Diving in Sudan
Diving the pristine Red Sea Sudanese waters has never been easier than today, hop aboard the luxurious Royal Evolution liveaboard from Port Ghalib in the South of Egypt and enjoy a comfortable, safe and remarkable journey.
Royal Evolution is the only liveaboard in the Red Sea offering diving trips to 🇸🇩 Sudan departing from Port Ghalib (🇪🇬 Egypt). Those were the first trips to be done officially between Egypt & Sudan with official permissions from the Egyptian & the Sudanese authorities. This kind of cruises are considered as a short international voyage according to the International Maritime regulations (taking passengers from one country to another).
Trips are extended 2 weeks long adventures that take you through the most fascinating dive sites in the Southern part of Egyptian Red Sea right to the untouched wild underwater nature of Sudanese part. This itinerary is really convenient logistically as Egypt is a much easier destination to travel to.
Diving and Marine Life
Unlike many popular diving destinations, Sudan features truly unspoiled marine life, healthy shark population, massive schools of fish, virgin coral reefs and vivid underwater scenery. Diving conditions here are more extreme here compared to the Egyptian part of the Red Sea, so Sudan definitely tends to be the destination for more experienced divers.
Not only does Sudan stand out with the beauty of its underwater landscapes, but also the area carries the vast history as a research platform. The world’s famous Precontinent II a.k.a Conshelf at Sha’ab Rumi off Sudan was built as an underwater “research village” carried out by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his team in 1963. This was a pioneering research project conceived by the legendary marine explorer. Five divers lived on Conshelf II for a month to examine the physiological and psychological effects of living underwater.
The best time to dive in Sudan is from February to June. The months from February to April are also known as a hammerhead season.
Get ready for some thrilling shark dives! So what species of sharks do we see? Always lots of grey reef sharks – and unlike the grey in Egypt, they don’t mind people around them so they are happy to hang around. White tip reef sharks are also common but rarely get to be noticed because of the Hammerheads, the Silkies, the Silvertips, the Tiger, the Lemon Shark and the Whale Sharks (in decreasing likelihood of sightings).
We can discover the breathtaking “Umbria” wreck which sank during World War II in 1940, and remains in perfect condition and hosts a wide variety of cargo such wines, cement, lot of weaponry & 3 Fiat vehicles.
Enjoy the outstanding rich marine life, the formation of hard & soft coral, the stunning dive sites along with the remarkable landscape.
Sudan 2 weeks from Egypt Itinerary
Join this itinerary which is the home of adventure with hundreds of Hammerheads, Grey Reef & Silky sharks coupled with schools not school of beautiful Barracuda, and sometimes Tiger & whale sharks.
Itinerary details
| Day 1 | Port Ghaleb – Embarkation – Sailing at Night to Fury Shoal or St.John reef. |
| Day 2 | Check dive at Fury Shoal or St.John reef. Diving the whole day. Sailing after a night dive to Shalalat reef. |
| Day 3 | Early morning dive at Shalalat reef. Sailing to Port Sudan. |
| Day 4 | Arriving early morning to Port Sudan for Visa Registration & local taxes payment (approx 2 - 3 hours), sailing to Umbria wreck for one or two day dives, one night & possible 2nd night dive after dinner. |
| Day 5 | Diving the whole day at Sanganeb reef (North & South plateau). |
| Day 6 | Early morning dive at North plateau of Sanganeb reef, then sailing to Shaab Rumi for second dive at “Cousteau Conshelf” and night dive. |
| Day 7 | Diving the whole day Shaab Rumi. Sailing early morning to Shaab Suadi. |
| Day 8 | Early morning & morning dives at the Blue Belt (Toyota Wreck), third dive at the northern plateau of Shab Suadi, sailing at night to Angarosh reef. |
| Day 9 | Diving the whole day at Angarosh reef. P.S : Sailing to Mesherifa for an afternoon dive & overnight (only in October for the Manta season) |
| Day 10 | Sailing to Abington reef, diving the whole day, night dive and overnight. |
| Day 11 | Sailing to Merlo reef, diving the whole day, night dive and overnight. |
| Day 12 | Sailing early morning to Angarosh reef for 2 dives then Sailing to St. John's reef. |
| Day 13 | Depending on weather conditions and arrival time (one or two dives) at St. John's reef , sailing to White Rock for afternoon & last dive, sailing to Port Ghalib. |
| Day 14 | Port Ghalib – disembarkation & last night hotel. |
Sudan Deep South, Suakin Group from Egypt Itinerary
After the success of our first Sudan itinerary, we extended our trip to the deep south of Sudan & we reach the deepest point in the Sudanese water which is Dahret Abid, exactly seven Nautical Miles north of the borders between Eritrea & Sudan.
We’re staying 4 full days in the deep south of Sudan before starting heading north & dive most of the dives we’re doing on the previous Sudan itinerary but with less time of course on some dive sites.
With more than fifteen years of experience exploring the deep south of Sudan, the untouched reefs in the deep south of Sudan are really remarkable, with a high potential of seeing big action and rich marine life that is yet to be fully explored.
And what is really more remarkable on the deep south of Sudan is the land scape of some of the dive sites, as every 10 or 15 meters under the water we find a different landscape with of course a very rich marine life.
Actually this area is huge with plenty of pinnacles & on each trip we’re trying to explore one or two new dive sites as easily we can stay 3 weeks in this area & we’ll still explore some more beautiful dive sites.
Combined with a high potential of seeing big action and rich marine life that is yet to be fully explored.
Itinerary details
| Day 1 | Port Ghaleb embarkation, sailing at night to Fury Shoal or St. John's. |
| Day 2 | Diving the whole day at Fury Shoal or St. John's, sailing after night dive to Shalalat. |
| Day 3 | Morning dive at Shalalat, sailing to Port Sudan. |
| Day 4 | Arriving early morning to Port Sudan for Visa Registration & local taxes payment (approx 2 - 3 hours), sailing to Umbria wreck for one or two day dives. Sailing after night dive to the Deep South “Dahret Abid”. |
| Day 5 | Diving the whole day at Dahret Abid and Habili Abid & overnight. |
| Day 6 | Diving the whole day at Dahret Darraka, Dahret Ghab and Habili Ghab & overnight. |
| Day 7 | Diving the whole day at Protector reef, Hindi Gidir and Seil Ada & overnight. |
| Day 8 | Diving the whole day at Shaab Anbar, Habili Qaseer (PINACOLO) and Jumna, sailing at night to Sanganeb reef. |
| Day 9 | Morning & Mid-afternoon dives at Sanganeb North & South plateau, sailing to Shaab Rumi for afternoon & Night dive. |
| Day 10 | Morning & mid-afternoon dives at Shaab Rumi, sailing to Shaab Suadi (Blue Belt wreck) for afternoon & night dive. |
| Day 11 | Sailing early morning to Merlo reef for morning dive, sailing to Angarosh and Abington for mid-afternoon, afternoon & night dive. |
| Day 12 | Sailing early morning to Shaab El Hara for morning dive, then sailing to Abu Fanadir (North part of Sudan) for mid-afternoon & afternoon dives, sailing to St. John's. |
| Day 13 | Arriving early morning to St. John's for morning & mid-afternoon dives, then sailing to White Rock for afternoon & last dive. Sailing to Port Ghalib. |
| Day 14 | Arriving at Port Ghalib around 7:00 am & disembarkation (around 11:00AM). |
TOP Dive Sites
(click on image to see full description)
Abington
Angarosh
Merlo
Qita El Banaa
Shaab Rumi
Shaab Jumna
Sanganeb Atol
Dahret Abid
Habili Dahret Ghab
Habili Dahret Abid
Umbria Wreck
Dahret Darraka
Frequently Asked Questions
The authorities of each country are getting used to this kind of trips, at the beginning (first two trips) the authorities in both countries were very strict as they were not used to this kind of trips & getting confused to treat the permission as diving trip or passenger ship doing a short international voyage between two countries with passengers. Then things are getting smoother & became more flexible, on each trip now we feel that the permissions procedures & time are getting shorter than before.
Port Ghalib jetty (10 minutes from Marsa Alam airport) or (220Km south of Hurghada).
Two 🇪🇬 Egyptian Visa entries, one upon your arrival at the Airport, the other one upon your arrival back from the 🇸🇩 Sudan trip at Port Ghalib.
The first entry visa at the airport will be issued for you according to your agreement with your travel agent if it’s included or not in your holiday package. The second one will be arranged & paid for by the boat at Port Ghalib as it’s included in your tour package.
We organize for you the Sudan entry Visa. You will need only one entry Visa for Sudan, we or your travel agent will send you the Visa application form (in Word format) which have to be filled by you & send it back to us or travel agent with a scanned passport copy one month before the departure day, accordingly we’ll send them to our agent in Port Sudan who arrange in advanced the Sudan entry Visa for you before our arrival to Port Sudan and will be issue & stamped on your passport upon our arrival to Port Sudan.
We’ll need 4 empty pages on your passport, since you’ll receive 2 entry Visa for 🇪🇬 Egypt and the 🇸🇩 Sudan entry Visa will need 2 empty pages.
According to Sudan regulations the passport should have a minimum 6 months passport validity to issue the Sudan visa.
The Royal Evolution starts sailing at night, as soon as the last guest embarks & finishes all the immigration procedures. Embarkation time must be before 9:00pm.
As soon as the last guest embarks, we send all the passports with our representative to Marsa Alam airport to get them stamped out of the country, on his way back to Port Ghalib jetty we’ll ask all the guests to move to the international transit hall which is situated 20 meters from the boat, then the Royal Evolution move to the international area in front of the transit hall. The guests embark again to the boat & start sailing. The duration from the time the guests move to the transit hall to embark again is approximately 30 – 60 minutes.
We arrive at Port Sudan port at approx 9:00AM (depending on weather condition) on the third day of the trip, as soon as the boat is moored our agent in Port Sudan arrives at the boat with all the authorities representatives (Passports, Customs, Health, etc…). In approx 2 to 3 hours we have all the passports stamped with the Sudan visa, having our diving permissions with us & the boat leaves the port to start the amazing diving in Sudan.
The fact that this kind of trip includes 2 countries and is considered as a short international voyage, we have to deal with several local authorities in both countries to receive our permissions. These fees include the following:
- Two entry visas to Egypt and one visa for Sudan
- Local taxes in Egypt
- Local taxes & marine park fees in Sudan
- Port charges in Egypt & Sudan
- Passport control fees in Egypt & Sudan
- Customs control fees in Egypt & Sudan
- Health control fees in Egypt & Sudan
- State security fees in Egypt & Sudan
- Port security fees in Egypt & Sudan
- Sanitary authorities fees in Egypt & Sudan
No one is going out of the boat in Port Sudan, we’re staying onboard this couple of hours as all the authorities are visiting us onboard to finish the immigration procedures so no need to go out of the boat.
You’ll touch Sudan land if you decide to visit the lighthouse of Sanganeb reef, which we advise you to visit, it’s really a remarkable visit that you don’t have to miss.
We normally arrive back to Port Ghalib jetty at 10:00AM on the last day of the trip (depending on weather conditions), on our return your passports disappear again to Marsa Alam airport. You remain on the boat until the passports are delivered back. This could take a couple of hours or more while you’ll be having breakfast, snacks , packing your luggage and settling bills. When they come back you walk through the immigration area with all your luggage. This takes just a few minutes. You then are transferred to the hotel or airport.
The distance from Port Ghalib to Port Sudan is approximately 450 Nautical Miles.
The Royal Evolution is always sailing at night, only the second day of the trip we’ll have only one morning dive at Shalalat reef (55 Nautical Miles south of St.John reef). Also it has to be noted that on the fourth day of the trip (Arriving day to Port Sudan) we could miss the 1st and second day dives depending on the time we have the green light from the port state to go out of the port.
Yes of course, a lot of care has been taken into consideration before & during building the Royal Evolution regarding the sound insulation in the engine room & the cabins. The most advanced marine technology has been used to reduce the sound to the maximum, even our main powerful propulsion engines are set on shock absorber mounts with a flexible coupling to reduce the noise to the maximum.
The Royal Evolution is very stable & nearly 40m long and made of steel so she is heavy and takes bad weather in her stride which is remarkable, appreciated & noted by all our previous guests.
We are doing approx 39 dives including night dives during the13 nights Sudan trip. Three ☀️ day dives & one 🌒 night dive everyday except the second day of the trip we do only one morning dive & the third day of the trip (arrival day to Port Sudan) we are doing two or one day dives & one or two night dives.
We are doing 9 full days of diving in Sudan waters & two full days of diving & one morning day dive in Egypt waters.
7 dives in Egyptian water & 32 dives in Sudan water.
On many dive sites in Sudan we are expecting variable current, so it’s strongly recommended to have at least 50 dives logged to join any of the Sudan trips.
We always have 7 full sets of diving equipment available onboard for rent, also we have a stock of spare parts for sale such as mouthpiece, Mask & Fins Strap, LP & HP Hose, Power Inflator hose, etc…
Yes, we have a different range of Nitrox fills with our membrane system, from 32% up to 40%, should you require more than 40% O2 we can run our booster pump connected to our O2 bank system (Certification required). Indeed we strongly recommend diving on Nitrox for the whole trip.
With all the respect to all our colleagues & partners which own or operate diving liveaboard, it has to be clear that no one is offering the Nitrox for free, they are just adding the price of the Nitrox to the cruise price since the Nitrox membrane system is very expensive & very costly to be properly maintain. We can easily add the Nitrox cost to the cruise price & advertise that Nitrox is free but we believe that this is unfair since many of our valuable guests are still diving on normal air and we definitely see it’s not fair to charge guests who are not using this service.
Yes, we can supply 100% O2 up to 200 Bar, and we can also rent for you the Buddy tanks & Manifold if you do not want to carry them from home, just we need to be advised two weeks before the trip.
Our permanent instructors will be pleased to offer you any courses you would like to take during your dive holiday.
Definitely – The amount and variety will vary from trip to trip.
Always lots of grey reef sharks – and unlike the grey in Egypt, they don’t mind people around them so they hang around.
White tip reef sharks are also common but rarely get a mention because of the Hammerheads, the Silkies, the Silvertips, the Tiger, the Lemon Shark and the Whale Shark (in decreasing likelihood of sightings).
Our dive guides are doing their best in order to show you what you are looking for and to meet your expectation from such itinerary & we always cross our fingers at the beginning of the trip to have the most enjoyable encounter but you have to be realistic & to believe that we are searching for wild animals in the blue and that we do not hide them in cages.
The biggest we’ve seen was about 200+. We have seen schools of around 40 on several occasions and schools of 20 – 30 on a number of dives. It’s more common to see 10+ together or a solitary Hammerhead.
All your typical Red Sea stuff that you are used to seeing in Egypt. Plus the possibility of huge Schools of Bumphead Parrotfish. That is ‘schools’ not ‘a school’.
Yes, one. Umbria is a big crowd pleaser. World War 2 wreck with lots of munitions still onboard and 3 cars. We typically do one to two day dives and one or 2 night dives on her.
As a matter of fact most of the Sudan dive sites are untouched reefs due to the few liveaboards operating in the area which means very rich marine life, the formation of hard, soft corals & amount of fishes are stunning, the landscape of many dive sites are terrific.
Also it has to be noted that one of the big advantage to dive the Sudan is the few divers you’re seeing on the dive sites, since there is only few boats operating from Port Sudan you are almost alone on most dive sites & it’s very rare to see other divers or other boats on the same dive sites, which give you a very special feeling to be alone instead of finding dive sites crowded with divers & bubbles.
We always do our best to respect the itinerary published as far as the weather conditions permitted, however there are some factors which force the captain to change some dive sites, as well it has to be understandable that we try on each trip to find a nice new dive site which take maximum one or half day at the end of the trip.
Not often. If you have roaming and can link with Vodafone networks then your phone will work around the Port Sudan area. And not much further. Just around the border we pick up a network for about an hour.
Yes we have a satellite phone. Only 3 euros a minute which is almost the cost & probably cheaper than your mobile, it works everywhere all the time.
Yes, but limited unless we’re close to the shore in 🇪🇬 Egypt or Sudan and free of charge for all our guests.
We run all the Sudan trips with our permanent three dive guides.
🇺🇸 English & 🇩🇪 German.
Yes, VISA & Master Cards are acceptable onboard, but sorry we do not accept travelers checks.