Maldives--Ellaidhoo

Maldives is a white spot for me, because it has never seemed good value for dive trips. However, I have "found" myself booked on a family trip on the last two weeks of December to Ellaidhoo in North Ari Atoll. Not really a dive trip, but will bring camera anyways. It is supposed to have some of the better diving in the Maldives according to reviews.

Has anyone been? What can I expect? Should be ok season wise right? Dive center is Dive & Sail (Alfons Straub?). I have mailed them and asked about photo-facilities.

Hi Christian

My partner and I were there in March 2013. Dive and Sail were the operators then too - and we dived mainly the house reef, Chaaya. The dive centre was good. Sorry but can't really recall their photo facilities. I'm pretty sure I took my system back to the room each day - it wasn't far. We did 3-4 dives a day and used Nitrox. Accommodation was very good. Food nothing short of superb. Water temp a toasty 28 degrees. Lots of shore diving. Entry was though a slightly odd protective encircling breakwater.

Best diving in the Maldives? Hmm, that's quite a boast. It was good: all the usual reef fish, some rays (mainly Eagles), schools of blue-stripped grunts. Some macro but mainly wide-angle. We did a couple of boat dives with them including the locally much-touted "Fishhead" site. The current was r-i-p-p-i-n-g and we spent a lot of the dive reef-hooked in trying not to lose masks, cameras etc. Very good hard and soft corals at Himedhoo Tila. Malhos Tila was good with overhangs, soft corals and Gorgonians.

If this seems slightly less than enthusiastic.... it was a slightly strange trip for us. Lots of equipment failures or weird happenings. I know this sounds odd, but we both found a curious, rather gloomy, atmosphere to the diving - especially around the entry points. For the first time ever, we were actually quite glad when the last dive finished. Weird.

As I say though, the resort is fabulous and the diving pretty good.

To be honest Tim, that sounds pretty horrible. I guess I had the right idea about the Maldives all along. And to be fair to the claim, I think there's some difference between THE best diving and SOME of the best. Well, well ... I'm going there.

Hmmm, what can I say, Christian! I'm sure you'll have a good time though on the island. The resort is very good.

We've dived Vilamendhoo a couple of times and that was really good diving.

Concur totally with Tim's comments. The season you are going should be fine although typically a strong wind is likely to blow from one side of the island for you whole holiday.

We (3 divers) did a similar pattern of mainly shore diving plus a really strongly current swept manta dive. We all found the shore diving a bit gloomy as it is not like other Maldives islands we have visited.. Ellaidhoo has mostly steep, not very colourful walls with a few small "caves" cut into them whereas other islands have more gently shelving reefs which get full sun. Also Ellaidhoo is in our view a bit over-developed and crowded compared to others. It wasn't a bad trip by any stretch - not horrible as you suggest - but we haven't been back and chosen to repeat other islands instead.

Dive centres on the Maldives - at least those we have visited - are not really geared up for serious photography like you find in Indonesia or Philippines. Certainly no camera rooms and no photo advice about the best sites unless they are trying to sell you an all day trip looking for mantas and whale sharks. We have been on some boat trips which we were told would be good only to be very disappointed and now find the most productive photographic diving is to work the house reefs repeatedly.

Also forget about "crystal clear water" - words often associated with the Maldives. You might get lucky for the odd day but these are current swept islands rich in plankton, hence the big pelagics.

Yep, Jim's description of the diving hits the nail on the head. I'd go back to Vilamendhoo with its sloping sun-light reefs. Ellaidhoo? Not for the diving.

And my experience of Maldives dive centres is the same as Jim's. They're not set up for "serious" photographers.

Well, you get the truth from drunks and wet pixelers. Thanks guys. I'm sure I will endure anyway. My (today!) 13-year old daughter will finish her OW certication so that will be exciting enough. And frankly, we didn't have a lot of options as most resorts were sold out during this time frame (like Vilamendhoo), it's bloody Christmas New Years ... The only other realistic option was Bandos island in Male Atoll--only 15-20 minutes from the airport by boat, so I ruled it out on that--and Eriyadu also in the Male Atoll, but on the west side, so December is apparently the wrong monsoon.

Hello My Name is Walter

I live in Ari Atoll since Nov 2014, i need to say that i have the best dives of my las 14 years and more than 8000 dives around the world, why?, becuase i dive all day every day. is true that sometimes Maldives can be a big deception but you need to dive & dive & dive to really have a real Maldives if you only do few dives , then can be very disappointing, i remember my first dives here sad,sad i was missing Thailand & indonesia ,but with the time i really love diving in the Maldives

I would like to share one of the videos of the dives in the housereef in our Resort.

Kandolhu island Resort

Cheers