We have just returned from a 2 week holiday at th ...
We have just returned from a 2 week holiday at the Flamenco Hotel, El Quseir, Egypt and have spent every day diving the with excellent newly opened dive centre which is based there called www.diving.de
Everyone was so helpful and couldn´t do enough for us - we really felt we were treated like royals!! It was diving at its best. I was very impressed with the friendly and enthusiastic dive guides, the support staff who helped us on with our gear and lifted all the equipment around for us. Everything was aimed at making the diving as relaxing and enjoyable as possible. The transport was excellent - a fleet of air conditioned buses was sheer luxury compared to some transport I have had in the Red Sea! There was a varied itinerary of trips which you could sign up for the day before and these ranged from full day ´jeep´ (air conditioned bus!) excursions, boat trips, half days, etc. They were so flexible you could dive half or full days as you pleased. Also you didn´t have to pre-book to get a good discount and this was a bonus. The diving was very diverse, lovely reefs, day boat trips, including Elphinstone, the haunting dive of the Salem Express, shore dives through tunnels in the reef. Walking over rocks to the site to see a hole we had to descend into was a new experience. Once under water you followed a rope through wonderfully lit tunnels to the clear blue sea beyond. A few sites were like this and it was something I have found unique to El Quseir. One of the best things was seeing the dugong - twice on 2 different dives!! I will not disclose the dive site because the dive centre told me it was ´their secret´ and no other dive centres knew where it was. You will have to go to the Flamenco dive centre www.diving.de and find out for yourself!...... and it wasn´t Abu Dabab! We did go there looking for the dugong but saw loads of huge green turtles which was a good substitute. I did begin to wonder if the dugong did exist but it is true. We spent a good 10 minutes on each of the 2 dives I mentioned very close up to it. What an unforgettable experience!
As if you weren´t spoilt enough for choice on the day and half day trips you also had the house reef at the end of the jetty. This house reef was exceptional. I did about 4 dives on this plus a night dive. On the day dives we saw eagle rays twice, turtles, octopus and all the usual shoals of colourful fish. On the night dive we saw 2 spanish dancers, a huge stone fish and fish that flashed in the dark when you turned your torches off. With the torches off we were told to wave our arms around and the whole sea lit up with phosphorescence that our movements caused. The coral here is well preserved and the entry and exit off the jetty is easy. It is also a good spot for snorkelling.
The dive centre has all the facilities you would expect for washing and storing your equipment. Nitrox is free and even though we took all our own equipment I was very impressed with all the brand new hire equipment which has been purchased for this new centre. It did look really good stuff!
My thanks to Mirko and his team at the Flamenco for making this a truly unforgettable diving experience. Excellent diving, truly professional, friendly and helpful staff. What more could you want?!
Beverly Denton
Everyone was so helpful and couldn´t do enough for us - we really felt we were treated like royals!! It was diving at its best. I was very impressed with the friendly and enthusiastic dive guides, the support staff who helped us on with our gear and lifted all the equipment around for us. Everything was aimed at making the diving as relaxing and enjoyable as possible. The transport was excellent - a fleet of air conditioned buses was sheer luxury compared to some transport I have had in the Red Sea! There was a varied itinerary of trips which you could sign up for the day before and these ranged from full day ´jeep´ (air conditioned bus!) excursions, boat trips, half days, etc. They were so flexible you could dive half or full days as you pleased. Also you didn´t have to pre-book to get a good discount and this was a bonus. The diving was very diverse, lovely reefs, day boat trips, including Elphinstone, the haunting dive of the Salem Express, shore dives through tunnels in the reef. Walking over rocks to the site to see a hole we had to descend into was a new experience. Once under water you followed a rope through wonderfully lit tunnels to the clear blue sea beyond. A few sites were like this and it was something I have found unique to El Quseir. One of the best things was seeing the dugong - twice on 2 different dives!! I will not disclose the dive site because the dive centre told me it was ´their secret´ and no other dive centres knew where it was. You will have to go to the Flamenco dive centre www.diving.de and find out for yourself!...... and it wasn´t Abu Dabab! We did go there looking for the dugong but saw loads of huge green turtles which was a good substitute. I did begin to wonder if the dugong did exist but it is true. We spent a good 10 minutes on each of the 2 dives I mentioned very close up to it. What an unforgettable experience!
As if you weren´t spoilt enough for choice on the day and half day trips you also had the house reef at the end of the jetty. This house reef was exceptional. I did about 4 dives on this plus a night dive. On the day dives we saw eagle rays twice, turtles, octopus and all the usual shoals of colourful fish. On the night dive we saw 2 spanish dancers, a huge stone fish and fish that flashed in the dark when you turned your torches off. With the torches off we were told to wave our arms around and the whole sea lit up with phosphorescence that our movements caused. The coral here is well preserved and the entry and exit off the jetty is easy. It is also a good spot for snorkelling.
The dive centre has all the facilities you would expect for washing and storing your equipment. Nitrox is free and even though we took all our own equipment I was very impressed with all the brand new hire equipment which has been purchased for this new centre. It did look really good stuff!
My thanks to Mirko and his team at the Flamenco for making this a truly unforgettable diving experience. Excellent diving, truly professional, friendly and helpful staff. What more could you want?!
Beverly Denton