Search for excursions in Sharm El Sheikh and most of what comes back is not about the sea at all: the pyramids, Petra, Luxor, Mount Sinai, coaches leaving at three in the morning. This article is about the other half — the days that start at a jetty. Five of them are covered here, they cost between $13 and €45 per person, and the difference between them is not really price.
Which five boat days are there?
| Trip | Operator | Price | Length | Included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glass boat tour | Horizon Water Sports | $13 pp | Short | The tour. No hotel transfer |
| White Island & Ras Mohammed | Shark Divers | €25 pp | 8 h | The boat trip. Park fees extra; snorkel gear not listed |
| Ras Mohamed yacht trip | Hero Diving Center | $35 pp | 8 h | The yacht day. Park fees extra |
| Tiran Island snorkelling | Cinderella Eldawley | €40 pp (from €50) | 8 h | The boat day. Park and jetty fees extra |
| Full-day snorkelling | Dive In Sharm | €45 web / €50 on site | 8 h | Lunch, fins and mask. Boarding and park fees extra |
Three destinations, and they are not variations on a theme
Everything that leaves a Sharm jetty goes to one of three places, and the choice matters far more than the €15 between these three destinations.
Ras Mohammed is the national park at the southern tip of Sinai, where the reef wall falls away into deep blue and the current carries fish past you. It is the reason divers come to Sharm at all, and the reason a snorkelling boat is worth taking. Hero runs a yacht day there for $35 per person, and sells a version with an introduction dive as a separate product at $45.
The Straits of Tiran are four named reefs in a row — Jackson, Woodhouse, Thomas and Gordon — sitting in open water between Sinai and Saudi Arabia. Cinderella Eldawley takes snorkellers across all four for €40, reduced from €50 on its own price list.
White Island is not an island in any normal sense: it is a bare sandbank that surfaces and vanishes with the tide, with nothing on it. Shark Divers pair it with Ras Mohammed in a single €25 day, which is the cheapest way to see both.
Wet or dry?
Not every sea day involves getting in the water. The glass boat at $13 per person shows the reef through a panel in the hull: no mask, no fins, no swimming, and therefore no age or ability limit that would rule out a small child or a grandparent. It is the least expensive thing on the water in Sharm.
And if you want to breathe underwater?
At the other end, if you want to breathe underwater rather than look at it, that is diving rather than an excursion — a separate day with its own prices, from €70 for a shore day to €155 for a Zodiac day.
What is not in the price on any of the five?
Four of the five carry a marine park fee. Cinderella charges park and jetty fees separately; Dive In charges boarding and marine park fees; Shark Divers and Hero collect the park fee on site and do not publish the amount. That last point is worth saying plainly: where an operator names a fee without a figure, we ask them for the current number in writing before your booking.
What else should you check before leaving the hotel?
Two other gaps are worth checking before you leave the hotel. Snorkelling equipment is stated as included only by Dive In — Shark Divers say specifically that it is not listed as included on the €25 trip. And hotel transfers: Horizon states plainly that the glass boat price does not include one, so you reach the boarding point near the Old Market and marina yourself.
Four of the five collect a marine park fee on top, and only Dive In puts lunch, mask and fins inside the price. Compare what you will spend over eight hours, not the headline number.
Lunch, and why €45 can be the cheaper day
Dive In's full-day snorkelling boat is €45 at the web price against €50 at the desk, and it is the only one of the five with lunch, fins and mask inside the number. On a €25 trip where you rent a mask and buy your own food, the gap narrows fast. Count what you will actually spend across eight hours, not what the headline says.
How do you fit them into a week?
Four of the five are eight-hour days, so two boat days in a row is a lot for most people and three is a holiday spent commuting to a jetty. A workable week is one long day at Ras Mohammed or Tiran, one short thing — the glass boat, or a $26 parasailing flight — and one day left alone for the beach.
If you are a group of up to ten, compare the whole lot against a private catamaran at $600 for the boat: at ten guests that is $60 each, with the marine park fees, the permit and the fuel already included.
All prices are the operators' own published figures as of 3 September 2026, in the currency each operator quotes.
Updated 3 September 2026.
