By Sarah
Can people please share which is the best house reef in Sharm El Sheikh Egypt for snorkeling? Also are there particular snorkel tours that would be worth taking? I’m an avid snorkeler and have visited some amazing reefs (I used to dive before getting the bends). I only have a couple of days, but would love to see the most interesting things Sharm El Sheikh has to offer (underwater, of course 😉 ).
Thank you!
There is one community post on the site that mentions snorkeling a great house reef in Sharm El Sheikh Egypt. Hopefully you will get some other great answers.
Hi Sarah, my husband and I stayed at Jaz Fanara in September 2023 and really enjoyed the reef there. Lots of unspoiled corals and many fish, both in variety and number. We also traveled to Dahab to snorkel the Blue Hole and again we were blown away; really beautiful hard corals, lots of amazing fish. We also did a day trip out to the National Park. This was easy and fun. We would love to go back!
I stayed at Shams Alam; sublime, especially swimming toward or walking up to and going from the jetty at the resort just to the north. They book up really early because of so many repeat European visitors. Really fabulous experience. I would have stayed longer, but even six months ahead, that was not an option.
They have a resident dugong, if you are lucky (I wasn’t, but elsewhere hit the jackpot). I did some diving there as well, very nice. I did not do any boat snorkel trips because the house reef was plenty satisfying. The staff is so hard-working and kind.
I then moved up to 3 Corners Fairouz – not a good experience. Their outer reef is nice, but the inner is dead, and when the wind comes up – often – there is no access to the outer reef. And weird stuff like their daily spewing of what looked like shaving cream for people to run through down on the beach. No wonder their inner reef is dead. I also vastly preferred the ambiance and quiet of Shams Alam.
We have stayed at Fort Arabesque five times and we are booked to return in May 2024. It is not in Sharm El Sheik. The food is not the best but we have had no problems with it. The snorkeling straight off the beach is fantastic. It’s an easy walk on soft sand and the corals start at one meter deep. There are loads of fish. We always see morays but not a lot of big stuff. The occasional eagle ray, turtle, loads of blue spotted rays. Loads of clownfish. I once saw a small shark and my wife saw dolphins in the bay when she was scuba diving. The corals are very pretty.
Don’t be tempted by the hotels on either side of Fort Arabesque. The access to the reef from them is much harder.
We visited Dreams Beach Hotel at Sharm el Sheik 10 times but the last time was eight years ago. The snorkeling there was excellent but probably not as good as Fort Arabesque. We also snorkeled at Jaz Fanara and that was excellent too. From Sharm you can get great day snorkeling trips to Ras Mohammed or Tiran Island. The reefs there are fabulous.