Diving Aqaba: Jordan’s Red Sea coast, the wrecks and when to go

Last updated: 6 August 2026 · written by the team who dive these sites

Two questions decide it: whether a very small dive area is enough for the week you have booked, and whether the person travelling with you would rather see Petra than sit on a boat.

How much coast are we actually talking about

The Gulf of Aqaba is about 160 km long, no more than 24 km wide and 1,850 m deep. Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia share the shoreline, and Jordan’s slice is the 27 km at the closed northern head. The Aqaba Marine Reserve, set up in 1997, protects 7 km of it and reaches about 350 m offshore.

The sites run along the coast road heading south towards the Saudi border. Power Station, the northernmost of the reefs, is about 5 km from the centre; the last reefs are around 21 km out, past the Royal Diving Club at 17 km. Twenty-odd named sites sit in that gap, and your longest transfer of the week is roughly 25 minutes in a minibus.

Because the gulf is narrow and drops away fast, the reef starts at the beach. Almost everything is a shore entry: walk in, swim out thirty or forty metres, and the sand tips over into a slope. Boats reach the same sites, so it is a question of taste rather than access — though some dive centres in Aqaba work mostly off the beach and some off a jetty, so ask before you book.

The Cedar Pride, and why it still earns its billing

Built at Gijón in Spain in 1964 and latterly Lebanese-owned, she was written off by a fire that broke out at anchor in Aqaba on 2 August 1982 and, after three years as an unclaimed hulk, was towed out and sunk deliberately on 16 November 1985 to give Jordan a wreck. She is 74 m long and lies on her port side across two reefs, bow north, the shallow rail at roughly 10 m and the sand at 25 to 27 m.

Four decades of growth is what separates her from everything else here. The masts and rigging lie sideways off the hull, furred with coral and sponge, the holds are open and lit, and an unhurried diver takes in the whole ship in one dive without leaving no-stop limits. She is close enough in to be done from the beach, which few 74-metre wrecks allow.

The aircraft and the tanks on the sand

Jordan has no natural wrecks to speak of, so it has put things on the seabed on purpose since 1985. That is policy rather than accident, and it explains the shape of the diving.

The C-130 Hercules went down on 16 November 2017, thirty-two years to the day after the Cedar Pride. Thirty metres long with a 40-metre span, it sits more or less level in 12 to 17 m, about 300 m off the beach. It has stayed in one piece: wings, fuselage, cockpit and cargo bay are all still there to swim through, which is why so many wreck courses are run on it. An M42 Duster anti-aircraft vehicle, sunk in 1999 in 5 to 7 m, lies nearby and finishes the dive.

The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar went in on 26 August 2019 off the old phosphate port, which makes it the northernmost of the big metal and the one closest to town. Roughly 50 m long with a matching 50-metre span, it sits upright on sand across about 15 to 28 m. Boat dive, Advanced qualification, and the operators here hold that line.

The Underwater Military Museum, also 2019, is the odd one. Around twenty decommissioned army vehicles sit in battle formation down a sand slope: Willys jeeps in the shallows, then Ferret scout cars, Scorpion light tanks, a Spartan carrier, Chieftain battle tanks, a Samaritan armoured ambulance, a 155 mm field gun and, at the deep end, a pair of Bell AH-1F Cobra gunships. The jeeps sit in 5 to 7 m and the helicopters in 25 to 28 m. It photographs extremely well, and it is still, structurally, a car park on sand. Whether that is diving or sculpture is a matter of taste, and worth settling before you book a week here.

Two more lie below recreational depth — the Taiyong crane barge and the Al Shorouk, a landing craft put down in 2008 whose bow is at 38 m — and neither belongs on a first trip.

What the reef itself is like

Under the metal there is a real fringing reef, in better condition than you would expect of water used this heavily. The reserve holds around 157 species of hard coral and over 500 of fish, on heads and pinnacles set on a sloping shelf: cabbage corals shallow, gorgonians on the drop-offs, black coral deeper. Japanese Gardens, Seven Sisters and New Canyon are the names people come home talking about.

What you will see: green and hawksbill turtles, Napoleon wrasse, big morays, lionfish, groupers, snappers, octopus, eagle rays now and then. What you will not see: sharks in any number, or the schooling pelagics that make an Egyptian offshore wall feel busy. A closed gulf head gets no through-traffic and no amount of enthusiasm changes that. Whale sharks are reported occasionally; treat that as luck, not a reason to book.

Visibility is reliably above 20 m and often 25 to 30, current is slight at most sites and absent at many, and that is the other half of why this coast suits nervous or rusty divers.

When to go, and what the water does

The water never gets properly cold. February and March are the low point at around 20 to 21 °C and April is barely warmer; it is 25 to 26 °C by June, 27 to 28 °C through July, peaks at 28 to 29 °C in August and September, then eases back to about 23 °C in December. Those are typical figures, not promises. A 5 mm full suit works all year, with a hood from December to April if you are doing three dives a day. From July to September a 3 mm is plenty.

The variable that matters is air temperature, not water. Aqaba in July and August runs at 38 to 40 °C, and a surface interval on a beach in that is unpleasant even though the sea is at its calmest. December and January are around 20 °C on land: good for walking, brisk between dives. We prefer late September to November, or March to May.

The prevailing wind funnels down the gulf from the north and builds through the afternoon. Because the sites lie close inshore and every one is a short drive rather than an hour offshore, wind costs you comfort rather than dives. Losing a day to weather is uncommon, which is the quiet reason a week diving in Aqaba tends to return the dive count you thought you were buying.

How it differs from Sharm, 190 km down the same gulf

Sharm el Sheikh sits at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, where the Strait of Tiran squeezes the whole gulf’s water through the gap between the Sinai and Tiran Island. That squeeze is the whole story: it drives current, current brings food, food brings size. It is why diving from Sharm el Sheikh gives you Ras Mohammed, the Tiran reefs and a fair chance of something large going past — and why Sharm carries a daily UK charter programme that Aqaba, with a couple of departures a week, cannot match for choice of dates.

Aqaba is the cul-de-sac at the other end, roughly 190 km up the gulf from Sharm. Nothing pushes through it. What you get instead is a set of deliberately sunk objects no natural coastline would hand you, and winter mornings when you dive while Sharm’s day boats stay in. A different sort of week rather than a weaker one, and it is worth reading how the Egyptian Red Sea bases compare before you commit either way.

What it costs you in travel time

Aqaba is easier to reach than its reputation suggests. easyJet flies non-stop from London Gatwick to King Hussein International at Aqaba in about five and a half hours — but on two days of the week rather than daily, Tuesdays and Saturdays as we write. That thin schedule is less a problem than a shape: Saturday to Saturday is seven nights, Saturday to Tuesday is ten, and those are the lengths we would have argued for anyway. Airline timetables move, so let us check the day pattern against your dates before you fix anything else.

If the direct service does not suit, route through Amman. London Heathrow to Queen Alia is five and a half to six hours non-stop with British Airways or Royal Jordanian. From there you either take the one-hour domestic hop down to Aqaba, which Royal Jordanian runs daily, or drive 330 km down the Desert Highway in three and a half to four hours. Aqaba’s airport is ten to fifteen minutes from town, so the last leg is short either way.

Buy a Jordan Pass online before you fly: it bundles the tourist visa waiver with entry to Petra and more than forty other sites. Two conditions catch people out — it has to be bought before you arrive in Jordan, and the visa waiver only holds if you stay at least two nights in the country, which any dive week does comfortably. There is a recompression chamber in Aqaba town; confirm what is in service with your centre when you book.

Petra, Wadi Rum, and the altitude problem nobody mentions

This is the real reason many people choose Jordan over Egypt. Petra is about 125 km from Aqaba, a little over two hours by road; Wadi Rum is about 70 km, roughly an hour. Both work as day trips, and a non-diving partner has more to do here in a week than on almost any dive coast we sell.

There is a catch dive centres do not always raise. Wadi Musa, the town at Petra’s gate, sits at about 1,100 m above sea level, Wadi Rum at roughly 950 m. DAN’s guidance for going to altitude between about 610 and 2,440 m matches its flying advice: twelve hours after a single no-stop dive, eighteen after repetitive diving. Petra is therefore not a morning-after-your-last-dive trip. Put it at the front or back of the holiday, or give it a clean non-diving day.

Where you sleep changes the shape of the week. The Mövenpick Resort Tala Bay is 14 km south of town with a dive centre on site and a 160-metre beach, which puts it in the middle of the southern run of sites. The Kempinski Hotel Aqaba is in town, which suits people who want restaurants and a marina over a resort compound and will accept a longer drive to the reef.

The Marina Plaza Hotel, in the Tala Bay marina with a shuttle running into Aqaba, is the value option in the same southern cluster and undercuts the other two on a week. We book all three for diving holidays in Aqaba; which is right depends almost entirely on who else is on the booking.

Who this isn’t for

If you want big animals, this is the wrong end of the Red Sea. No reliable sharks, no manta season, no hammerhead schools, no thresher cleaning stations. Divers who came home from an Egyptian offshore trip wanting more of that should look at the southern Egyptian ports and the reefs beyond them: Egypt’s Red Sea coast covers far more water and has the boats to reach it.

If you have a fortnight and intend to dive all of it, you will run out of coast. Twenty-odd sites sounds like plenty until you notice that ten or twelve are the ones you genuinely want to repeat, and by the ninth day it starts to feel like laps of a pool. A fortnight works if you are shooting, stacking courses, or spending half of it on Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. It does not work as fourteen days of two-tank mornings. Seven to ten nights is the honest length for this stretch of coast, and it happens to be exactly what the flight days give you.

And if what you want is a beach holiday with some diving attached — long sandy shallows, a busy strip, noisy evenings — Aqaba will feel quiet. It is a working port rather than a resort town, and the hotel beaches are small and largely man-made. Not a complaint, simply a different product from the Egyptian resort coast.

Who it does suit: divers with a modest logbook who value warm, calm water and easy entries over drama; wreck and camera divers who want four substantial artificial reefs within twenty minutes of one another; and above all anyone travelling with a partner who would rather walk into Petra than get on a boat. On that last count nothing else on the Red Sea comes close, and seven to ten nights does both halves of the trip properly rather than compromising on either.

Frequently asked questions

Is diving in Aqaba worth it if I have already dived Sharm el Sheikh?

It is a different product rather than a lesser one. Sharm gives you current, size, offshore reefs and liveaboards. Aqaba gives you four large artificial reefs inside a 15 km strip, shore entries, water that rarely stops you diving, a direct easyJet flight from Gatwick, and Petra two hours up the road. If you want more of what Sharm gave you, go south in Egypt instead. If you want easy diving plus a genuine land holiday, Jordan does that better.

How many days of diving do you need in Aqaba?

Seven to ten nights is the honest answer, and the Gatwick flight days fall that way anyway. Twenty-odd named sites sounds like a lot, but ten or twelve carry the week. Five or six diving days covers the Cedar Pride, the C-130, the underwater military museum, the TriStar and the better reefs, with room to repeat the ones you liked. A fortnight of nothing but diving starts to feel repetitive unless you are taking photographs or stacking courses.

Can you dive Aqaba in winter?

Yes, and it is one of the better winter options in the region. The water sits at roughly 20 to 23 degrees from December to April, which is as cold as it gets, and land temperatures in December and January are around 20 degrees. A 5 mm full suit with a hood is sensible. Visibility holds up, the sites are quieter, and weather cancellations are rare because everything is a short drive and a shore entry.

How long after diving can I visit Petra?

Wadi Musa, at Petra’s gate, sits at about 1,100 metres, comfortably above the 610-metre point where altitude guidance starts to apply. DAN advises twelve hours after a single no-stop dive and eighteen hours after repetitive dives or several days of diving before ascending to that sort of height. In practice, put Petra at the start or the end of your trip, or give it a clean non-diving day.

Are there sharks in Aqaba?

Not in any numbers, and you should not book on the strength of them. The head of the Gulf of Aqaba is a closed end with no through-current, so the pelagic traffic that reaches Sharm and the Egyptian offshore reefs does not arrive here. You may find a reef shark asleep under a coral head, and whale sharks turn up occasionally. Plan the trip around the wrecks, the reef and the turtles.