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 All the holiday news...
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Divers heading for the Red Sea and wanting more legroom and complimentary meals can now opt to travel by scheduled airline. GB Airways, British Airways' franchise partner, has started flying from London Gatwick to Sharm el Sheikh three times a week (Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays) and Hurghada twice a week (Thursdays and Saturdays). Discounted all-inclusive return fares of £199 are available until 27 May next year. Year-round all-inclusive Euro Traveller return fares start at £259 and Club Europe return fares at £499.
0870 8509850
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The new liveaboard Sharifa is ready to take divers around Ari Atoll in the Maldives. She has nine air-conditioned en-suite cabins, a large lounge/bar area and two sun-decks, and diving is done from a dhoni, where all gear can be stored. You can book Sharifa through Barefoot Traveller and prices based on two sharing start from £995 per person during low season, including flights, board and transfers.
0208 7414319
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Ever thought about diving with porbeagle or blue sharks? Richard Peirce Shark Conservation plans to offer you the chance for the first time in British waters in 2006, on six one-day boat trips between 12 August and 18 September. Three of the days will be allocated to blue sharks (pictured) out of Looe in south Cornwall, the others to porbeagles out of Bude or Padstow to the north. The trips are for parties of six at an expected £95 per head, including breakfast, lunch and full British shark briefing. Get your name on the list now, as candidates will be contacted in order of application.
01288 352608
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A new resort called the Coral Beach Diving Hotel has opened in Port Ghalib, which lies south of Qseir and north of Marsa Alam on Egypt's southern Red Sea coast. It has an Emperor Divers dive centre, which operates dive boats from its marina and has its own pool. If you're really quick off the mark, you can stay at the Coral Beach for US $25 per person per night half board, but that offer expires on 20 December, after which you pay from around $88 per night for the room only. Rates do include transfers from nearby Marsa Alam International Airport.
www.millenniumhotels.com
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Divers visiting Bonaire are used to easy diving from the quieter shores of this southern Caribbean island, but the more exposed east coast was seldom visited until Larry's Wildside Diving started taking divers there about 18 months ago. Larry reckons this coast is teeming with marine life, including sharks, rays and turtles as well as healthy corals, and he will lay on a two-dive boat trip for US $100 a time. Could be an eye-opener!
www.larryswildsidediving.com
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Sailing from the Scillies to Scapa Flow, the 72ft yacht Zuza is offering divers another Full Circle Britain trip next summer. The extended dive trip lasts 16 weeks, but you can book just one Saturday-Friday leg or more, depending on your time and Zuza Expeditions' space. Prices range from £595 to £675 per leg, and PSA Beginner and Advanced Wreck Diving courses will be an option.
01326 374 989
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Weekly diving trips to Gulen on the west coast of Norway are on offer from XO Holidays. The Sognefjord and some 1700 islands in this area are known as "Little Norway". Steep walls, kelp forests and boulders should make for interesting diving, and at least a dozen wrecks are said to lie within 45 minutes' boat-ride of the dive centre. Nitrox and trimix are available. Trips are available all year round with daily flights from London and Aberdeen. Seven nights' self-catering accommodation, including 10 dives and unlimited air fills, costs £479 per person, excluding flights.
www.xoholidays.com
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Wightdiver (above), a 38ft dive boat with lift operating out of Portsmouth, is now owned by PADI 5-star dive centre The Dive Connection (TDC). There will be more dates on the 2006 itinerary, especially in mid-week, under new skipper and TDC PADI Instructor Steve Dimmer, who says he sees the move as "a perfect link-up between dive centre and dive boat, enabling us to offer something for every level of diver".
07810 600 557
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