Maldives in December - Dhoni Migili?

[TTA]

I'm trying to plan our honeymoon in December this year and we're hoping to go to the Maldives! We're looking for some good old honeymoon-type luxury living plus great diving (of course!). Ideally we'd love to see some mantas and possibly a whale shark (though we aren't counting on it).

After having surfed through the forum and speaking with some people - I was told the best places to go for mantas/whale sharks would be the South Ari Atoll and perhaps the North Male Atoll (though no whale sharks here). Is this right?

Having spoken to our travel agent (Abercrombie and Kent), she suggested that we stay at the Dhoni Migili (http://dhonimighili.com.21.m6.net/) where we would get our own villa plus a Dhoni which apparently has a full crew and we can sail around to wherever in the Ari Atoll we wanted. Plus we could get a DM to come with us to show us the best sites.

Has anyone been to Dhoni Migili and does anyone know if what our travel agent is suggesting is even remotely correct? It sounds a bit too good to be true! Like our own mini liveaboard but we could come back to island whever we want and use the spa and restaurant facilities.

Apparently the DMs come from the Divers Haven - does anyone have experience with this?

If the Dhoni Migili plan doesn't work out we are looking at a number of other options - Huvafen Fushi (the ocean bungalow or the beach pavilion), Soneva Fushi and the like. Does anyone have experiences of these and know if they have any dencent house reefs? (We've dinged Soneva Gilli as apparently it doesn't have a house reef - we'd like to do more than 2 dives a day so understand that we'd have to go do our own dives to do more than 2 a day).

Thanks for your help!

 

[bradshsi]

When we went to the Maldives, we stayed at Bolifushi (South Male Atoll). Talking to various people I got the impression that this island was above average for diving with a good house reef plus many other nearby reefs and wrecks to choose from.

During the 5 dives that we did there, we saw turtles on two dives, Manta rays on two dives (on one of the dives we saw a group of them). We also saw plenty of sharks and different fish types.

No whale sharks though..

The dive shop there seemed well equipped and the people there (mostly Italian) were friendly. They offered two organised dives per day although I did not check whether you could arrange your own dives.

Hope this helps.

http://www.bolifushi.com/welcome.htm

 

[swisstrav]

have been 3 times to the maldives and never seen mantas or whale sharks;-((

last time was in dec 2002 at mirihi. just opposite of the island is the mantapoint. however no mantas so far. if the mantas are important to you, i suggest to shift your travelplans towards january or february. no idea about the whale sharks. been also in the maldives in may (rethi rahh) and october (athuruga)

as far as i know, what they state on their homepage is true. depending on flightscedule i would do one way by dhoni and get a few add. dives in. just make sure there is a sufficient supply of tanks availabe. also verify with the island that you can do as many dives as you want.

just get married now and enjoy your stay

swisstrav