M/V Mistral

Location

Operating in the heart of the Egyptian Red Sea, M/V Mistral offers easy access to some of the region’s most celebrated dive routes. Guests typically embark in Hurghada, just a short distance from Hurghada International Airport, allowing the journey to begin with minimal travel time.

Dive Overview

Diving in the Egyptian Red Sea is renowned for its clear, warm waters, vibrant coral reefs, and exceptional marine biodiversity. The area offers a mix of dramatic walls, pristine reefs, and iconic sites such as offshore pinnacles and historic wrecks, with encounters ranging from colourful reef fish and turtles to sharks and large pelagics. Strong visibility and varied dive profiles make the Red Sea a consistently rewarding destination for both recreational and advanced divers.

[See: Red Sea Dive Travel Guide]

Accommodation Overview

Mistral features 10 well-appointed cabins designed for diver comfort. The upper deck has four spacious double cabins, ideal for couples, while the lower deck offers six twin cabins, perfect for friends or solo travelers sharing. Each cabin includes an en-suite bathroom, individually controlled A/C, a safety deposit box, and bedside controls for music and lighting.

Food & Drinks

Mistral offers a delightful dining experience on her main deck, where the bright, modern restaurant provides a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Guests can enjoy a variety of freshly prepared meals, catering to diverse tastes and dietary needs. The saloon area is also a comfortable space to relax with a drink, watch movies, or review dive footage, while a selection of beverages such as soft drinks, tea, coffee, and other alcoholic options.

Dive Information

Northern Red Sea

The Northern Red Sea offers a diverse range of diving experiences for all levels, from dramatic reef walls to world-class wrecks. The Sinai Peninsula features monumental drop-offs, canyons, and vertical walls, mirrored by impressive underwater topography.

Key sites include Ras Mohammed National Park and the Straits of Tiran, where nutrient-rich currents attract abundant marine life, including sharks, snappers, barracuda, and batfish. Tiran’s reefs—Gordon, Thomas, Woodhouse, and Jackson—offer spectacular coral formations and varied marine ecosystems, while Ras Mohammed’s Shark Reef and Yolanda showcase vertical walls and dense fish populations.

The area is also renowned for historic wreck dives, including the SS Thistlegorm, Rosalie Moller, Abu Nuhas, and Ulysees, which appeal to both wreck enthusiasts and photographers. With a mix of reef, wall, and wreck dives, the Northern Red Sea delivers unforgettable underwater adventures.

Southern Red Sea

The Southern Red Sea is renowned for its remote reefs, warmer waters, and frequent shark sightings, including oceanic white tips. The area also offers deep wrecks rich in history and vibrant, unspoilt coral reefs, making it a haven for divers seeking both pelagic action and pristine underwater landscapes.

The Brother Islands—Big Brother and Little Brother—are isolated gems east of Quesir. Big Brother features sheer walls, vibrant soft corals, and two notable wrecks: the Numidia and the Egyptian troop carrier Aida II. Little Brother is considered one of the world’s top dive sites, offering breathtaking walls, extensive plateaus, and abundant marine life, including snappers, tuna, barracuda, whale sharks, and manta rays.

Daedelus Reef (Abu el-Kizan), located 96 km off Marsa Alam, is a nearly circular reef with spectacular sheer walls, caves, and overhangs. Its marine life includes barracuda, jacks, tuna, grey reef sharks, hammerheads, dolphins, manta rays, whale sharks, turtles, and abundant corals.

Zabargad Island is a peaceful marine park with extensive shallow coral reefs and a turquoise lagoon. Its sandy slopes feature dense coral pinnacles home to reef fish, stingrays, and crocodile fish. Divers can also encounter larger reef species, hammerheads, manta rays, and several unidentified wrecks around the island. Night dives reveal cuttlefish, squid, octopus, and other active invertebrates, adding a different dimension to its underwater beauty.