Safaga and Soma Bay

Safaga is a phosphate port 60 km south of Hurghada, sheltered behind the long island of Safaga (Gezirat Safaga). It has always been the quieter alternative: fewer boats, and a set of reefs that sit further out in open water and carry more current.

Tobia Arbaa in Soma Bay is a cluster of five coral pillars rising off sand, two of them split in two, which is why the same site is also sold as Seven Pillars. Abu el Kefan is the serious one — a 300 m reef standing alone in deep water with walls that fall away hundreds of metres, plateaus at each end, and enough current to make it a drift.