If you’ve never dived in the Red Sea and if you’re booked to go diving there you may be wondering; do you need a wetsuit to dive in the Red Sea.
You do need a wetsuit to dive in the Red Sea, especially when diving in deeper waters and if you dive from a Red Sea liveaboard. You may experience cooler thermoclines in the Red Sea and depending on the time of year you dive and the depth, you will probably need a 1-5mm wetsuit.
If you don’t feel the cold, and if you dive when it’s extremely hot in the summer months in the Red Sea when water temperatures are higher, you may not need a wetsuit to dive. But if you don’t use a wetsuit, I suggest you at least use a rash vest to stop the chaffing from your buoyancy control device.
Every time I’ve dive in the Red Sea I’ve always dived in a wetsuit. I used a wetsuit whether I dived off the coast from day boats and each time I dived from a Red Sea liveaboard.
Above I mention cooler thermoclines in the Red Sea, and I’m sorry I can’t remember where it was I dived and at what depth I was diving, but I certainly remember going through a colder band of water once, and I was glad for my wetsuit. But Red Sea thermoclines aside, I’ve always dived the Red Sea using a 3mm wetsuit.
The best way to dive anywhere in the world is by a scuba diving liveaboard. You can check the latest and best deals on liveaboards using the following window:
The best thickness wetsuit for the Red Sea is a 3mm wetsuit, but if you are a warm-blooded person you may be better off using a 1-2mm wetsuit. In the winter months between December and April, and possibly into May the waters cool down, and you may want to opt for a slightly thicker 4-5mm wetsuit instead.
Best wetsuit for red sea
I have included a few tables of areas in the Red Sea and the best wetsuit for the Red Sea in that area. The recommended thickness for a wetsuit in the Red Sea for each of these tables was taken from this wetsuit temperature guide scuba diving.
The following Red Sea wetsuit guide is for Sharm el-Sheikh:
Sharm el-Sheikh wetsuit guide
Month
Minimum Water Temperature
Maximum water Temperature
Wetsuit guide for diving Sharm el-Sheikh
January
21.9°C (72.8°F)
25.3°C (76.2°F)
3-5mm
February
22.0°C (72.2°F)
23.4°C (73.6°F)
3-5mm
March
22.1°C (72.4°F)
23.7°C (74.4°F)
3-5mm
April
22.5°C (73.2°F)
24.4°C (75.1°F)
3-5mm
May
23.5°C (75.4°F)
26.4°C (78.3°F)
3-4mm
June
25.4°C (78.8°F)
28.0°C (81.4°F)
2-4mm
July
27.0°C (82.0°F)
30.4°C (85.4°F)
1-2mm
August
28.1°C (83.5°F)
30.6°C (86.0°F)
1-2mm
September
27.1°C (81.7°F)
29.5°C (84.1°F)
1-2mm
October
26.35°C (80.8°F)
29.3°C (83.6°F)
1-2mm
November
23.6°C (76.4°F)
28.5°C (81.3°F)
2-3mm
December
22.9°C (74.7°F)
26.5°C (78.3°F)
3-4mm
This wetsuit temperature guide for Sharm el-Sheikh in the Red Sea is just a guide. The Red Sea temperatures were taken from https://www.seatemperature.org
The following Red Sea wetsuit guide is for Hurghada:
Hurghada wetsuit guide
Month
Minimum Water Temperature
Maximum water Temperature
Wetsuit guide for diving Hurghada
January
21.4°C (71.8°F)
24.7°C (75.1°F)
3-5mm
February
21.3°C (71.1°F)
23.2°C (73.0°F)
3-5mm
March
21.4°C (71.2°F)
23.3°C (73.1F)
3-5mm
April
22.0°C (72.3°F)
23.8°C (74.1°F)
3-5mm
May
23.1°C (74.6°F)
25.8°C (77.3°F)
3-5mm
June
25.0°C (77.9°F)
27.3°C (80.2°F)
2-4mm
July
26.5°C (81.0°F)
29.8°C (84.3°F)
2-3mm
August
27.5°C (82.4°F)
29.8°C (84.7°F)
1-2mm
September
26.6°C (80.7F)
28.7°C (82.8°F)
1-2mm
October
25.9°C (79.7°F)
28.5°C (82.3°F)
1-2mm
November
23.61C (75.4°F)
27.8°C (80.1°F)
2-3mm
December
22.4°C (73.8°F)
26.0°C (77.4°F)
3-5mm
This wetsuit temperature guide for Hurghada in the Red Sea is just a guide. The Red Sea temperatures were taken from https://www.seatemperature.org
The following Red Sea wetsuit guide is for Naama Bay:
Naama Bay wetsuit guide
Month
Minimum Water Temperature
Maximum water Temperature
Wetsuit guide for diving Naama Bay
January
21.9°C (70.42°F)
25.44°C (77.79°F)
3-5mm
February
21.46°C (70.63°F)
24.05°C (75.29°F)
3-5mm
March
21.2°C (70.16°F)
24.54°C (76.17F)
3-5mm
April
21.25°C (70.25°F)
26.59°C (79.86°F)
2-5mm
May
23.08°C (73.54°F)
28.08°C (82.54°F)
2-3mm
June
24.89°C (76.8°F)
29.62°C (85.32°F)
2-3mm
July
26.41°C (79.54°F)
30.58°C (87.04°F)
2-3mm
August
27.82°C (82.08°F)
31.59°C (88.86°F)
1-2mm
September
26.98°C (80.56F)
31.51°C (88.72°F)
1-2mm
October
26.36°C (79.45°F)
30.5°C (86.9°F)
2-3mm
November
23.98C (75.16°F)
30.0°C (86.0°F)
2-5mm
December
22.77°C (72.99°F)
27.74°C (81.93°F)
3-5mm
This wetsuit temperature guide for Naama Bay in the Red Sea is just a guide. The Red Sea temperatures were taken from https://seatemperatures.net/
The following Red Sea wetsuit guide is for popular Red Sea liveaboard dive site Elphinstone Reef:
Elphinstone Reef wetsuit guide
Month
Minimum Water Temperature
Maximum water Temperature
Wetsuit guide for diving Elphinstone Reef
January
21.45°C (70.61°F)
24.71°C (76.48°F)
3-5mm
February
21.54°C (70.77°F)
24.64°C (76.35°F)
3-5mm
March
21.0°C (69.8°F)
24.71°C (76.48F)
3-5mm
April
21.73°C (71.11°F)
26.38°C (79.48°F)
2-5mm
May
23.12°C (73.62°F)
28.16°C (82.69°F)
2-5mm
June
24.88°C (76.78°F)
29.78°C (85.6°F)
2-3mm
July
26.99°C (80.58°F)
30.66°C (87.19°F)
2-3mm
August
27.98°C (82.36°F)
31.52°C (88.74°F)
1-2mm
September
27.23°C (81.01F)
30.93°C (87.67°F)
1-2mm
October
25.5°C (77.9°F)
29.76°C (85.57°F)
2-3mm
November
24.19C (75.54°F)
28.68°C (83.62°F)
3-5mm
December
22.62°C (72.72°F)
27.06°C (80.71°F)
3-5mm
This wetsuit temperature guide for Elphinstone Reef in the Red Sea is just a guide. The Red Sea temperatures were taken from https://seatemperatures.net/
I hope you enjoyed this article about do I need a wetsuit to dive in Red Sea
I’d love to hear from you. Tell us about your adventures of diving and snorkeling, in the comments below. Please also share your photos. Either from your underwater cameras or videos from your waterproof go-pro’s!
If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkeling or scuba diving (or specifically about do I need a wetsuit to dive in Red Sea), please comment below with your questions.
There will also be many more articles about scuba and scuba diving safety tips (and on snorkeling too) for you to read and learn about this fabulous sport.
Have fun and be safe!
Do I Need A Wetsuit To Dive In Red Sea?
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been a scuba diver since diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1989. After his first dive he trained as a BSAC diver in the UK. He attained his Diver Leader certification with BSAC. He then went on to become a scuba diving instructor, teaching others how to dive and was voted as Diving Officer and Treasurer for the Saffron Walden BSAC club too. Russell has dived all over the world, including the UK, on liveaboards in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, South Africa and the USA. Russell is experienced in all dive types, including drift diving, deep dives that involved decompression stops and recreational dives too.
