My wife and I stayed at the Vilamendhoo Island Resort in the Maldives last week and I thought I would provide a quick review of the diving given the dearth of information on this website about Vilamendhoo.
Vilamendhoo itself, an island in the south Ari Atoll, is a 25 minute seaplane ride from the main Male Aiport. Our seaplane service was operated by Maldivian Air Taxi, which has a comfortable and satisfactory check-in and waiting facility at the Male Airport. Vilamendhoo is a very good option for visitors to the Maldives who don’t want to spend a king’s ransom. We paid $229 per night for a superior room and half board and an additional $220 per person for the roundtrip seaplane transfers. The room did not have a television and the shower and toilet were outdoors, but it was certainly acceptable. The island itself is fairly small – 900 meters by 300 meters – and quite pleasant with a bar, two restaurants, badminton and tennis courts, ping pong tables and a dart board, and a television lounge. Breakfast and dinner in the main restaurant was buffet style and quite good. We lunched at the Sunset Bar and paid a la carte prices, which were fairly reasonable ($7-$14 for most entrees).
As for the diving, my wife and I totaled nine dives (five for me; four for her) during our three night stay with six of the nine dives on the house reef. The house reef at Vilamendoo is one of the biggest attractions to the island as it is reputed to be one of the best in the Maldives. There are 10 entry points in total. Entry points 1-6 are on the south side of the island and points 7-10 to the north. The south side of the island gently slopes to 100 feet and beyond, although virtually all the marine life and worthwhile diving is done at 15-40 feet. The north side of the island features a near-vertical wall toward the middle of the island, but as with the south side, the better diving is generally shallow. The dive shop itself is located near entry point 4 on the south side and I would recommend diving between points 2 and 6 on the south and 9 to 7 on the north. The Maldives do not have an abundance of colorful soft corals, but the marine life more than makes up for this. During our dives on the house reef we saw numerous eels, rays, and tropical fish, although few sharks.
The dive operator is now
Euro-Divers, formerly Werner Lau. They typically run two separate one-tank boat trips in the morning and two more one-tank boat trips in the afternoon. Sometimes, they substitute all day trips featuring two single-tank dives separated with a lunch on board the dhoni. Each boat will accommodate up to 20 divers and our two boat trips carried 15-17 divers. Boat dives carry with them a $10 surcharge over the price of dives on the house reef, which cost $45 individually for a single tank. Nitrox is offered at no charge.
Euro-Divers was a little too conservative for my liking. For example, they required us to do a check dive at the outset and perform mask flooding, regulator retrieval, and air sharing drills. Moreover, they claimed that per Maldivian law, Advanced Open Water divers like myself were limited to a depth of 30 meters and Open Water divers like my wife were limited to 20 meters. As a result of these restrictions, my wife was forced to sit out the dive to the Kudhimaa Wreck, which sits in about 100 feet of water. The shore dives on the house reef were much better because of the freedom they afforded. You mark on a dry erase board your desired entry point and entry time with at least one hour advance notice and the dive staff will cart your equipment to the entry point and retrieve your spent tank after the conclusion of the dive. Take note that Euro-Divers will require every diver to carry his or her own SMB, so pack accordingly or be prepared to rent one.
All and all, we enjoyed our time at Vilamendhoo. The resort offered good value for the money and had an excellent house reef. Experienced divers may be frustrated with the conservative nature of Euro-Divers; however, the diving on the house reef, which is quite good, will allow one to avoid the watchful eye of an overbearing divemaster. I would be happy to return to Vilamendhoo again in the future.
