Wakatobi or the new Maldives Aggressor?

[Lisa24]

I am new to this forum and this is the first time I have posted but you guys have already been helpful from looking at previous posts.

My question is, if you had to choose between going to Wakatobi for 7 nights or the new Maldives Aggressor for 7 nights from Feb 3-10, what would you pick? This will be our first trip to Asia diving (we have been to Indonesia,Cambodia, and Thailand before were were certified).

Were pretty new at diving, we only have about 25 dives logged. Just a little information, we have dove the Great Barrier Reef, Grand Cayman, and Fiji.

Thanks in advance for the help,
Lisa

 

[Damselfish]

hmm, tough one, both sound good. I was on a liveaboard in the Maldives at the end of January. It was great, but would not have been a good trip for an inexperienced diver. Most dives had unpredictable strong to ripping currents, often started on the deep side, low vis blue water looking for whale sharks, etc. I'm not sure if that is typical for the Maldives, typical for that time of year, or they were simply getting us to the best sites as everyone was pretty experienced so they didn't have to find easy dives. No idea if the Aggressor would do things differently.

 

[Lisa24]

Since we are pretty new to diving, I'm not sure what a normal drift dive is supposed to be like, but while in Fiji I would say the currents were pretty strong. We had to hold on to the reef for the safety stop. I think we did just fine though. No problems. Our first dive in Fiji started at around 100ft and up from there. Vis was not so good, maybe around 30-40ft or so.

Are currents always strong in the Maldives? Did you see the whale sharks? How about Manta Rays?

Thanks, Lisa

 

[Live_in_Sin]

Feb. is dry season, so current can be quite strong. personally between wakatobi & Maldives Aggressor, I would definitely go Maldives Aggressor. however with 25 dives..... you may have to miss some great channel dives. because, strong current & quite deep. you have to be able to descend quickly as possible (negative descend) and swim against strong current to get to the reef edge (30m). also you have to be able to do safety stop in blue. coz most of shallow reefs are around 15m. at Aggressor, most of (or all) divers dive with Nitrox. well, you still have got 1 year to practice.