Maldives Activities

Scuba Diving | Water Sports | Fishing | Parasailing
Water Skiing | Snorkeling | Windsurfing | Whale and Dolphin Watching

Things to do in the Maldives? There's plenty!. Both in or out of the water, Maldives has lots of fun activities to offer.

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.

Underwater Photography "Given the manifold aspects of the underwater universe of the Maldives and the splendid colors of the fish and coral, it is almost a moral obligation to pause for a while with a camera before these wonders of nature" - says Kurt Amsler, world renowned photographic journalist who has dived the Maldivian waters extensively.

Dive Maldives…. It’s the underwater paradise….the home of 1350 different species of coral and fish.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Whale and Dolphin Watching

Imagine the excitement of watching a great whale blowing, its powerful body surging through the water. Or a host of dolphins leaping from the sea in energetic bounds just a few feet in front to of you. If this appeals to you, then the Maldives has what you are looking for.

Over 20 different whale and dolphin species can be seen here. Compare this with the handful or less that are regularly seen at most other destinations and you will see why the Maldives is so attractive for whale and dolphin watchers. In addition to this great diversity of species, another great attraction of whale and dolphin watching in the Maldives is that it is so easy and comfortable. No problem with arctic winds here! There are very few other places where you can relax under tropical skies, watching giant whales swim past right in front of you.

The "Big Three" are the sperm whale, Bryde's whale and, biggest of them all, the blue whale. Pilot whales are particularly common, while other specialities include dwarf sperm whales and Cuvier's beaked whales. Melon-headed whales are commonest around the southern atolls, where they occur in enormous schools of 500 or more, and regularly bowride.

Among the dolphins, by far the most abundant, and the most acrobatic, is the spinner dolphin. Several other varieties, including Risso's dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, spotted dolphins and striped dolphins are also common.

If you are confused by all these names, don't worry. A whale and dolphin watching cruise in the Maldives, with an expert naturalist on board, will soon have you separating your false killer whales from your pygmy killer whales.

Getting the best sightings

It is possible to see dolphins on almost any holiday in the Maldives. Look out for them during any boat journey.

However, the best sightings are achieved with a specialist whale and dolphin watching operator. They offer dedicated cetacean cruises on liveaboard 'safari' boats, which will give you the very best chance of numerous close encounters. Make sure that your cruise is led by a suitably experienced naturalist, who will know which atolls to visit for the most sightings, and who will ensure that international whale watching standards are maintained in order to minimise disturbance to the animals.

Whales and dolphins are found in abundance in the Maldives throughout the year, but they are easiest to spot when the sea is flat calm. The best time to visit is therefore January to May, when the weather in the Maldives is at its calmest and sunniest.

What do we see?

Of course, nothing can be guaranteed with wild animals, but on a typical whale watching cruise in the Maldives you can expect to see a dozen or so different species. This will include several species that are only very rarely seen in other countries.

As well as all the whales and dolphins, you can also expect to see numerous seabirds, and turtles, manta rays, sailfish and whale sharks.

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