About Riffnah
Who writes here
Honest reports instead of advertising promises — from someone who was really in the water.
Hi, I’m Ronald. I have been snorkeling for around 25 years and diving for about ten. It all started with a mask, a snorkel — and a reef I will never forget. These days we travel as a family, and the list keeps getting longer.
Riffnah is written in German. This English version is a translation.
Where I have been in the water
More than 20 trips over the last 25 years. These are the destinations that have something to offer snorkelers — some of them I visited several times:
- Thailand — 4 trips
- Greece — 6 trips
- Maldives — 2 trips
- Spain — 2 trips
- Egypt, Red Sea — 1 trip
- Mauritius — 1 trip
- Cyprus — 1 trip
- Australia — 1 trip
- Malaysia — 1 trip
Added up, more weeks than hours in the water. For most of these destinations there is no report here yet — they will follow bit by bit, and only once I have enough material of my own.
Why I only got my diving certification in 2026
I had been diving for around ten years, but always as a tourist: a trial dive here, a guided dive there, each time with clear limits. At Ras Mohammed that meant being led by the hand — not nice when what you actually enjoy underwater is your peace and quiet.
So in July 2026 I did the Open Water Diver. Not to go deeper, but so I would no longer be restricted.
Why Riffnah
Before every trip I looked for honest reports myself — and mostly found glossy brochures. Riffnah is the site I would have liked to have back then: real experiences, written down the way they were. Even when the water was murky and the expectation bigger than the experience. How it all began is in the first post.
Every report comes with the values from my logbook: water temperature, visibility, depth, month. Not because that sounds nice, but because these are the details I looked for before a trip myself and almost never found.
What you get here
Reports only from spots where we were really in the water. All photos and videos are ours — no stock material, no AI images. And because a trip does not end at the water’s edge, we also tell you about the islands, the people and the little mishaps along the way.
The best place to start is the articles — for example the story of my first shark.