Scuba Travel -

David Foster

Went with Scuba Travel to the Red Sea in 2020, was a complete nightmare, boat was unsafe, diving practices were unsafe, crew were unprofessional. Never again. Date may be wrong might have been 2019 comments are 100% correct.

Linda Elliott

The professionals at Scuba Travel have negotiated me through not one but two cancellations of my originally hoped for trip to the Philippines. They were always helpful and responsive to my emails asking “what’s happening now?” and were super helpful when I was trying to coordinate my revised journey to coincide with a friends travel plans. Mario Vitalini deserves kudos for managing the expectations and hopes of many a frustrated scuba diver over the past year and a half. Thank you Mario!

ian phillips

Dived with Scuba travel on a number of occasions most recently in May on my third "Get Wrecked" trip. I've always found them to be helpful and the trips have been great. I was booked to go to the Philippines in Sept 2020 but Covid stopped that! Scuba travel were professional in the way they handled the cancellation and the eventual refund. Hence I would recommend to anyone looking for a diving holiday.

Bridget Groom

Absolutely Abysmal would not use again, we had been asking for our flight tickets for several weeks so that we could book extra leg room, we did not get these until the Saturday the week before we were due to fly only to find out they were not to Hurghada. They did not book our flights straight away for the holiday we booked, for a livaboard on the Ghazal explorer going from Hurgada for the 9.4.22 till 16.4.22, the flights were booked for the 20.3.22 then this was cancelled and the flights were all booked for our dates as it was Easter holidays when we received our tickets they were booked to Sharm el shake but the boat was going from Hurghada, when we enquired if the boat was now going from Sharm, we got an email telling us it was going from Hurgada and all flights were fully booked and they could only offer us a land based holiday or a refund NOT IMPRESSED as we did not want a beach holiday. We asked them what other livaboards they had availability on anywhere but couldn’t/wouldn’t book us on anything else because of flights.
We found one holiday available with Livaboard .com for our flight dates. The only reason they are getting one star is because they contacted livaboard .com and booked this for us. Then on our departure date when the transfer company hadn’t arrived to collect us we found out from the transfer company that we had been booked to be picked up from the boat on the 17th which would have meant we would have missed our flights home Totally incompetent felt like our holiday was a consolation prize as it was not the same itinerary and our wedding anniversary was spoilt

Robert Sloper

Yet another excellent dive trip organised by ScubaTravel on Ghazala Explorer. this boat sets the standard for the Red Sea. both the onshore and on boat team do everything possible to ensure a fantastic dive experience for any level of diver.

Guy Parker

A series of disasters interrupted by some very good dives.

So where to start:
- incorrect flight tickets issued the day before our group of 11 travelled
- wrong flight time hence time to arrive at the airport only spotted by us so we didn't arrive late
- paid extra for extra dive bags only to have them not arrive in time for liveaboard departure (see below)
- 5 sets of dive gear offloaded on the way out (by Thomas Cook) and then charged us for hiring replacement gear (they reduced it to cost price after we complained)
- loss of diving caused by stomach issues for several divers
- arguments to have to not pay full price for extras caused by Thomas Cook
- told we could pay by card for on-board purchases but cash only, everyone had used their cash to buy replacements on first night
- arguments with staff in hotel on last day as we were told things were included in our package by the guide and they insisted they weren't
- on return never ending arguments with Scuba Travel for them to take responsibility for the package they had sold us which had obviously gone badly wrong.

Most of these things (except the dive gear) you would just normally overlook but the fact 5 out of 11 had to pay extra in order to not miss 3 days of diving and then all of the other constant hassles that went with the holiday just meant most of us were glad to be home.

All we were asking for was not to have to pay extra for things outside of our control and for them as the package provider to sort out the costs with TC.

Not a chance, no compensation offered in any way, and this was my apology from their Operations Manager...

"I am deeply saddened that you felt the above issues detracted from your enjoyment of your holiday overall"

So he's not sorry that we had all these cock ups, he's sorry if "I felt" they spoiled my holiday - he should go into politics for that kind of doublespeak.

P.S. The diving was great but wont be booking with Scuba Travel again.

Helenwheelz

Amazing service from enquiry to departure. Would especially like to mention Melissa for all of her help throughout. Felt reassured that we could easily reschedule if there were any potential difficulties caused by Covid restrictions, and was able to book with confidence.

Sam Rogers

These guys helped me book a liveaboard at the last minute and everything was arranged without any issues and meeting my requirements. Unfortunately mid-trip I became ill and that's where the team really impressed me. They were quick to respond to an urgent call and worked hard to get me home as quickly as possible. They went above and beyond to help me and I am incredibly grateful.