PADI Courses in Hurghada

Hurghada is an easy place to learn to dive because the water is warm all year, a wide choice of dive sites sits close to town, and the season never really closes. The sea runs from about 22 °C in February to about 29 °C in August, so only your wetsuit thickness changes.

Three things make Hurghada an easy place to learn: warm water, a wide choice of dive sites close to town, and a season that never really closes.

Warm all year. Average sea temperature runs from about 22 °C in February, the coolest month, to about 29 °C in August. Winter learners usually want a thicker wetsuit; summer learners hardly notice the water.

Sites for every level. The reefs around Hurghada range from calm, sheltered spots suitable for all levels — Ras Disha sits in a bay protected from the wind, and El Fanadir is known for gentle currents — to sandy plateaus off Small Giftun and wrecks for later courses, such as the El Mina minesweeper lying at roughly 26–33 m inside Hurghada harbour. Your instructor picks the site on the day based on wind, current and your level, so nothing here is a promise of a specific site.

Learn on holiday. Most visitors stay a week or more, which suits PADI's performance-based courses: do the theory first, then spend your days in the water, with hotel pickup arranged according to your course package. When you finish, you can keep diving the same week on our full-day diving trip or go further on a Red Sea diving safari.

Yes. Every PADI course has a knowledge part that you can finish at home with PADI eLearning before you fly, or with your instructor in Hurghada. PADI estimates about eight hours of online study for Open Water Diver, so your holiday days go to diving, not reading.

Every PADI course has a knowledge part. You can do it with your instructor in Hurghada, or online at home with PADI eLearning — the approved format for knowledge development — so your holiday days go to diving, not reading.

PADI's own estimates for the online study: about eight hours for Open Water Diver, 6–8 hours for Advanced Open Water, 8–12 hours for Rescue Diver and 10–16 hours for Divemaster (not counting Dive Theory). PADI says the Open Water course can be completed in three or four days when the theory is done through eLearning, and estimates 2–3 days for Advanced Open Water — real timing still depends on your progress and the sea.

Tell us on WhatsApp if you plan to use eLearning, so we can match your in-water days to your arrival. Bring proof that you've finished it, and bring your certification card and logbook for any course above Open Water.

The PADI medical questionnaire is a short ten-question yes/no form that every student diver completes before training. If you answer yes to any question you need a physician's approval before you can dive, so read it before you travel and see your doctor at home, not on holiday.

All student divers complete a short scuba medical questionnaire before training. The current form is the Diver Medical Participant Questionnaire, developed by diving and hyperbaric medicine experts together with the UHMS and Divers Alert Network.

It has ten yes/no questions. If you answer "yes" to any of them, you need a physician's approval before you can dive, using the Diver Medical Physician's Evaluation Form. That's much easier to arrange with your own doctor at home than on holiday, so download the form from PADI and check it before you book flights.

For Divemaster, PADI requires a physician's medical clearance within the last 12 months regardless of your answers.

Answer honestly: the questions exist because some conditions really do change the risks underwater, and the instructor cannot start in-water training without a valid form. If you're unsure about a question, ask your doctor rather than guessing — a signed approval brought from home means your first course day starts in the water, not in a clinic waiting room. The same form applies to children on the Junior Open Water course, so parents should check it too.