Diving In Beautiful Eilat

You can make a good case that the best, reasonably accessible diving in the world is in Eilat City near Akaba, the spot where the legendary Lawrence of Arabia won his first victory in WW I. Diving, like Lawrence, is legendary. Water that's 22 to 24 degrees Celsius year round coupled with underwater visibility in Akaba Bay of at least 30 meters (100 feet). The reason for this is simple. The only way water gets into the bay is from the south and Suez Bay. There are no rivers, no runoff, no spillover fertilizer, no nothing! Just perfectly warm perfectly clear water. Note; While the water never changes temperature it can define "hot" here so winter's definitely the time to visit.

A good portion of the diving here is in the Coral beach national reserve about ten minutes by bus or cab south of Eilat where you need to bring gear as only snorkel gear is available for rent. So as soon as you arrive in the area make reservations and organize tanks and such at one of the many dive centers. Do realize you can only enter and leave the water at specific point to avoid damaging the coral and, of course, submarine souvenirs are not allowed. Many snorkel here, as the water's only 30 to 50 feet deep. There are two dive centers, Aqua Sport and the Red Sea Sport Club just a couple of hundred yards from the north end of the beach.

There's a nice Eel Garden right in front of Aqua-sport that are in the nature of pets, so don't molest them as they slide into and out of holes.

Perhaps the most interesting dive is at Dolphin Reef where nine or ten dolphins are willing to have tummies rubbed and suffer other indignities. One of these friendly creatures even works with the underwater rescue team. Others fool around with divers, frolic in bubbles and offer playful bumps and, for dummies to stick their hand in the dolphin's mouth, painful nips. At about $58.50 for adults and $56.50 for children this is excellent value if you consider the duration of the memory.

This is a full-service operation with changing rooms, showers, a restaurant, rental gear and a lot more. Scuba and special Nitrox courses, even diving trips to the almost totally untouched waters of Sinai and Jordan are available. The only drawback here is that dives are strictly timed in groups of six, and this is an understandable way to avoid overwhelming the dolphins.

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