Saudi Arabia is a controversial holiday choice, but for divers it offers some of the world's last virgin coral reefs, as the government discourages tourists from diving in its coasts.
Like the countries surrounding the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia enjoys the colorful and full of life reefs, and WWII wrecks contained in the Red Sea. Here you can have visibility to 30 meters, wrecks, coral gardens, hard coral, soft coral, fringing reefs, shallow reefs, deep reefs, canyons, caverns, big fish, small fish, moray eels, stingray, whale shark, manta, dolphin, pilot whales, water temp. Up to 30ºC, close sites, far sites, training sites, little or no current, good weather 90% of the time!
The eastern Red Sea counts with the city of Jeddah, main port for diving the area.
Sea temperatures range from lows of 20°C or less in the Gulf of Aqaba in winter to over 35°C off the south coast in summer. This is mirroed by surface air temperatures, which can range from 10°C or less in the coast in winter to a blistering 50°C in summer.
Saudi Arabia is really one of diving's last frontiers - very few Westeners have ever managed to diver here, despite the best efforts of many. The appeal of diving almost untouched, barely explored reefs, far from the hustle and bustle of the western Red Sea's tourist resorts, is undeniable: unfortunately, the barriers that prevent you from doing so are almost insurmountable. The main immovable obstacle to foreing visitors wishing to visit the country's spectacluar reefs is the Saudi government, which actively discourages foreign tourism in the country.