Soma Bay is a luxurious, classy destination. A holiday in Soma Bay means the best in everything. You are sure to be pampered by what all this wonderful resort offers. Situated at the northern edge of the Safaga bay, Soma Bay offers stunning sea and mountain views, as well as a breathtaking fringing reef, not to mention its long, sandy beach. Soma Bay is an ideal holiday spot, whether alone, with a group, or with your family and children.

Because of it location, Soma Bay is a paradise for water sports, such as kite surfing and wind surfing, but under those sparking waves and crystal clear waters lies another incredible world.

Scuba diving in Soma Bay

Soma Bay, the luxurious, upscale resort, is an ideal location for a scuba diving holiday. Even if everyone in your party are not divers, they will be completely pampered during their stay here.

Along the eastern side of Soma Bay lies one of the Red Sea’s most beautiful fringing coral reefs, which is made accessible by a long jetty.

Scuba diving in Soma Bay can be performed either from shore, via the jetty, or with comfortable diving boats doing daily or half-day trips. Soma Bay offers a wide variety of dive sites to choose from that cater to all experience levels.

The area is blessed with refreshing breezes from the north, but keep in mind though, that sometimes these can turn into strong winds that limit access to certain dive sites.

As a top notch holiday destination, you can rest assured that the scuba diving facilities here are world class, offering almost everything you could be looking for.

Soma Bay is truly an ideal scuba diving holiday destination. From sites liked Shaab Saiman or Shaab Hamdallah, you are almost certainly assured pristine areas with untouched hard and soft corals.

The marine life here is diverse and exciting. The area has offered sightings of Octopus and Morays, Stonefish and Turtles, in addition to all the usual under water inhabitants of the Red Sea.

If you are patient enough, Soma Bay can offer some stunning underwater photography.

As with many other areas of the Red Sea, the marine area here is protected. This means that the scuba diving centres in Soma Bay operate under environmentally friendly conditions.

Dive sites in Soma Bay:

Here are some of the most famous scuba diving sites in Soma Bay, most only a short boat ride away:

• Abu Qifan (or Abu Kafan): This is arguably one of the best diving sites in the area. Here you will find incredible wall diving, diverse corals, as well as sightings of barracudas and reef sharks, in addition to occasional hammerheads in spring and manta rays in wintertime. This 300-meter long and narrow reef offers a plateau in both north and south tips.

• Panorama Reef: This is one of the largest reefs in the Safaga area, its walls dropping to over 100 meters featuring numerous grottos and overhangs, where gorgonians and soft corals thrive with the frequent nurturing currents. Due to its immense size, there are at least three different dives to be done here: the south plateau and the east and the west drop offs. Diving here, you might encounter grey reef and silver tip sharks, as well as dolphins, barracudas, turtles to name but a few. Rare encounters with white tip and hammerhead sharks have been reported.

• Abu Soma: This is a peninsula surrounded by a fringing reef, rich with top quality dive sites. The reef slopes gently to a plateau at around 25 meters and drops off with caves and overhangs rich with schooling reef fish, giant moray eels and healthy hard corals.

Soma Bay house reef

The Soma Bay house reef extends from Shaab Saiman in the north to the southern tip of Ras Abou Soma, or "Bay Point". Close to Ras Abu Soma is Tubya Arbaa, a shallow dive where seven coral pillars rise from the sandy bottom in the midst of numerous marine diversity.

There are two great dives to the northern side of the Soma Bay house reef, Ras Umm Hesiwa and Shaab Saiman. When conditions permit, the fish diversity here is incredible, ranging from Morays sharks and more. The currents here are strong, so keep that in mind.

Other great dives include: Hal Hal,Shaab Shehr, The Tubyas, The Gamuls and, the Salem Express Wreck.

Please have a look at our Diving and Snorkelling Maps to have an idea of the location, accessibility and experience level required to dive in the Soma Bay dive sites.

Soma Bay Scuba Diving Services

Soma Bay has several reliable and professional scuba diving centres, offering a range of services, from beginner certification courses to professional courses and technical diving. They also, of course, offer guided dives to the area's scuba diving sites, as well as introductory dives and diving packages, with one or more dives per day, for those who are certified.

As with most other Red Sea Riviera destinations, scuba diving centres in Soma Bay offer free pool introductions where you can experience the thrill of scuba diving with a diving instructor in a swimming pool. You can also try actual dives in the sea straight away, under the strict supervision of a diving professional.

Soma Bay, with its wealth of shallow coral gardens, is an ideal location of the Red Sea Riviera in Egypt to learn to dive, and most diving centres offer the full range of beginners’ courses. Kids, 8 years and over, can enrol in children-dedicated scuba diving activities, such as the popular bubble-maker course, where kids learn to be familiar with water and scuba diving and have fun swimming around in a confined water area.

To the south-west there is a large, shallow sandy beach, ideal for swimming and snorkelling.

Snorkelling in Soma Bay:

In the Red Sea, snorkelling is particularly easy, as the high salinity of the water allows you to float almost without effort. Follow though our Snorkelling Guide tips, for those areas where currents and waves can make it a bit more challenging.

Even if you do not dive, Soma Bay is a peninsula extending into the Red Sea and offers great snorkelling options. On its north-east, one of the most beautiful coastal reefs of the mainland is reachable via the long pontoon of the Sheraton Soma Bay hotel. On the south-west side there is the bay where snorkelling is easy and accessible directly from the beach.

Here are some of the best spots for snorkelling in Soma Bay:

• Ras Abu Soma, the fringing reef famous also among divers, with an incredible wealth of marine life. Accessible via the jetty at the Sheraton Soma Bay, it can be at times a bit challenging due to wind and currents. But you are in for some unforgettable sights here!

• Tobia Island, a flat little sandbank located in the middle of the bay of Safaga, with outstanding coral heads in shallow water. Excursions to Tobia are regularly scheduled by all diving and aqua centres in the area.

All hotels will offer snorkelling equipment, as well as organize guided and non-guided snorkelling trips to the best places in the area. Even your children can snorkel, with professional guides teaching them how to use snorkel, mask and fins, for an unforgettable experience.

Joining one of the scuba diving boats, going out on daily basis for half day or full day trips to the best sites in the area, is also a great way to get to some fantastic snorkelling spots. There are also a number of snorkelling sites that can be reached by a short boat trip. These include Tubya El-Hamra, Tubya El-Beida, all within about fifteen minutes. One of the best is Tubya Arbaa, only a few hundred meters off Bay Point.

Have a look at our Diving and Snorkelling Maps to check out the names and location of the area’s snorkelling sites.

Soma Bay is a perfect scuba diving holiday destination, as well as a perfect snorkelling holiday destination. We hope to see you there soon.