Travelogue

After our diving holiday last year, we decided together with our friends Birgit and Manuel to travel to Egypt again for diving. Our suggestion was the "Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge" in Soma Bay, a modern, superlative 4* lifestyle hotel designed especially for enthusiastic divers, snorkellers and kitesurfers, located just north of Safaga and easily accessible from Hurghada Airport in 50 minutes. The Breakers is home to the ORCA Dive Club Soma Bay, the largest of several diving centres in Egypt. This guarantees short distances, making it ideal for our diving activities. We can also mention here that we spent our first diving holiday at this place in 2012 after obtaining our diving licence in Thailand and were able to get to know the wonderful underwater world of the house reef. So we booked a 2-week stay.

The flight - this time with Discover Airlines, a Lufthansa subsidiary - went smoothly. The pre-booked private transfer in a minivan also went without a hitch. We were able to check in just in time for the evening buffet, received our room access cards, and each of us also got a towel card and a bottle card. More on that later.

Our first impression of the hotel - not much has changed since our first stay. All the routes were still familiar, and the staff at the buffet and in the restaurant were exceptionally friendly and attentive. You immediately feel at home. We sat outside for breakfast and dinner under a sunshade, often sharing a table with other guests, which led to conversations and getting to know each other. There was Ralf and his daughter Emma from Hamburg, for example, both avid divers, or Doris, who was married to an Egyptian and lived in Cairo for over 20 years, and last but not least, the young family from Wismar who run a surf school on the Baltic Sea. A sense of community is immediately created.

It must be said that the "Breakers" has truly become an "Institution on the Red Sea". Developed and managed by the German Stefan Reichl, the hotel has achieved success with its unique concept: accommodation without constraints, combined with modern hotel amenities and adapted to contemporary tastes. It's therefore hardly surprising that the percentage of repeat guests is over 60%.

The hotel places great emphasis on environmental protection and sustainability. BRITA water filters dispensing systems have already been installed, allowing guests to refill their reusable water bottles (each guest receives a stainless steel bottle upon check-in) free of charge in the bars, restaurant, and the 7 Bft KiteHouse. This eliminates 95% of plastic bottle consumption! No plastic cups, no plastic straws. And the provided bath towels can be exchanged for fresh ones at any time. Great importance is placed on natural and sustainable materials. Every evening, the cuisine has a different theme - from Nubian and Arabic to BBQ with exquisite dishes from the sea and land, from vegetarian to vegan! A particular highlight was certainly the "Oriental Evening", where every guest wore a Galabeya (a traditional outfit in the Arab world - see photos) and our "Seafood Dinner" on the hotel's private beach to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary.

Also worth mentioning is the cooking class our "girls" enjoyed and the tour with hotel manager Stefan, who first gave a presentation on the construction and operation of the hotel and then took us behind the scenes, including the staff area with its own kitchen and accommodations, the peninsula's water treatment plant, and the kite house. Extremely insightful!

As already mentioned, the Orca Dive Club Soma Bay is located directly in the hotel and is extremely well organized. During our stay, almost 200 divers were registered. Nevertheless, there was no rush, and our equipment was already prepared and ready to go. From the dive center, via the 420-meter-long jetty (Jetty I), you can go directly to the drop-off reef of Ras Abu Soma. The house reef in Soma Bay promises spectacular dives. Unlimited diving is possible here all day long. The diving equipment is transported to the end of the jetty in environmentally friendly electric carts, so that everyone can start their house reef dive with fresh enthusiasm. The marina, a 5-minute drive away, has day boats for full-day and half-day trips, as well as speedboats for trips to nearby reefs such as Tobia Arbaa, drift dives along the Abu Soma house reef, and early morning trips to the Panorama Reef. Another new feature is the installation of a second jetty (Jetty II) about 500 meters to the north. This is another opportunity to explore the house reef.

We enjoyed a few more beautiful dives during this vacation. The underwater world here is still in good condition. You can find pictures under the heading Hobbies/Diving.

Overall, we had another wonderful and relaxing vacation. It was definitely not our last time here. We'll be back - we promise!

Our return flight went smoothly again, apart from the fact that the vehicle we had ordered for the transfer to the airport did not arrive and we had to order a taxi through reception.

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