Diving in The Maldives

The Maldives are a set of coral islands that are found in the Indian Ocean and reach about 900km across north to south.  There are more than 1200 coral islands that are all covered by white sandy beaches creating the image of a beautiful deserted island when you first travel close to them.

Due to the fact that no large land mass is located close to any of the islands, there is a large degree of aquatic life most of which is best seen at night making night dives one of the most popular choices for those who go diving in the Maldives. Some of the animals that you may see while diving in the Maldives include grey reef sharks, barracudas, snappers, jacks, frogfish, manta rays, eagle rays, hammerheads, white tip reef sharks, triggerfish, trevallies, surgeonfish, napoleon wrasse, and many more.

Most of the diving in the Maldives is reef diving although there are a few cave and lagoon dives that are worth checking out.  Due to the fact that the reefs have created channels in the Maldives there are not many wreck dives and those that are there are not really worth spending your valuable dive time at.

Generally, divers head to the Maldives in order to see the aquatic life and due to the rapid drifts that are common across the dive areas.  There are both boat dives and shore dives but be aware that all boat dives are drift dives as well so beginners may not want to head out to the Maldives before getting their feet wet somewhere else, literally.  This is due to the fact that even the shallow reef gardens contain heavy strong currents which can be challenging.

In order to dive you must have a computer and an SMB, but if you do not own either device you can hire these from the dive Centres which are located around the Maldives.

Liveaboards are the best way to go diving in the Maldives but in order to use one of these you will need to have logged at least twenty dives prior to your trip.  Liveaboads are more expensive to book, but they are all inclusive so you will get a full day out of your purchase and tour.

There is not much to do on the Maldives outside of spending some time on the beach so it is best for those that are looking to holiday purely with the intent of diving.

The best time to go is between the months of June to October when temperatures reach into 27C.  During the rest of the year however the temperatures are 24C so there one thing nice about diving in the Maldives is that you can head out any time you want..

Visibility is generally decent year round as well with clear vision of about 15-40m in most waters of all depths.

From the UK one option to travel to the Maldives is from the Gatwick airport using Monarch Airlines.