A five-day dive week is the sweet spot for a one-week holiday in Hurghada: ten boat dives, with free days left for the desert, the town or the pool. This guide shows what a typical week looks like day by day, using real reefs from our dive-site guides, and what your guide may change on the day.
What does a 5-day, 10-dive package in Hurghada include?
Every diving day is a full boat trip: hotel pick-up in the morning, two guided dives at two different sites, lunch on board and soft drinks all day, then a late-afternoon return. Our 5-day package includes the dive guide, lunch, tea, coffee, water, soft drinks and hotel transfers within Hurghada.
Not included: equipment rental if you need it, nitrox fills, and the transfer surcharge for Makadi Bay, Sahl Hasheesh and El Gouna. The trip page always shows the live list and prices before you book.
Why do the dive sites change from day to day?
Your guide chooses the sites each morning from the wind and the current, always favouring the best conditions of the day. So treat the plan below as a sample route, not a fixed timetable. If your wish list includes more photography time, more drift or more depth, tell your guide on day one.
What does a typical 5-day dive week look like?
The route below groups reefs by area, so you spend your time underwater rather than on the boat. Depths and difficulty ratings come from our dive-site guides.
Day 1: Fanous reefs, settle in
Start somewhere easy and close. Fanous West is a shallow reef, down to about 14 m, with moray eels and a good place for a buoyancy check. Fanous East (8 to 27 m) adds lionfish and blue-spotted rays. Both are rated easy.
Day 2: Giftun, coral gardens and clownfish
Head for the Giftun group. Giftun Islands offers easy diving from the shallows down to 30 m, and Banana Reef (14 to 22 m) is known for an anemone city of clownfish, with turtles and eagle rays passing through.
Day 3: Abu Ramada, the aquarium
Gota Abu Ramada, nicknamed The Aquarium, is an easy site with fish at every depth, and South Abu Ramada is another easy dive where Napoleon wrasse cruise past. Advanced divers can swap in North Abu Ramada, a hard drop-off where eagle rays patrol.
Day 4: Umm Gamaar and El Fanadir, morays and barracuda
Umm Gamaar (moderate, down to 20 m) is a reef with resident moray eels, and El Fanadir is an easy dive with anemonefish, barracuda schools and, with luck, an octopus.
Day 5: your pick
Use the last day for a favourite or something new. Ras Disha (moderate, 9 to 18 m) is known for turtles, and Erg Sabina (easy) also has turtles and Napoleon wrasse. Your guide will tell you which is calmest on the day.
How can you stretch the plan to 7 or 10 days?
Seven days (14 dives) lets you repeat favourites in different conditions and add harder sites; ten days (20 dives) gives time for a full tour of the reef map. Experienced divers can add Small Giftun, Erg Abu Ramada (Camel Reef) or the El Minya wreck, all rated hard in our guides. The big wrecks such as Abu Nuhas are usually done on longer trips, so ask us about them.
Do the diving days have to be consecutive?
No. The diving days can be consecutive or spread across your stay, which is handy if you want a rest day between boat days. Just remember the rule for flying: do not fly for 18 to 24 hours after your last dive.
What should you bring?
- Your certification card (and your logbook, if you keep one).
- Swimwear, a towel and sun protection. The boat deck is sunny all day.
- A medical declaration, if needed. Some conditions need a doctor’s sign-off, so check before you travel.
- Your own mask, if you have one. Gear can be rented, but a mask that fits your face is worth owning.
Ready to book your dive week?
Compare every length from 2 to 10 days, read how many days to book and our guide to multi-day packages in Hurghada or Marsa Alam, or check the reefs on our dive-site map.
