Dive the Red Sea in the wake of Jacques Cousteau

The legendary Jacques Cousteau was born 100 years ago on 11 June. His first voyage on the Calypso was to explore the coral reefs of the Red Sea in 1951.

Today there’s a host of underwater holidays in the Red Sea on offer from Olympic Holidays including Liveaboard boats that offer PADI-qualified enthusiasts the chance to explore natural and man-made dive sites.

Each modern yacht accommodates between 12 and 20 divers and the flexibility of reaching the less-visited outer reefs and visiting great dive sites after day-boat visitors have headed home.

Olympic Holidays’ top five sites are the WW2 wreck of the Thistlegorm; Shark and Yolanda Reef, which offer easy access for any diver; the Ras Mohamed Marine Park; the wreck of the Rosalie Moller – another ship sunk during WW2 and the Carnatic.

A seven night Liveaboard holiday with Olympic in July starts at £799 per person.  That includes full board accommodation in a twin cabin on the 18-berth Snapdragon, exploring the Northern Red Sea’s wrecks and reefs with dive guides on up to four dives each day including night dives – when completely different marine life can be seen – free nitrox for two dives each day, flights from Gatwick or Manchester and transfers.

Olympic Holidays also packages three-day Liveaboard ‘safaris’ with hotel stays in a wide range of properties for all budgets in Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada, any of which may be booked in conjunction with a diving course.

The operator also offers a range of ‘bolt on’ dive lessons from children’s ‘Bubble Maker’ lessons in the pool to a two-day PADI Advanced Open Water programme.

For more information and reservations, visit olympicholidays.com/diving.