We are avid divers with over 2000 dives all over the world. This was our first trip to the Maldives. At the recommendation of some of our (less experienced, European) diver friends, we went to the Maldives to see Mantas and Whale Sharks. Since there are so many places to go we booked a 2 week liveaboard recommended to us by people who had been on it before. But after we made non-refundable flight reservations, the boat was taken out of service and we had to search for other accommodations during the same weeks.
We booked one week at a Helengeli Resort in the northern end of the North Male Atoll and the second week on the Dream Catcher II liveaboard. We thought we would get to see more of the diving on a liveaboard. The itinerary was never specified but supposedly the boat would go to the North or South Male Atoll the North or South Ari Atoll or the Vaavu Atoll.
After traveling 44 hours to get to Male, we checked in for our seaplane ride (Trans Maldivian Airways) to the Helengeli. There was no flight time on our tickets and when we got to the seaplane terminal we saw all flights had been rescheduled due to weather. Over 5 hours after arriving in Male, we left for our 15 minute flight to Helengeli. This was a very bad start. Although both Trans Maldivian Airlines and the Resort blamed the delay on the weather, the real reason is there were only 8 people going to that resort that day. The morning weather affected their schedule and they lost the use of a plane because it was damaged when it hit a dock. It was a calculated business decision to wait until all 8 people arrived and send only 1 flight. It meant we were inconvenienced a lot so more people would be less affected. It is a business decision I would have made but I would have been honest with my guests. If we knew we would have to wait that long, there were 2 day beds in the VIP lounge where we could have at least slept but every time we asked when we would leave, we were given a time about as half hour later. Other reviews also noted the air transfer was not reliable
We expected to be at the resort in time for lunch and an afternoon dive. We arrived just before dark and after registration, we went directly to the dive school and were able to convince them that we had the experience to do a night shore dive by ourselves on a reef we had never seen before. Reluctantly they agreed and we did get in the water that night which made us feel much better. We then raced back to the room to change because there was only 30 minutes left before the restuarant closed and all of the buffet was put away.
Before we finished dinner, we were presented with a bill for US$4.90. I initially though it may have been for tea and coffee but it was not. It was for a 1.5l bottle of water. Our Full Board package did not include any drinking water. We have been to hundreds of hotels in over 40 countries including much poorer and less developed countries and NEVER have we had to purchase all of our drinking water. Even the lesser hotels in Mexico and Honduras provide a liter of drinking water per person per day. We had a $60 drinking water bill for the week. It would have been a lot more if we didn't drink a lot of tea which was included. If you go to this resort, take a portable water purification system. It will pay for itself in one week. Reading other reviews, we are not the only ones offended by this expense.
The Resort was generally very nice. The food was excellent with good variety. Our room was spacious with a very nice bath with a Balinese shower in addition to the regular shower. There were clean towels and hot water. There were large black ants all over the bathroom floor every night. This was usually not a problem unless one of then got cold and decided to crawl into bed with us. All of the rooms are on the island, not over water like many other resorts. There is a main path in the middle of the island but the beach is interrupted so you can't get to most rooms by walking along the beach. Since all of the paths are sand, no matter how many times we tried to wash and wipe our feet and no matter how many times they cleaned the floors, it seemed that every night there was a little sand in bed.
We chose this resort because it offered shore diving. It described 6 access points for shore diving so we thought there would be 6 different sections of the reef we could see. But the 6 access points are cuts through the coral or the sandy point at the end of the island which are all good for snorkeling. The only good dive entry was from the dock and that was over 1/4 mile from the dive shop. It's a nice walk without dive gear but a very long walk with equipment including a tank. 3 of the others were somewhat closer but required a long walks/swim through the coral cut. Also the currents can be strong and variable. One day we did entry 6 to the dock and it took only 20 min. Another time, the same dive took 52 minutes. The shore diving was both more difficult and less interesting than we expected.
The Dive operator is Ocean Pro. It is a German run operation and as would be expected, is very professional. But it is the most expensive diving we have ever done. The 6 day "Unlimited" diving package is US$474. But that doesn't include any boat dives. 2 boat dives in a day cost an additional US$25 PLUS a $2 "service charge," probably for taking your equipment and tanks to the boat and back. We have been to over 80 different dive resorts and when shore diving is available, it is complimentary on the days you do boat diving. Ocean Pro charges $40-50 PER extra shore dive even if you are doing both boat dives that day. Also the boat schedule and meal schedule makes it extermely difficult to add shore dives if you do both the morning and afternoon 1 Tank boat dives. On the days we did both dives we had time for only one additional afternoon dive or a rushed, early night dive before dinner.
The boat dives are worth the extra cost, relatively speaking. They can be up to 75 minutes, they are drift dives so you don't have to fight the current as much and they are to better sites than the house reef. There are 35 dive sites in their book although some are just different parts of the same reef. Although there was different topography, the marine life was pretty much the same. Like the resort, drinking water was available FOR PURCHASE at us$4.20 + GST and Service Charge. We have never been on a dive boat that did not have pleny of water (and often juice) and encourged you to drink a lot as that is the best known prevention for DCS. Also instead of a refreshing piece of watermelon of orange, they offered a piece of dry coconut after the dive. The crew probably drinks the coconut water.
After a week at Helengeli, we flew back to Male for a second week on the Dream Catcher II liveaboard. This was the only boat we could find that matched our schedule. Our first impressions were great. They met us at the aport and relatively quickly took us to the boat. It was the most spacious of the (over a dozen) liveaboards we had done. Our room was more than adequate with insuite bath and good AC. And there were going to be only 13 divers. After everyone arrived, we had a boat briefing, a very unimpressive lunch, and a check out dive just outside the boat basin. We didn't expect much from that dive (and didn't see much) but I did learn my tank was leaking badly because the plug for the DIN tank valve was never properly tightened.
After that they moved the boat to the an island in the North Male Atoll only about 8NM from the airport. After another unimpressive meal, the "cruise director"/divemaster discussed the options available for diving. Basically he told us there are long passages between Atolls and if we want to do some of the more distant ones we would miss dives and we should let him and the captain decide where best to go. Since none of us had been to the Maldives before, we all agreed. We spent a day and a half in the very south end of the N Male Atoll before moving the boat about 25NM South to the S Male Atoll where we spent the rest of the trip. We were never more than 20NM from the Airport. By the 3rd day, we realized they were taking us to the closest dive sites and giving us short dives and realized we had made a mistake booking this boat.
Dive profiles were 30m (100ft) for 50 minutes. Most of the reefs were deep and almost all were at least 25m (80ft). Nitrox was not available. If you go to the Maldives, we strongly recommend that you are Nitrox certified and stay on a boat or resort that has Nitrox. By the 4th day, the less experienced divers were complaining about the strong currents and requesting easier dives. 4 of the last 6 dives were on the outside of the atoll rather than on the corners (for which we were briefed) where marine life is more abundant. I don't know if it was by design or the currents in the channels were really too strong or the boat dropped us in the wrong place. Maldives diving is not for inexperienced divers because of both currents and "negative entry" for many sites where immediately after jumping off the boat, you turn face down and swim down to the reef.
We did see white tip sharks, napoleon Wrasses, some eagle rays, 2 sting rays, a fair number of hawksbill turtles and 1 green turtle, and a good assortment of reef fish. The fish were larger and more abundant at the sites near Helengeli Resort the week before so we already had a data point for comparison. We suspect the proximity to Male was one of the reasons the marine life was diminished. Also, our boat, and probably most others, went out on the same reefs and harvested fish for our meals. This offended us.
The food was poor. Meals were buffet style and food was usually cold and sometimes insufficient quantity. It was either chicken or fish (20cm red snapper harvested from the reef), prepared basically the same way for every meal except the last lunch which was a beef curry. Meals included rice, pasta or ramen noodles, vegetables and salad. Dessert was watermelon or fresh papaya or Canned fruit. The best we can say about it is we did not get sick. We had good AC and hot water was available ...sometimes. I'm sure the towels were washed but they looked dingy and neither towels nor linen was changed all week.
Between dives there was nothing to do. All the dive gear was on the tender so even if we were close enough to a shallow reef to go snorkeling, we couldn't because it was away from the boat, filling tanks. I refer to it as a tender becasue it was not the traditional wooden Dhoni design. It have very poor maneuverability and had difficulty picking up divers. There was no fresh water on the boat to rinse even cameras or regulators. It was also a tricky step to get from the boat to the tender.
The only opportunity to get off the boat is a BBQ on the beach. There is an "Island Tax" for use of the island of US$10-20pp. We all had to agree to do the BBQ and only after we did were we told it would be $20. It was NOT worth it. The crew brought the same food cooked on the boat and reheated it on the wood fire. Even dessert was the same canned fruit. We were taken by skiff in 2 trips to the island and there was not even enough time to go snorkeling for the first group. The second group got there after dark, just in time for dinner and didn't even get to walk around the island. All boats offer this excursion. Unless other boats do it a lot better, it is a rip off and we advise you to skip it.
This was prime Manta season and in 16 dives in Helengeli and 17 dive on the Dream Catcher II, we didn't see one. After traveling halfway around the globe, this was a major disappointment. The visibility was poor, about 10-15 m (30-50ft) and filled with plankton which usually brings in the mantas and whale sharks. Are Mantas seen less frequently than the advertising implies? Or are they at more distant reefs? We will never know because we will probably never go back to the Maldives. There are many other places we have been with much more to see.
We booked one week at a Helengeli Resort in the northern end of the North Male Atoll and the second week on the Dream Catcher II liveaboard. We thought we would get to see more of the diving on a liveaboard. The itinerary was never specified but supposedly the boat would go to the North or South Male Atoll the North or South Ari Atoll or the Vaavu Atoll.
After traveling 44 hours to get to Male, we checked in for our seaplane ride (Trans Maldivian Airways) to the Helengeli. There was no flight time on our tickets and when we got to the seaplane terminal we saw all flights had been rescheduled due to weather. Over 5 hours after arriving in Male, we left for our 15 minute flight to Helengeli. This was a very bad start. Although both Trans Maldivian Airlines and the Resort blamed the delay on the weather, the real reason is there were only 8 people going to that resort that day. The morning weather affected their schedule and they lost the use of a plane because it was damaged when it hit a dock. It was a calculated business decision to wait until all 8 people arrived and send only 1 flight. It meant we were inconvenienced a lot so more people would be less affected. It is a business decision I would have made but I would have been honest with my guests. If we knew we would have to wait that long, there were 2 day beds in the VIP lounge where we could have at least slept but every time we asked when we would leave, we were given a time about as half hour later. Other reviews also noted the air transfer was not reliable
We expected to be at the resort in time for lunch and an afternoon dive. We arrived just before dark and after registration, we went directly to the dive school and were able to convince them that we had the experience to do a night shore dive by ourselves on a reef we had never seen before. Reluctantly they agreed and we did get in the water that night which made us feel much better. We then raced back to the room to change because there was only 30 minutes left before the restuarant closed and all of the buffet was put away.
Before we finished dinner, we were presented with a bill for US$4.90. I initially though it may have been for tea and coffee but it was not. It was for a 1.5l bottle of water. Our Full Board package did not include any drinking water. We have been to hundreds of hotels in over 40 countries including much poorer and less developed countries and NEVER have we had to purchase all of our drinking water. Even the lesser hotels in Mexico and Honduras provide a liter of drinking water per person per day. We had a $60 drinking water bill for the week. It would have been a lot more if we didn't drink a lot of tea which was included. If you go to this resort, take a portable water purification system. It will pay for itself in one week. Reading other reviews, we are not the only ones offended by this expense.
The Resort was generally very nice. The food was excellent with good variety. Our room was spacious with a very nice bath with a Balinese shower in addition to the regular shower. There were clean towels and hot water. There were large black ants all over the bathroom floor every night. This was usually not a problem unless one of then got cold and decided to crawl into bed with us. All of the rooms are on the island, not over water like many other resorts. There is a main path in the middle of the island but the beach is interrupted so you can't get to most rooms by walking along the beach. Since all of the paths are sand, no matter how many times we tried to wash and wipe our feet and no matter how many times they cleaned the floors, it seemed that every night there was a little sand in bed.
We chose this resort because it offered shore diving. It described 6 access points for shore diving so we thought there would be 6 different sections of the reef we could see. But the 6 access points are cuts through the coral or the sandy point at the end of the island which are all good for snorkeling. The only good dive entry was from the dock and that was over 1/4 mile from the dive shop. It's a nice walk without dive gear but a very long walk with equipment including a tank. 3 of the others were somewhat closer but required a long walks/swim through the coral cut. Also the currents can be strong and variable. One day we did entry 6 to the dock and it took only 20 min. Another time, the same dive took 52 minutes. The shore diving was both more difficult and less interesting than we expected.
The Dive operator is Ocean Pro. It is a German run operation and as would be expected, is very professional. But it is the most expensive diving we have ever done. The 6 day "Unlimited" diving package is US$474. But that doesn't include any boat dives. 2 boat dives in a day cost an additional US$25 PLUS a $2 "service charge," probably for taking your equipment and tanks to the boat and back. We have been to over 80 different dive resorts and when shore diving is available, it is complimentary on the days you do boat diving. Ocean Pro charges $40-50 PER extra shore dive even if you are doing both boat dives that day. Also the boat schedule and meal schedule makes it extermely difficult to add shore dives if you do both the morning and afternoon 1 Tank boat dives. On the days we did both dives we had time for only one additional afternoon dive or a rushed, early night dive before dinner.
The boat dives are worth the extra cost, relatively speaking. They can be up to 75 minutes, they are drift dives so you don't have to fight the current as much and they are to better sites than the house reef. There are 35 dive sites in their book although some are just different parts of the same reef. Although there was different topography, the marine life was pretty much the same. Like the resort, drinking water was available FOR PURCHASE at us$4.20 + GST and Service Charge. We have never been on a dive boat that did not have pleny of water (and often juice) and encourged you to drink a lot as that is the best known prevention for DCS. Also instead of a refreshing piece of watermelon of orange, they offered a piece of dry coconut after the dive. The crew probably drinks the coconut water.
After a week at Helengeli, we flew back to Male for a second week on the Dream Catcher II liveaboard. This was the only boat we could find that matched our schedule. Our first impressions were great. They met us at the aport and relatively quickly took us to the boat. It was the most spacious of the (over a dozen) liveaboards we had done. Our room was more than adequate with insuite bath and good AC. And there were going to be only 13 divers. After everyone arrived, we had a boat briefing, a very unimpressive lunch, and a check out dive just outside the boat basin. We didn't expect much from that dive (and didn't see much) but I did learn my tank was leaking badly because the plug for the DIN tank valve was never properly tightened.
After that they moved the boat to the an island in the North Male Atoll only about 8NM from the airport. After another unimpressive meal, the "cruise director"/divemaster discussed the options available for diving. Basically he told us there are long passages between Atolls and if we want to do some of the more distant ones we would miss dives and we should let him and the captain decide where best to go. Since none of us had been to the Maldives before, we all agreed. We spent a day and a half in the very south end of the N Male Atoll before moving the boat about 25NM South to the S Male Atoll where we spent the rest of the trip. We were never more than 20NM from the Airport. By the 3rd day, we realized they were taking us to the closest dive sites and giving us short dives and realized we had made a mistake booking this boat.
Dive profiles were 30m (100ft) for 50 minutes. Most of the reefs were deep and almost all were at least 25m (80ft). Nitrox was not available. If you go to the Maldives, we strongly recommend that you are Nitrox certified and stay on a boat or resort that has Nitrox. By the 4th day, the less experienced divers were complaining about the strong currents and requesting easier dives. 4 of the last 6 dives were on the outside of the atoll rather than on the corners (for which we were briefed) where marine life is more abundant. I don't know if it was by design or the currents in the channels were really too strong or the boat dropped us in the wrong place. Maldives diving is not for inexperienced divers because of both currents and "negative entry" for many sites where immediately after jumping off the boat, you turn face down and swim down to the reef.
We did see white tip sharks, napoleon Wrasses, some eagle rays, 2 sting rays, a fair number of hawksbill turtles and 1 green turtle, and a good assortment of reef fish. The fish were larger and more abundant at the sites near Helengeli Resort the week before so we already had a data point for comparison. We suspect the proximity to Male was one of the reasons the marine life was diminished. Also, our boat, and probably most others, went out on the same reefs and harvested fish for our meals. This offended us.
The food was poor. Meals were buffet style and food was usually cold and sometimes insufficient quantity. It was either chicken or fish (20cm red snapper harvested from the reef), prepared basically the same way for every meal except the last lunch which was a beef curry. Meals included rice, pasta or ramen noodles, vegetables and salad. Dessert was watermelon or fresh papaya or Canned fruit. The best we can say about it is we did not get sick. We had good AC and hot water was available ...sometimes. I'm sure the towels were washed but they looked dingy and neither towels nor linen was changed all week.
Between dives there was nothing to do. All the dive gear was on the tender so even if we were close enough to a shallow reef to go snorkeling, we couldn't because it was away from the boat, filling tanks. I refer to it as a tender becasue it was not the traditional wooden Dhoni design. It have very poor maneuverability and had difficulty picking up divers. There was no fresh water on the boat to rinse even cameras or regulators. It was also a tricky step to get from the boat to the tender.
The only opportunity to get off the boat is a BBQ on the beach. There is an "Island Tax" for use of the island of US$10-20pp. We all had to agree to do the BBQ and only after we did were we told it would be $20. It was NOT worth it. The crew brought the same food cooked on the boat and reheated it on the wood fire. Even dessert was the same canned fruit. We were taken by skiff in 2 trips to the island and there was not even enough time to go snorkeling for the first group. The second group got there after dark, just in time for dinner and didn't even get to walk around the island. All boats offer this excursion. Unless other boats do it a lot better, it is a rip off and we advise you to skip it.
This was prime Manta season and in 16 dives in Helengeli and 17 dive on the Dream Catcher II, we didn't see one. After traveling halfway around the globe, this was a major disappointment. The visibility was poor, about 10-15 m (30-50ft) and filled with plankton which usually brings in the mantas and whale sharks. Are Mantas seen less frequently than the advertising implies? Or are they at more distant reefs? We will never know because we will probably never go back to the Maldives. There are many other places we have been with much more to see.
