Diving the Maldives | liveaboards

Maldives scuba diving features

Fish, fish, fish

Leopard sharks

manta rays

whalesharks

DESTINATION OVERVIEW
Planning a diving trip to the Maldives can be overwhelming. Just how do you choose just one of those incredibly beautiful islands? If you feel thoroughly confused about where to go, make life easy for yourself. Hop on what is endearingly called a 'safari boat' out in the Maldives, a liveaboard to the rest of us.

After being met at the airport, a 10 minute transfer will drop you onto a comfy floating hotel. Depending on the prevailing weather, you then sail around two or even three atolls. Evenings are spent moored near uninhabited islands with almost no neighbours, while days are filled by crossing over to the dive dhoni: this second vessel shadows your floating home and takes you off to find the best dives around.

Routes can cover both north and south Malé atolls or from Malé city to South Ari atoll. Some do a circuit of the best dives in both areas while longer schedules will go even further afield to distant atolls that are less busy than those.

Weather patterns influence the destination and dive site choices but being on a boat allows a much larger variety of dives than being on an island. The schedules can be adjusted daily – and all with the added convenience of your room going with you.

Seasons:
Year round
Visibility:
10 – 30 metres
Water temperature:
25 – 29º C.
Deco chambers:
Bandos, Male

Flights to Malé from across Europe or Singapore

Liveaboards:
the range is expanding and becoming more upmarket but it's worth sticking with operators who are experienced in these waters.

PROS AND CONS
Being on a liveaboard means you can experience far more as it's easy enough to sail from one atoll to another and distances are smaller than you might expect. However, the number of dives per day can be limited as it can be hard for the boats to moor up in appropriate night diving areas.

SCUBA DIVING
The diving is always good no matter where you go but conditions vary based on weather patterns. The liveaboards can also divert to follow specific animals as they move with the currents and weather.

OPINION
A few years back we travelled on Maldives Scuba Tours’ Sea Queen. She and her sister boat, Sea Spirit, are British owned. The cruise directors were all great fun and very knowledgable. We are reliably informed that the newer cruise directors are just as good plus there is quite a line-up of chefs that do fabulous curries. And cakes.