Scuba diving in Aqaba, Red Sea
Although Jordan only has a small coast line, Aqaba has approx. 25 dives sites to choose from. Most of which are inside the Aqaba Marine Park. Each one is different from the next, from shallow coral gardens and pinnacles to deep canyons and ship wrecks. Share your experience about scuba diving, Red Sea.
Aqaba has year round warm water and great visibility. With its wide variations of dive sites it is a great place for first timer’s right up to experienced technical enthusiasts. Aqaba is also great for wreck diving with the Cedar Pride, Hercules C130, tank Duster M42, Underwater Military museum, Lockheed Tristar, Al Shorouk, etc.
How to make scuba diving in Aqaba?
As the gulf is so narrow and so deep there are no ‘off-shore’ reefs. All the sites accessible from the boat are also possible form the shore, with a few exceptions due to recent development in the area.
All the dive masters and Instructors in Aqaba have to be registered with the marine park in order to work. Even if you are very experienced yourself, you will still have to go with a guide, to ensure the protection of the coral and of course the safety of all divers. The Dive centers usually aim to keep numbers of divers per guide to a minimum, to ensure a better diving experience, after all you go diving to see the marine life, not other divers!
Aqaba offers year round diving in the Red Sea, with water temperatures never dropping below 21C in the winter.
There are usually two high seasons a year for tourism, the first is around April-June and the second is September-November. But even in the high season the crowds are no where near the size of Egypt and Israel.
The winter months are usually quiet for diving but are perfect for the other excursions around the country such as Wadi Rum and Petra, as you don’t have the heat the same as in the summer.
The best time of year for diving is September /October, the water is a warm 26C and the air temp has dropped to a more comfortable 35C (compared to 40+ in July/August). The fish life is more abundant at this time, and a great time to spot the Eagle Rays and turtles. The visibility is normally a good 20m+ for most of the year, can reach even 30m+ on a calm summer’s day!