News, Pictures, Stories and Resources on dive travel to Egypt, Israel and Jordan

Trip Highlights: 11 days/9 Nights Cairo, Luxor, Land based day diving in Sharm El Sheikh and Dahab

Hi Mr. Afifi:  Just a quick note to say how much I along with Joe Fogel, Tom McConnell and Dan Schopp enjoyed our first visit to Egypt.  Egypt is an amazing place with a rich history and wonderful people. We worked closely with Darlene and David at Learning Through Travel out of New York on this FAM trip.  They did an excellent job on the trip itinerary, but your team had to do the actual tours and logistics once we arrived in Egypt.  From the moment we arrived we were treated with exceptional service and that continued throughout the trip.  Your team is to be commended and the Learning Through Travel experience will be recommended without reservation to travel prospects.  Well done!  Rami was incredible.  An excellent communicator and problem solver.  We made changes during our trip with a balloon air ride in Luxor, spending one a night in Sharm El Sheik to dive the Ras Mohamed, adding Dan Shopp to our visit to Petra, Jordan and riding camels to the top of Mt Sinai.  All handled without a hitch.  Nice.  Rami, was a take charge person that made things happen and a joy to be with (kind of like traveling with a friend).  Awesome! Tarek was absolutely an amazing driver!  Hotel selection was very impressive.  Manal did a great tour of Cairo and was good at navigating the various venues and helped us with shopping.  We felt we were in good hands during our visit.  Ahmed and George did great tours of Luxor, the temples and the Valley of the Kings.  Rami and Tarek resumed contact with us in Sharm, Dahab and Mt. Sinai.  The diving was great in Ras Mohamed and the wall dives in Dahab we absolutely amazing.  The dive masters Mohamed Said and Mora (hope I got the spelling right) did great jobs in Sharm and Dahab.  The trip to Jordan went well as well.  Basim and the tour coordinator did a great job in Petra.  The camel ride to the top (plus a bit of a hike at the top) at Mt Sinai plus the visit to St. Catherine’s was very special!  In summary, it was an outstanding trip.  We are sharing our trip with others in the Atlanta market.  Should something develop, we’ll be in touch with Darlene.  Once again thank you for wonderful experience!  You have an excellent group of professionals in Egypt! Shukran! 

Bryan Kovacs, Trip Leader: Atlanta Dive Group

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.

EGYPT-RED SEA: A-1 SCUBA Center Trip: April 8-23, 2011

THE Colorado diving event of the year

Learning Through Travel will be exhibiting and presenting at A-1 SCUBA’s May Sale Event May 21-22, 2010 at A-1′s dive shop in Englewood, Colorado.  The annual event is the biggest in Colorado attracting over 1000 attendees with great deals on equipment and dive travel and free seminars on both travel and equipment.  David Hartman will be presenting for Learning Through Travel on Saturday morning at 9:15 am and on Sunday afternoon at 1:45 pm. The half-hour presentation will cover Egypt as a dive destination as well as review the details of A-1 SCUBA’s group trip to Egypt April 8-23, 2011.  Learning Through Travel will be giving away various door prizes and promoting trip specials during the May Sale event and we donated the grand travel prize of a one week Northern Red Sea Live Aboard trip for two in Egypt plus 2 nights in Cairo  (a $3500 value!).  Come see us at A-1′s May Sale event.

For more information: http://www.a1scuba.com/newsletter/2010May/index.shtml

A-1 SCUBA’s Egypt -Red Sea Trip April 8-23, 2011: http://www.a1scuba.com/travel/egypt_apr_2011.shtml

13 days/11 nights Trip: Cairo, Luxor, Sharm and Dahab land based day boat and shore diving

“The trip was excellent. One of my best ever and the diving lived up to the world class expectations.  Learning Through Travel has a fantastic setup with their staff and team leaders.  If I planned the trip myself, our group would be stuck in Egypt and out of money.  LTT makes the travel through Egypt absolutely seamless.  We are already planning a return trip to Egypt in the next two years.

    -George Campbell, Travel Director 

      Deep Six Underwater, New Paltz, New York

Thank you to SCUBA Shack in Rocky Hill, CT for a wonderful turnout and reception for our Egypt presentation on Wednedsay May 12th. SCUBA Shack is taking a group to Egypt in April-May 2011 and used their travel seminar night to launch their group trip. Over 30 people attended the hour long presentation and we received numouers questions and positive comments during the pizza dinner after the Egypt-Red Sea seminar. LTT looks forward to escorting a sold out group of SCUBA Shack customers in Egypt next April.

David Hartman will be giving a presentation on Egypt-Red Sea dive travel Wednesday May 12, 2010 at 6:30pm at SCUBA Shack in Rocky Hill, CT. The presentation will occur during SCUBA Shack’s monthly free seminar class. The topic of May’s class is Dive Travel and Preparation and Mr Hartman’s presentation will cover information on Egypt as a dive destination as well as details on SCUBA Shack’s group trip to Egypt in April-May 2011. Please call Ed Hayes at SCUBA Shack to reserve a spot in the seminar (860)563-0119

SCUBA Shack Egypt trip web page: http://scubashackct.com/scuba-shack-plans-group-trip-to-egypt-jan-2010/

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April is a month to celebrate at Emperor Divers Sharm as summer finally arrives. Each year from April to September we are sometimes lucky enough to have the company of manta rays on our dives (or Manta birostris, as Emperor instructor Pete Walsh would say!) All this month there have been numerous manta ray sightings by Emperor guests up and down the coastline. No longer is ‘Ras Mohammed’ or ‘Tiran’ the most popular choice, the ‘local’ dive sites are the place to be!

Manta rays, easily distinguished by their large mandibles, are the biggest winged creatures that inhabit the oceans. The largest known specimen measured more than 25 feet across with a weight of about 5000 pounds. But here in Sharm a smaller, yet still impressive 10-13 feet is more common. Mantas feed mainly on plankton filtered from the water passing through their gills as they swim. Incidentally their top speed is only 7 miles per hour and for those of you that have had the chance to dive with them before, you’ll know it seems like they are going much faster.

Scuba diving with a manta ray is an amazing experience, often ended with a cheer of delight from the dive group upon reaching the surface. They are quite curious animals and they are often known to approach scuba divers, either enjoying the interaction and playing with our bubbles or simply wanting to see what is happening. These magnificent creatures are also frequently seen feeding near or at the surface so those snorkelling also might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse.

When diving with manta rays it is very important to remember that they are wild animals and should be observed only. The less action a scuba diver takes to scare a manta ray, such as chasing it to get a better look or to get that perfect picture, the more likely it is that the manta ray will hang around giving an unforgettable experience. Happy manta ray spotting this summer in Sharm!

Post courtesy of Emperor Divers News Blog

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.

Post courtesy of Blue O Two web site

She’s one of the most famous wrecks of the Red Sea and you can now dive her when the rest of the divers have left and gone home. The WWII wreck, SS Thistlegorm, is yours for the taking with three dives – and more on your way to the site.

The Thistlegorm Overnight is a special trip from three of Emperor’s award winning dive centres – Sharm el Sheikh, El Gouna and Hurghada. Your itinerary may vary slightly from centre to centre but wherever you choose, Emperor’s first class guides, boats and crew will make it a fantastic experience.

No more early starts for this Thistlegorm trip; enjoy a relative lie-in before being picked up by Emperor and leaving the jetty later than the other day boats travelling to the Thistlegorm! After a world class first dive at either Ras Mohammed National Park or one of the fantastic wrecks of Abu Nuhas, depending on which centre you’re diving with, you’ll arrive in the afternoon for your first dive on the Thistlegorm – just as everyone else is leaving! So you get to enjoy the Thistlegorm at its most relaxed, far from the earlier madding crowds. After a relaxing surface interval, it’s time for the Thistlegorm night dive. This truly is an awe inspiring dive at night and one that you’ll remember for a long time.

After the thrill of a fantastic night dive, its time to relax and chat about your dives over an evening meal with your fellow divers before turning in to your comfortable cabin and looking forward to the next day’s diving. An earlier start awaits and again you get to dive the Thistlegorm, this time exploring its cavernous holds, before all the day boats arrive. That’s three dives with hardly anyone else on this massive wreck! Breakfast awaits you back on board and then it’s back to base, stopping again at Ras Mohammed National Park or Abu Nuhas for some more quality diving. If this isn’t enough for you, then there’s also a chance to do a third dive!

Post courtesy of Emperor Divers News Blog

The show is over but the specials continue. Take advantage of the Egypt dive travel specials below first offered at Beneath the Sea for a limited time only.

DISCOVER DAHAB DIVE EXPEDITION: “Dive the Blue Hole; Ride a camel to diving”

10 Days/8 Nights $3,125.00  -Valid May 1-19, 20, August 20-December 12, 2010

                                   $3,525.00  -Valid May 20-August 19, 2010

Package includes international air NYC-JFK to Cairo; domestic flights in Egypt; 7 nights accommodations at Dahab Hilton or similar; 5 days of diving-10  guided dives (boat and shore); Half day sightseeing in Cairo at Pyramids and Sphinx; 8 breakfasts and 5 lunches and transfers within Egypt and porterage of 1 piece of luggage.

DOWNLOAD DAHAB SPECIAL TRIP FLYER