What Should I Bring To The Red Sea liveaboard?

If you are searching for what to bring to a Red Sea liveaboard, you are either about to book a Red Sea liveaboard trip or more likely you’ve already booked your trip. How exciting, and if this is your first time on a liveaboard or your first time on a Red Sea liveaboard you will love it. I love diving the Red Sea, and my favourite reef is Elphinstone Reef, so hopefully you will get to dive this there.

The first thing to mention is to pack light when you are on a liveaboard, as you will spend most of your time in swim shorts or a bikini (depending on your choice of swimwear), you’ll be in bear feet and you’ll spend a lot of time relaxing between dives. With that being said, what should you bring to a Red Sea liveaboard?

Minimum to bring on a Red Sea liveaboard; your certification card and dive log book, dive computer, 2 x swimwear, dive torch, lightweight clothing, including shorts or skirts, t-shirts and underwear, toiletry bag, 1 x pair of shoes, dive camera, diarrhoea tablets, sun cream, dive camera and a book.

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:

There is also a handy table of all Red Sea diving liveaboards below too, with each one linked to a detailed review of the liveaboard. This handy table also includes whether each Red Sea liveaboard has scuba gear rental onboard too.

List of what to bring for a Red Sea liveaboard – when you have your own dive gear

If you plan to bring your own scuba diving gear, this list is a complete list of what to bring on a Red Sea liveaboard.

1. Passport, flight tickets and liveaboard voucher.
2. Scuba certification card or an an electronic version.
3. Nitrox certification details.
4. Dive log book.
5. Mask, snorkel and fins.
6. Light weight travel buoyancy control device (BCD).
7. Regulator with octopus or spare air source and pressure gauge.
8. Dive computer.
9. 1-3mm Wetsuit or rash vest.
10. 2 x swimwear to alternate each day.
11. Surface marker buoy for drift dives.
12. Dive torch.
13. Lightweight clothing, including shorts or skirts, t-shirts and underwear.
14. Toiletry bag.
15. 1 x pair of shoes, flipflops or sandals (you won’t be wearing these on the liveaboard).
16. Diarrhoea tablets and rehydration tablets or sachets.*
17. Underwater camera.
18. Sun cream.
19. Sunglasses.
20. Sea sickness tablets.**
21. Book to read or a Kindle.

* The diarrhoea tablets and rehydration tablets or powder are because unfortunately it is often the case that visitors to Egypt get an upset stomach.

** If you are prone to seasickness it’s probably a good idea to take sea sickness tables with you to help avoid being seasick on the liveaboard. With this in mind, you may like to read this article: Do you get seasick on a liveaboard and the 7 ways to avoid being seasick.

List of what to bring for a Red Sea liveaboard – without own dive gear

If you either don’t have your own scuba gear, or if you prefer to travel light, this is a shortened list of what to bring on a Red Sea liveaboard. But make sure the liveaboard you choose rents scuba gear, and let the company know what you want to rent when booking, to make sure they have the gear onboard at the start of your trip.

1. Passport, flight tickets and liveaboard voucher.
2. Scuba certification card or an an electronic version.
3. Nitrox certification details.
4. Dive log book.
5. Mask, snorkel and fins.
6. Dive computer.
7. 1-3mm Wetsuit or rash vest.
8. 2 x swimwear to alternate each day.
9. Dive torch.
10. Lightweight clothing, including shorts or skirts, t-shirts and underwear.
11. Toiletry bag.
12. 1 x pair of shoes, flipflops or sandals (you won’t be wearing these on the liveaboard).
13. Diarrhoea tablets and rehydration tablets or sachets.
14. Underwater camera.
15. Sun cream.
16. Sunglasses.
17. Sea sickness tablets.
18. Book to read or a Kindle.

With this shorter list of what you should bring on a Red Sea liveaboard, you don’t have to bring your own mask, snorkel and fins, but it’s better to have your own for snorkeling in between dives and for using on the dives.

But if you don’t want to bring your own mask, snorkel and fins, you can rent these on the Red Sea liveaboard too. The same is true for your wetsuit too, but I suggest you invest in your own dive torch and dive computer, as these are essential diving equipment these days.

Table of all Red Sea Liveaboards

The following table of all Red Sea liveaboards is in descending customer rating order, followed by Scuba Diving Luxury Rating (SDE Lux Rating, see below), so the Red Sea liveaboards with the highest customer rating and the best SDE lux rating will be at the top of the list. If you want to change the list order, use the “Sort by” dropdown below.

What is SDE Lux Rating %

The column headed “SDE Lux Rating %” is my own Liveaboard Luxury Rating which I’ve assigned to all liveaboards. To discover how the rating is calculated for your chosen liveaboard dive boat, click the liveaboard name link in the “Discover Liveaboard” column above (also this is explained in more detail below).

To help you to choose the right diving liveaboard for you, the “Scuba Diving Earth Liveaboard Luxury Rating” (SDE Lux Rating) means you can compare each liveaboard with other liveaboards on a like-for-like basis. This makes choosing the right liveaboard much easier.

The maximum rating for any liveaboard is 100%, and this rating is split between the 6 features listed below:

1. Diver benefits: A higher ‘diver benefits‘ score means there are more features specifically for scuba divers. These include onboard nitrox, dive courses, gear rental etc.
2. Liveaboard design features: The higher the ‘liveaboard design features‘ score, the more the dive boat has been designed with scuba divers in mind. This includes whether the dive boat was custom built for divers, if it has charging stations, outside showers etc.
3. Cabin luxury: A high score in ‘cabin luxury‘ means the cabins on the liveaboard offer better features. These might include ensuite cabins, air-conditioning, daily housekeeping, seaviews, TVs etc.
4. Onboard comfort: A high score in ‘onboard comfort‘ means there are more onboard features to make your dive trip feel more luxurious. These include what towels are provided on the liveaboard (always important for travelling light), complimentary toiletries, crew ratios etc.
5. Food luxury: If you are a foodie then ‘food luxury‘ will be important to you, as a high score on this rating will mean there’s more on offer. These might include the type of food served onboard, the dietary requirements catered for, vegan food, vegetarian food, buffet style, fine dining etc.
6. Drink luxury: If you like a drink in the evenings you may look for a higher score in ‘drink luxury‘ score, but this score also includes drinking water and soft drinks too.

The “SDE Luxury Rating Total” is calculated by adding the totals from each of the above features and benefits. The higher the SDE Luxury Rating, the more features and benefits the liveaboard has, which leads on nicely to how to use the SDE Luxury Rating.

How to use the SDE Luxury Rating score

When choosing the liveaboard dive boat for you, your decision is helped by customer scores, which is how the liveaboards in the above table are sorted in descending order.

If you are stuck choosing between two or three of these liveaboards, where each one has a high customer score out of 10 and that have itineraries you like, use the SDE Luxury Rating score to help narrow down your choice.

Think about it like using Booking.com when searching for the best hotel to stay at. Booking.com also use a customer score where each customer rates hotels out of 10. This is similar to the liveaboard customer rating, which is also rated out of 10.

But let’s say you only like to stay in hotels rated 9 and above on Booking.com, but you also want the hotel to have WIFI or parking, or to have a swimming pool etc. The features each hotel has is secondary to the score out of 10.

In the case of liveaboards, the SDE Lux Rating system can also be used as a secondary tool in the same way to help you determine which liveaboard offers the best features to suit you.

Each of the liveaboards linked-to from the above table will be individually scored. Which means that if cabin luxury is important to you, focus on this score to help you choose your liveaboard. But if diver benefits are your top priority, use this score first, and so on.

I hope you enjoyed this article about what should I bring to the Red Sea liveaboard

If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkelling or scuba diving (or specifically about what should I bring to the Red Sea liveaboard), please comment below with your questions.

There will also be many more articles about scuba and scuba diving safety tips (and on snorkelling too) for you to read and learn about this fabulous sport.