SeaLogEgypt · reef · beginner
The hotel house-reef entry at the Royal Azur end of Makadi Bay: sandy walk-in, a short swim, then a fringing wall to about 15 m.
This is the house-reef entry in front of the resort formerly branded Royal Azur and now trading as Labranda Royal Makadi, on the Makadi Bay shoreline about 30 minutes south of Hurghada. Scuba World Divers, whose Makadi base sits within walking distance of the resort, describes the dive as a sandy entry from the beach into shallow water, a short swim out, and then a fringing reef wall that slopes gently into the blue, with a maximum depth of 15 m. A second Makadi centre, Extra Fun Divers, lists Royal Azur independently at the same 15 m and grades it for beginners, reaching it in about ten minutes by boat from its own base to the north-west. It is one of a run of hotel entries onto the same fringing reef: Grand Coral is 800 m up the beach, the Grand Makadi house reef 1 km, Fort Arabesque 1.1 km and the entry our catalogue calls Makadi house reef 1.4 km. Each is a stretch of shoreline with a hotel and a dive centre behind it rather than a distinct reef.
The operator's own description names moray eels in their dens, pufferfish and numerous lionfish, and a reasonable chance of turtles at a spot it calls the turtle house. The occurrence records around this pin are the densest of any site we hold in Makadi Bay and are led by the ordinary residents of a healthy Red Sea fringing reef: ringed and purple tangs, rusty and dusky parrotfish, Rueppell's and broomtail wrasse, Red Sea surgeonfish, blue-spotted ribbontail rays on the sand, threadfin and bluecheek butterflyfish, Picasso triggerfish, sea goldies over the coral and banded pipefish in the shallows.
One warning about the numbers. The operator's page tags this site "Advanced" while the same page recommends it for Discover Scuba Diving, open-water course dives and refreshers, and describes a beach entry to a 15 m maximum. Those two things cannot both be true, and a second Makadi centre lists the site as beginner at 15 m, so we have followed the description and the second operator and flagged the label rather than average them. No source we read publishes a visibility figure, a current rating or a dated assessment of the reef's condition here, so those fields are blank.
Walk-in from the resort beach. Scuba World Divers runs the Makadi base that covers this stretch — by the water at the Labranda complex, within walking distance of three resorts including Labranda Royal Makadi, with a pontoon and jetty, free nitrox for certified divers, and reception open seven days, 08:00 to 18:00 in summer and 08:00 to 17:00 in winter. Air, weights and beach access all come through the centre.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
No source we read states whether divers who are not staying at the resort may use this beach. The dive centre serving it also runs free transfers from hotels across Makadi Bay, which implies outside divers are taken, but beach access at a private resort is the resort's call and should be confirmed with the centre before you plan around it.
No source we read gives a season for this entry, and a sheltered shore dive on a hotel beach is largely weather-independent, so we have left the months blank instead of repeating a generic Red Sea season.
A sheltered bay shoreline: sand underfoot, calm shallows and a reef edge a short swim out. Nothing we read reports a visibility figure or a current rating for this specific entry, so both are blank rather than guessed.
On current: No source we read gives a current rating for this entry. One operator page tags the site "Advanced" while simultaneously recommending it for Discover Scuba Diving, open-water training and refresher dives over a sandy beach entry to 15 m; a second Makadi operator lists Royal Azur independently as beginner, 15 m. We have followed the two figures that agree and treated the "Advanced" tag as a data-entry inconsistency rather than a warning about conditions. Confirm the current with the dive centre on the day, because nothing published covers it.
The operator that dives it gives a maximum of 15 m. The profile is a sandy shallow entry, a short swim out, and then a fringing reef wall that slopes gently away. Regaldive's description of Makadi Bay's main house reef puts it at a similar depth before continuing to 30 m, but that is a different entry 1.4 km along the shore.
Yes. You gear up at the dive centre and walk in from the resort beach into calm shallow water, with no boat or transfer involved. The dive centre covering this stretch is by the water at the Labranda complex, within walking distance of three resorts including Labranda Royal Makadi, which is the resort the site is named after.
Nothing we could find states it either way. The dive centre serving this stretch runs free transfers from hotels across Makadi Bay, which suggests outside divers are taken, but the entry crosses a private resort beach and that access is the resort's decision. Confirm it with the centre before you build a day around it.
Yes. One operator recommends the site for Discover Scuba Diving, open-water course dives and refreshers and describes a sandy beach entry to a 15 m maximum, and a second Makadi centre lists it independently as a beginner site at 15 m. The first page also carries an "Advanced" tag that nothing in its own description supports, so we have followed the two descriptions that agree and flagged the label.
Yes, and the operator points to that as the site's main argument: the entry is sandy and shallow and the reef edge is a short swim out, so snorkellers and divers can use the same water. Be aware the wall drops away past the shallows, so keep track of where the bottom goes if you are on the surface.
Ordinary Red Sea fringing-reef life, which here is dense. The operator names moray eels in their dens, pufferfish, numerous lionfish and turtles at a spot it calls the turtle house. Occurrence records around this pin add ringed and purple tangs, rusty and dusky parrotfish, Rueppell's and broomtail wrasse, Red Sea surgeonfish, blue-spotted ribbontail rays on the sand, bluecheek and threadfin butterflyfish, Picasso triggerfish and banded pipefish.
Mostly by which hotel is behind it. Grand Coral is 800 m up the beach, the Grand Makadi house reef 1 km, Fort Arabesque 1.1 km and the entry we list as Makadi house reef 1.4 km, and they are all entry points onto the same fringing reef running along the bay. Pick the one you can walk to rather than expecting a different dive.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Zebrasoma desjardinii | occasional | 43 |
| Scarus ferrugineus | occasional | 42 |
| Thalassoma rueppellii | occasional | 41 |
| Cheilinus lunulatus | occasional | 35 |
| Acanthurus sohal | occasional | 35 |
| Taeniura lymma | occasional | 34 |
| Scarus niger | occasional | 34 |
| Arothron diadematus | occasional | 33 |
| Chaetodon auriga | occasional | 33 |
| Chlorurus sordidus | occasional | 33 |
| Naso unicornis | occasional | 32 |
| Pygoplites diacanthus | occasional | 31 |
| Chaetodon fasciatus | occasional | 29 |
| Rhinecanthus assasi | occasional | 29 |
| Amphiprion bicinctus | occasional | 29 |
| Arothron hispidus | occasional | 27 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | occasional | 27 |
| Ctenochaetus striatus | occasional | 27 |
| Fistularia commersonii | occasional | 25 |
| Chaetodon semilarvatus | occasional | 24 |
| Heniochus intermedius | occasional | 23 |
| Acanthurus nigrofuscus | occasional | 22 |
| Mulloidichthys flavolineatus | occasional | 22 |
| Lethrinus nebulosus | occasional | 22 |
| Chaetodon paucifasciatus | occasional | 22 |
| Tridacna maxima | occasional | 21 |
| Epibulus insidiator | occasional | 21 |
| Pseudanthias squamipinnis | occasional | 21 |
| Amblyglyphidodon indicus | occasional | 20 |
| Pterois miles | occasional | 19 |
| Dascyllus abudafur | occasional | 19 |
| Chaetodon austriacus | occasional | 19 |
| Cheilinus abudjubbe | occasional | 19 |
| Ostracion cubicum | occasional | 19 |
| Parupeneus forsskali | occasional | 19 |
| Parapercis hexophtalma | occasional | 18 |
| Cheilinus quinquecinctus | occasional | 18 |
| Abudefduf sexfasciatus | occasional | 18 |
| Pomacentrus sulfureus | occasional | 18 |
| Scarus fuscopurpureus | occasional | 17 |
| Zebrasoma xanthurum | occasional | 17 |
| Chlorurus gibbus | occasional | 16 |
| Naso elegans | occasional | 16 |
| Hemigymnus melapterus | occasional | 15 |
| Abudefduf vaigiensis | occasional | 15 |
| Corythoichthys flavofasciatus | occasional | 15 |
| Hemigymnus sexfasciatus | occasional | 15 |
| Siganus luridus | occasional | 15 |
| Plectorhinchus gaterinus | occasional | 15 |
| Neoniphon sammara | occasional | 14 |
| Diodon hystrix | occasional | 14 |
| Balistapus undulatus | occasional | 14 |
| Coris aygula | occasional | 13 |
| Caesio striata | occasional | 13 |
| Gymnothorax javanicus | occasional | 13 |
| Octopus cyanea | occasional | 13 |
| Labroides dimidiatus | occasional | 12 |
| Canthigaster margaritata | occasional | 12 |
| Myripristis murdjan | occasional | 11 |
| Acanthopagrus bifasciatus | occasional | 11 |
A long jetty in Makadi Bay that drops you straight onto the reef edge at 5 to 6 m, then a gently sloping wall you follow north or south.
The northern end of the Makadi Bay fringing reef, entered off the resort jetty because the reef flat here is too shallow to wade across.
The house reef in front of the Fort Arabesque at the north end of Makadi Bay: walk-in over a 40 m sand flat, coral garden at 13-20 m, then a wall that keeps going to 80 m.
One named stretch of the mile-long fringing reef along Makadi Bay's north shore, on the Grand Makadi frontage, worked one-way toward Gota Abu Makadi.
The erg field on the south side of Abu Hashish: two big coral blocks with a scatter of smaller ones around them, worked down to about 30 m.
SeaLog imports your dives from your dive computer or Apple Watch, tracks every animal you see, and keeps your logbook safe forever.
Download SeaLog
