Tag: holiday

Sudan Liveaboard Scuba Diving Safaris

Posted on by Livia (Volgyesi) Hertelendy

Suddenly feeling the urge to get away from it all? Get away to Sudan for some winter holiday and some of the best scuba diving to be found in the World.

Scuba diving holidayGet far enough south in the Red Sea and you won’t see other safari boats, liveaboards, or overdived reefs – just marine life, and lots of it! Sudan is known as the gem of the Red Sea and with reason! Untouched reefs, a splendour of corals in thousands of amazing colours, huge schools of fish and of course, sharks in abundance can be found here. And no wonder that Captain Cousteau built his underwater observatory here the parts of which can still be explored by scuba divers.

Shark in the sudanese Red SeaAfter visiting Angarosh, one of the most famous shark sites in the world, a really exciting wreck awaits us – the Umbria. Besides the beauties of the sea, we must also mention Suakin, the ghost town, which once was the main port in the Red Sea.

The wreck of UmbriaAs we did this year, we are returning to Sudan – with M/Y Cassiopeia and M/Y Andromeda – again in February, 2014 until June, so we look forward to seeing you and your guests again onboard for another amazing season in Sudan and we hope to see some new faces as well for an unforgettable experience.

We offer a collection of unbeatable, special offers to Sudan from February 2014 until the end of June.

Got a question or want to check availability? Please send us an enquiry!

Get more info about scuba diving liveaboard in Sudan here…

WE ARE TURNING 10 YEARS OLD!

Posted on by Livia (Volgyesi) Hertelendy

The time has come in our company’s life when we can celebrate a milestone! A lot has changed since the beginnings… Red Sea Boats Holidays started its journey down a path in the first years of the 2000s as the vision of a young and relentless small team, that we believe it is still journeying on.

It all started in 2003 with an Egyptian diving tour and a boat engine that had been wasting away. To most, this information would have been frivolous but we had already envisioned the boat around the engine.

Our story began with a small, 10-person safari boat called Liliom. Then came other favourites such as Nabila Ebeid and Seaflower. Mentioning the names of these boats surely conjures up warm safari memories for many. It has been 6 years that Cassiopeia was born, eventually becoming our flagship. Then 3 years later her sister, Andromeda was born.

Our initial goal was to organise and manage diving safaris in Egypt for more and more divers. Ten years is a long time and enough to be able to observe some interesting tendencies.
We have tried to gather all important events, stories and people that/who had defined this period in our company’s life. We, ourselves, are amazed by the number of events and turns and about how much the world had changed in these 10 years.

“It is not the strongest nor the smartest that stays alive but the one who is most apt to change.” (Darwin)

Some things we liked…

  • Clients from 32 various countries, all the way from Brazil to Japan
  • Clicks on our Web page from more than 150 countries
  • Servicing thousands of clients annually
  • Moving to a large and comfortable office
  • Our brand new Web page is available

 

Some things we did not like…

  • SARS virus
  • Iraqi war
  • Icelandic volcano eruption
  • Arab spring 2012
  • World economy crisis

Ten things you may not know about us…

  • Four of us work in our Budapest office
  • We have 7 diplomas altogether, only one of which is in tourism, yet we have been working successfully in this field for 10 years
  • Our mean age is 35 and the ratio of men to women in our office is 1:3
  • Two more colleagues and a 24-person crew helps our work in Egypt
  • We speak and understand 8 languages in total: Hungarian, Arabic, English, German, Russian, Italian, French, Spanish
  • In our Budapest office 2 instructors, 1 dive master and a non-diver make up our team
  • Some of our unique personality traits: claustrophobia, shisha-dependency, vertigo, germaphobia, insomnia, workaholism, “Apple”-dependency
  • We organise about 75 dive tours a year all over the world and our clients travel close to 40,000 kilometres annually, which means we “circle the world” once every year
  • We are the only officially registered travel agency in Hungary specialising in dive tours and diving safaris
  • We are about to start our 11th year in Egypt and our 7th season in Sudan

Some interesting facts about Andromeda and Cassiopeia…

  • The locals in Egypt just call them the “Coca-Cola” boats
  • The length of the boats is 40 metres which is roughly the total of 85 fin-lengths
  • The weight of Andromeda is 470 tons and add to this 1 ton of groceries, 70 tons of diesel, 15 tons of fresh water, all needed to prepare for a Sudan season
  • During construction 12 cubic metres of teak, 180 cubic metres of wood and 120 tons of steel were used
  • The client area is 400 square metres in total on both boats

Interesting travel facts…

  • We organise 70-80 diving tours around the world annually, with more than 100 clients travelling to Marsa Shagra and others travelling to over 50 exotic countries
  • Our clients are from 32 various countries
  • The ratio of women to men on our boats is 15:85
  • During a week, our divers spend more than 1,000 minutes on average under water
  • Our tanks are filled 546 times on average during a week

Weekly food consumption per boat…

  • 26 chickens (1 chicken = 1,2kg)
  • 36kg beef
  • 8kg calamari
  • 15kg sea fish

The guest of honour celebrates!

More than 12,000 of you have honoured us with your trust in the past 10 years and we have happily acknowledged that you were satisfied with the quality of our services.

Our wishes had come true every year and now, on our 10th anniversary, we would like to surprise others as well. We would like to present all our loyal and returning as well as our future partners and clients with some gifts in 2013!

  • The first 200 guests in 2013 will receive a nicely designed mug
  • And continuing on, everybody will receive something nice throughout the year

We thank you for choosing us in these past 10 years and we hope to continue being your choice in the future!

Scuba Diving Holiday in Egypt

Posted on by Livia (Volgyesi) Hertelendy
Egypt is rightly famous for its pharaohs, pyramids and last but not least, for its marine life, thanks to spectacular dive sites, great weather and warm waters. The most memorable experiences come from diving safaris onboard diving liveaboards when we travel for a week in luxury and visit untouched sites far from civilisation, the city noise and the office.
A Liveaboard holiday will ensure that divers reach some of the best wrecks and reefs in the world, including world famous dive sites such as the Brothers Island, Deadalus, Elphinstone and St. John’s, as well as historical wrecks, including Rosalie Müller, Salem Express and Thistlegorm.
The Red Sea lies between the continents of Asia and Africa. The Sinai Peninsula sits at its most northerly point and stretches over 1000 miles south to join the Indian Ocean, between Ethiopia and Yemen. The southern opening is only a narrow passage that connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, making the Red Sea an almost isolated body of water with a high temperature and salinity.
The Red Sea is home to over 1,000 invertebrate species, many of which can only be found here. More than 1100 species of fish have been identified as well as 200 soft and hard corals.
Whatever choice you make, you will not be disappointed. The Egypt’s Red Sea has so much to offer that you will feel you cannot get enough!

Egypt is rightly famous for its pharaohs, pyramids and last but not least, for its marine life, thanks to spectacular dive sites, great weather and warm waters. The most memorable experiences come from scuba diving safaris onboard diving liveaboards when we travel for a week in luxury and visit untouched sites far from civilisation, the city noise and the office.

A Red Sea Liveaboard holiday will ensure that divers reach some of the best wrecks and reefs in the world, including world famous dive sites such as the Brothers Island, Deadalus, Elphinstone and St. John’s, as well as historical wrecks, including Rosalie Müller, Salem Express and Thistlegorm.

Red Sea Diving Holiday in EgyptThe Red Sea lies between the continents of Asia and Africa. The Sinai Peninsula sits at its most northerly point and stretches over 1000 miles south to join the Indian Ocean, between Ethiopia and Yemen. The southern opening is only a narrow passage that connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, making the Red Sea an almost isolated body of water with a high temperature and salinity.

Dugong in EgyptThe Red Sea is home to over 1,000 invertebrate species, many of which can only be found here. More than 1100 species of fish have been identified as well as 200 soft and hard corals.

Whatever choice you make, you will not be disappointed. The Egypt’s Red Sea has so much to offer that you will feel you cannot get enough!

Scuba Diving holiday in Sudan

Posted on by Livia (Volgyesi) Hertelendy

Sudan in Africa is one of the most beautiful places in the world to go on a scuba diving holiday any time of the year. New or experienced scuba divers can choose from a variety of areas and destinations. There are untouched coral reefs including the world famous Shaab Rumi where Cousteau conducted his experiments.

There is also the wreck of Umbira, a 150m long WWII ship that sank in quite shallow waters, making her easy to dive. You will see tube sponges and soft corals hanging from the walls and arches of the reefs while you’re scuba diving on a luxuary liveaboard in Sudan.

Scuba diving holiday in SudanThe number of boats and liveaboards in Sudan offering diving safaris is about 8-9 (in Egypt there are hundreds), so during the diving safari holiday scuba divers do not meet other cruises or liveaboards and do not have to fight for space underwater with other scuba divers. The scuba dives are only for the group and the dive sites can be enjoyed without the crowds.

Sudan is mostly famous for its sharks, schools of barracuda, untouched coral reefs and mainly in the south, for the large schools of hammerheads.

On the last day of the diving safari when the boat sails back to the harbour, the guests can visit the island of Suakin, which was once the main port city in the Red Sea. Today it is a white virtual ghost town, famous for its houses built from coral “bricks”.