PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course in Hurghada

Already an Open Water diver? The PADI Advanced Open Water course in Hurghada is the next step, and despite the name it isn't only for advanced divers. You can start it right after Open Water.

The course is built from adventure dives. Before each one your instructor covers the theory and skills for that specialty, then you dive it together in the Red Sea and practise with feedback. PADI makes two dives compulsory — Deep and Underwater Navigation — and you choose three more.

When you finish you earn the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification. Depending on your age, it lets you dive to a maximum of 30 m / 100 ft. Each adventure dive can also count towards the matching PADI specialty certification.

The exact dives and schedule are agreed with your instructor before you start, based on your experience, the weather and sea conditions.

Open Water vs Advanced Open Water: what changes

Open Water teaches you the basics. Advanced Open Water gives you experience, under supervision, in the kinds of diving you'll actually want to do.

Depth. Open Water divers are trained to 18 m / 60 ft. On Advanced you make a deep dive below 18 m, and the certification allows a maximum of up to 30 m / 100 ft depending on your age.

Navigation. You learn to use a compass and natural features to find your way back to the boat — probably the most useful skill on the course.

Choice. The other three dives are up to you and your instructor. PADI's list includes Peak Performance Buoyancy, Wreck, Night, Fish Identification, Underwater Naturalist, Search & Recovery, Digital Underwater Photography and Enriched Air Nitrox, among others. Which ones are possible depends on the conditions and what the centre runs that week, so we confirm your options before you start.

Format. There's less classroom than on Open Water. Theory comes as a short briefing before each dive, or through PADI eLearning at home — PADI estimates 6–8 hours online and 2–3 days for the whole course.

Why Hurghada works for Advanced Open Water

The Red Sea around Hurghada gives you real variety close to town: sheltered reefs for buoyancy work, sandy areas where navigation exercises are easy to set up, and deeper walls and wrecks for the deep dive.

One local example is El Mina, a former minesweeper lying on its side inside Hurghada harbour, with the bow at about 26 m and the stern at about 33 m. Further out, sites like the sandy plateau off Small Giftun sit at around 15–25 m. Your instructor decides where each dive happens based on wind, current and your level — we never promise a particular site in advance.

The water stays warm all year: about 22 °C at its coolest in February and about 29 °C in August, so the course isn't limited to summer.

Advanced is also the natural lead-in to bigger trips. Many divers do it before a Red Sea diving safari, where deep and wreck dives are common, or keep diving afterwards on our full-day diving trip.

Next steps: Rescue Diver and beyond

The Underwater Navigation dive you complete on Advanced is one of the prerequisites for the PADI Rescue Diver course. The other is Emergency First Response (EFR) Primary and Secondary Care training — first aid and CPR — completed within the last 24 months.

From Rescue Diver, divers who want to work in diving move on to Divemaster, which needs 40 logged dives to start. Every dive you log on this course counts.

Not ready for more training? That's fine too. With an Advanced certification you can join deeper, more varied dives on our full-day diving trip, book a private diving trip with your own guide, or spend several days on the reefs and wrecks further offshore on a Red Sea diving safari. Each specialty adventure dive you completed can also be credited toward the full PADI specialty course later, so nothing you do on Advanced is wasted.

Compare all levels on our PADI courses in Hurghada page.