Camel Dive Club
Diving from Naama Bay since 1986.
Hesham Gabr founded Camel in Naama Bay in 1986, when Sharm was still a very different place. It began as a single stone building with a courtyard under palm thatch, a compressor, a water tank and a few straw huts for guests. The town grew up around it. Four decades later the operation is still on the same plot in the centre of the bay, and the original stone walls of the dive centre are still standing. Camel is one of Sharm's original dive centres and one of the names that shaped the diving scene here.
The setup is the strongest thing about it. The dive centre, the boutique hotel, the restaurant, the café and the rooftop are all part of the same property in the middle of Naama Bay, with the jetty a few minutes away on foot. For divers staying at Camel there are no morning transfers across Sharm. You wake up, walk down to the dive centre and go.
Training runs the full range. Camel is an SSI Diamond centre and an SSI Instructor Training Centre, so the path from a first pool dive to professional level happens in one place, alongside continuing education, refreshers and snorkelling. Kids start in the pool from eight and can do a Discover the Red Sea programme from ten. Group diving and accessible diving are both part of the normal programme. The facilities behind that are a training pool built for teaching with three depths, three classrooms with air conditioning, and the courtyard where everyone logs their dives.
In 2026 Camel marks 40 years in Sharm.
info@cameldive.com
+20 69 3600700
WhatsApp +20 102 929 0142
@camel_dive_club
cameldive.com
Dive Sites
Camel runs daily boats from Naama Bay. The programme moves with the weather, the sea and the experience of the divers on board, but it rotates through the three main areas around Sharm. Boats leave between 08:00 and 08:30 and are back by late afternoon. The normal day is two guided dives with a third available on many days depending on the schedule and conditions, and groups are capped at six divers per guide.
The reefs running along the Sharm coastline, including the sites around Ras Um Sid, Ras Nasrani and the Gardens. Short crossings, so these are the usual choice when the wind is up or the group is still finding its feet.
Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef at the southern tip of Sinai, the best known diving in Egypt. Jackfish Alley sits in the same complex and sees a fraction of the traffic.
Jackson, Woodhouse, Thomas and Gordon sit across the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba and make up the other half of the Sharm programme. The current runs here, and these reefs are the reason most divers come back.
The Second World War wreck in the Strait of Gubal, run from Sharm as a long day. An early start and a lot of boat time. The Dunraven can be arranged the same way.
Naama Bay
Camel also dives the house reef in Naama Bay, a few minutes on foot from the dive centre. The bottom is sandy and slopes gently, broken up by coral pinnacles and seagrass, which makes it an easy shore entry rather than a technical one.
It earns its place in the programme on the days the boats do not suit. A short dive day, a refresher after time out of the water, a photographer who wants to stay in one spot, or a diver who simply wants a third dive outside the boat schedule. This is also where the night dives happen, and the reef changes character completely after dark.
Camel Boutique Hotel
Camel is more than a standalone dive centre. The hotel is deliberately small compared with the resorts around it, and it is built around the diving rather than the other way around. Rooms sit around the same central complex with the dive centre downstairs and Naama Bay immediately outside.
That suits a particular kind of trip: someone who wants diving at the centre of the week but does not want to be stuck in an isolated dive resort with one restaurant. Guests stay, dive, eat and spend the evening in essentially the same place, with the rest of Sharm within walking distance.
Camel runs dive and stay packages combining a room with guided diving. Rates move through the year, so take them from Camel directly rather than from us.
Camel works for divers who want the whole trip to revolve around diving without staying in an isolated dive resort. The dive centre and the hotel are the same address, the Naama Bay jetty is a short walk, and the restaurants and the noise of Sharm are outside the door rather than an hour away. Add four decades in the same spot, a limit of six divers per guide, and daily access to the local reefs, Ras Mohamed, Tiran and the Thistlegorm, and it is one of the easiest ways to base a full week of diving in Sharm.
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