From El Gouna: Empire Semi Submarine Trip with Snorkeling

You came to the Red Sea for the water: the colour of it, the life beneath it. But maybe you don't swim, or you're travelling with a toddler, or the idea of deep water makes your chest tighten. This trip was built for exactly you. An air-conditioned vehicle collects you from your El Gouna hotel and brings you to the Hurghada marina, where a boat is waiting that was designed to hand the sea's best views to people who prefer to stay dry.

Step aboard the Empire and take the stairs down into the hull, where a long row of wide windows sits below the waterline. Settle in and let the reef come to you: clouds of orange and electric-blue fish, coral heads rising like sculpture, the occasional flash of something larger crossing the light. When the boat pauses at a sheltered reef, there's an optional 40-minute snorkel stop; join in with the equipment provided, or keep your window seat and watch the snorkellers glide overhead.

Here is what makes this trip quietly special: the Red Sea usually reserves its underwater world for people willing to strap on a tank, or at least a mask. On a semi-submarine, that gate disappears. A grandmother, a four-year-old and a nervous first-timer see the same reef at the same moment, and discovering something together is a different feeling from being told about it afterwards.

After the last coral head slips past the glass, the Empire turns back to the marina and your driver returns you to El Gouna, sun-warmed and salt-aired. You didn't have to be brave, or sporty, or even get wet. You just had to look, and the sea did the rest.