Red Sea, Egypt Snorkeling Trip Report, September 2017

by Michel
(Netherlands)

In September 2017 we visited the Red Sea in Egypt again and here is my snorkeling trip report. As usual we split our two week stay over three different bays. This gives the opportunity to search a bay quite good, but see something new after 4-5 days. We stayed in Brayka Bay, Marsa Shagra, and Marsa Nakari.

Brayka is quite familiar to us since we have visited this place five times already. The hotel is very big, the bay quite busy, but the corals and the fish are still very good. And since the bay is very sheltered from the wind, you can snorkel here in quite calm conditions even with strong winds.

Marsa Shagra has a smaller bay, but the hotel is visited only by divers so the place is much more quiet. When the wind is not too strong, you can snorkel the fringing reefs. Especially the north reef is highly recommended. You can have the zodiac drop you out on the reef, and snorkel back with the waves and the current at your back (always coming from the north). The bay is quite often visited by wild dolphins, and has a good variety of fish. The corals here are very good and varied.

Marsa Nakari is also a ‘divers only’ destination, and a lot smaller than Marsa Shagra. The bay is also quite small, and due to the shape more vulnerable for wind and incoming rubbish from the sea. But for fishes the bay is very good. This bay also has dolphins as regular visitors, a good number of macro opportunities, and regular views of sharks and several species of rays. We saw a lot of scorpionfish (two species), several species of goby in the shallows, and very tame Bluespotted Stingray, and Indian Ocean Crocodile Fish.

This is an update to another post I have about the Red Sea on this site. For much more about what I know about snorkeling here, please read my post Red Sea Egypt, The Best Snorkeling.