an impressive five meter high brain coral! Day 6
More ravines, walls, caves, hills and chimneys. Ras Abu Galum is a sheltered bay where you can dive incredible wall dives from both the north and the south. Day 7
Back to Sharm and dive the world famous Shark and Jolanda Reef in Ras Mohammed National Park.
Thank you to all our friends who stopped by the Learning Through Travel booth at the Beneath the Sea SCUBA and Dive Travel Expo last weekend. The show was a fantastic success and stay tuned to hear about the winner of the free liveaboard trip for two to the Red Sea and Cairo.
Learning Through Travel will give away a free 1-week liveaboard dive trip for two to the Egyptian Red Sea at booth # 646 at The Beneath The Sea Dive & Travel Expo in Secaucus, New Jersey on March 26-28, 2010. The free Egypt-Red Sea dive trip includes 2 nights in Cairo, 7 night liveaboard dive cruise in the Red Sea, all transfers within Egypt and is valued at $3500.00. Optional tours are available including a Nile Cruise, the Pyramids, Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. Only participants who attend Beneath The Sea are eligible to win the free Red Sea liveaboard trip. Stop by booth # 646 at Beneath The Sea and sign up for the free trip and pick up Learning Through Travel’s Red Sea Journey DVD including Egypt-Red Sea tour programs that are specifically designed for divers. The Beneath The Sea Dive & Travel Exp 2010 show information is found at www.beneaththesea.org
