Renaissance Golden View and Emperor Divers, Sharm el Sheikh

by Alan Ewart

We divers all know that Diving holidays are fantastic! Right? Planning trips to foreign diving locations gives us something to dream about whilst sat in the office and something to keep our minds occupied while the boss isn’t looking. Add the lure of getting away from the dreadful midwinter UK weather and the commercialism of Xmas and you have a recipe for perfection. Of course then reality hits home! What about the non-diving wife and 6-year-old son? A fortnight away from home over Christmas without the family, not likely! Stark reality forces the first compromise of your holiday. Thoughts of a live aboard holiday or a break well off the beaten track quickly fade. Long flights are also ruled out.

So where can I find a luxury hotel with plenty of facilities to keep my wife happy, a hotel run kids club and swimming pools etc for a very active little one, great diving for me and plenty of sunshine to recharge us all? Throw all the requirements into the mix and out comes Sharm el Sheik. In theory the ideal answer for all the family, but what about the practice? Can the whole family really enjoy a diving holiday? Read on & find out…….

A little research on the Internet finds us a holiday with Portland Direct in the 5 star Marriott Renaissance Golden View Resort flying from Bristol departing on the 6th December and returning on the 30th. The hotel looks amazing. A chat with some of the dive operators at the dive show and I find that because I arrive on the Thursday rather than the Friday I can get a 10 day dive pack during high season at a special dive show ‘off season price’. Hurrah, more beer money! This is with Emperor divers. I have dived with some other operators in Sharm but never with Emperor. I’m happy though as I know they have a great reputation and they have links to BSAC through Regal dive (A BSAC Preferred Travel Partner).

As Christmas approaches I’m getting increasingly glad I can leave it all behind. The week before departure I phone Britannia Airlines and am told they will allow me an extra 5 Kg of luggage on production of a diving qualification card. So 25 Kg hold luggage and 5 Kg of hand luggage, adequate for me, but travelling with a lovely lady who can’t possibly survive with less that 6 pairs of shoes, 5 handbags, 4 coats, 22 Kg of make-up and hair care products etc, I decide to spend £30 purchasing an additional 15Kg luggage allowance. A great decision in the end.

The flight to Sharm was problem free though the decision to fly from Bristol proved a bad one. I had been tempted by the thought of only a 60-mile drive to the airport from Dorset rather then the 130 to Gatwick. The route down lanes about wide enough for a horse and cart wiped out any potential gains. I could have been in Gatwick much quicker than the 2.30 hours it took to get to Bristol.

Sharm Airport was its usual scramble, but with only two flights arriving the queue for Visas and immigration stamps was a breeze. Despite landing at 5.30 local time we were at our hotel by about 6.45.
What a hotel it is! A hugely impressive façade, the reception area bedecked marble, four bars, four restaurants, four swimming pools, a beachfront location, a house reef and every room with a sea view. Quite simply, wonderful. On arrival I picked up the first of a couple of little niggles. I had e-mailed the hotel to find out if they had an arrangement with any of the local dive operators, they replied simply saying that there were lots of Dive operators in Sharm (tell me something I don’t know) and, bizarrely neglected to mention the dive centre based at the hotel. If I had known this I may have booked a few days diving at the hotel, as this would have meant dropping in for my dive then spending the surface interval with my family.

As a multiple winner of Diver magazine's Dive operator of the year I was expecting great things from Emperor. I had been told during the very efficient on-line booking process that a welcome letter would be left at the hotel for me and that this would give details of pick up times etc. This failed to materialise. So I went to bed on the first night having no idea what time I would be picked up the following morning. I got up for breakfast and rang the dive centre to find I was due to be picked up twenty minutes later. A minor irritation that could have been easily avoided. Once at the dive centre the registration process ran very smoothly and by 9.30 we were on our way for the customary check dive. It was very nice to see that dive groups were split according to experience and that the more experienced among us were not expected to play ‘follow my leader’. Prior to my second dive an o-seal went on my gauge console. A spare set of regs was produced and away I went. I asked back at the centre if this could be repaired overnight and when I returned the next morning the repair had been done, best of all there was no charge for the repair. One hefty tip later and away I went very happy with the service I was getting from Emperor.

It is probably fair to say that Emperor’s real strength lies in the people it employs. I had the pleasure of spending some time with a good number of dive guides (Yolanda, Annouchka, Anne, Gary, Reda, Big Mo, Pete) these guys were without exception tremendous. A real pleasure to be around. They gave comprehensive briefings and a dive plan. The more experienced were allowed to dive the plan whilst those who needed it were given assistance to get the most from their dives. A real cut above what I have experienced in the past in Sharm.

To be truthful though there were a few frustrations. Visits to the dive centre in the mornings revealed that there were not a huge number of divers around. On occasion this meant as few as three boats going out and this lead to a few more divers than was comfortable on some trips. I had hoped to dive the Thistlegorm (a trip was arranged for the day after I went home). A planned trip to Dunraven was cancelled and replaced with a trip to Ras Mohammed. Whilst on holiday I prefer to do three dives if possible, unfortunately few of my colleagues wanted more than two dives a day. Of course Emperor is in no way responsible for this, if there are not sufficient clients to make a trip worthwhile then obviously it isn’t going to happen.

I dived on Nitrox for the whole trip and found that I got my cylinders every day without mishap and that the mixes were a very accurate 32%. As always the reefs around Sharm were full of colour and the usual prolific reef life. There was not much in the way of big stuff around though we did have a couple of treats. A white tip reef shark on Shark reef and a 10-minute encounter with another white tip (a pregnant female) on the sand bar at Jack fish alley. A huge turtle on Thomas Reef and large schools of Barracuda, Jacks and Tuna at both Ras Mohammed and at the straits of Tiran.

The highlight of my dives though was a (deliberate) trip between Jackson and Woodhouse reefs through the infamous washing machine. Obviously this can only happen in perfect weather conditions and even then it is quite a ride. I got caught in both up and down currents and had to work very hard to avoid being sucked in and spat out. One member of our group did get spat out. It was a great if very challenging dive. The schools of fish enjoying the current were tremendous and the corals absolutely pristine. This was a dive that will live long in the memory.

One further word of praise for Emperor, my wife and son were welcomed on the dive boats on the 3 occasions they chose to leave the beach. They thoroughly enjoyed the snorkelling and the banter on the boat. My son was not even charged for! A really excellent service from a really excellent dive operation.

So can you have a diving holiday that can be enjoyed by the whole family? Judging by my son's floods of tears at the thought of coming home you bet you can!

Return to EGYPT Main Page