Jeddah

Most centres sit along Prince Abdulmajeed Road in North Obhur and Al Amwaj, roughly 30 km north of Jeddah's old town, and the ordinary day starts on a beach rather than at a harbour. Resort house reefs such as Sheraton Beach, Coco Beach and Sol Beach are shore dives, and a couple of shallow training pools stand in the same district for first lessons. The better offshore sites are day-boat work, around an hour out by speedboat. Liveaboards that leave Jeddah sail to other stretches of the Saudi coast, so a week here is built from shore dives and single-day boat trips, with surface intervals spent out of the sun.

The shore reefs follow one pattern: a platform at about 5 m, then a slope running out to sand at 36-40 m, which is why the strip is sold to extended-range divers as well as to beginners. Coco Beach has two small caves at 3 m and is used for night diving. Offshore the ground breaks into reef islands and atolls, Bayadah sheltered from rough water and Dugais a 3 km atoll 6 km out whose visibility improves through winter, with coral gardens at 15-20 m a short boat ride from the creek. Visibility of 30-40 m is common along this coast.

It suits divers based in or passing through Jeddah, people learning at a resort, and technical divers who want deep water a short swim from the beach. The wrecks are the local draw: the Ann Ann sits between two reefs from 14 to 30 m and is rated for intermediate and expert divers, and the Cable Wreck, the Greek ship Stavronisos, lies off Abu Tair 45 km southwest with cables, fencing and steel bundles scattered around it. Divers after a liveaboard week should know that boats leaving Jeddah run south to the Farasan Banks rather than diving this coast, and that a long wreck route or reliable pelagic encounters means Egypt's northern Red Sea, where Hurghada and the Brothers cover that ground.