Ras Mohammed: Magic Lake, Snorkeling & Mangrove Tour

4.93

(140 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

“You ever seen water that blue?” our guide, Ahmed, asked as we finally pulled up to Ras Mohammed. I’d been squinting out the bus window since leaving Sharm El Sheikh, half-awake and clutching my rental snorkel gear. The drive was only about 40 minutes but I swear it felt shorter — maybe because Ahmed kept tossing out little facts about the Sinai desert and laughing at his own jokes. The park gate itself is this huge concrete arch called the Gate of Allah; everyone hopped out for photos (I tried to get fancy with angles, but my thumb made it into every shot).

The first time my face hit the water at Coral Gardens, I forgot how to breathe for a second. There’s this rush of cold against your cheeks and then—just color everywhere. Fish darting past like they’re late for something, coral that looks soft but isn’t (learned that fast). Ahmed pointed out a lionfish near some rocks, waving us back a bit. He grew up nearby and you could tell he still got excited seeing all this—he even dove down to point at something I missed (probably a sea cucumber?). Sometimes I just floated there listening to my own bubbles and thinking about nothing else.

We stopped by the mangroves after—there’s this weird silence when you step away from the water, just wind moving through those twisted trees. The Earthquake Crack was next; it’s basically a deep scar in the earth from some ancient shake-up. Not gonna lie, standing over it gave me goosebumps. Then came Magic Lake: honestly it didn’t look real at first—so clear you could see your toes wiggle under the surface. We swam until our fingers pruned up and Ahmed told us stories about local legends (I only caught half of it because someone started splashing me). On the way back I watched sand whip across the road and felt sunburnt in that good, tired way.