Why a Red Sea Liveaboard Should Be Your Next Dive Trip

There’s something wonderfully strange about a liveaboard in the Red Sea.

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  Of course, the diving is incredible. That’s the obvious reason to go. But spend a few days living on a boat in the middle of the Red Sea and something else happens too: the outside world slowly starts to disappear.
  
  And it happens surprisingly quickly.
  
  From everyday life to life at sea
  
  On the first day, everything still feels familiar.
  
  You’re checking your cabin, sorting your dive equipment, finding somewhere to charge your camera and wondering how you somehow managed to bring so many cables. Phones are still buzzing, messages are being sent and everyone is still loosely connected to life back home.
  
  Then the harbour disappears behind you.
  
  And the rhythm changes.
  
  Suddenly, there’s nowhere else you need to be.
  
  Your days become beautifully repetitive:
  -Wake up before sunrise.
  -Grab a coffee and watch the ocean wake up.
  -Listen to the dive briefing.
  -Roll backwards into the water.
  -Dive.
  -Eat.
  -Nap.
  -Dive again.
  -Eat again.
  -Watch the sunset.
  -Talk about diving.
  -Sleep.
  
  Then do it all again tomorrow.
  
  And somehow, it’s perfect.
  
  Three or four dives a day? Yes, please
  
  One of the biggest advantages of a Red Sea liveaboard is the sheer amount of time you get underwater.
  
  Most liveaboards offer three or four dives a day, depending on the itinerary, conditions and dive site. That can mean an early-morning dive as the sun comes up, another before lunch, an afternoon dive and, on many trips, the option of a night dive.
  
  The night dive is often the one everyone says you absolutely must do.
  
  And they’re probably right.
  
  But there’s no rule saying you have to do every dive.
  
  Sometimes, after three dives, the best place in the world is a comfortable spot on the upper deck, wrapped in a hoodie, eating biscuits and drinking tea while watching the sea roll past.
  
  That’s part of the beauty of a liveaboard.
  
  There’s no need to optimise every minute.
  
  Some divers want to make every dive possible. Others would rather spend an afternoon sleeping on the sun deck between dives. Both are perfectly valid.

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  You stop thinking in days
  
  After a few days, the dives begin to blur into one long, underwater adventure.
  
  You might start the morning over a reef glowing in the soft light of sunrise. A few hours later, you could be surrounded by enormous schools of fish in the blue.
  
  Depending on your itinerary and the season, you might encounter oceanic whitetips, turtles, dolphins, colourful reef fish or the smallest nudibranchs hiding on the reef. One dive might take you along a dramatic wall or drop-off, while the next has you searching for tiny creatures in the coral.
  
  You climb back onto the boat, remove your kit, grab something to eat and before you know it, someone is calling you for the next briefing.
  
  Eventually, you stop thinking in days.
  
  You start thinking in dives.
  
  And that’s when you know you’ve properly switched off.
  
  The best food is the food you eat after diving
  
  There’s another important part of liveaboard life that shouldn’t be underestimated: divers are always hungry.
  
  There’s something about spending your days swimming through the ocean that turns eating into an essential part of the schedule.
  
  Breakfast after the first dive. A big lunch. Snacks appearing throughout the afternoon. Dinner after the final dive.
  
  And somehow, everything tastes better when you’re hungry from diving.
  
  Especially when you’re sitting outside, eating in the middle of the Red Sea with nothing around you but open water and blue sky.
  
  Life becomes wonderfully simple
  
  A few days away from land has a strange effect.
  
  There are no traffic jams.
  
  No shops.
  
  No commuting.
  
  No background noise from everyday life.
  
  No constant stream of notifications demanding your attention.
  
  After a day or two, your phone starts to feel strangely unimportant.
  
  Conversations become longer. People spend more time together. You get to know the other divers onboard, often sharing stories about previous trips, favourite dive sites and the creatures you’ve just seen.
  
  Even silence feels comfortable.
  
  And that’s something many people don’t realise they’re missing until they experience it.

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  Red Sea nights are something else
  
  Once the final dive is finished, equipment is rinsed and hung up to dry, everyone gradually finds their way to the upper deck.
  
  Someone might be editing photographs from the day.
  
  Someone else is drinking tea or enjoying a refreshing sundowner.
  
  Others are simply lying back and looking up.
  
  And the stars?
  
  They’re spectacular.
  
  Particularly on itineraries that take you far from the lights of the coast, the night sky can feel almost unreal. There’s nothing competing with it. Just darkness, stars, salt in the air and the sound of water moving gently against the hull.
  
  For a few hours, it can genuinely feel as though the rest of the world has disappeared.
  
  This is what a Red Sea liveaboard is really about
  
  The diving is obviously a huge part of the experience.
  
  The reefs, walls, wrecks, sharks, turtles, schools of fish and incredible visibility are all reasons to put a Red Sea liveaboard on your dive wish list.
  
  But the real magic is what happens between the dives.
  
  It’s waking up offshore.
  
  It’s watching the sunrise with a coffee in your hand.
  
  It’s the excitement of hearing the next dive briefing.
  
  It’s post-dive conversations with people you met only a day or two ago.
  
  It’s falling asleep exhausted after another incredible day underwater.
  
  And it’s realising that, for a little while, life has become incredibly simple.
  
  You need food, sleep, sunlight, seawater and enough energy for the next dive.
  
  Everything else can wait.
  
  Ready to disappear for a while?
  
  If you’ve only experienced Red Sea diving from the shore, a liveaboard is a completely different way to explore this incredible part of the world.
  
  Instead of travelling to one dive site each day, you wake up where the diving is. You spend several days surrounded by the sea, maximising your time underwater and reaching remote sites that simply aren’t practical as day trips.
  
  Whether you’re chasing sharks, exploring reefs and walls, looking for wrecks or simply want to spend a week doing as much diving as possible, there’s a Red Sea liveaboard itinerary to suit you.
  
  At Oonasdivers, we’ve been helping divers experience the Red Sea for years. We can help you choose the right liveaboard, itinerary and time of year for the kind of diving you want to experience.
  
  So, if you’re ready to leave the harbour behind, switch off your phone and spend a few days thinking about nothing but diving, eating, sleeping and doing it all again, take a look at our Red Sea liveaboards.
  
  The outside world can wait. The Red Sea is calling.
  
  Explore Red Sea Liveaboards with Oonasdivers