Question Maldives without liveaboard?

[tony28898]

My friend and I will go on a trip to Maldives this August but unfortunately, our schedule did not match any of the liveaboard boats. Is there anyone who got experience diving in the Maldives without going for liveaboard? We still hope to get a lot of dives there so any recommendation on planning/dive resort would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Ryo

 

[ontdiver]

There are quite a few dive resorts in the Maldives that would probably match up with whatever you were setting aside for a LOB. Here are a few for starters: The 8 Best Scuba Diving Resorts in the Maldives

 

[scubaozy]

My friend and I will go on a trip to Maldives this August but unfortunately, our schedule did not match any of the liveaboard boats. Is there anyone who got experience diving in the Maldives without going for liveaboard? We still hope to get a lot of dives there so any recommendation on planning/dive resort would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Ryo

I stayed in Ellaidho, Eriyadu, Embudu and Bandos, all relatively budget islands popular among divers with passable house reef. If you have 2 weeks try to book 2 islands in different locations/atolls. Btw, August is off season, so, island diving is a bit riskier as you cannot escape the rain like you could on a Lob, but I did travel there also on off season and had mostly good luck, so, stay optimistic.

 

[tony28898]

I stayed in Ellaidho, Eriyadu, Embudu and Bandos, all relatively budget islands popular among divers with passable house reef. If you have 2 weeks try to book 2 islands in different locations/atolls. Btw, August is off season, so, island diving is a bit riskier as you cannot escape the rain like you could on a Lob, but I did travel there also on off season and had mostly good luck, so, stay optimistic.

I only got one week there so maybe I'll lookup the locations there and see if I can get an atoll in the south or west(?) side of the country as I heard the vis would be better in those regions. Thanks fo the input!

 

[tony28898]

There are quite a few dive resorts in the Maldives that would probably match up with whatever you were setting aside for a LOB. Here are a few for starters: The 8 Best Scuba Diving Resorts in the Maldives

Do you have any experience staying in any of those resorts? Looks like most of them are luxury resorts and I kind of worry about the diving fee in those resorts. PADI recommended, you know :/

 

[Angelo Farina]

Do you have any experience staying in any of those resorts? Looks like most of them are luxury resorts and I kind of worry about the diving fee in those resorts. PADI recommended, you know :/

In truly luxury Maldives resorts, as those were I and my wife worked as DMs/instructors, EVERYTHING was included, all sports and also alcohol.
So you should not worry of the cost per dive.
You only had to pay the certification fee (not the full cost of the course) if being trained there.
But my understanding is that this model of "all included" resorts is almost disappeared...

 

[Sunn]

The price could be lower than LOB, but could also be higher, depends on what level of resort...

Another thing is that the islands are very tiny, you can walk around most of them in less than 30 min... are you not going to be bored ?

Of course, if you are young married, that's something else...

 

[STEMI]

I stayed at Ellaidhoo in January. Unfortunately had to leave after a couple days due to a death in the family. I was there long enough to highly recommend it though. The diving prices are a bit more expensive than the US/Caribbean, but not outrageous, and certainly not more expensive than other Maldives resorts' diving prices. In 3 days of diving, we dove 6 different sites (including a manta trip) plus the house reef. That was my first time there so I cannot speak to the off season. For what it's worth, we loved it enough that we are going back in September (also the off season) for a makeup trip.