Marsa Nakari Village

Amazing place with an even great staff. // Place Is secluded from all the scams and noise from bigger cities. You quickly feel welcome and the pure contrast to the people you met at the airport. Has some very beautiful house reefs as well as curated exhibitions off-site where you can both go snorkeling and diving. Great for experiencing the underwater life in your own tempo and pleasantry. The chalet we lived in was a very nice place to call home for our week-long stay and there was not far between dive shade, cafe area, restaurant and living areas // Staff Makes your experience feel very personalized. They remember you, will share laughs and language lingo and make sure that you have everything you need. This also goes for the diving instructors, who makes sure you feel safe, which ables you to explore and take in the beautiful coral reefs. Special shout-out to Ahmed, who tought us our PADI course in a fun and learning way and remained a patient and firm hand throughout the experience - also as a general diving instructor once we were finished with the course. Disclaimer - the place is very laid back and figures situations out as they come, with a day to day mindset. So if you need everything organized and pin-point planned, you might have a different experience

The camp: Small, cozy, clean and a familiar atmosphere. Very relaxed and so friendly and helpful staff. Accommodation: We stayed in a newly built superior tent just in front of the water. It was really beautiful and comfortable with our own bathroom. Waking up to the sunrise and sleeping to the sound of the ocean. I really recommend this accommodation if you like to stay in tent but appreciate your own bathroom. If you go in wintertime bring some warm clothes as it was a little bit cold during the nights. Diving area/shade: You get your own storage, don’t forget to bring a code locker with you. You get your hanger for wetsuits as well. Very convenient with the rental shop at the same place. Big areas for washing your gear and they change water often so it is always fresh. Clean and tidy. Here you also find changing rooms and showers, but not hot water. Restaurant: Love the chefs, always good food, fresh and tasty. It is a small buffet and you always find something to eat. Everything is well cooked. Would love some more selection of fresh fruits though, but otherwise everything was perfect. The cafeteria: A place to hang in between all the dives, cozy and comfortable. The only place where WiFi works so it is a natural meeting point. Transportation: We got picked up at the airport and got our Visa and then met up the driver who took us from Hurgharda to Marsa Nakari. Long transfer about 4 our as we don’t have flights to Marsa Alam. Diving: We rented our equipment and it was of high quality and if we had any problem it was no problem to change. We had a 5-days house reef package and started our first day with 2 guided dives and help with weighting. The reef was beautiful, however it was not as colourful and vibrant as in their other camp Marsa Shagra that we stayed at in July. Anyway we found a big turtle, octopus, baby reef sharks, anemones, guitarfishes, a lot of blue spotted stingrays, giant trigger fishes, a napoleon wrasse and much more. We liked the south side best. We did a few excursions that were well organized with great guides and great diving. We did 17 dives and had done more if it was another season, was quite cold in the late afternoon. For you guys that can’t decide between Marsa Nakari and Marsa Shagra here is some help :) Nakari is more cozy and a much smaller camp. It feels more tranquil. They have superior tents that are really lovely. It is silent and space for everyone. You get to know other guests and it was really relaxing. Shagra is much bigger, but still has the familiar vibe. More amenities such as pizza, ice cream, souvernirshop and a beduincafe. Diving was in my opinion much better and also close to Elphinstone.

We've been to this resort several times and love it! The snorkelling experience is super every time, although encountering an eagle ray a couple of metres away and then spotting a giant grouper, both on the house reef, was exceptional. We could spot these in other places, plus all the usual fish suspects - the reef is abundant - but the reason we go back to Nakari is that the staff are so friendly and helpful. From the senior managers to the diving instructors, to the very funny reception guy and the two polite young waiters in the dining area, the staff make our holiday an extremely enjoyable one.

Holy moly, it was such a good experience, first of all the people working here were very nice and helpful. The diving experience was amazing and the equipment just as good. The food was so great, I have not eaten that much food in a long time. Over all a really fun and joyful experience.

We stayed a week in each of the 3 eco villages: Shagra, Nakari and Lahami. In each place the staff were helpful and friendly, but Nakari gave us the best experience. There was a warmth and camaraderie about the place that made the whole experience incredibly enjoyable. Dive staff - we are snorkellers, and all dive staff did their best to accommodate us on excursions and chatted to us about our experiences. (You can sometimes be treated as secondary to divers in some resorts.) It was casual but effective. All were great but Monty, Mustapha and Mahmoud made a big difference. And we felt safe and confident with Mahmoud, one of the boat captains. He efficiently battled high waves and spotted and steered around the dolphins. Katy was great to talk to, knowledgeable and helpful in identifying fish. Other staff - Ahmet the accommodation manager was informative and helpful (no point in saying 'friendly' as they all were), the guy in Reception so cheerful and interesting, doing his best with the crazy wifi slips of paper, the cafe guy and waiters and the chefs were all brilliant - I know I am gushing, but their positive attitude made such an impact on us. Snorkelling - the house reef is less interesting than Shagra and I think the coral is less colourful than five years ago, but the bay is still full of great creatures, especially the South side. We saw shoals of juvenile barracuda, a lot of porcupine fish (larger ones outside the bay), trevallies chasing striped mackerel, several blue spotted sting rays, a white tipped reef shark and a beautiful group of scrawled filefish - plus all the other usual suspects. Accommodation - we stayed in a chalet, which was fine. Great shower, room cleaned properly every day, kettle with coffee and tea, functioning a/c. Food - a highlight. Usually a selection of beef, chicken and fish plus pasta, a range of salads and vegetables, different types of bread and incredible puddings. Fruit, rice, eggs and beans for breakfast. The best night was a barbecue with chicken and kofta. All the grilled fish was good. And thank you for the football! (NB there is construction happening at the top end of the site that looks as if it will be there for a while. It was occasionally intrusive but did not detract from our holiday.)

Unfortunately our Trip to Marsa Nakari Village was not the best experience. The Staff was nice, the accommodation was OK and the food was good. Some other things where quite annoying: For example the many construction sites or the lack of adequate English of the staff, who often know only the most common English phrases and can’t help with problems. The Diving Equipment seemed worn in many cases: for example I could not get a diving jacked without holes in their pockets (I tried three!), so I always feared to loose my two additional lead weights. Another thing is the advertising of “eco diving”, “environmental activism” and “sustainable tourism”, which may be true to a certain point compared to other companies of the region. But when you here the sound of the giant diesel generators for producing energy, see the amount of water that is used to water all the ornamental plants and observe the ongoing structural growth of the villages with their increasing buildings, you cannot deny that this is the opposite of “sustainable”. The environmental Impact of RSDS is not contemporary for the 21.th century any more and you should do better. But the main point of a trip like this is the house-reef-diving and here Nakari has a major problem: The house reef is not healthy. More than 60% of the corals are dying or already dead, there is heavy sedimentation, brown algae and cyano bacteria everywhere. Because of the ecological problems many of the fishes and other non-sessile animals are gone and the reef seems barren and empty. Questioned about this the staff told me that there has ben a catastrophic flood some months before, which explains at least the sedimentation and the very bad sight. Of course I cannot blame Nakari for such an event caused by nature. But what I CAN blame is the lack of honest communication: Everybody there knows about the bad condition of the house reef… expect the clueless diving tourists when they arrive. We where forced to book tours every day and we compensated our frustration by making day tours to Marsa Shagra. The house reef of Shagra is healthy, beautiful and exactly what you want, if you are searching for convenient shore-to-shore diving in healthy nature. Of course these tours raised our costs and what I find especially frustrating is, that Marsa Shagra village belongs to the same company, so one would think, they can make better arrangements. In my opinion Red Sea Diving Safari should have been more honest in communication. They should have hinted to the bad condition of their house reef beforehand and should have offered some kind of compensation: For example free trips to better diving locations, which are sometimes only minutes away. Or they honestly should have recommended Marsa Shagra or Wadi Lahami which, as I said, belong to the same company.