What To Do
What to do in the Maldives? There's plenty!. Both in or out
of the water, Maldives has lots of fun activities to offer.
Water Sports
The resorts in the Maldives offer a wide variety of water
sports. All resorts offer diving and snorkeling. Some have
professional windsurf schools with qualified instructors offering
multi-lingual certified courses, while others provide the
basics needed for the windsurf enthusiast. Windsurf schools
or water sports centers in the resorts are often equipped
with catamarans and kayaks or canoes.
There are some resorts offer only non-motorized water sports
as a rule, to avoid disturbing the peace. However some others
offer you the chance to test your skills , at water-skiing,
jet skiing, parasailing, body surfing, knee boarding and fun
with banana riding and ringo riding. Further, many provide
romantic sunset sailing or adventurous excursions and island
hopping, in catamarans or small ‘dhonis’. Use
the resort search page to find a resort that offer that activities
you want.
Fishing
Maldivians have been fishing people since time immemorial.
Its no surprise that our resorts can guide you to the best
fishing spots around.
Almost all the resorts offer fishing, night fishing being
the most popular. A unique Maldivian sport, night fishing
provides a quiet, relaxing time under the stars, out at sea,
rocking gently to the waves, in addition to the excitement
of fishing. In night fishing, the boat is anchored at a reef
just before sunset. Lines are tethered with hooks and sinkers
and dropped over board. The favourite catch is the red snapper.
Many resorts also organise morning fishing and big game fishing.
Morning fishing, like big-game fishing involves trolling outside
the atoll, usually along the outer atoll reef. Most resorts
offer only the basic equipment for big game fishing and therefore
it is advisable, if you are an enthusiast, to bring along
your own equipment.
Parasailing
Most of the bigger resorts offer the excitement and fun of
parasailing. Some offer instruction for beginners. Parasailing
is ideal for those adventurous enough to try it. In addition
to the excitement of being high up over the islands, it gives
you a fantastic aerial view of your resort and the surroundings.
Water Skiing
Many resorts have their own speedboats and water skis for
rent on an hourly or daily basis. Some even have instructors
available to give you lessons. Prices vary form resort to
resort.
Snorkeling
A trip to the Maldives will never be complete without
donning a mask and a pair of fins and experiencing the beauty
that sustains these tiny islands. Each island offers a beautiful
house-reef that you could snorkel in everyday. Those resorts
with far out reefs have boats that take snorkellers to the
reef. Mask and fins can be rented from the dive schools if
you need them.
Windsurfing
The large lagoons that surround most of the islands are ideal
for windsurfing. Large lagoons with waist deep water for hundreds
of metres with soft sandy bottoms and the protective barrier
provided by the house reef, offer ideal, safe conditions for
windsurfing, especially for beginners.
Almost all resorts have windsurf schools or watersports centres
where you could get instructions and lessons and even get
an international certificate. Some schools are equipped with
a variety of boards and sails to suit different levels of
windsurfers. All windsurf schools and watersports centres
without exception, have the basic equipment for windsurfing,
and in most cases one or more catamarans and a few canoes.
Surfing
Maldives is a relatively new destination for surfers. There
are a few island resorts on the atoll edge that has good waves
for surfing. From amongst the tourism atolls, most known surfs
are in North and South Male’ Atolls. The resorts on
the eastern reef of the atoll are ideally placed for the avid
surfer. While some resorts offer regular boat trips to surf
breaks, it is advisable to check with the resort before making
a booking. A more interesting option may be to check with
cruise operators. Some cruise operators offer surfing cruises,
giving you the opportunity to test some of the less recognized
surfs in the atolls further away from Male’. The recognized
surf season in the Maldives is the Southwest Monsoon, from
May to October.
Surfing Season
Weather in the Maldives is influenced by two monsoons; Southwest
Monsoon from May to October and Northeast Monsoon from November
to April. The Northeast Monsoon brings in fine weather and
hence the period coincides with the high tourist season. However,
the best surf is during the Southwest Monsoon. This has been
recognised as the surfing season. The best months are from
March to mid-November (tail end of the NE Monsoon through
to the end of the SW Monsoon).
Scuba Diving
The Maldives is famed for its rare underwater beauty. The
profusion of psychedelic colours and the abundance and variety
of life underwater have fascinated divers and snorkellers
since Maldives was discovered as a diving destination. The
highest level of visibility that one could expect- sometimes
exceeding 50 metres - and warm temperatures throughout the
year makes diving in the Maldives a delight you would want
to experience over and over again. The Maldives has some of
the best dive sites in the world and many visit the Maldives
repeatedly for the sole purpose of diving.
All resorts in the Maldives have professional dive schools
with multi-lingual instructors and conduct courses for beginners
as well as the advanced.
Many of the resorts have excellent house reefs. Just a short
swim from the beach and snorkellers too can experience the
same pleasures from the surface.
If the islands of the Maldives are beautiful, what lies under
the water is an absolute wonder of nature. The reefs that
encircle the islands and the atolls are just as abundant in
their variety of coral as the marine creatures that live in
and around them. This, coupled with the amazingly clear water,
make snorkeling and diving in the Maldives a unique experience
that one should not give up.
Diving in the Maldives is organized in the most exemplary
of fashions. The diving centers are equipped to provide services
for beginners and certified, experienced divers.
The presence of clear waters all around the atoll means excellent
visibility, especially with ingoing currents.
Pelagic such as barracuda, trivially and tuna, and big schools
of fusilier, snapper and sharks all congregate at the entrance
to the channels, attracted by the movement of water and food
sources carried with them. Depths inside the atoll are generally
40 to 50 meters and the bottom is mostly sand.
There are many shallow water reefs inside the atoll and those
just below the surface are clearly defined by sharp contrasts
in the watercolor.Maldives is having more than One Hundred
different dive-spots recorded with some world-renowned names.
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