Shukuriyaa Maldives

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A total of 9 hours with a scale in Dubai, but it was definitely worth it.

Malé, the capital is not a place to stay in the Maldives, as there is not much to do there. We just stayed there the last night as the weather was so unpredicable that we were worried about losing our early morning flight. There are many many islands in the Maldives and all of them are connected to Malé via speedboat, seaplane (only resorts) and domestic flights.

Actually, it surprised us how easy it was to get to tiny islands in atolls and how disorganizedly organized things are in the Maldives (you don't know were you go, but they take you exactly were you need to go, either if you have to change transport 3 times).

We chose a local island to spend one week in Paradise. Actually, maldivians live in local islands and go to work to nearby resort islands. We chose an island called Dhigurah, on the south edge of the Ari atoll. It is a 3km long island and we thought it was a nice island as it allowed us to have walks and be able to meet the islanders. We stayed at a hostel called White Sand Dhigurah, where the staff was really helpful. The good thing about staying in local islands is that the locals get to manage their own incomes and That is important to me.

I also got to practice my newly acquired diving skills and spotted many species including puffer fishes, napoleon fishes, clownfishes, whitetip and blacktip reef sharks, turtles, manta rays and whale sharks also!

So much diversity and with an amazing environment, clear and warm waters and very friendly local divemasters.

It will be a wonderful souvenir for me and my family.

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Comments

[Ake Och Emma]

Wonderful pic
We were in the Maldives ourselves a few years ago. We did the same as you did. We spent only a few hours in Male and the rest of the time in a resort, It was nice but we don't think we'll go back any time soon. /Ake