COVID-19 - Feel Good Friday News!

As divers ourselves we wanted to bring you some exciting news regarding travel to Egypt and the Maldives that we hope will give you that Feel Good Friday feeling that you may have missed for a while...

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  Even though we are slap bang in the middle of all that is happening within Travel & Tourism during this pandemic we are still very aware that the future remains unclear and us, just like you, are waiting to be able to dust off our dive gear and get back in the water asap so we are excited to let you know that yesterday the teams at Marsa Shagra, Marsa Nakari and Wadi Lahami (the three diving villages that make Red Sea Diving Safari) got there COVID-19 vaccinations! This is because Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population announced that those working in the Tourism sector would receive their jabs as priority. We are so pleased for them as all they want is to welcome back guests safely and as soon as possible. Each village has strict procedures in place already in line with the guidelines supplied but this is the icing on the cake, and we are overjoyed, especially if it means that we can be back there diving sometime soon!
  
  For most of the team our first stop will be Egypt as to us this is a home from home, and we are confident that we will get there this year (please Boris) and hopefully not too long after 17th May! We have been sending our lovely guests to the Red Sea for over 35 years and our long-standing relationship with Red Sea Diving Safari means that we can bring to you what we truly believe is a diving experience that is something special.
  
  We have all been at some point, either on our own, as a team, with our other halves and kids, and one of us even got married there! You may well be thinking that this is a sales pitch, but it really isn’t! We are just so lucky to genuinely love these resorts and the friends we have made there, and of course the AMAZING DIVING! If we were trying to sell it to you we would tell you about the wonderful house reefs, unlimited diving packages and days trips to iconic sites such as Dolphin House and Elphinstone, but what we may not share is the beautiful sunrises that we watch from the beach, or from the water after our dawn dive, or the weight that we put on after 7 days of desserts that the wonderful chef makes us just because that is what brings him joy, or the G&Ts that we have on our terrace as we are watching the sunset and chat about what we have seen that day. We love every part of our holidays here and have been known on occasion to call the office to see if we can stay on another week and ‘work’ from our chalet!!

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  You may have seen in an earlier article that our other partners in Egypt, Emperor Divers, also got vaccinated a few weeks ago and are back out on their wonderful liveaboards taking divers to the wrecks and reefs of the Northern Red Sea, along with the delights of the South. Well they don’t just stop there, they also offer spectacular itineraries in the Maldives, which some of us have enjoyed over the years, and with this in mind they delivered some of their own Feel Good Friday news today as Maldives Immigration announced that as of this week travellers arriving in the Maldives will not be required to produce a negative COVID-19 PCR test certificate upon arrival if they have passed 2 weeks after full vaccination with an approved vaccine against COVID-19. This is absolutely brilliant as it will mean that if we have been vaccinated, we won’t have to be tested in the UK before we go. The Emperor team over on the Maldives have also been receiving their COVID-19 vaccine which is another positive step forward.

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  So as we wait for further news from the Government here we can be assured that across the world, our suppliers and resorts are doing all they can ready for the safe return to travel that we are all so looking forward to. For us, like many of you, travelling is in our blood. It is what we work for, what fills up our ‘happy’ tank, what makes us feel calm and complete. So lets just keep everything crossed that the combined efforts of us here in the UK and those overseas means that we can get back to doing what we love best, DIVING!