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>Liveaboards>Red Sea>Thunderbird

Other Red Sea options

Thunderbird

From USD 139 per day

Length

31m
102 ft

Max 16

Nitrox

Wi-Fi

LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEE

At a glance...

Southern Red Sea liveaboard cruises
ENOS lost diver tracking
Max. capacity of just 16
Special kids cruises
Rebreather friendly
All cabins with private bathrooms

Click on an image to enlarge

An oceanic whitetip shark in the Red Sea

Another view of the Thunderbird liveaboard in Egypt

Page contents:
Departure & Prices
Trip Details
Itineraries
Cabins

Thunderbird is a 31m long wooden hull motor yacht. With a maximum of just 16 guests onboard, it is an ideal choice for clubs and groups searching for a Red Sea liveaboard diving safari with a family atmosphere. Furthermore, Thunderbird regularly schedules special cruises for kids, so it is also a great option for families.

The liveaboard operator has gained many years of experience with safari dive boats and the knowledge acquired has been consistently implemented in every detail to offer guests the maximum in comfort and relaxation. Thunderbird was built in 2001 but underwent a major renovation in 2016.

Each spacious cabin has a private bathroom and individually controlled air-conditioning. 7 of the cabins have twin side-by-side beds and 1 cabin has a queen size double bed. For the kids safaris, Thunderbird can accommodate a maximum of 18 guests, as an extra bed can be added in 2 of the cabins.

The onboard chef is hotel-experienced and serves up culinary delights of Egyptian and European origin. Guests often comment that they are spoiled by the high standards of cuisine. The boat crew is also highly experienced and the dive guides are always onhand to help and advise scuba divers with all their needs.

Public areas onboard include an indoor saloon where meals are served, and also with a seated lounge area with TV, DVD, internet and Bluetooth box. There are also 3 partially shaded sun decks where guests can make the most of the Red Sea's glorious sunshine

The dive deck includes a charging station for scuba divers to recharge their underwater camera and torch batteries, a nitrox membrane system that delivers free fills for enriched air-certified divers, ENOS lost diver tracking system, extra large 15 litre tanks for those that consume a lot of air, and 2 Zodiacs for easy access to the sites.

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Scheduled departures, prices, destinations, durations...

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More Trip Details...

Notes: Kids safaris: child 12-16 years old: US$ 711 (sharing parents' cabin or kids' cabin), 1st. child 6-11 years old: free of charge (sharing parents' cabin), 2nd child 6-11 years US$ 500 (sharing parents' cabin or kids' cabin), parents: standard price. Port and park fees US$ 132. The capacity of Thunderbird is 18 on these safaris because 2 of the cabins can be adapted to accommodate an extra bunk bed for a child. Minimum age: 6 years old. All participants must be able to swim. Try dives are available to children 8 years and older.
Family safaris: child 12-16 years old: 25% discount (sharing parents' cabin or kids' cabin, parents: standard price. Port and park fees US$ 200 per week. Minimum age: 12 years old. Try dives are not available.

Dive experience: To dive at Brothers, Daedalus Reef, Zabargad and Rocky islands, you must be a certified diver and have a minimum of 50 logged dives, elsewhere: a minumum of 30 logged dives.

Cruise price per person includes: Cabin accommodation with air-conditioning, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, soft drinks, drinking water, hot drinks (e.g. coffee, tea), return transfers from local airport for Hurghada departures, dives (as detailed in the trips above), nitrox fills for enriched air certified divers, ENOS diver location safety system, 2 experienced English-speaking divemasters (3 on Kids' Cruises), tanks, weightbelt, weights, all taxes.

Cruise price per person excludes (mandatory, unless customer provides own): Scuba equipment (per week - Regulators/BCD/dive computer US$ 51 per piece, wetsuit US$ 51), SMB, diving insurance, port and park fees: Safaga & Hurghada/Fury Shoals & Elphinstone US$ 200, St. John's US$ 221, Red Sea Northern Wrecks & Brothers US$ 221, Red Sea South US$ 253. Unless otherwise stated, all the listed items need to be paid on arrival (cash - EUR, USD, EGP - or credit card).

Optional extras: Alcoholic drinks (beer and wine), torch (US$ 6 per week), 15 litre tank (US$ 38 per week), return transfers from local airport for Port Ghalib departures (see below), hotel day room/pool use. Unless otherwise stated, all the listed items need to be paid on arrival. Note: prices of items purchased onboard are subject to change.

How to get there: Thunderbird liveaboard diving safaris depart from either Hurghada or Port Ghalib. A tour representative will be waiting for you in the Hurghada or Marsa Alam arrivals hall. For more details, including airlines, see our Red Sea travel information section. Check in time starts at 3 pm on the first day (boat departs port the next morning). Please bring 2 copies of your passport.
Hurghada departures - collective return transfers from Hurghada Airport to the marina (approx. 20 mins) are provided free of charge.
Port Ghalib departures - collective transfers from Marsa Alam Airport to the port (approx. 10 mins) are provided at a cost of US$ 11 per person per way. Collective transfers from Hurghada Airport to the port (approx. 3 hours) are provided at a cost of US$ 26 per person per way.
The last dive of the trip will be finished by noon on the second last day of the trip. Check out is at 10 am on the final day (last night is spent in the harbour). Please wait at least 18 hours before flying after diving.

Non-diver rate: 10%.

Single supplement (if you do not want to share accommodation): This is optional - single travellers may choose to pay the regular price and share a cabin, or pay a supplement of 50% of the published price for the own private cabin.

Dive clubs and group discounts: Pay for 6 guests and 1 additional person can join the cruise free of charge.

Whole boat charter rate (per night): Ask us for details.

Add-on package: If you have time, we strongly recommend that you consider some of the wonderful antiquities tours in Egypt which can add a whole new dimension to your Red Sea diving trip.
Cairo museum's royal mummies, the pyramids of Giza, the Great Sphinx, a glorious cruise down the Nile staying in a luxury cabin, The Valley of the Kings, all of these and more can be seen in packages starting at 6 nights' duration. Other activities such as 4x4 safaris and camel tours are also available as are custom-made packages to suit your needs.

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Itineraries...

Fury Shoals & Elphinstone (8 Days / 7 Nights - 20 Dives)

Trip highlights: hammerhead sharks, shark action, dolphins, manta rays, dugongs/manatees, turtles, schooling fish & big pelagics

Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, cage diving, caverns, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, very popular, wall diving, wreck diving

Dive sites and activities: Abu Dabbab, Marsa Shoona, Fury Shoals: Shaab Claudio, Shaab Maksour, Sataya South (Dolphin Reef), Shaab Sharm

Day 1
You will be met at Marsa Alam Airport at the arrivals hall by a representative of the Thunderbird liveaboard and transferred in a collective minibus to Port Ghalib for boarding during the afternoon. The crew will greet you on board, show you to your cabin and allow you time to unpack and prepare your dive gear in the basket that will be allocated to you. Dinner will be served inside the saloon and this will be a great opportunity to get to know the other guests on this cruise in the Red Sea. After dinner, the tour leader will provide a detailed boat safety and dive briefing for the next week. The yacht will leave port early morning for the first day of diving.

Days 2-7
The Fury Shoals is a vast reef system. Sha'ab Claudio is a classic dive with its famous swim-throughs and huge porites corals, Malahi with its mazes and friendly turtles, and Abu Galawa Soraya with its fantastic coral garden and a wreck of a private sailing boat smothered with glassfish. Sataya, with its resident spinner dolphin population, is a must for snorkelling between dives, as well as having some good underwater offerings. Safaga has some great dives too, offering a combination of shallow reef dives like Panorama Reef, and drop-offs, blue-spotted stingrays, schools of angel and butterfly fish.
4 dives a day are the norm in the Red Sea (but only 3 when in the marine parks), with a couple of morning dives followed by a 3rd dive in the afternoon, and either a sunset dive or night dive. There will only be 2 dives on the last day of diving as the boat will then sail back to port for the final evening. You can then take a look around the marina, go shopping, or go for a drink.
The breakfast is international with Arabic items such as falaffel, foul beans and white cheese. For the main meals guests can enjoy a mix of European and Egyptian dishes, supplemented by a soup and a dessert in the evening. In between meals there are always fruit and snacks. Tea, coffee, soft drinks and water are always available. There is also an open-air bar with a grill area on the sundeck, where you can enjoy a sundowner and socialise with fellow guests.

Day 8
Disembarkation starts after a final breakfast on the yacht. You can arrange with the crew to be transported back to the airport or to a local hotel.

Brothers, Daedalus & Elphinstone (8 Days / 7 Nights - 18 Dives)

Trip highlights: hammerhead sharks, shark action, manta rays, schooling fish & big pelagics

Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, cage diving, caverns, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, very popular, wall diving, wreck diving

Dive sites and activities: Big Brother, Little Brother, Daedalus, Elphinstone

Day 1
You will be met at Hurghada Airport at the arrivals hall by a representative of the Thunderbird liveaboard and transferred in a collective minibus to the marina for boarding at 3 pm. The crew will greet you on board, show you to your cabin and allow you time to unpack and prepare your dive gear in the basket that will be allocated to you. Dinner will be served inside the saloon and this will be a great opportunity to get to know the other guests on this cruise in the Red Sea. After dinner, the tour leader will provide a detailed boat safety and dive briefing for the next week. The yacht will leave port early morning for the first day of diving.

Days 2-7
The Brother Islands are 2 small exposed promontories in the middle of the sea, with a very high concentration of marine life. The walls feature sponges, anemones and hard and soft corals, giving an astonishing variety of colour to the underwater world. It's very common to see sharks at the dive sites around the islands. Scalloped hammerheads and grey reef sharks, silvertip and whitetip reef sharks. At Big Brother there is a wreck that can be dived when the conditions are right, especially if it's not too windy. It's the Numidia that lies between 5-8m, completely covered with hard and soft corals. and gorgonians. The reefs at Daedalus and Elphinstone are home to schools of surgeonfish, fusiliers, trevallies and colourful reef fish. Hammerheads, oceanic whitetips and thresher sharks can be seen here, as well as manta rays, usually during the summer months.
3 dives a day are the norm in the marine parks of the Red Sea, with a couple of morning dives followed by a 3rd dive in the afternoon. There will only be 2 dives on the last day of diving as the boat will then sail back to port for the final evening. You can then take a look around the marina, go shopping, or go for a drink.
The breakfast is international with Arabic items such as falaffel, foul beans and white cheese. For the main meals guests can enjoy a mix of European and Egyptian dishes, supplemented by a soup and a dessert in the evening. In between meals there are always fruit and snacks. Tea, coffee, soft drinks and water are always available. There is also an open-air bar with a grill area on the sundeck, where you can enjoy a sundowner and socialise with fellow guests.

Day 8
Disembarkation starts at around 10 am, after a final breakfast on the yacht. You can arrange with the crew to be transported back to the airport or to a local hotel.
Note: these cruises sometimes use Port Ghalib instead of Hurghada so please check the ports of departure and return. Transfers are always provided from Hurghada.

St. John's Reefs (8 Days / 7 Nights - 20 Dives)

Trip highlights: dolphins, manta rays, dugongs/manatees, turtles, schooling fish & big pelagics

Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, cage diving, caverns, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, very popular, wall diving, wreck diving

Dive sites and activities: Abu Dabbab, Fury Shoals: Shaab Claudio, Sataya; Shaab Sharm, St. John's: Gota Soraya, Habili Ali, Habili Soraya, Umm Aruk

Day 1
You will be met at Marsa Alam Airport at the arrivals hall by a representative of the Thunderbird liveaboard and transferred in a collective minibus to Port Ghalib for boarding. The crew will greet you on board, show you to your cabin and allow you time to unpack and prepare your dive gear in the basket that will be allocated to you. Dinner will be served inside the saloon and this will be a great opportunity to get to know the other guests on this cruise in the Red Sea. After dinner, the tour leader will provide a detailed boat safety and dive briefing for the next week. The yacht will leave port early morning for the first day of diving.

Days 2-7
In the deep south of Egypt you will have the chance to dive St. John’s Reefs and the Fury Shoals, the healthiest and most colourful in the Red Sea, with their fantastic drop offs, pinnacles, canyons, caves and tunnels, and amazing hard-corals. There is a lot of marine life too, such as barracuda, different types of reef shark, sometimes even turtles, Napoleon wrasse, dolphins, dugongs and mantas. Elphinstone has steep current-swept walls and exposed points, making it perfect for encounters with big marine life like oceanic whitetip sharks.
4 dives a day are the norm in the Red Sea, with a couple of morning dives followed by a 3rd dive in the afternoon, and either a sunset dive or night dive. There will only be 2 dives on the last day of diving as the boat will then sail back to port for the final evening. You can then take a look around the marina, go shopping, or go for a drink.
The breakfast is international with Arabic items such as falaffel, foul beans and white cheese. For the main meals guests can enjoy a mix of European and Egyptian dishes, supplemented by a soup and a dessert in the evening. In between meals there are always fruit and snacks. Tea, coffee, soft drinks and water are always available. There is also an open-air bar with a grill area on the sundeck, where you can enjoy a sundowner and socialise with fellow guests.

Day 8
Disembarkation starts after a final breakfast on the yacht. You can arrange with the crew to be transported back to the airport or to a local hotel.

Red Sea South & St. John's Reefs (8 Days / 7 Nights - 18 Dives)

Trip highlights: dolphins, dugongs/manatees, great macro life/ marine diversity

Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, cage diving, caverns, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, very popular, wall diving, wreck diving

Dive sites and activities: Rocky Island, Zabargad, St. Johns

Day 1
You will be met at Marsa Alam Airport at the arrivals hall by a representative of the Thunderbird liveaboard and transferred in a collective minibus to Port Ghalib for boarding at 3 pm. The crew will greet you on board, show you to your cabin and allow you time to unpack and prepare your dive gear in the basket that will be allocated to you. Dinner will be served inside the saloon and this will be a great opportunity to get to know the other guests on this cruise in the Red Sea. After dinner, the tour leader will provide a detailed boat safety and dive briefing for the next week. The yacht will leave port early morning for the first day of diving.

Days 2-7
In the deep south of Egypt you will have the chance to dive St. John’s Reefs and the Fury Shoals, the healthiest and most colourful in the Red Sea, with their fantastic drop offs, pinnacles, canyons, caves and tunnels, and amazing hard-corals. There is a lot of marine life too, such as barracuda, different types of reef shark, sometimes even turtles, Napoleon wrasse, dolphins, dugongs and mantas.
Zabargad Island is a popular diving region, distinguished by the variety of dive sites and a 70 metre-long wreck. Rocky Island is a site that can get the adrenaline going. When its currents are in full flow. Thanks to its exposed location and small circumference, it is a very lively reef. Silvertip sharks and grey reef sharks are often present in the blue and if you are in luck there may also be mantas and dolphins.
3 dives a day are the norm in the marine parks of the Red Sea (4 dives outside of the parks), with a couple of morning dives followed by a 3rd dive in the afternoon. There will only be 2 dives on the last day of diving as the boat will then sail back to port for the final evening. You can then take a look around the marina, go shopping, or go for a drink.
The breakfast is international with Arabic items such as falaffel, foul beans and white cheese. For the main meals guests can enjoy a mix of European and Egyptian dishes, supplemented by a soup and a dessert in the evening. In between meals there are always fruit and snacks. Tea, coffee, soft drinks and water are always available. There is also an open-air bar with a grill area on the sundeck, where you can enjoy a sundowner and socialise with fellow guests.

Day 8
Disembarkation starts at around 10 am, after a final breakfast on the yacht. You can arrange with the crew to be transported back to the airport or to a local hotel.

(8 Days / 7 Nights - Dives)

Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, cage diving, caverns, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, very popular, wall diving, wreck diving

Dive sites and activities: zz

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[Information is best estimate in ideal circumstances and subject to changes beyond our control. The itinerary is a guide only and may be adapted to best suit the weather, tides, currents, availability and other prevailing events. Price is for the cruise, not for an exact number of dives].

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Cabins, Berths, Showers, Bathrooms...

There are 8 lower deck guest cabins on Thunderbird - 7 with twin beds and 1 with a double queen-sized bed. All cabins have private en-suite bathrooms.

All the cabins have: