Tenerife vs Sharm el-Sheik for PADI Open Water Diver course in January/February

fullerand

Hi all,

I have a few weeks off between now and the end of Feb (am between jobs) and I've decided I want to get a PADI OWD cert. I did a half-hour introductory course in Oz last year and while it freaked me out (a lot), I enjoyed it.

I'm considering both Tenerife and Sharm el-Sheik as a location. Can you offer any advice? Tenerife is cheaper in terms of travel and accommodation - but am I right to assume that Sharm would be preferable in terms of underwater visibility, range of stuff to see, water temp, etc?

Any advice welcome, thanks. I've seen recommendations for centres in both locations in this forum, but am finding it hard to compare.

tedshredsonfire

depends what you want for a pure diving experiance I,d say dahab about an hour from sharm but theres very little else apart from the diving so if you have another half to keep happy then the resort may be better. Sharm is pretty much a resort now but the diving there would be better than tennerife but depends what your looking for. ie in dahab theres only one or two bars and getting pissed is frowned upon where as far as I know sharm is more resort oriented. Hoping to hit sharm in May for a course as well.

DPRestoration

I was nearly heading to Tenerife myself to do that course at the end of Feb but I checked out Malta and it looks very good, plenty of diving in that part of the world and all in it costs about the same as doing the course here and a weekend of diving for the open water part. Flights booked and finalizing which club to go with, they all seem good.

dive247

We are a dive centre in Tenerife offering PADI Courses. www.dive24-7tenerife.com
We are the highest qualified dive centre in Tenerife.
Another good point is, we are Irish! lol

We have excellent facilities and our own boat, we can arrange excellent accommodation and we have great dive sites for you to complete your open water course.
We have visibility of approx 30m and the water temp at the end of Feb will be approx 20 degrees C.
You will see, stingrays, turtles, trumpet fish, octopus, seabream, moray eels, scorpion fish, cuttlefish and much more.
Hope this helps but if you need to ask further questions or require for info please email info@dive24-7tenerife.com

Best regards
Dave and Nicky

Kenny_D

I did my OW course Sharm in september. Would highly recommend it. The diving there is amazing. Water and weather is warm, huge amount of interesting fish to see on your dives. I'm planning on going back there to do my AOW course this year