Makadi Bay Diving: Good Reefs From a Hotel Strip That Barely Works as a Nomad Base

Makadi Bay is a row of all-inclusive hotels, not a town

Start with the plain fact, because every other decision follows from it. German Wikipedia describes a purely touristic settlement on about 4 km of coast, made up almost entirely of around 20 large resorts, with desert on every side. Alf, a Ukrainian travel agency, says there is essentially no settlement here and that the whole "city" is a set of connected hotels. Red Sea Hotels alone lists six properties in the bay. Those three accounts agree.

The strip is young. Le Meridien opened an 814-room resort here in May 2000 and placed it 22 km south of Hurghada, while Wikipedia gives about 30 km. The main coastal road, route 24, runs about 3 km inland, with a golf course stretching toward it.

All-inclusive changes more than your bar bill. Alf says almost all hotels here sell it, with shops, pharmacies and bank branches inside the complexes. That means meals, beach and evenings are already paid for and sit behind a gate. There is no main street to walk to. Your hotel can settle your dive center too: Extra Divers says guests of the Madinat Makadi hotels walk over or take its free transfer, and IDive sits at the Fort Arabesque.

Makadi Bay diving suits that setup when you are on holiday. If you want a cheap apartment, a cafe table and a different dinner every night, it is the wrong shape of place.

The Makadi Bay house reef is the best argument for staying here

Shore diving is what Makadi Bay does better than a city base. The Chamber of Diving and Water Sports, known as CDWS, says certified divers can dive the house reef from shore, guided or not, every day from 8 am to 5 pm. It also calls the sandy bay a good place to learn. No boat, no early pickup. That helps on a working schedule.

There is more than one way in. Extra Divers gives its reef a protected shallow area and a main section at about 14 to 18 meters, and it carries gear to the entry point by golf cart. It says two turtles turn up regularly.

An SSI dive-log entry describes the reef off Fort Arabesque as a gentle slope to 18 meters and then a drop-off, sheltered from the north wind and a good option on rough days. IDive sends you on one check dive and then lets you go without a guide, and it adds a beach dive it calls the Relittino.

The CDWS page gives 8 to 5, while both centers advertise early morning and night dives, so ask how those run. A shore dive costs 26 euros at Extra Divers and 25 unguided or 35 guided at IDive.

Makadi Bay dive boats reach Hurghada's and Safaga's reefs, with limits

The bay sits between two dive regions, and the boats work both. CDWS describes trips by felucca, a traditional wooden boat, to sites 15 minutes away, plus half-day and full-day trips further out. Extra Divers says it runs six of its own boats with oxygen on board and goes to reefs on both sides. IDive advertises 15 sites around Makadi and 35 in Giftun National Park.

CDWS publishes coordinates for its dive sites. The distances below run in a straight line from the bay. They are not boat routes.

Closer in, SSI log entries describe what a short trip reaches: Abu Hashish Lagoon and its ergs, the isolated coral towers, and a drift with a garden at 20 meters south of the reef Gota Abu Makadi, with sleeping turtles. Ras Abdallah, 20 minutes south, is a drop-off to about 80 meters, twice the CDWS limit on air. That wall needs discipline.

Two limits shape Makadi Bay diving. Wreck days are events, not daily options: Extra Divers says weekly for the Salem Express, and IDive's wreck day needs at least five people at 70 euros. And Abu Nuhas sits almost 65 km north, on neither center's public list. Wreck divers belong in El Gouna or Hurghada. The law around the Salem Express, where remains are still inside the hull, is covered in the Safaga diving guide.

Egypt's diving rules cap Makadi Bay diving at 40 meters

The CDWS depth policy sets the maximum on compressed air at 40 meters, "if the training qualifications and the experience of the divers allow it", and the same 40 on enriched air up to a PPO2 of 1.4. Your certificate and your insurance may be stricter. The UK Foreign Office warns that diving below your insurer's depth limit invalidates your cover.

The CDWS audit manual is the one to use as a customer. An introductory dive must run one instructor to one participant in open water, with basic skills at no more than 2 meters and a maximum depth of 12 meters. Every center needs a written emergency plan with chamber data. Boats must carry medical oxygen, a first aid kit, working communication devices and someone trained in first aid and CPR. Snorkel trips need one leader per 12 people. If an intro dive offers less, walk away.

CDWS also keeps a public blacklist of facilities, so check any center you meet through an agent. The Foreign Office adds that safety standards among Red Sea operators "vary considerably". Extra Divers makes a guide compulsory under 25 dives, a house rule and not a national one.

On the water, the environment agency's Red Sea leaflet bans anchors inside its island protectorates and bans touching or standing on coral. CDWS calls the Makadi marine area protected, with mooring buoys at all sites. Egypt's newest reserve, Great Fringing Reefs under Decree 4419 of 2025, covers 1,800 km² in the Red Sea governorate. Whether a given Makadi reef falls inside is a question to put to your center. The Safaga guide has what is known about its outline, and the Hurghada guide covers HEPCA's buoys.

A two-dive Makadi Bay boat day costs more than the headline price

Two centers publish prices for Makadi Bay diving, and both add lines below the headline. These are each center's own figures, as of 4 November 2026.

Add it up at Extra Divers with a guide: 76 plus 7 plus 10 comes to 93 euros before that 10 percent tax, without gear. At IDive it is 87 euros plus insurance if you have none. The two are close after the small print. Packages help: 20 flexible boat dives at Extra Divers cost 699 euros, which is under 35 euros a dive before fees.

Long trips cost extra. IDive prices its Giftun National Park ticket at 50 euros with lunch and drinks, and the agency's leaflet says the Red Sea governorate collects Giftun's fee. Extra Divers adds 26 euros for special and long-distance trips, as posted at the base.

The nearest chamber to Makadi Bay diving is by Hurghada airport

No chamber is listed in Makadi Bay. CDWS names four within reach, and this table gives its numbers as printed, filed under a "24hr Emergency" column.

Test those numbers before your first dive. HyperMed's website showed only an under-construction notice on 4 November 2026, and its second listed line is (+2) 01119188819. Emperor Divers still names HyperMed as a chamber it supports. Deco International's own site gives a hotline of +20 1222 190 383, open 24/7, which differs slightly from the list, so save both.

The right chamber depends on where the boat is. A day at Tobia Arbaa or the Salem Express runs south, toward Safaga, while a Giftun day runs north. Ask the center which one its written plan names for that day, and how the casualty gets there. For an ambulance the UK advice gives 123, and tourist police are 126. Check that your dive insurance covers evacuation.

Makadi Bay water runs from about 22°C in winter to 29°C in August

This figure comes from the sea around the bay. NOAA's Coral Reef Watch keeps satellite averages for the Gulf of Aqaba, centered well north of Makadi Bay, and for the Egyptian coast centered well south. February averages 21.6°C in the north and 22.8°C in the south. August averages 27.6 and 29.8°C.

Three climate tables for Hurghada sit close to that bracket: 21 to 22.4°C in February, and 28 to 29°C in August. This range is triangulated, and it is surface water. February and March are the cold end, so read the travel wetsuit guide before a winter trip.

Neither center announces a seasonal closure on its pages, and the CDWS house reef hours read as daily. Season here changes comfort. It does not switch Makadi Bay diving off.

Makadi Bay works for a dive week and fails as a month-long remote-work base

Getting here is easy. Extra Divers puts Hurghada airport about 30 km away. Wikipedia's airline table, unconfirmed with the airlines, shows scheduled service outside the season markers on Condor and Eurowings to Germany and EasyJet to Britain, Air Cairo and Nile Air to Cairo, plus a long list of seasonal charters, and it counts 9.6 million passengers in 2024. So you are not tied to charter dates, but check your route.

Living here is the problem. No coworking space in the bay publishes itself. The nearest with a public offer is Coworking Hurghada in El Kawther, about 24 km away in a straight line, which advertises 70 Mbps. Egypt's national medians were 110.69 Mbps on fixed lines and 67.15 on mobile in September 2026, but that says nothing about a hotel's wifi. Test it on a video call before you pay for a week.

The non-hotel option is Makadi Heights, an Orascom Development project on higher ground, which a broker describes as 3.7 million square meters and a "self-sufficient town". Invest-Gate reported the first 248 units being delivered in 2022. Do not assume a monthly rent; ask in person.

With no town to walk to, each errand means a vehicle. The UK advice says not to drive outside main cities and resorts at night, and it urges women traveling alone to take care in taxis. Entry rules are the same as in Hurghada: for UK nationals, 30 US dollars in cash on arrival for up to 30 days, or an e-visa for up to 3 months, and those are tourist stays.

A week's diving from a hotel with a working connection is fine. For a month, base yourself in Hurghada or El Gouna, or in Dahab, and come to the Makadi reefs on a day boat.

Wreck divers and long-stay remote workers should look past Makadi Bay

Abu Nuhas is not on the public lists here, and the Salem Express comes about once a week, so a wreck trip belongs elsewhere. Comparing shops is hard too, since only two of the six businesses in the registers publish a website. A remote worker staying past a week or two will run out of reasons, and so will anyone who wants a town around them.

The right guest is narrower than the brochures suggest. Beginners get a calm sandy bay. Families get short trips: Extra Divers puts them at about two hours, or four for a half day. Certified divers who like unhurried shore dives get daily access to the house reef. That is a good week of Makadi Bay diving, and plenty of reason to come.

Six dive businesses filed under Makadi Bay, and two that publish prices

The Makadi Bay operator list holds 6 dive businesses, compiled on 13 September 2026. Five carry a CDWS membership number, read on 15 August: Aquarius Diving Club, Diving Ocean New Project, I Dive, Master Diving and Piano Diving Club. The number is membership, not the license, as the Hurghada guide explains.

The sixth, Extra Divers Makadi Bay, comes from the SSI register and is not on the CDWS list under that name. That means it is unlisted there, not that it lacks a license.

Two is a thin choice. Only I Dive and Extra Divers publish a website, and only they say where they are: at the Fort Arabesque and on the Cleopatra Luxury Resort beach. For the other four, the register's town field is all there is, so ask where the boats leave from. The limits of each source are on which registers can be read.