P1Fanatic

Me and my girlfriend have decided to go to the Maldives next Jan / Feb. Ive been before in 2005 to Meeru, North Male Atoll but girlfriend has never been.

Whilst Meeru was very nice, with so many Islands to choose from would be a shame not to see another one. I would imagine a fair few SN'ers have been so was after some Island recommendations.

I would prefer somewhere a bit further from Male to make a bit more of the seaplane transfer as last time it was about 15 mins from takeoff to landing. We would be going for 2 weeks and last time whilst it was paradise I think I would have liked to experience a bit more variety so am thinking a 2 island trip this time around. Possibly one bigger one with more activities/facilities and also a smaller more secluded one.

Of the things I did last time, by far the most enjoyable was a day on an old schooner with plenty of snorkelling and the fact you can see absolutely nothing in any direction. It did help that it was april and turning toward the wet season where they often have a lull. Hence the water was as flat as a millpond even though your out in the middle of the indian ocean - in fact here is a pic:

IMG_2297 pictures from india photos on webshots

So bring on your recommendations and experiences. We are on a budget of around £1600 pp so dont start talking about Reethi Rah, Kanuhura, Rangali Island etc

Cheers,
Simon

Varboy

I've been to Ari Beach which was really nice. Water huts etc. IIRC 40 mins by sea plane or so plenty of time in the air taking pictures.

Would love to get back to the Maldives again before they disapeer.

Removed.

Honeymoon was Sri Lanka and Maldives, nearly 15 yrs ago! Biyadoo, very small, quiet. Scuba school was 1 of the top ones at the time. Used to be a long slow boat ride, but I think you can get fast boat or float plane there now. Next door to Villivaru(sp?), which is even smaller and quiter.

Absolutely loved it!

angrynorth

I went to Bandos in 06 which was excellent, it is a 20min boat transfer rather than air transfer but it was in an excellent spot and the standard of accommodation was excellent.

There is also a private island about 10 mins boat away which you can hire by the day/night should you want to add something extra special to your trip

Bandos Island Resort & Spa

Oh, by the way, get one of the beach huts, they have their own private Jacuzzi's.

P1Fanatic

Cheers for the tips guys will check them out in more depth tomorrow as got footy in a bit.

Main thing Im interested in is good snorkelling so what did you make of that at your respective islands?

Cheers,
Simon

stineal

like you we went to meeru, i found it also to be a wonderful place and would love to go back. one good thing is at least you know what to expect going back to the same place so you wont be disapointed in anyway

angrynorth

On Bandos you can literally walk out 10ft and be into a coral. My girlfriend who refuses to put her head under water finally plucked up the courage to take a look through the mask and was astounded at the variety of colourful fish around.

That was on the side of the island where the water huts were. On the other side of the pier that separates 2 of the beaches is about 20 ft of good snorkelling followed by a 50m drop off. I got about 100ft out and turned around and was confronted with more colourful fish than I have ever seen including huge angel fish, small reef sharks and even turtles. I bought an underwater camera whilst I was there because I was amazed at the variety of fish you could see simply with a snorkel but I've never got around to digitising them.

They have a decent diving school there too..

dpb

Must be Hot - theyve covered the bowsprit so the varnish doesnt see the sun

( i was looking at teh photo ,soory - looks good)

The Zohan

Went to Kuredu in 2001, pretty good, 45min transfer by plane or 5 hours in a boat!

Watersports where good, great dive school although not great amounts to see due to recent heavy storms on 2001.

I would go again.

GaryCat

I stayed on Villivaru which is a small island (1 hour to swim round it) but is very close to Biyadoo which has all the watersports etc and you can use both

P1Fanatic

There is that but I did go with my previous girlfriend so dont think its appropriate to go with my current on. But it was nice especially as April 2005 was after the Tsunami and couldnt tell island had been bit at all. Was a lot better at the Village end of the island for the Water and Jacuzzi Water Villas (very nice) guests.

Simon

P1Fanatic

My neighbor and his girlfriend went there and said they enjoyed it. Also they have sister island Komandoo which is a smaller island.

Tbh I only dived for the first time in Mauritius last Oct so not expecting to do much. Might go once just to compare but quite happy snorkelling.

Simon

P1Fanatic

We had a bit more time this weekend to do some research. Bandos doesnt seem to do very well in any reviews and my girlfriend has a friend who went a couple of years ago and didnt think it compared well to others.

Several reviews I see of Kuredu complain about a yobbish element due to the fact it offers fairly cheap accomodation at one end of the scale. This was available in Meeru but cant say I noticed it at either end of the island although the new village was far better IMHO.

So far Im liking the Beach House that was only full opened start of this year so its hard to find reviews but most Ive seen are very good.

The Beach House at Manafaru Maldives

Cheers,
Simon

Fuzz

If going for two weeks I'd have to recommend where I went as it's the largest of the Resorts on the Maldives.

Sun Island Resort on the South Ari Atoll. It was a half hour flight or two hour boat trip to the Island from Male.

I went there December / Jan 07
No point in me describing it here, my trip report is on this site along with others and loads of pictures. (awaits pisstaking of my T-shirt to be displayed on Sn now)
Sun Island Resort - South Ari Atoll - Sun Island Resort Reviews - TripAdvisor

P1Fanatic

Tbh we arent really looking for the larger type resorts. Quite a few reviews on that resort (235). Any ideas what page yours is on?

Simon

Fuzz

131-140

Fuzz

But you're going for two weeks?
There's only so much sand you can look at before getting bored.
It's quite possible it'll be overcast or raining and not beach / poolside laying about weather.
The Island I've recommended has a large amount of other stuff to keep you occupied, sports hall, badminton, tennis, gym, 4 or so different genre restaurants, gardens, shopping mall...etc etc.

You may notice by some of the reports that this place has a capacity of about 900 I think, and at Christmas when I went it was naturally full. Strange though, everybody must be well hidden, because you hardly ever saw anyone!! It was at breakfast time you thought to yourself "Christ, where did all these people come from".

v8voodoo

I stayed at Lily Beach in the South Ari Atoll. Very small island, but really nice. Couldn't fault the island, the staff, the food, anything really. All top notch.

Lily Beach Resort (South Ari Atoll, Alifu Atoll) - Resort Reviews - TripAdvisor

P1Fanatic

Thanks for you concerns but we go on holiday to relax not do excursions every day and every activity under the sun. As I said earlier I went to Meeru before and that has about 250 rooms IIRC so Im more than aware of what is offered by the larger resorts. As long as there is decent snorkelling, some watersports, spa, boat excursions then I am happy. I am still contemplating doing 2 islands for a bit more variety as I would agree that 2 weeks is starting to border on a bit repetitive.

Cheers,
Simon

Fuzz

Just found this hiding on the laptop, my full trip report.
Thought you might like to read, if bored.

We made it….. Eventually!
On waking, on the morning of the flight it was apparent I had caught a cold.
From there it went down hill.
The next thing that went wrong was the coach to Heathrow got stuck in the traffic on the M4 and was 55 minutes late.
I thought I was going to have to book a taxi as the connecting coach to Gatwick was supposed to leave 45mins before hand.
We were in luck, it was still there, the driver shouting that he was late and he wouldn’t make it if we all didn’t get a move on.
The cold worsened…
Finally we got to the airport a few minutes late which didn’t matter too much, the check in desk was open and it wasn’t too busy.
Bags checked, I thought the initial start to the holiday was just a glitch in proceedings.
Oh no, next thing was that I had packed my last minute Christmas present from my Cousin in my hand luggage,(checked luggage was already bursting at the seams at 21.8Kg) that was of course wrong as the new legislation stated that I couldn’t carry any liquids over 100mls. These were 250mls. No choice was left but to throw them in the bin before I even had chance to smell them.
Finally into the departure lounge and time to relax and wait for the flight….. which was late to board and take off.
By now I was feeling pretty dam rough. The cold / cough thing had certainly got hold of me.
The captain announced over the tannoy in brummy accent not fitting of a pilot, that we were ready to depart. Hooray!!
On we get and the only way to describe it was cattle class.
Little to no leg room, the food was horrid (Mum didn’t think so), although I ate lunch, I just couldn’t manage breakfast, warmed up beans with an excuse for an omelette and half cooked hash brown.
Due to a tailwind at 37,000ft though, we sailed along at 550mph and made good time.
Fair play to the pilots ability, smooth as silk and earily quiet during landing, this of course could have been my ears being totally blocked by this point.
Full flaps and we glided in as if the jets wern't even running, only evident when we hit the tarmac and they slammed into full throttle for reverse thrust.
Must have been quite a short runway despite our plane only being a boing 767, it took up all of it on reverse thrust and turned round at the end without much leway.
The lack of leg room and the constant kicking in the back of the passenger behind me virtually drove me nuts after 10hrs in that crate.
I really needed to get off the plane at that point.

Finally it was over, we were in the Maldives just after sunrise, touched down at Male and I’m still waiting for my hearing to come back, the sinuses are well and truly toast, that’s one of the saddest things, it doesn’t look like I’m going to get to dive here at all as I’m only here a week.
At this stage I’m not sure I can manage another long haul flight.
Going home on the 26th is going to be bad enough knowing what I have in store, but then a day later I’ve got just as far to go to back out to Thailand!

I’m not sure yet how to take the Maldivians, any more laid back and they’d be going backwards.
I thought all the bad things that could go wrong were over when we touched down, but no.
20 mins to wait under the plane wing for the coach to take us to the terminal. All of course while it was drizzling with rain!!!!!
Then another hour to get through passport control.
At least getting the bags was quick!! They must have got dizzy on the carousel waiting for us.
Another half hour waiting for the nod and a raised board, that the boat to take us to Sun Island was here.
And that’s where I am at the moment, sat on the boat speeding towards Sun Island, at an unknown speed and an unknown distance away…

2nd day and it’s a little less stressful now, the boat took 2 ½ hrs to get to Sun Island and no one threw up which was a bonus. Apparently it was a very smooth crossing though.
We were met with a cold towel and a coconut to drink once we got to reception.
Things are looking up.
Room is nice, although a little far from the waters edge, but it is nice to have some palm tree cover outside the patio door.
Everyone’s really friendly including the room boy, the waiter and the pool attendant.
All shake your hand and want to get to know you on a personal level. Whether this is just to make sure they get a good tip and the end of the week or not, I have yet to decide.
It was a good call, when reading the reviews of this place, that everyone says hire a bicycle, this island is the largest resort Island in the Maldives and thus takes over an hour to walk round it. 3 USD a day wasn’t bank breaking.
With the disastrous start behind me, all I have to do now is get rid of the cold and I’ll be sorted.
We’ve not done anything specific yet, just peddled round the island doing a bit of exploring and working out where everything is.
All the block paved alleys look the same and if it wasn’t for the direction boards it would be easy to end up at the wrong end of the Island.
Again our room is a bit “out in the sticks” as it’s up one end of the Island, away from the main “centre” of bars and restaurants which makes it nice and peaceful.
When I emailed the dive centre before booking and was told this was the busiest time of the year, it is surprising how little you bump into anyone. This place has 550 odd rooms and at the hotel introduction when we got here, we were told there is 900 staff onsite.!
Where is everyone!!
As with many sites like this, they try and tuck you up with extras everyday, join this enter that etc. Some of it interesting and we may take them up on the odd offer.

After the diabolical flight over here I have already requested an upgrade for the flight home, let’s hope it goes through ok and I can feel my legs on the way back.
No wireless out here and no internet access point in the room (other than the telephone line)
I’ve spied a few satellite dishes in amongst the undergrowth so there should be something… somewhere.
If you get this letter I found it J…….
Off to dodge between palm trees in search for an internet café amongst the myriad of shops they have here…………
Day 3, I think!
Lost track of time already to be honest,
I found the internet café, but it was shut, fairly odd opening times written on the doors, so I’d have to come back.
In the meantime I did a bit of window shopping and spied some lovely looking Tissot™ watches, this being a proper shop with all the right labels and advert boards so I could assume fairly well that it’s all cosha stuff (lots of Sony cameras, waterproof cases, flashes for underwater use…) very tempting and all in US dollars which makes it even more favourable at the moment.
I feel a new dive watch purchase coming on haha.

The sun strength has been steadily increasing from the day we got here as the cloud cover slowly dissipated. Today was the first day it broke through and just walking to the beach and back is enough to melt the skin off your body.
Of course the old dear is out there in it, I’m sat in the shade with a four dollar bottle of cold coke and that’s enough for me, never been one to try and get a tan whilst away, here more to see the place and explore different parts of the world than baking under the sun.
I’m still feeling too rough to even snorkel yet, although the main cold has almost gone, leaving the usual remnants behind that I need to shake off first.
Anyway, snorkelling in this heat will only result in me sunburning my back to a crisp, so I think I’ll leave it until it’s cooler.
The only things water related I’ve done so far is hand fed some sting rays and fed at arms length some black tip reef sharks. Not quite as friendly looking as the ones in Oz, that’s for sure, and 4ft longer to boot!
There is always somebody that has to be a **** and sure enough, it came in the shape of a German bloke in his 30’s during the stingray feeding.
A few other species of fish also milled around for scraps that the rays missed, one of theses being a puffer fish, this aforementioned cocktwat decided it would be a good idea to pick the foot long puffer fish up out of the water (yes they are unafraid enough to let you get close)
Quite annoyed that the Maldivian guy with the buket of grub didn’t say anything to him and also surprised at the allowance to touch the rays, quite a few had evident sores on their surface and I can surmise that this is caused by us humans rubbing off their protective mucus.
Why do we have to interfere so much grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I hope the German **** gobbler had poison coursing in his veins from the stunt he pulled.

Ahh, so much for the sun burning it’s way down to earth,
Sat inside the beach apartment room now as it’s lashing down outside, doesn’t seem to last long, though it comes down with a fair bit of force when it does.
93% humidity the board said in the lobby today!!

The dam jet lag thing is getting on my **** now, awake and unable to fall asleep until about 6 am, just as the sun is rising.
Then an hour and half later the old dear is up and about and readying herself for breakfast. Lacking energy anyway it’s hard not to doze off mid afternoon.

Might be time for an afternoon snorkel today while it’s overcast, see how the nose and throat put up with it.

Hmm the snorkelling had to wait another day as it's now lashing down again, it is warm rain though, which is more than can be said for Englandcestershire.......
Still lashing down at dinner time despite a short reprise (which we used to scamper fromn the beach apartment to the main bar without getting drenched).
Bad move.. hot as hell in there, no fans going over the bar and no aircon by the looks of it, well it sure as hell was turned off or broken anyhow.
Asked a small family if the chairs next to them were free and they turned out to be "Engrish" so that killed an hour whilst we waited for the restaurant to open, talking diving and previous holidays and oh.. bad airline flights lol, Father nutter said he ran round the Island in 20 minutes this morning, **** that!!
Daughter was too young by the way...
That also reminds me.. Out here I've come to the conclusion that if the bird is fat, looks like a lesbian or dresses like a tart she's english..
everything left seems to be a body to die for, yet "speaks with forked tongue" oh and usually has a bronzed god attached to thier arm already. bollox!
Had a chat with the room boy today as it's pissing down again, he was late for cleaning and I was already back from breakfast.
A true Maldivian, family in one of the north islands that he was going to see sometime soon, a flight up there was going to cost him a hundred dollars which didn't sound too bad until he said he only earned 200 dollars a month !!!, and that's on call 24/7 here due to odd arrival and departure times of us guests.
Pissy weather = definite need to don the wetsuit (anti burn aid rather than anything to do with keeping warm) and snorkel round the island for the day I think)

Hopefully I can get online with this later, as I have sussed a cable connection to the telephone line in the room, just waiting for the numbers I need to dial to arrive by text from the UK.
Cheers Jason. ......
You useless ****.. Customer support number isn't much use unless I gotta spend a fortune listening to on-hold music
going snorkelling instead.....

Back from Snorkelling, set off from our beach apartrment on mermaid beach, round the breakwater, along the main beachfrongt and under the main jetty and round past ocean view, at which point I thought I'd jump out and walk round the boat jetty as it said stong currents and also boats were likely to mow me over.
Jumped back in the other side of the jetty which was the beginning of Sunset beach, headed out diagonally to the end of the water bungalows where they feed the sharks at night, then just the other side of the water bungalows set course for dry land, stopping breifly for a deep section near the shore to see if the old sinuses were working yet. Nope. Picked up a brolly though which was luck as there wasn't one in the apartrment. Might come in handy at dinner time if the rain doesn't give over.
Saying that though since going out in the wetsuit the sky never spilt a drop.. Typical.
after 4hrs my skin was getting mushy so it was time to get back to the apartment and test out the outside shower. oh how nice fresh hot water is after that long in the salty sea.
Could do with some alcohol now......


Yay, finally got wet proper today, one ear still playing up and a little blood from my shnoze back at the surface but I thinks that's the last of the cold trying to hang on as long as it can.
Right ear felt like it wan't going to clear at 4m but after a little wiggling and blowing it sorted it'self out. Back on dry land now after 19m and 1hr, all on a 10L as well which needed a little coaxing to stay in my BCD set up for 12's, will need to set it a little lower next time as I kept banging my head on it during the dive.
Weight that I was given seemed about right, certainly not light, must take a note of how much weight that is as I need to redo log book entries now I have a new book.
Second dive 25mins by boat, everyone but me saying it was too rough to dive, lol, the waves wern't even cresting, pussies.
Anyway, in we all got after some messing with kit and chatting to a few English guys, I buddied up with a geezer called George, a Cypriat family back ground but was totally english, our group 6, or 7 I forget, went in first and ok ok ok ok ok (jees boring now, can't we just let the air out and get on with it <smirk>)
A few slow decenders and we were on the reef (not litterally) in 17m. Old George buddy was chugging on a 16L, I was on a 10L, most dive istructors were also on 10's with the splash of 12's also amongst us. Fairly steady pace, although a little slower would have been nice, my useless twin jets couldn't keep up with Georges mares dinner plates he had strapped to his size 12's!!!
On the way we saw all the usual plethora of fish I couldn't even begin to cover completly, however the "MMMMmmm MM ooeerr eere,, oooo ook ook n aer"
Sounds on the way helped us spot, Lobster, Honeycomb Moray (my find), Nurse shark, Stingray having a kip, black tip and a Hump Headed wrasse.
2 then peeled off and headed for the surface as OOA after 45 mins (one of the 16's gone, just georgie boy to go 0 )
Spying his gauge I think we were ok as he was keeping with my consumption on my 10 and the Dive leader called the EOD just as I was ready to give him the fist (50BAR)
Up to a 5m safety hang for 3 mins, which was more like 5-5.5-4.9 for me, need to work on that!!
Back on the surface I faced away from the group and got rid of the snot to save embarrasment had there been any blood in it, looked good to me though (well as much you can call snot goods looking).
Everybody OK... where's the boat, furking miles away WTF, Hello...Que big red DSMB waved about, took em about 5 mins to even notice us, whilst we were all being bashed by the swell. (Well I thought it was fun)
Back to the shop de kit- clean and stuff, then headed for the shower where some english girl (not on our boat) was "ooh eerr oww" trying to get under that water, of course I struck up a conversation with her, and she said she fell asleep on the beach the day before for over an hour in direct cloud free sky sun, OUCH, first degree burns on the backs of her legs...... no wonder that shower water was feeling a little warm!!!
Now knackered and off to bed, mainly becasue the last two dives I can do tomorrow to finish the holiday are booked and the boat leaves at 8.30am...

Turned out that the two dives were in the morning and there was another boat going out at 3pm, so booked that one as well.
Already forgotten what the three dives consisted off due to the copious amounts of acohol consumed last night.
Christmas eve celebrations were well put on and well received by all.
Sailfish for dinner along with a mixture of salads, Turkey was available but I can get that at home, the sailfish however is a different matter. They even stuck an onion on his nose so you didn't spike your thigh whilst surveying the table spread (The sailfish was about 6ft long in body never mind the tail and spear.)
The rest of the envening spent in the main bar drinking cocktails with a Maldivian skinned Santa Claus!
I remember the original divemaster on thge morning boat not coming in the afternoon due to freezing his nuts off in a 3mm shorty...
He was the odd one out though as even some of the tourists were in just shorts and wern't compaining.
If you wanted to come to the Maldives to see Flora and Fauna underwater then I'd say forget it, the reefs look very bare even to UK standards, although ours are mostly seaweed I suppose.
Pretty much all brown plate coral or brown brain coral or the brown rotund coral that is smoother than the brain one, that about sums it all up
Anenomies are rare and the fish life spartan in most areas. I think I saw more snorkelling!
You did have a few good surprises along the way though, black tip reef sharks, morays, turtles, octupus although that was only one leg of him, he hid too well, Lionfish and puffer, we did hang a round for a while looking for the whale shark that comes through that area, but it didn't show up.
So that was it, four dives completed and the final for this holiday as I'm flying back to Gatwick Tuesday (now Sunday).
I did take the camera and it didn't leak, which was a good start, however I need to work on my positioning for better shots, because at the moment they just look green..
Too far away and the need to be looking up at the waters surface rather than down on the coral.

Christmas day is here, Sat on the sun lounger outside the apartment, storms from yesterday look like they have passed over and the sun is out beaming through the palm trees.
Not done a lot yet apart from breakfast, nothin fancy today, just co-co pops and a glass of orange juice.
The old dear is down on the beach somewhere and wants me to get in the sea with her today, bugger that, I want dry luggage for Thailand thank you.
Fingers croseed my dive gear will be dry, as it's currently locked up in the dive shops drying room, we'll see later.
Later came in the form of a walk down the beach and accross the decking to the diveshop, about 15 mins in all and then back again with a bag full of gear to lay out on the sunlounger.
One thing I forgot to do and that was apply any suncream that day as the sun was out in full force.
I mean, how hot can it be, all I did was walk over to the dive shop and back.
Burnt my legs to an absolute crisp.
Holiday over and two days later it's staring to peel off everywhere.

GazTheHat

Snap, been there too. No shoes, no news is their moto.

EDIT: Except for when we were there, they wheeled out a tv to show a plane flying into a building.

You HAVE to go diving in the Maldives. Only when you've dived elsewhere can you appreciate how bright/colourful the maldives are.