Luxury scuba diving holiday for a week
Maldives is a country that consists of 1192 coral islands. Most of these local islands have house reef and local fisherman catch reef fish and bait for tuna fishery. Local guesthouses take their tourists at house reef for snorkeling and scuba diving. Reefs are a vital part of the lives of Maldivian citizens. While the islands are all mapped the reefs remain officially unenumerated. Diversity of reefs make it very difficult to count. Some small reefs that are not visible at the surface can only be discovered by scuba diving. Having so many coral reefs and marine life makes Maldives a wonderful place among scuba diving enthusiasts.
Every tourist resorts in the Maldives has a dive centre on the island. Therefore, if you have reserved a resort you don’t have to worry about diving facilities. You can rent all equipment and dive with professional instructors. Since there are some risks involved the industry is strictly regulated in the Maldives. You cannot do open-water diving without certification. Most resorts offer various certification programmes from basic to Dive Master level. If you are totally new you can do exploration dives in shallow waters with dedicated instructor ensuring your safety at all times, usually there are some sessions conduct in swimming pool prior to heading out to the lagoon or reef.
In addition to resorts the Maldives also offers holiday aboard yachts that cruise for a week, make stops along the way for diving at most populator spots in the region. A shared cabin can be as cheap as $250 with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Your package also includes 2 or 3 dives daily and there is a Give Guide onboard to lead the team. The Guide always conduct briefing prior to each session, explains sea currents and other conditions and whole group follows the Guide. Quality of yachts vary from 3 star or luxury 5 star. If staying aboard for a week is not your cup of tea you could ideally stay in one of the resort and rent a yacht for a full day expedition within the atoll.
Luxury diving is sightly more complex than regular holiday planning. You need to book the holiday package through an experienced local company that can organise every aspect of the itinerary. Luxury resorts such as Velaa Private Island have their own yacht at the resort and guests can hire it. But, most resorts do not have this facility and travel agent has to rent from third party. Travel agent can communicate with resort and make all necessary arrangements for you.
Most popular yacht models operating in Maldives include Princess 54, Princess 64, Majesty etc. These models are built for cruising, rather than scuba diving. Yachts do not go near reefs as they operate in safe waters that are deep and free from any obstruction. Getting to reef requires another boat, usually a small wooden boat comes along with yacht if you are hire to for scuba diving. The small boat can easily maneuver at the reef and conduct the excursion without getting stranded.
On luxury diving trips the food and beverage aspects require well planning and attention while addressing to dietary requirements of guests. If the guest has an open budget and wishes to organise the best diving holiday the yacht needs an onboard chef who can prepare fresh meals. Priority Maldives is a local agent that offer hire of professional chefs for yachts and private villas.
Scuba divers usually follow the sea currents during the dive. Swimming underwater makes it tiring and it causes more oxygen to be consumed, that reduces time you could spend below the surface. Even though the waters are not regarded as cold in Maldives it still feels cold when you get back to the yacht or dive boat. That’s when you need a hot drink. A hot soup makes it so satisfying at that moment. You may have spa treatments organised aboard. But, nothing goes before the soup.
There are other essential services required for luxury holidays. The yacht may receive at the airport and end the tip far away some where at remote location. In that case a VIP seaplane will need to be chartered. Also, all tourists arriving the Maldives comes to Velana International Airport as most of the international flights operate to this place. It is a one of the most crowded airports you could see, it is serving over its capacity. But, Priority Maldives offers a VIP class service that lets you skip all the chaos and proceed from flight to lounge by skipping the arrival termina. Similar for the departure guests can check-in directly to the lounge and proceed to flight from there when boarding call is heard, you baggage check-in is taken care by the staff. While you are in the lounge you have free WIFI along with food and beverage entitlements. There are queues to process passport, while you are in comfort a staff collects your passport and returns after processing, it is as simple as that. You well pampered even in the airport when you plan your luxury diving holiday with Priority Maldives.