best Liveaboard itineraries for Dec/Jan diving Maldives

[slh02]

Hello all,
I'm in the beginning stages of looking into a diving trip in The Maldives for Dec/Jan... assuming the ban is lifted of course! I'm a little overwhelmed with all the information out there. We are definitely interested in a Liveaboard as opposed to staying at one resort. We are two friends traveling, so definitely want to avoid the romantic resorts that The Maldives are typically known for.

What itineraries should we look at? We are both advanced PADI, but we also like to have a dive master guide each of the dives. We like the bigger stuff - sharks, mantas, etc. Whale sharks would be a nice bonus! Some itineraries seem to go much further south than others, and I'm having a hard time deciding which itinerary I should be focusing on. Once we narrow down the itineraries we can start looking into specific boats.

As a bonus, if anyone can recommend a specific Liveaboard that would be greatly appreciated! We are probably looking at middle of road regarding prices. Obviously, the diving ideally would be top notch, but for the money, I don't need to stay on a super luxurious boat.

Thank you!

 

[Tippytoes12]

The Southern trips cost more because of the extra distance, but apparently there are more sharky sites there and a higher chance of seeing unusual species like hammerheads and threshers and tiger sharks.

We did three Maldives LOBs and loved them.The usual Best of Maldives trips are fantastic and follow a circular route around 4 Atols. You will visit several Manta cleaning stations, see sharks on most if not all sites and have a very good chance of snorkelling with whalesharks. Sometimes whalesharks appear on a dive, but the snorkelling is brilliant.A lot of the hard coral has been bleached, but there are lots of soft coral sites and masses and masses of fish everywhere.

We travelled twice with Emperor Divers and once with Blue O2, loved them all. Emperor is a British company that has four or five boats in the Maldives. On their more luxurious boats there is better food and wine with dinner, but the routes and service are all the same. It depends on your budget. All have, usually, three guides who are always in the water. So there will be three groups. However buddy diving is allowed. Groups go down together and then if a buddy pair wants to take a bit more time to take a photo or whatever, that’s acceptable. Most people stay with the guides on most dives. But you must come up with 50 bar, not go below 30 mts and not stay under water for longer than 60 minutes. We found the Blue O 2 and Emperor guides to be excellent. On one trip there were just 11 passengers, but all three guides did every single dive.

I hope this helps and wish you a fabulous trip !