I recently did a dive trip to the Maldives, not a destination I would have planned on as I've always thought of it as a honeymoon destination. I travelled on a liveaboard boat, doing a circuit of dive sites around North and South Male atolls and Ari Atoll. Water temperature was mostly 28-30C, with mostly visibility of 15-25m. The weather was generally very warm, and fairly humid.
Some of the dives were phenomenal. The highlight was the dive at Manta Point (though it's best to point out that there isn't just one but several manta points around the Maldives, partly according to season). We had 20+ mantas swooping in just over our heads, hovering and observing us as we observed them! Our second dive there wasn't as good but still around 10 mantas checking us out over the cleaning station.
There were several other drift dives that were good, seeing eagle rays and the odd white-tip or grey reef shark. Some of the pinnacle dives were very pretty, especially on top where we often saw anemonefish, turtles and moray eels.
However, there were a few more "average" dives than I expected. Sometimes the visibility was quite low, and we were hit by a couple of thermoclines which made it quite chilly. I'd have hoped to see more sharks, but that's partly seasonal (I was there in March). Our group saw one whale shark on a dedicated snorkelling trip - but with several other boats around and lots of people in the water at the time, so all very crowded. Mostly the dive sites were relatively quiet, but ometimes there was a feeling that we either weren't seeing the best sites or they weren't all that great...
I did the trip as a liveaboard as I said; I won't mention the name as I'm not reviewing the boat or company but there were some concerns about how the boat was being run; it was a great boat in terms of size and layout but the organisation surounding some of the dives could have been much better.
We only did one night dive which was a bit of a disappointment for me; I think this is partly related to the strong currents around the Maldives and the unsuitability of certain sites for night dives, but it would have been nice to have more options for this.
As for what we saw - plenty of mantas on those 2 dives; several white-tip reef sharks, a group of 7-8 eagle rays, the odd grey reef shark in the distance. It was better for macro - lots of anemonefish on very colourful anemones; moray eels all over the place, swarms of small blue triggerfish! There were quite a few turtles over the course of the week, and plenty of colourful reef fish.
Overall, it's a dive destination with lots of options. While not a budget destination, it was not as expensive as I thought it might be (£1495 for a week inluding all meals and diving). I feel the week could have been better run and given us more opportunites to see what's available there; but I'm glad I went and I'd recommend it to anyone thinking about it, purely for the mantas! And to reassure people, it's not just a honeymoon destination - there were a few couples, but also some groups and single people.
I would love to go to the Maldives! I can't dive though!
koshkha 27.04.2009 21:18
I'm very jealous - I can't count the number of dives I've done where I was told I might see mantas and didn't get so much as a sniff. I'm also surprised at the price - not cheap but I would have feared more expensive. Like you I would want to do a liveaboard - a hotel full of cooing honeymooners wouldn't be my cup of tea.
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