PADI Advanced Open Water Course — Hurghada

The Advanced Open Water course is where diving gets properly interesting. There is no classroom exam and no pool — the entire course is five real adventure dives over two days, each one introducing a new type of diving under your instructor's guidance, with short knowledge reviews between dives.

Two of the five dives are fixed because they matter most. The deep adventure dive takes you below 18 metres for the first time — down to a maximum of 30 — where you learn how depth changes your air consumption, your colours and your thinking. The underwater navigation dive teaches compass runs and natural navigation, the skill that turns you from a follower into a diver who always knows the way home. The remaining three dives are chosen together with your instructor from options such as wreck diving on the local minesweeper, drift diving along the marine park walls, peak performance buoyancy, night diving, fish identification and underwater photography — Hurghada's site variety means every option is taught on a reef that suits it perfectly.

The certification extends your licence to 30 metres and is the gateway requirement for the Rescue Diver course and most famous deep sites worldwide. The minimum age is 12, and the only prerequisite is an Open Water certification from PADI or an equivalent organisation. Equipment, materials, certification fee, lunches and Hurghada transfers are all included; two persons training together pay €466 total, three persons €671 total.