Maldives - Manta season & location

[Jon Turnbull]

I am going to Maldives but want the best chance to see Manta's & whale sharks. I understand that the monsoon seasons are important but do not know where the best sites are for differ
ent seasons. Can anyone help please. Many thanks.

 

[chiara]

From what they told me when I was there in February (Lohifushi - North Male Atoll), May through October it's the eastern side of the atolls, November through April it's the western side.

I was quite happy on Lohifushi, smallish island, basically no entertainment, good food, good diving centre.

Beware, diving in the Maldives is awfully expensive (and a bit disappointing considering the condition of corals at most of the sites).

 

[padishep]

There is a fair amount of coral bleaching in the Maldives, however the deeper (30'/ 10m) and deeper are unaffected. The Tilas in and around the resorts on South Ari Atoll are in fantastic shape, with plenty of excellent diving to be had.

As to the cost (this is an average)- If you're diving 1 or 2 tanks a day on a daily rate the cost is $30 a tank! EXPENSIVE!
However, most resorts offer multi-day, all you can dive, rates. If you're there to dive like I did, the cost per tank is down to $14.


This still sounds like alot, but when you average the overall cost of the resort, the inclusive meal packages and the cost of diving, I paid $750 per week (during a 2 week stay)when I last went to Villehmendoo, S. Ari Atoll.

This is cheap for US destination diving. The expensive item for US divers is the getting there! It costs me anywhere from $1,400 to $1,700 RT from the west coast (Seattle to LA to Norita, Japan to Singapore to Mumbai, to Male)- and 42 hours in planes and airports!

 

[neilstewart]

I have made many postings on White Sands, Ari Atoll, Maldives on this board and a search using White Sands and Ari Beach will bring them up.

I like Padishep am a big fan of this area. I always go late may. This year I saw eleven whale sharks in 6 dives on the outside reef. The big liveaboards come down there to see them, some boats from other islands travel 2 hours to come down there. Some stats, over the whole of 2002 - 100 separate sightings. In May this year alone - 49 separate sightings.

The remaining 22 dives I made in my two weeks were on the Thilas in the channels all of which were deep enough to avoid the effects of El Ninho. You will still see on Dhigu Thila 10ft across table corals with 6 or 7 baby white tips underneath. At 7th Heaven there is the most amazing soft coral garden I have ever seen 25m - 30m. This site is a new discovery this year and regarded by some of the instructors as their best site!! The famous Kuda Rah Thila Reserve is within 30 minutes by Dhoni. The equally renouned Broken Rock is 40 minutes.

As to prices for diving. I made 28 boat dives in 13 days using Nitrox every dive and the total cost was $550 (including my repeat discount). On the island you can take a NRC Nitrox course for $60 and the DO will give you free Nitrox fills for your whole stay. If you then go back (which you surely will) you get it for nothing again and the repeater discount of 15% off the bill at any euro-divers run operation.

As for Mantas, I did see them in 01 and in 02 (40 at one time in procession and before anyone asks "no not Manta Mobila" the larger species) but none this year although as I was waiting for my seapalne transfer home a guy came into reception from the snorkel trip run by the island and they had seen two, so they are there. There is a regular Manta cleaning Point within 80 minutes from Nov to Mar.

I sometimes think that I sound like a rep for this place but I truely have nothing to do with the island except I dearly enjoy my time there and want to encourage others to go. I don't understand why anyone who wants to see whale sharks and lets face it thats probably everyone on this board is not there in May.

Padishep, as for getting there, how much would it cost you to get to UK? Well from the UK in May you can get a half board package including scheduled flights from Heathrow for two weeks for $1400. Its a 10 hour flight plus of course what it takes to get to London. Sounds a much better way round than your route.

see www.kuoni.co.uk

Check out

http://www.maldiveswhitesands.com/pages/mainframe.htm

http://www.euro-divers.com/

PS Jon. I made 3 very nice Dutch friends whilst I was there both Heleen and Dennis are working on the island but go back home in August. If you check out the web site that's Heleen on the contact us page. Also met Roland who's in the band Aemen. Feel free to PM me if you want any further info.

Neil

 

[Jon Turnbull]

Neil,

Many thanks for the info. I will follow through with this info with my buddy & see how we go.

Happy diving

Jonathan

 

[neilstewart]

Jon,

If you intend to go next year in May then I will probably see you there!

Neil

 

[Sylvie]

Dear Jon

I dove in the Maldives Rasdhoo Atoll, North Ari Atoll & Ari Atoll, and saw mantas in all these areas between the second half of October and early November. My best experience was off the resort island of Ellaidhoo, which is on the eastern border of the Ari Atoll at the edge of the East/West channel. There we spotted mantas from our bungalows and ran in the water with our snorkelling gear. We snorkelled with two manta families for about 45 minutes while they were feeding. They didn’t seem to mind our presence and continuously swam (or should I saw danced like ballerinas) around us. An unforgettable experience. We also saw Mantas diving a few times, but never so close nor for so long.
Ellaidhoo is considered one of the top diver islands in the Maldives, because it lies on the edge of the channel and has a great house reef and it very own wreck at aprox 20-30 meters (which is regularly visited by other dive boats). Other visitors of the house reef include whale sharks, dolphins, tons of moray eels, lion fish, puffers, turtles, lobsters, and the usual array of Maldivian fish. The diving centre is run by SubAqua based in Munich, and the international team is very professional and well organised. We booked directly through them a got a very reasonable all inclusive deal including a non-limit diving package. For me the main drawback of the island is that it didn’t have a superb beach like other islands. The beach is fine, but it has a wall build around it to prevent beach erosion, so the view is blocked. The Island is (or was) affiliated with Kuoni Italy, so the buffet style food catering to discriminating tastebuds it good. Maldivian dishes, Italian dishes, and other European dishes are on offer. It’s one of those sand islands where even the restaurants, lobby has a sand floor, and guest never need to wear shoes. In 2002, guest were primarily Italian, Spanish, German, British, Swiss, Japanese, Israeli and Indian. Generally speaking Ari Atoll has some beautiful dive sites with plenty to see, and even a few spots on the Western edge were the coral was not bleached.

Sylvie

 

[volcom]

Hi All,

Neil, I'm off to White Sands in November 7th - 21st and am even more excited than before after reading your posts. I'm a wee bit worried about the weather on land though. My girlfriend doesn't dive and wants to bask in the sun in tropical surroundings while I try my luck at Manta and Whale Shark spotting! Anyone had experience of Weather around this time in this area? Also any more info on the White Sands resort and other activities to try would be most welcome.

Cheers

 

[neilstewart]

Hi Volcom,

Just returned from an 8 week trip to White Sands yesterday, I did my DM there. As allways staff both in the dive shop and in the hotel first class and I bring back with me many good memories. I went a bit later than I usually go due to exams but still saw 4 whalesharks pretty early in my stay. The dive shop saw 3 in the last 2 weeks but I was diving the Thilas and not the outside reef on those days. November is supposed to be the 2nd best Month after May for seeing those whale sharks. Manta season should be about starting at the time you go, so I think you will be able to see those as well. They now have a speedboat on the island so Fish Head, Maya Thila and even Malos Thila can be in reach now. June/July are supposed to be the worst months for weather and yes during the 2 months stay I did get 7 days of bad overcast rainy skys. It would have been unfortunate for those people who went for a week which happened to coincide with those two 3/4 day periods. November is also a monsoon changing month and can be "baddish" but I think you would have to be tremendously unlucky to have your trip spoiled by weather. There is loads off stuff to do on the island, all the usual watersports and I'm sure your girlfriend will appreciate the spa. Everyone who goes absolutely adores it there, especially the whites sands special, lasts 80 mins, includes hot stones and all that sort of thing, very relaxing. Thilas are still looking good especially Kuda Rah, AA Thila and Hane Thila. I'm sure you will have a fantastic time and like nearly 70% of all the people who go there become a repeat guest. I am already planning my next trip, its the only way to get over coming home, December, easter or nexty summer.

Regards

Neil

 

[volcom]

Hi Neil,

Fantastic feedback mate, really appreciate it! I'm sure I'll enjoy it as much as you by the sounds of things. Doubt my work would appreciate me taking 8 weeks off though, so my relaxation won't last quite as long as your's did!

Many thanks

Rory