SAUDI ARABIA SCUBA DIVING TRIPS

For years cloaked in secrecy, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has exploded on to the tourist track. International Cultural Tourism has been evident for many years with groups coming from Japan, America and Europe. Saudi Arabia is now announcing The Year of the Diver. Our Saudi Arabia dive trips are proving to be a great success. This is as a result of spectacular diving with newly discovered dive sites and an abundance of large pelagic activity both with our Yanbu and Farasan Banks itineraries.
It has been said that Saudi Arabia is one of diving's last frontiers, and it is a fact that very few westerners have ever been able to dive here. The appeal of diving almost untouched, barely explored reefs is undeniable.

FARASAN BANKS, SAUDI ARABIA (ITINERARY 1)

The Saudi part of the Farasan is divided into two areas, named Farasan Banks and the Farasan Archipelago, extending south to Jeddah up to the Yemenite coast.
All the islands in the Farasan Banks are home to colonies of birds, including yellow footed boobies and fish eagles, making the destination a true paradise for nature lovers and one of the few uncontaminated places left on Earth.
The port of Al Lith, around 230 km south of Jeddah, is the departure point and the first dive spots are found around 3 hours away, in an area where small, sandy islands alternate with partially submerged reefs The island of Mar Mar offers some spectacular diving and is the night mooring point. Close by are the islands of Dohra, Jadir and Malathu and the Gorgonia, Bandu and Long reefs. 25 miles further south is Sha’ab Ammar, a horseshoe shaped reef which is also used for night moorings. Further south are the islands of Danak, Jabbara and Eagle and the coral atolls of Mudhar reef and Cioppy reef. A common characteristic of all these spots is the incredible variety of hard black coral and the quantity of fish to be seen, including schools of big eye jacks, huge Trevally jacks, barracudas, tuna, rays and mantas. Sharks include the white tip and grey reef sharks, silky sharks, hammerheads, and on occasion tiger sharks. Dolphins are also common in these waters.
MarMar
On the Eastern side of this site the wall slopes down to 200 metres, and is covered in caverns, lagoons and small caves, many of which are home to small reef sharks. On the southern tip is a sand highway going east to west and ending in a turquoise lagoon heavily populated with fish. On the northern tip is a dive site aptly named ‘the washing machine’ due to the extremely fast north to south-west currents. On a good day this site will give you the chance to see mantas and white-tips and provide you with the ride of your life.
Dohra
One of the main turtle nesting islands, on and around this site are large populations of turtle, coral grouper, blue spotted grouper, purple tang, lyre tail coral fish, a variety of coloured soft corals, reef sharks, white and black tip sharks, blue spotted sting rays and even tiger sharks.
Shib Ammar
This reef is to the far South of the main group of islands, and is called dolphin reef due to the large numbers of dolphins often seen there. This is one of the few reefs where the boat can sail in directly and anchor in the lagoon, so is protected in all weathers.
Gorgonian Point
This totally submerged reef has, as its name suggests, huge Gorgonian Fans at a depth of 30 to 40 meters on the Eastern side. At the Southern tip, at a depth of 25 metres, are four fabulous complete bubble coral heads and during the season the area is a mass of juvenile cuttle fish attached to every piece of coral in the vicinity. Sharks, mantas and the ever present giant parrot fish are common.
Dannak
This dive site has a channel type area which is located at the eastern side of the island. Typical are red snapper, stone or scorpion fish, blue spotted sting rays, barracuda, black & white tip reef sharks, turtles, moray eels, bump head or buffalo parrot fish, brain coral, stinging coral and black coral.

YANBU, SAUDI ARABIA (ITINERARY 2)
These waters are among the best the Red Sea has to offer, for visibility, intact corals, deep walls and numerous pelagics. All dives here are exceptional and the untouched atolls provide some truly breathtaking sights.
Leaving from the Port of El Sharm, the first taste of these pristine waters is on Gotha el Sharm, with its splendid untouched coral sculptures. The next stop is north towards Marker 7, or sha’ab Gurush, and on to the group of reefs called sha’ab Shu’ayabah, which is the perfect night shelter and from which the fantastic dives of Marker 3 and Marker 11 take place. All these dives are characterised by their breathtaking vertical walls decorated with sea fans and colourful soft coral. The south facing walls of this site have several plateaus where tuna, barracuda, jack fish as well as grey sharks and hammerheads can be seen. The majestic wreck of the Argonautis lies silently on one of these reefs and can be visited if sea conditions permit.
From sha’ab Shu’ayabah the itinerary continues south to the Seven reefs where dives spots such as Marker 32, Marker 34, Abu Galawa and Marker 39 offer the chance to dive off a large plateau and view large pelagics including hammerheads, albimarginatus and longimanus, but the real surprise are the multi colored hard corals that thrive together with forests of sea fans and soft corals. Further south is the spectacular sha’ab Suflani atoll with walls falling vertically down to a depth of over 300 metres. Here too groups of hammerheads and other pelagics can be sighted on the southern platform. The cruise terminates with a dive on the wreck of the Shouna, an old Turkish steam ship that sank a few miles out of the port of Yanbu.