Beaches & Diving

Jeddah sits directly on the Red Sea, and the coastline does two jobs at once: a public promenade for an evening walk, and a launch point for some of the northern Red Sea's better-known wreck dives. Water temperature, visibility and every wreck name below come from PADI, LIST magazine, Euronews and Jeddah-based dive operators, cross-checked and cited inline (accessed 2026-09-08).

Corniche, Obhur and the Private Beach Clubs

The city's own waterfront runs free and public for most of its length, while the diving and beach-club scene concentrates further north around Obhur.

Sandy public beach with palm trees along Jeddah's Red Sea coastline

Jeddah Corniche

The Corniche runs roughly 30km along Jeddah's waterfront (source: Kupi Travel Guide, accessed 2026-09-08). Most of it is free to enter, with a coastal path, shaded seating, children's play areas and volleyball courts. A handful of named public beach sections, including a crescent-shaped artificial bay near Al Rimal Plaza and Al Siyad Plaza, give swimmers a place to get in the water without booking anything (source: LIST magazine, accessed 2026-09-08).

North Obhur & La Mer Beach

North Obhur, about 30km north of the city centre, has calmer water than the open Corniche and is where several dive resorts operate straight off the sand. La Mer Beach runs shore-entry dives reaching depths of up to 60 metres just offshore, with reef walls, sandy patches, and turtles, rays and reef sharks on its own site listing (source: PADI, accessed 2026-09-08).

Private Beach Clubs

A cluster of day-pass and membership beach clubs sits along the Obhur and King Abdullah Economic City coastline, among them Silver Sands, Pure Beach and Indigo Beach. Facilities run from pools and padel courts to jet skis and parasailing. Sources disagree on exact day-pass pricing, so a quick call to confirm the current rate before driving out saves any surprises (source: aggregated Jeddah beach guides, accessed 2026-09-08).

Silver Sands

Official site
silversandsksa.com
Location
Al Lulu district, Jeddah (North Obhur coastline)
Address
Prince Abdullah AlFaisal St, Al Lulu, Jeddah 23821 (secondary sources; the official contact page itself gives only a map link, no printed street address)
Phone
Not independently confirmed – secondary listings report +966 12 578 4020, not shown as text on the official site
Hours
Reported by aggregators as roughly 09:00–18:00 daily; not published on the official site. Access is members and invited-guests only, with no day passes, consistently across every source checked
Source
silversandsksa.com (official), accessed 2026-09-08; aggregated Jeddah beach guides for address/phone/hours, accessed 2026-09-08
Confidence
Medium

Pure Beach

Official site
Not publicly confirmed – no dedicated official domain found, only third-party ticketing and listing platforms
Location
King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), roughly 120km north of central Jeddah – farther out than the Obhur cluster around Silver Sands and Indigo Beach
Address
Not publicly confirmed
Phone
Not publicly confirmed
Hours
Not publicly confirmed – varies seasonally per aggregators, with no fixed schedule published
Source
Aggregated travel and ticketing platforms (Platinumlist, Rehlat), accessed 2026-09-08
Confidence
Low

Indigo Beach

Official site
Not publicly confirmed live – indigojeddah.com is the domain reported everywhere, but the connection was refused on two independent verification attempts on 2026-09-08
Location
Obhur district, Jeddah
Address
Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Street, Obhur, Jeddah (secondary sources only)
Phone
Not independently confirmed – secondary listings report +966 50 957 5146
Hours
One aggregator reports 24 hours daily; unusual for a beach club and not corroborated elsewhere, treat as unconfirmed
Source
Aggregated travel platforms and the venue's Facebook page, accessed 2026-09-08
Confidence
Low

Dive Centres Along the Coast

Jeddah has a working cluster of PADI-affiliated dive centres, including Sun & Sea, Red Sea Divers, West Coast Diver, Dive Point Jeddah and Star Seas Diving Center, most running day boats out to the wreck and reef sites below (source: PADI dive centre directory, accessed 2026-09-08). A single guided dive typically runs SAR 300-700 depending on the site and gear hire, with wreck-heavy trips at the top of that range (source: LIST magazine, accessed 2026-09-08). All five are listed as active PADI Dive Centers in PADI's official directory, the shared industry affiliation behind each listing below.

Sun & Sea

Official site
sunandsea.co
Address
WATAD Office, Serafi Mall, Office 20, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Phone
+966 55 561 1550
Hours
Not publicly confirmed – PADI's directory lists no hours for this center
Source
PADI dive centre directory (padi.com), accessed 2026-09-08; sunandsea.co, accessed 2026-09-08
Confidence
Medium

Red Sea Divers

Official site
redseadivers.sa (operates as an online dive-gear storefront rather than a trip-booking page)
Address
Andalus Shopping Centre, Al Hambra District, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Phone
+966 12 660 6368
Hours
Mon–Wed & Sat–Sun 09:00–22:00, Thu 09:00–23:00, Fri 14:00–22:00
Source
PADI dive centre directory (padi.com), accessed 2026-09-08; redseadivers.sa, accessed 2026-09-08
Confidence
Medium

West Coast Diver

Official site
Not confirmed live – PADI lists westcoastdiversa.com, but the domain failed to resolve on two independent checks on 2026-09-08
Address
Coco Beach Resort, North Obhur, Prince Abdullah Alfaisal Road, Jeddah 109849, Saudi Arabia
Phone
+966 55 612 2399
Hours
Mon–Sun 10:00–17:00
Source
PADI dive centre directory (padi.com), accessed 2026-09-08 (single source; website unreachable for cross-check)
Confidence
Medium

Dive Point Jeddah

Official site
divepoint.com.sa (states it was founded in 2018)
Address
Obhur Al-Shamaliyah, Jeddah 23811, Saudi Arabia
Phone
+966 55 805 5808
Hours
Mon–Thu & Sun 09:00–22:00, Fri–Sat 07:00–22:00
Source
PADI dive centre directory (padi.com), accessed 2026-09-08; divepoint.com.sa, accessed 2026-09-08
Confidence
High

Star Seas Diving Center

Official site
Unresolved – PADI's listing links to amiralbehar.com, which loads as an unrelated-looking Arabic dive-gear e-commerce store with no visible Star Seas branding; treat the website field as unconfirmed
Address
2307 Almuaadi, Al Hamra District, Secondary #7162, Jeddah 23212, Saudi Arabia
Phone
+966 13 824 5637
Hours
Mon–Sun 09:00–17:00
Source
PADI dive centre directory (padi.com), accessed 2026-09-08 (single source; the linked website could not corroborate the listing)
Confidence
Low

What the Water Is Actually Like

Sources vary slightly on exact numbers, but the overall picture holds together. PADI lists water temperature between 21°C and 28°C across the year, LIST magazine puts the range a little higher at 22°C to 30°C, and Euronews recorded readings as high as 35°C in peak summer. Expect warm water whichever figure you trust: cooler from December to March, warmest from July to September (source: PADI, LIST magazine and Euronews, accessed 2026-09-08).

Visibility is reported at 20 to 50 metres by PADI, "often exceeding 30 metres" by LIST magazine, and 20 to 30 metres by Jeddah Diving Center, a local operator. In practice that means clear water most of the year, with spring (March-May) and autumn (September-November) the two windows every source checked agrees on for the best combination of visibility and comfortable temperature (source: PADI, LIST magazine and diveinjed.net, accessed 2026-09-08).

Wreck Dives Off Jeddah

Every wreck name and depth below checks out against at least two independent dive-site listings, so you can plan your dive on facts, not a single operator's marketing copy.

Ann Ann Wreck

Jeddah's largest wreck, sunk in 1977 and still standing almost upright on the reef often referred to as the 26-Mile Reef. The bow sits in only about 5 metres of water; the stern drops to roughly 32 metres, deep enough that it's usually described as the most demanding of the well-known local wrecks. Expect an intact captain's quarters and cargo room, plus resident tuna and blue-spotted stingrays (source: LIST magazine, Diveholics.com and DiveAdvisor.com, accessed 2026-09-08).

Chicken Wreck (M.V. Glaros)

A 60-metre refrigerated cargo ship that ran aground on 20 November 1976 while carrying frozen chicken, which is where the nickname comes from. It rests on its port side at around 20 metres, close enough to the reef that currents stay mild, making it a common first wreck dive for newly certified Open Water divers (source: divessi.com, diveinjed.net and Euronews, accessed 2026-09-08).

Cable Wreck

Originally named the Staphonos, this 87-metre vessel sank in 1978 while carrying cable and construction material. It lies on its port side at about 24 metres near Abu Tayr reef, with the cargo itself now part of the coral-covered wreckage (source: LIST magazine and diveinjed.net, accessed 2026-09-08).

Boiler Wreck

A coal-fired ship believed to be more than a century old, resting on its starboard side on Abu Madafi reef. Little of the hull remains beyond the stern and the two boilers it's named for, but the site is shallow enough, 4 to 18 metres, for beginners, and the surrounding reef has caves and tunnels worth the detour (source: dive.site and Diveholics.com, accessed 2026-09-08).

Marble Wreck

A ship that once carried marble slabs, now scattered across the seabed as the reef slowly tears the hull apart. Depth figures vary by source, from a shallow 7-8 metres on the north side to a wall reported well past 60 metres to the southwest, so treat it as two different dives depending on which side the boat drops you (source: divessi.com, LIST magazine and diveinjed.net, accessed 2026-09-08).

What reef dive sites does Jeddah offer beyond the wrecks?

Wrecks are only half of Jeddah's diving story. Two named reef sites, Abu Tair and Bayadah, draw a steady stream of divers and snorkellers for coral and open-water life rather than sunken hulls, and Saudi Arabia's own tourism coverage now frames this reef diving as a growing pillar of Jeddah's Vision 2030 tourism push (source: Saudi Press Agency, 22 June 2026, accessed 2026-09-08).

Abu Tair

Abu Tair (also referenced elsewhere on this page as Abu Tayr reef, near Cable Wreck) sits off North Obhur on Jeddah's northern coastline, opposite Sharm Obhur, with a shallower section reaching about 17 metres. Reported sightings include turtles, groupers, barracuda, Napoleon wrasse and, in season, dolphins (source: Saudi Press Agency, 22 June 2026; PADI dive site listing, Abu Tair - Shiab Alkabir, accessed 2026-09-08).

Bayadah

Bayadah is a shallow reef island roughly 40 minutes by car from Jeddah, with calm, protected water well suited to beginners: depths run from about 3 to 15 metres over most of the site, with a deeper drop-off further out. Divers and snorkellers commonly see turtles, reef sharks, trevally and parrotfish, alongside the groupers, barracuda and Napoleon wrasse reported for the wider area (source: Arab News, 15 August 2025; LIST magazine; Saudi Press Agency, 22 June 2026, accessed 2026-09-08).

Life on the Reef

The Red Sea off Jeddah holds more than 1,200 recorded fish species and roughly 300 types of coral, a figure cited independently by both LIST magazine and Euronews. Snorkellers get a shallower version of the same reef system without needing certification: the Coral Garden near Chicken Wreck, and the shallow end of several of the wrecks above, both sit within a few metres of the surface.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the water temperature and visibility like when diving off Jeddah?

It runs warm year-round. PADI cites 21-28°C, LIST magazine cites 22-30°C, and Euronews recorded readings up to 35°C in peak summer, so expect the coolest water from December to March and the warmest from July to September. Visibility is typically 20-30 metres and can reach 50 metres, best in spring and autumn (source: PADI, LIST magazine and Euronews, accessed 2026-09-08).

When is the best time of year to dive near Jeddah?

Spring (March-May) and autumn (September-November) are the two windows every source checked agrees on for the clearest water and most comfortable temperature, though diving runs year-round (source: PADI and LIST magazine, accessed 2026-09-08).

Can beginners dive the wrecks near Jeddah, or are they only for advanced divers?

Both. Chicken Wreck and Boiler Wreck sit in shallow water and are commonly used as a first wreck dive for newly certified Open Water divers, while the Ann Ann Wreck's deeper stern, down to about 32 metres, is generally treated as the more demanding option (source: divessi.com, diveinjed.net and LIST magazine, accessed 2026-09-08).

Are Jeddah's beaches free to enter, or do I need to book a private beach club?

Most of the Corniche is free and open to the public. Private clubs such as Silver Sands, Pure Beach and Indigo Beach charge a day-pass or membership fee for pools, water sports and a quieter stretch of sand; sources disagree on exact pricing, so confirm directly with the club (source: LIST magazine and aggregated Jeddah beach guides, accessed 2026-09-08).

Are there good reef dive sites near Jeddah besides the wrecks?

Yes. Abu Tair, off North Obhur, and Bayadah, a shallow reef island about 40 minutes from Jeddah, are the two most cited reef sites, both known for turtles, groupers, barracuda, Napoleon wrasse and seasonal dolphins alongside healthy coral. Saudi tourism coverage frames this reef diving as a growing part of Jeddah's Vision 2030 tourism push (source: Saudi Press Agency, 22 June 2026; PADI; Arab News, accessed 2026-09-08).

Continue exploring: Jeddah Corniche covers the promenade itself in more depth, and Tours & Activities lists guided trips including boat-based diving.

Sources

Beach and dive pricing changes with the season, so a quick check with the operator or venue before booking keeps your plans on track.