Living in Austria gives you a limited choice of short distance top-notch dive spots. By plane it takes you just about four hours to get to Egypt so we decided to visit ‘Marsa Alam’ for diving end of September 2016.

Hotel

After looking at various hotel options we chose the ‘Brayka Bay Resort ‘ we know already from an earlier vacation six years before. The room was nice – not luxurious – but clean and functional. The beds have been fine (pretty good mattresses!) and also toilet and bathroom was in good condition. The cleaning staff does a really good job in special if you don’t forget to tip them on a daily base (about 5 dollars per day are fine).

Clientele

During the two weeks (last September – first October week) the biggest group of guests have been advanced in age Slovak ‘all inclusive tourists’. Calm people – no troubles ;)

The divers on site I would estimate on about twenty people, which means no stress to get a spot on daily trips or on any other planed diving activity.

Beach

Coarse-grained sand, fixed mounted sunshades that can stand gusty winds and more than enough sun beds for all guests – what to expect more from a perfect beach ;)

There was just one thing that became quickly a little bit annoying which has been the wellness-stuff oversupplying their service several times the day. But you have to turn a blind eye to this, they just try to keep their jobs which is not easy this days in egypt.

House Reef

Brayka Bays house reef is nice in general but to my feeling the overall condition of the corals has decreased by about 30% since we’ve been here six years before. The reason behind isn’t clear to me. The decreasing amount of tourists over the last years I would expect to be of benefit for the reefs regeneration process. Anyways, lets hope it won’t get worse over the next years and please don’t get me wrong – it’s still a nice place for snorkeling and diving.

Here some pictures we took at snorkeling (just click the thumbnails to get a bigger view!):

Extra-Divers dive-base

The dive base is fine in general. People are very friendly and the dive-guides do a really good job. The only area for improvement is the rental equipment maintenance quality . I don’t want to go into details here but let me recommend you to bring your own diving jacket and in special your own diving regulator with you ;)

Beside house-reef diving at least two daily trips get offered every day and it’s no problem to get a spot on it. Sometimes it’s just a short ride by bus and sometimes you’ve to go by boat or zodiac to get to your dive-place. Anyway, there is nothing to worry about – the tours are well-organized and well supported!

Resume

We think it’s a nice place to spend two weeks swimming and relaxing. If you like snorkeling or if you’re a scuba diver this is a pretty good place to be also. Let me assure you – for this price-tag you won’t regret it.

Don’t trust us? Now – we suppose we will be back again in 2017 ;)