Trip Report: Six Senses Laamu

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Polpessa

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Scuba Instructor
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My partner and I just returned from a week’s stay at Six Senses Laamu, the only resort located in Laamu atoll, located in the southern part of the Maldives. The resort itself is absolutely fantastic and you can find lots of info, reviews and reports about the resort elsewhere online, but my intention here is to give my impressions of the diving and dive operation.

:goingdown:

Overall: the diving is excellent and extremely varied. The dive staff were all very friendly, fun and professional. Muktar, Jörg, Marcela and Margherita (great to dive with!), along with a super boat crew, showed us an amazing time.

Experience level
They have sites for all levels from beginner to the most experienced and you can do dive courses or try diving for the first time there. Some of the most exciting dive sites can have current, such as the manta point and some of the channel dives.

Exclusivity
There are no other resorts in the vicinity and most liveaboards do not dive this area so you are pretty much guaranteed to always be the only people at the dive site, which is unheard of in most places with great diving. There’s nothing worse than going to a beautiful dive site only to have to share it with a gazillion other divers, and seeing more bubbles and people than fish. The feeling of serenity and connection with underwater nature was very strong due to always being in small groups and not having other dive operators at the sites. During our week there, sometimes we were the only guests diving on the boat, other times there were 2-5 other guests.

Mantas
There is a manta point just 15 minutes away from the resort and on our first dive there we were treated to 4 or 5 mantas.
The Manta Trust are currently on-site doing a long-term study of the manta population here and they document every manta they see with an ID shot of the unique pattern on its belly. You can contribute to their research by giving your ID photos of mantas (if none of the Manta Trust folks got a photo), and they are keeping a tally of the number of mantas sighted. When we were there in early July, they had counted almost 300 mantas in 2 months. They also offer a Manta Specialty Course of 2 dives where you can learn about the different manta species, how to identify individuals, their gender, how to interact with them etc. Their manta site is one of the few in the Maldives where the mantas are found year round, instead of staying half the year then migrating to the other side of the atoll as is the case at most other Maldivian manta sites.

Other Marine Life :talkingfish::bablefish::goldfish::fish:
We also went on a channel dive where we were again treated to a manta, as well as several good-sized grey reef sharks, a squadron of eagle rays swimming together in formation, a school of barracudas, a large marble ray and a massive school of silvery whirling jacks. Awesome! That site also had some pretty soft coral, whereas most of the other sites featured hard coral gardens. In addition to the big stuff, we also saw many turtles, moray eels, reef octopus, cute blennies, cleaner shrimps, mantis shrimps, pink-eyed gobies, lots of anemone fishes, harlequin file fishes, fire dartfish, many different species of surgeonfish (mesmerizing to watch one particular species which changes colour instantly from black to pale blue while they are being cleaned), butterflyfish, angelfish, parrotfish, huge schools of yellow lined snappers etc. and all this set in very pretty hard coral gardens. We didn’t see many nudibranchs but then it’s hard to concentrate on hunting for the wee creatures when you’ve got big stuff coming out of the blue.
We also saw dolphins :pinkdolphin::pinkdolphin:from the surface during the boat ride to the dive site, which according to the staff there, you are pretty much guaranteed to see if you stay for a week.

House Reef
They have a house reef which unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to dive properly (I was always on the boat dives), but I did do a really quick 2 minute check dive on the house reef to ensure my sinuses were ok and that I could equalize before getting on the boat (unfortunately I was suffering from a cold during my stay) and during those few minutes I saw some nice coral, garden eels, and two-tone dart fishes as well as the usual tropical reef fish.

Snorkelling
The snorkelling is also excellent - you can go right from your bungalow, enter the house reef by beach or various strategically located steps, or join a boat tour. Just from the wooden walkway in front of the dive centre I saw a juvenile eagle ray and baby blacktip shark and there’s very pretty coral.

Safety
The dive operation takes safety seriously and all boats had emergency oxygen, lifejackets, first aid kit etc. They also adhered to the standard Maldivian dive rules, which is maximum 30m /100ft depth and maximum 60 minute dive times. If you haven’t done a dive for more than 6 months, they will take you on a dive to review and refresh your skills. My dives there were pretty much always 60 minutes which I was happy about as I dislike having to come up after less than an hour’s dive. If you need /want to come up sooner there are extra staff who can accompany you so that not everyone has to surface early. All dive guides / instructors have a safety sausage /SMB so I never had to use mine but I would recommend having one (you can get one at the dive centre if you don’t have) just in case. The instructors / guides also carry a location device (PLB) so that in an emergency, they can radio the dive boat and send out a distress signal.

Water Temperature & Viz
The water was a balmy 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) so you can easily dive in a shorty or just a pair of boardshorts and rashguard if you like.
The viz was excellent as expected – 25-30m /100ft seemed to be standard.

Boats, Staff, Dive Equipment and Schedules
Boats were large, comfortable and had a head (toilet). Entry is by giant stride and getting back on the boat is easy.
In addition to being given water before and after each dive, we were also offered tea, coffee, fruit, and pastries. There is a freshwater shower on board if you want to get the salt off right after the dive, and big fluffy towels are provided.
Captain and crew were very helpful, carrying all tanks and gear for you to/ from the boat and rinsing and storing it after each dive. We used our own equipment but good quality dive gear is available for rent. You can choose either 10 or 12 liter tanks and air or nitrox. Nitrox is checked by the diver on the boat before departure.

The dive instructors and guides were an international mix so that pretty much every language was covered and the ones I dived with (Jörg, Margherita), showed a genuine love of diving and made every effort to kindle this same enthusiasm in their guests. Jörg and Marcela were really friendly and immediately made us feel welcome. I was very impressed with the fact that Margherita really listened to me when I mentioned my marine life interests, and took this into account while guiding me underwater. For example, for the second dive of the morning on a two-tank dive trip, she mentioned that there would be no current and a possibility of seeing octopus. I told her that I wanted to dive slowly, that octopus are my favourite marine creature and that I am also interested in seeing macro life. During the dive she proceeded to find me 3 octopuses :eek:ctopus: (we saw 4 in total! :banana:) She also took a nice leisurely pace and showed me interesting macro life such as a tiny nudibranch and a curious mantis shrimp living in a hole in a coral head who came out to look at us when she clicked her carabineer. It’s wonderful (and unfortunately rare) to find a guide who tailors a dive to suit your interests like this.
The in-house marine biologist (a young Maldivian man whose name escapes me) is enthusiastic and friendly and does several weekly presentations about marine life as well as guiding snorkel tours. We attended the presentation about sharks which was informative and entertaining.

Diving schedules are highly flexible depending on what you want, whether it’s one dive in the afternoon or a full day of diving plus night dive. Typically there is a double tank dive trip which leaves at 9:00AM and a single-tank dive which goes out at 10:30AM so that both hard-core divers and people who perhaps have a non-diving partner are catered to. Getting to dive sites takes from just 15 minutes (manta point) to an hour depending on where you want to go.

Final Word
The general manager of the resort, Marteyne, is passionate about diving and underwater photography and this enthusiasm is contagious both with her staff and guests.
I highly recommend the diving at this resort for spoiling yourself with luxury, exclusivity, lots of big marine life encounters and superlative service.
 
HI there Polpessa, thank you for this fantastic and detailed review! I realize that this reply is coming a bit late, but...

My girlfriend and I are headed to Six Senses Laamu in a few weeks and are interested in doing some diving. We aren't certified yet, but are thinking of doing e-Learning and confined water dives before we leave home, and then doing a referral course to complete our certification at Six Senses Laamu. I realize you didn't do this course there, but I'm wondering whether you'd have any tips about whether this would be a worthwhile experience (vs., for example, just doing a couple of resort dives rather than the full-on certification). In theory, we'd like to be certified, but we also recognize that this takes up a good chunk of time (some of it spent on learning and verifying skills) while we are on vacation and wonder whether the resort dives would still give us a good experience and exposure to impressive marine life. I should mention that I've done a resort dive before in Indonesia and enjoyed it.

Thank you in advance!
 
Hi NewToScuba80,
I would definitely recommend doing the referral course and then completing the certification dives at Six Senses Laamu, especially since you tried a resort dive before and liked it. You will love being a certified diver, the experience just gets better with every dive as you improve your buoyancy skills, perception and understanding of the marine life.
Doing the theory and confined water sessions before going on holiday will mean once at the resort you can focus on doing the fun part - diving - and will have greater confidence and skill for enjoying the amazing underwater world around the resort.
Have an amazing time!
 

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