The Maldives is a dream destination offering a true sense of romance and tranquillity along with picture perfect white sandy beaches, beautiful blue lagoons, and amazing diving. Exactly what you can expect from one of our diving holidays.
Renowned for its drift and reef diving this destination should be on every diver’s bucket list, especially those with a non-diving partner who will be able to enjoy a relaxing massage, spa day or simply unwind on the white sandy beach while you are exploring the underwater world.
The Maldives offers incredible manta and whale sharks experiences along with an array of coral reefs, current swept channels and pinnacles that act like magnets for marine life.
When to dive the Maldives?
The Maldives is a collection of islands divided into western and the eastern sides, each side has its own seasonal climate and it is important to consider this when planning a diving trip as the different seasons will impact on encounters of wildlife. December to April represents the Maldivian summer when the visibility and diving conditions on the eastern side are peak offering a magnificence of colours, soft corals, schooling reef fish and large marine life with visibility between 20-30 metres. On the western side of the atoll the visibility is lower 15-20 metres due to plankton, although you are more likely to encounter manta rays and whale sharks as they are a primary food source for these gentle giants. As the season changes from May to December the visibility increases on the western side and the manta rays and whale sharks follow the plankton to the eastern side.
How to dive the Maldives?
Liveaboards are one of the most common choices for hard core divers who enjoy a weeklong, jam-packed trip with lots of dives and the opportunity to visit a range of islands. Liveaboard diving in the Maldives is not for the faint hearted, with varying currents to manage this drift diving and big pelagic haven is a huge draw for advanced divers. Most liveaboards depart from Male offering a range of routes visiting the various atolls at the best time, our most popular trip is the Best of The Maldives
All-Inclusive Diving Resorts are also very popular, as mentioned above this is the perfect choice when travelling with a non-diving partner that enjoys a relaxing day on the beach, a drink by the bar or a bit of pampering while divers are busy exploring the underwater world. It will be smile’s all-round at the dinner table, guaranteed!
A resort-based stay is also an ideal add-on option if you like relaxing for a few days after a week of diving on a liveaboard. This allows you to start your holiday diving as much as you like and then unwind on a private island resort while getting ready for your return home.
At Ultimate Diving, we offer a vast range of all-inclusive packages at our Maldives hotels. This is a popular choice amongst divers as each resort in the Maldives is located on its own island, so it is not commonplace to go around dinning in different restaurant every evening. With this is mind, we strongly recommend going all-inclusive and enjoying the holiday wallet-free, without worrying about the size of the hotel bill at the end of the stay.
Maldives Top 3 Dive Sites
1) Maaya Thila located on South Ari Atoll is a protected marine area. This famous pinnacle has a remarkable variety of marine life, including grey reef sharks, white tip sharks, turtles, stonefish, frogfish, zebra morays, bat fish and many, many more species. At the edge of the Thila there is a large coral overhang full of bright orange Tubastrea corals. The top of the rock, at 15 metres (50ft) is covered in colourful soft corals. The vertical side of the rock drops down to the atoll plate at 30 metres (100ft). In this channel between the satellite rock and the Thila, grey reef sharks often patrol, guitar sharks have been seen here on a number of occasions and after sundown jumping in the water here will have divers immediately surrounded by a feeding frenzy!
2) Sun Island on South Ari Atoll is one of the best places in the Maldives to find the majestic whale shark. The southern shore of the island opens to the Indian Ocean and boasts a plateau of 5 to 10 meters(15-30ft), making it easy to spot whale sharks cruising by. For best chances of getting up close and personal with whale sharks plan your dive on Sun Island during the week building up to a full moon.
3) Broken Rock located on the mouth of Dhigurashu Kandu on South Ari Atoll it is one of the most distinguishable dive sites in the area due to the canyon which splits the pinnacle in two, home to an abundance of soft coral and sea fans lining the walls.
