When we first arrived in the Maldives at Veligandu Island Resort in 2012, we didn’t have a diving license. We did our PADI Open Water course only one year later at the Atmosphere Resort in the Philippines. But since we liked the underwater world of the Maldives already at that time while snorkeling, it was clear to us that we definitely want to dive here again.
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The Deep & Breeze Water Sports Centre
Robinson Club Maldives has its own water sports centre called Deep & Breeze, i.e. there is its own diving school on site. Deep & Breeze does not belong to ROBINSON itself, but is a subcontractor like the photoshop or the spa. But the guest on site doesn’t really get that.
The Deep & Breeze Water Sports Centre on ROBINSON Island is well equipped and offers a variety of diving activities and PADI diving courses, whether you are a beginner or an advanced player. On our second day at the resort, we first explored the dive sites and prices at the diving school. We were somewhat surprised that there were relatively few divers in the period in which we were on the island. Of the nearly 200 guests, just one handful dived – we found that somehow relatively little. But all the better for us, because we don’t like large dive groups so much – rather small and individual.
One thing you have to be aware of when you want to dive in the Maldives: it’s not cheap. The respective diving schools on the different resort islands of course also have a certain monopoly position, because there are no other diving schools far and wide. Unless you would go to another resort island for this purpose. But who is already doing this and how do you want to get there? If you don’t bring your own equipment, deep & breeze costs about 100-120 US dollars per dive, depending on whether you dive on the house reef or take a boat trip. Prices can easily keep up with Palau, where we were in April 2017. But the Maldives is certainly one of the best dive sites in the world 🙂
Our dive at the house reef
We had arranged our first dive directly for the next day. Since we were last diving at the shipwreck Zenobia in Cyprus and that was over six months ago, you have to do a check dive here, which is carried out on the house reef. But this is not as tragic as it sounds, the instructors just want to see how well you dive or whether you have forgotten half since the last dive 😉
The entrance to the house reef
With Tim, our German diving instructor, we walked from the diving center with the complete equipment to the beach and from there swam to the reef edge. That’s kind of cool when the reef is right on your own doorstep. For about 60 minutes we dived into the 29 degree warm water and watched the hustle and bustle under water. By the way, the depth limit in the Maldives is 30 meters – we didn’t know that before. The dive times and depths are meticulously documented after the dives, because they can be controlled by the authorities.
Diving after a cold?
Since Michael unfortunately struggled with a severe cold in front of the Maldives, we could only go down to about 5 meters at the beginning of our dive, because he got pain in his ear during the pressure equalization. This has improved a bit during the dive and we were able to dive at a depth of 20 meters, but with the aftermath of a cold is not to be fun, especially when diving. For safety we went to the island doctor of the ROBINSON Club after the dive. And in fact: Michael still had a blockage of the sinus and therefore could not make a proper pressure equalization. Therefore, from now on: Absolute diving ban for the next three days! Of course very annoying if you are only in the Maldives for 1 week anyway, but unfortunately also not to change. Safe is safe, so that no permanent ear damage occurs.
Our dive on the outer reef of Gaafu Alif Atoll
On the fourth day everything was great again and we could do two more dives with Deep & Breeze from the boat. No other guest was there, so we had a private tour for the normal price – how cool! In the morning at 9 o’clock we started at the jetty with the submersible. The destination was a dive site on the outer reef of Gaafu Alif Atoll,which took about 50 minutes to drive. When we were there, the equipment was quickly put on and we went into the water. We started the dive on the outer reef, but then we were pulled by the current into a canal. From then on we could only let ourselves drift and drifted over a dead coral landscape. Imagine you’re sitting on the train and the forest-and-meadow landscape is passing you – that’s about it. There wasn’t really much to see here. Really a pity.
The dive site Hafsa Thila Reef
The second dive was much better. Here have dived like a coral mountain (Hafsa Thila) in the water. There was a lot of small stuff to see here and an incredible number of shining anemones with their nemos. We could hardly see each other enough and hung for minutes in front of an anemone to observe the little clownfish. Sugar sweet. In addition, we were able to photograph two rocking fish (Leaf Fish), a nude gill snail and a moray eels. And almost half the dive accompanied us a curious bat fish. By the way, this was already our insgeamt 121. Dive 🙂 within 5 years
Our dive video of Gaafu Alif Atoll
You can watch what else we saw during our 3 dives in our dive video. Finally, we can say that diving in the Maldives was good, but it didn’t blow us off the stool. Since we saw almost nicer and more things while snorkeling at the ROBINSON house reef. But diving is always a matter of luck! Sometimes there are dives where you can see a lot, and we have now unfortunately caught some who did not offer so much. Only the dive at Hafsa Thila Reef was really great! Nevertheless, we had imagined a more magnificent color of the underwater world in the Maldives. Unfortunately, in many places the reef was currently very grey and dead. One can only hope that the ecosystem will be able to recover to some extent in the next few years.
By the way, since November 2015, tourists in the Maldives have been subject to a so-called GreenTax, currently amounting to USD 6 per day/person. This ecotax is used to preserve the environment.
All travelogues from ROBINSON Club Maldives
The ROBINSON Club Maldives is located in the Gaaf-Alif-Atoll in the southern part of the Maldives about 60 km north of the equator. The 107,000 sqm club grounds can only be reached by domestic flight from Male and by speedboat. Once you have made this long journey, a lonely island called Funamadua is waiting for you - just 450 by 240 meters, located in the middle of paradise and surrounded by turquoise blue water and a white sandy beach.
Robinson Club Maldives: Flight, Arrival & TransferRobinson Club Maldives:
Robinson Club Maldives: The All Inclusive Offer
Robinson Club Maldives: Relaxing on the island of Funamadua
Robinson Club Maldives: Our wedding on the beach
Robinson Club Maldives: Snorkeling on the house reef
Robinson Club Maldives: Deep & Breeze Diving