Swimming With Dolphins in Sharm El Sheikh

Sharm el Sheikh is combination of sun and warm, Red Sea waters make it a major beach destination in the Middle East, and it is especially popular with Europeans. That access to the Red Sea also makes it a major magnet for scuba divers, and part of the reason is the Red Sea’s dolphin population. Sharm El Sheikh is roughly 300 miles southeast of Cairo.

Sharm El Sheikh provides two ways to swim with dolphins. One is at the dolphinarium of Sharm El Sheikh, which offers a tank-based, controlled swim-with-dolphins program. The other is to encounter wild dolphins in the open ocean while snorkeling or diving.

Dolphina is Sharm El Sheikh’s sole dolphinarium. It used to be called Dolphinella, and is still referred to by that name in some travel publications, which is a potential source of confusion. The swim-with-dolphins program has eight 30-minute sessions per day, with two people permitted in the tank per dolphin. Sessions take place at standing depth under the supervision of the dolphin trainers, and participants are allowed to touch the dolphins. Sometimes tricks such as a patron holding on to the dorsal fins and being towed by a pair of dolphins are performed.

Dolphins are a relatively common sight in the Red Sea around Sharm El Sheikh, so it is possible that a scuba diver or snorkeler might randomly encounter them during an outing. You can take a boat trip to areas around Sharm El Sheikh that dolphins are known to frequent. This offers you the opportunity to have a close encounter with dolphins in the wild, although there are no guarantees.

As a general rule, dolphins find the bubbles from scuba gear annoying, so snorkeling has some advantages over scuba diving when it comes to swimming with dolphins in the wild.