Maldives Diving Resorts: A Review

The Maldives is a world-class diving destination offering dreamy palm-fringed islands, sparkling blue seas and a huge diversity of marine life sightings, from exotic nudibranchs to gigantic whale sharks. Dive journalist and underwater photographer Stuart Philpott recently had the opportunity to visit, and we caught up with him to get his impressions on resort-based diving in this beautiful island paradise.

You recently enjoyed a big dive trip to the Maldives. Where did your adventure take you? 

My Maldives diving itinerary included three islands and three Euro Divers dive centres over 14 days. Taking travelling and deco no-fly times into consideration, this gave me roughly three full days of diving at each resort. 

Euro-Divers suggested spending a few days at their flagship dive centre based on Vilamendhoo and then visiting Meeru, which is located much closer to the capital, Malé. I had also heard from a well-known dive travel expert that Eriyadu is very popular with the British market, so I thought this would also make a good choice. 

Most of the islands offer a house reef where divers can come and go as they please. The other choice is day boat diving. The standard schedule for day boats is two morning and one afternoon dive, and night dives upon request. There are also full-day excursions to see manta rays or whale sharks, which include three dives with lunch served onboard. 

Tell us about your journey to the Maldives

There are various flight options from the UK. Only one or two airlines fly direct; most require a connection. Flights are roughly 11 hours long, but this doesn’t account for any time spent waiting at airports.  

All international flights land at the capital, Malé. Then there's either a speed boat or seaplane transfer. For my choice of islands, Vilamendhoo was located in the South Ari Atoll and required a seaplane, but Meeru and Eriyadu were both in North Malé, so I only needed a speedboat transfer.   

Your first port of call was Vilamendhoo Island Resort. What were your first impressions? 

Vilamendhoo, one of the Maldives’ flagship divers’ islands, is located in the South Ari Atoll. Seaplane transfer is the most convenient option, although boat transfers are also available. The 4-star resort offers 194 rooms and a variety of restaurants and pools.  

I requested a room close to the dive centre, but then again, nowhere on the island is far away from it. The dive boat leaves at 8am on most days and the restaurant opens at 7.30am for breakfast, so there’s plenty of time for a feed before departure.  

The boat crew are really friendly and attentive, always ready to help out with equipment preparation, offering tea, coffee, water etc. After a hard day’s diving, the best place to be is at the sunset bar sipping cocktails. And repeat! 

What are the main attractions for divers at Vilamendhoo? 

The house reef is such a big attraction that some divers spend their entire stay exploring it and don’t even go boat diving. The excellent shore diving here is a convenient option for families or diver pairs, who can either go on their own or be guided at no extra charge.  

That said, there are also 50-plus boat dive sites, of which Kuda Rah is the most popular. The whale shark and manta boat trips tend to get booked up, so I recommend divers request these in advance. May to October is the low season, but June and July are popular months with families.   

Which dive sites did you most enjoy at Vilamendhoo? 

Our first dive site was Kuda Rah and Dive centre manager Mathias Hook paired me up with instructor Sarah Beelte. The current was absolutely ripping. Thousands upon thousands of yellow snappers swirled around the submerged pinnacle. I watched the reef sharks and whitetip sharks patrolling in the distance. That day, there were a few too many divers about for the ‘bubble-free’ shot I wanted, so we returned several days later. The current was just as ferocious, but I managed to crawl my way back to the yellow snappers and get a reasonable picture. 

At Miyaru Thila, we encountered a small hawksbill turtle that was totally disinterested in us and carried on munching on coral while raising its bottom in disgust! After five minutes, the turtle poked its head out and ambled over to another coral head, allowing me to get a close-up shot. 

The Kudimaa wreck was a welcome change after all those beautiful walls and reefs. The propeller is a good spot for photographs. I went inside the bridge, but there was no sign of the giant green moray which is often seen there. 

South Ari is well known for whale shark and manta ray encounters. There were no manta sightings at the cleaning stations when I arrived, but my visit had coincided with the change in monsoons, so this probably had an impact. I didn’t go on the full-day whale shark trip, but those who did had an exciting encounter with a whale shark and I was able to see the video later. This was a popular area for liveaboards. 

You then moved on to Meeru Island, how does this resort differ in character from Vilamendhoo? 

Meeru is one of the biggest islands in the Maldives. The 4-star resort, Meeru Island, offers 284 rooms, including an adults-only section, making this a good all-rounder for both couples and families. It's located a 45-minute speedboat transfer from the International Airport on Malé.  

My hot tub beach villa was ideally located just a 2-minute walk from the dive centre and a 3-minute walk from the boat jetty. The room was furnished to a high standard and I loved the open-air bathroom. This is a big island offering plenty of activities including golf, tennis and football. There are also multiple pools and restaurants to choose from. The quality and choice of food was excellent.   

Tell us about diving with ‘Dora the Explorer’ from Meeru

Meeru’s dive centre manager, Jeanine Van der Voort, paired me up with dive instructor Dorota Szadkowska aka ‘Dora the Explorer’. We had over 50 dive sites to choose from at Meeru, each with boat journey times between 15 minutes and an hour and three quarters.  

Before leaving for our first dive, Jeanine asked me if I could cope with some current while taking pictures, and I said yes, but at HP Reef it was absolutely ripping. Green and hawksbill turtles were ducking behind rocks and even the fish were reluctant to move when I got close. What a fantastic dive site, but on the day, just too much current to contend with.  

In Meeru, the main manta season falls between July and November, while the best underwater visibility is between January to April.   

The top dive site, Aquarium, was absolutely on fire! There was quite a strong current, but I still managed to get into position for photos. Throughout the dive, I had plenty of marine life encounters, including hawksbill and green turtles, whitetip sharks, puffers, shoals of snappers, butterflies, sweetlips and much more. Definitely Meeru’s best site for photographers. 

The wreck at West Rock was a big hit with me and it’s only a 15-minute boat journey from Meeru. Jeanine said this site is as often used for night dives. The wreck sits upright and intact. I began my tour at the bow, entering a doorway which opens out onto the stairway. The room to the left was full of glassfish. It’s possible to go up the stairs and enter the bridge. This is a big open space. I didn’t see any lionfish lurking, but I’m sure they were around somewhere. It’s also possible to explore the cargo hold and the engine room. Dora posed on one of the toilets!  

I hardly saw another liveaboard during my stay at Meeru, and in most cases, we were the only boat at the dive sites.  

Eriyadu Island Resort is a perennial favourite with Regaldivers. What did you think of it?  

Eriyadu is a 45-minute speedboat transfer from the International Airport on Malé. During my visit, around one-third of the resort’s clientele were British. I think this 4-star resort is a good choice for both divers and snorkellers. It only takes about 10 minutes to walk around the entire island.  

I stayed in one of the rooms located in a block. It was a reasonable standard, but not luxury, and I had direct access to the beach from the rear sliding doors. The resort has a swimming pool, decked bar overlooking the jetty, and a cosy little beach bar. I particularly enjoyed drinking cocktails at the decked bar in the evenings while watching juvenile blacktip sharks patrolling the shallows and herons flying overhead. During my stay, I had a look inside the deluxe villas which seem to offer more comfort and seclusion for those willing to pay a bit extra. 

What were your most memorable diving experiences at Eriyadu? 

Dive manager Lisa De Jong agreed to ‘chaperone’ me during my brief stay. Lisa said Eriyadu offers 30-46 different dive sites, with boat journey times from 15 minutes to an hour.  

The most memorable dives for me were Lucky Rock and Finger Point. Lucky Rock was full of batfish. They can be quite intimidating. Wherever I went, there were multiple batfish following me. Dive guide, Raihan, found a leaf fish, but it was too small for my wide-angle lens. At Finger Point, there was plenty of marine activity throughout the whole dive, including white tip sharks, pufferfish, lionfish and a huge jellyfish. This was definitely one of my favourite dive sites. 

At Kagi Kuda Kandu we encountered a squadron of eagle rays, but they were a little skittish, so I couldn’t get close enough for a good picture. At the end of the dive, we found a huge nurse shark underneath a ledge. 

Lisa said they had recently seen four mantas at Bodu Hithi, about an hour’s boat ride away. There are two cleaning stations positioned a few hundred metres apart, one at around 30m and another at around 10m. Although we went to both, we weren’t lucky enough to see mantas this time.   

How was Eriyadu’s house reef? 

The island is really geared up for house reef diving. Lisa said: ‘The whole island is a shore diving site’. There are five entry points around the island where cylinders are dropped off for the divers and the local currents are minimal.

I didn’t get a chance to check it out myself, but Lisa assured me that sharks, rays, turtles and anemone fish are commonly sighted. Night snorkelling in the house reef was a big seller. I used to sit and watch the torch beams from the comfort of the bar every night. 

What were your overall impressions of Euro Divers?

Euro-Divers are one of the biggest and best dive operators in the Maldives, and you can book a holiday with them through Regaldive. They've funnelled more than 50 years of diving experience into making the whole diving process as enjoyable as possible, from checking in and equipment hire to the quality of the dive guides and the boat crew. It doesn’t matter which centre you visit, they all pretty much offer the same standards and procedures. The Euro-Divers green and yellow rash vests sold in the shops also looked very stylish! 

It was great to see the boat crew helping guests with their BCDs and changing cylinders over, and this wasn’t done just for my benefit. There were always comprehensive dive briefings explaining the sites, along with possible marine life encounters, current direction and safety precautions. Even though I wasn’t a ‘normal’ customer they would still wait for me to climb the ladder first before leaving the water at the end of a dive. Very professional indeed.

Who would you say resort diving in the Maldives is suitable for?

These days I think resort diving is a good option for everybody. Families can all dive together on the house reef or parents can use the in-house creche, taking it in turns to do two morning dives and spending the afternoon relaxing by the pool. Couples and singles have the option of doing two morning dives and an afternoon dive as well as a night dive if they want to, or they can book onto a full-day manta or whale shark excursion, which offer three dives. There was usually only one dive boat at each dive site, and it wasn’t always full to capacity. 

Most dive centres offer between 30 – 50 sites with a number of manta cleaning stations included. Being land-based is a good option for those who wish to enjoy other activities, including tennis, golf and football, as well as a choice of bars, restaurants and swimming pools. 

Summary  

The three resorts I visited were very different in many ways. Vilamendhoo, at South Ari, is the place to be for whale sharks and mantas. The island also has a superb house reef, which is popular with divers and snorkellers, and the food and accommodation were of a high standard.  

Meeru is a 45-minute speedboat ride from Malé. It’s a bigger island but offers more facilities, including an adults-only bar and restaurant. Most of the time we were the only boat at the dive sites and there were fewer divers onboard, but of course, this is season-dependent. I managed to get some great shots of Meeru’s marine life, including a leopard shark, and at the resort the choice and quality of food was excellent.  

Eriyadu, the smallest of the three, was more intimate and rustic. We were also the only dive boat at most of the dive sites and there weren’t too many other divers to worry about. The house reef was totally geared up for snorkellers and divers, offering multiple entry/exit points and cylinders delivered ready for use. The night snorkelling was also very popular.  

Yes, I do have a favourite resort but that would be telling! 

To find out more about our diving holidays to the Maldives you can speak to our friendly, expert dive team.