The Best Beaches for Snorkelling in Sharm El Sheikh

Let a naturalist be honest, and for once the honesty is easy: Sharm El Sheikh sits on some of the finest snorkelling water on the planet. The northern Red Sea is warm, clear and astonishingly alive, with steep coral walls that drop straight from the shore into deep blue, so that a snorkeller floating on the surface looks down on a city of fish. This is the rare place where the headline truly delivers.

The gift here is the fringing reef. Along much of this coast the coral grows as a shallow plateau that ends in a sheer wall close to shore, which means you do not need a boat to reach spectacular life, you swim out over the plateau and hang above the drop. The famous shore reef at Ras Um Sid is the classic example, vivid with butterflyfish, parrotfish, anthias and the great humped Napoleon wrasse, all within a short swim of the steps.

The wilder, richer reefs ask for a short boat. Ras Mohammed National Park at the tip of the peninsula, with its Shark and Yolanda reefs, and the four reefs in the Straits of Tiran, Jackson, Gordon, Thomas and Woodhouse, are among the greatest in the Red Sea, bursting with coral gardens, turtles and shoals over a shallow plateau that snorkellers can enjoy from the boat. A calm half day trip opens the very best of it.

The naturalist's plea is to tread with great care. This reef is a living animal, slow to grow and quick to break, so never stand on it, touch it or chase the fish, keep your fins clear of the coral, take nothing and leave nothing. We have ranked the six best below, the protected reefs and the famous shore walls first, the worn central bay last, each linked to its full guide.

The honest read is the happiest one we write: in Sharm El Sheikh the snorkelling lives up to its reputation, provided you choose the protected and fringing reefs over the busy central strip. The worn house reef at Naama Bay is fine for a first dip but cannot compare with what lies a short swim or a calm boat ride away, where the coral wall and the fish are simply extraordinary.

Start from the shore at Ras Um Sid, where the famous reef wall delivers a spectacular snorkel within a short swim of the steps, then give a calm half day to a boat. Ras Mohammed National Park and the four reefs of the Straits of Tiran are among the finest in the whole Red Sea, with coral gardens, turtles and shoals over plateaus that snorkellers can enjoy as much as divers. Ras Nasrani and Sharks Bay offer quieter shore reefs in between.

With reef this good comes real responsibility. The coral is a living, fragile animal, so never stand on it, touch it or chase the fish, keep your fins high and clear, take nothing from the reef and leave nothing behind. Enter through the marked channels at the right tide, respect the strict rules at Ras Mohammed, and treat conditions as typical rather than guaranteed, reading the day, the current and the flags before you go in.

With reefs this rewarding the day naturally builds around the water, and a comfortable base on the sand makes the surface intervals easy. The beach clubs and hotel beaches along Naama Bay, Sharks Bay and the Hadaba coast rent loungers, shade and a kitchen behind the reef, often with house reefs, jetties and dive desks that run the boat trips. Operators, opening hours and any minimum spend vary with the season, so we keep the live list on the directory. Tell us your dates and the kind of day you want and we pass the enquiry on to confirm what is open.