8 Day | Dive Tour In Maldives

Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival in Maldives

Stop At: Hulhumale, Hulhumale
Upon arriving in Velana International Airport, our Tour Guide will be there to welcome you at the Concourse area of the Airport after clearing Customs. We will then assist with your transfer to your hotel in the island of Hulhumale which is an island right next to Male’ City. The islands of Hulhumale and Male’ City are connected by a highway bridge which allows you to explore either Hulhumale or Male’ city on your first day in Maldives. We recommend you take a tour of Male City if you are feeling adventurous.
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Hulhumale at a 3 stay Boutique Hotel

Day 2: Depart to Rasdhoo & Your First Dive in Maldives

Stop At: Rasdhoo, Rasdhoo
You’d be required to check out early from the hotel the next morning as you’ll need to catch the transfer to your next destination at 09.30am. Our transfer shuttle will take you to harbour where your Tour Guide will then assist you to a Speedboat transfer which take about 70 minutes to the island of Rasdhoo. This is where you’ll be spending most of your tour as it is considered the hub to explore the dive sites of Ari Atoll which consists of some of the best dive sites in Maldives. Be ready to head underwater as you’ll need to gear up for your first dive that afternoon.
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Rasdhoo at a 3 stay Boutique Hotel

Day 3: Dive at Madivaru Corner & Rasdhoo Channel

Stop At: Rasdhoo, Rasdhoo
You’ll soon get to realize why Rasdhoo is the perfect spot to call home for your dive tour as you get to explore the surrounding dive sites around Ari Atoll. Our dive instructors will brief you on all safety procedures and dive site briefing before you head out on the dive “dhoani” (the local name for boat) to the days dive sites.

Dive Options for the Day

Madivaru Corner – A spectacular dive site due to both the topography of the reef and the marine life inhabiting it. This horseshoe shaped reef structure lies next to the island of Madivaru and the island wall makes up part of the dive site rising to a few meters below the surface. The top of the outer reef lies between 15 and 22 meters and at depth features overhangs and promontories. Healthy corals are plentiful and a large sand patch at 26m is a central feature of the dive site. Madivaru is always a great dive while some dives here are more breathtaking than others. You can often fine a school of grey reef sharks, large dogthooth tunas, schools of eagle rays and mobulas, travelly and jacks, white tip reef sharks, sting rays, school of barracudas, mantas during season, napoleons and turtles. On rare occasions we have also experienced dolphins sucking garden eels out of the sands like spaghetti and the odd guitar shark, a few scalloped hammerheads. This is a spot that rarely disappoints even on a “quite” day with poor visibility. Which is why it has been a fan favourite of most of our customers.

Rasdhoo Channel – A big scenery advanced channel crossing between the island of Kuramathi Resort and Rasdhoo. An excellent dive with the right conditions, ideally with medium current pushing mainly across and slightly in to provide good visibility and an easy passage drifting from one thila tot the next. These “thilas” are huge coral blocks which are mounted on the 30 meter sandy bottom of the channels outer edge before it drops into the open ocean and a depth of almost 200 meters. The top side of these large thilas is found between 22 and 27 meters so it is a deep dive and a great dive on nitrox. Rasdhoo channel often features grey reef sharks, white tips sharks, sting rays, napoleons, turtles, eagle rays, lots of big groupers, numerous snappers and sometimes you really do not know where to keep your eyes on.
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Rasdhoo at a 3 stay Boutique Hotel

Day 4: Dive at North Channel & Veligandu North

Stop At: Rasdhoo, Rasdhoo
Its day another day of full diving you get to enjoy in Paradise with the usual 3 dives per day are arranged.

Dive Options for the Day

North Channel – About 20 minutes by a dive dhoani and in season is one of our best spots to encounter Mantas. The channel is relatively shallow and we rarely dive deeper than 20 meters here so it is in range for competent open water divers and much of the dive is spent between 10 and 15 meters. Nevertheless the current can run hard here so choosing the right time to visit is important. Mantas can be seen at several shallow cleaning stations in the channel or on a massive thila named Veligandu Thila which borders the Veligandu Island Resort side of the channel and can offer an exciting dive by itself. Even if you had just missed the manta season, the channel is still a great dive where divers can find huge schools of jacks, napoleons and groupers. White tips, grey reef sharks, honeycomb moray eels, sting rays, lionfish, leaf fish and an amazing variety of brightly coloured reef fish are pretty much always on display at this great site.
Veligandu North – A finger like reef protruding out of the Veligandu Island Resort. A favourite among our dive instructors because of the marine life that sharp eyed divers can find and photograph here. Only a mere 15-20 minute ride on the dhoani to reach this site as divers dive on the outside edge of the finger. The top of the reef lies at between 3 and 6 meters and once below the reef top, the current runs reef parallel and we enjoy an easy drift dive. The reef contains many small overhangs and it is within these overhangs that we can usually find several members of the rare ghost pipe fish family and leaf fish family. This reef is also “moray city” as it is full with many different species of moray eels, the most spectacular being the honeycomb moray or the white mouth moray. In addition, with abit of luck we may find turtles, napoleons and a few white tip sharks as we progress along the reef. In season, mantas or mobulas are also regularly sighted. The dive is suitable for all levels and the most interesting marine life is found between 8 and 18 meters though the reef descends to between 35 and 40 meters before reaching a scrubby plateau.
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Rasdhoo at a 3 stay Boutique Hotel

Day 5: Dive at Bodu Gaa & Madi Gaa

Stop At: Rasdhoo, Rasdhoo
Although diving is what you came here for, don’t forget to enjoy the rest of the day by exploring the island of Rasdhoo and mingling with the locals which itself is an unforgettable experience.

Dive Options for the Day

Bodu Gaa – Bodu Gaa means big block in local language of Dhivehi and this dive site indeed has a large coral block sitting just 2m under the surface at the end of the island of Kuramathi resort near the sandbank. This block is enveloped in reef fish. Descending from the block, one finds a sandy plateau at 25m where coral blocks litter the ocean floor. Here we can often spot white tips and jacks chasing fusiliers and sting rays or a leopard shark resting on the sandy bottom. Eagle rays often pass in the blue or circle in the mildly turbulent current sometimes found here. Deeper a large overhang is found at 30m depth. The coral blocks mounted on the plateau are full of marine life varying from sweetlips, snappers to groupers. Once we leave the plateau the dive develops into a steel wall dive along which we drift with the current and keep our eyes open for sharks and rays in the blue and morays and turtles sheltering in the reef. The dive is suitable for all levels as ultimately this is a wall dive starting at 5m, but open water divers will remain shallower and not descent to the plateau.
Madi Gaa – a manta cleaning station inside North Channel, the past of couple of years during manta season we have always found mantas being cleaned on this large single coral block. The bottom here lies at just 13 meters but provides for a spectacular close encounter with large rays and is a favourite of many divers irrespective of experience level. We often have current here as even though the block lies deep inside the channel, at this relatively shallow depth the water movement is still notable.
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Rasdhoo at a 3 stay Boutique Hotel

Day 6: Dive at Rasdhoo & Hammerhead Dive

Stop At: Rasdhoo, Rasdhoo
Your last day of diving before you leave the island but we may have kept the best for last. What better way to end your dive tour than to dive at one of the worlds most famous Hammerhead Shark point.

Dive Options for the Day

Hammerhead Dive – diving with Hammerhead sharks is truly a special encounter. This world famous dive site is situated a mere five minute by dhoani from Kuramathi island. It is one of the few remaining places left in the world where you can still see these magnificent animals. Nevertheless, you still have to get up bright and early if you want to dive with the hammerheads as the best time to dive is around sunrise which is around 06.00am. It truly is a spectactular dive and there is something special about jumping into the 29˚C water in the soft light of dawn and letting yourself decend 30 meteres into the deep blue. The sparkling blue plankton lights our path and the surgeon fish accompanies us as we hover in the deep waiting for the hammerheads to appear from the depths. If you see a large hammerhead up close and personal, that’s a memory that will remain with you long after you’re done with this trip. In the very unfortunate event that the hammerheads decide not to show up, most divers still find this dive a fascinating experience.

Rasdhoo – An interesting site with the wall of the island of Rasdhoo on one side massive coral blocks mounted on the outside steep drop off of the atoll. These two features create a corridor of sand between the inner reef and outer thilas, in places only 20 meter wide. The aqua dynamics of this corridor seems to attract mantas in seasons, and on the bottom we often find string rays and white tip sharks. The individual thilas are inhabited by a beautiful resident blue ribbon eel, mantis shrimp and many moray eels and various reef fish. Napoleans are often spotted on Rasdhoo along with hawksbill turtles, plentiful sweetlips and snappers.
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Rasdhoo at a 3 stay Boutique Hotel

Day 7: Return to Hulhumale

Stop At: Hulhumale, Hulhumale
You’ll have an early transfer to catch from Rasdhoo to Hulhumale at 0730am. So make sure you’re all packed in time to avoid any delays. Our Tour Guide will meet you once you reach Male’ city to get you checked in to your last hotel before you fly back. After exploring much of what lies under the water, we recommend you take time to explore what lies above. We promise that even though it may not be the highlight of your trip, the islands of Male’ City & Hulhumale offer a lot of exciting ‘sites’ for you to explore. We’ve listed below some spots that we recommend that you explore on your free day back in the City.

Recommended Activities

- Visit to the Local Market in Male’ City
- Visit to the Fish Market in Male’ City
- Visit to Friday Mosque
- Visit to the National Museum
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Hulhumale at a 3 stay Boutique Hotel

Day 8: Departure Day

Stop At: Hulhumale, Hulhumale
Your last day will be a free day to spend it the way you like before you fly off. We part ways with our fellow wanderers who we have had the absolute pleasure of serving by saying ‘alun emburi annachey” (please come visit us again) as we know its definitely not goodbye forever!
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
No accommodation included on this day.