Maldives - Best House reef (for shore diving)

[cynikill]

Has anyone got any recommendations for maldives resorts with a good (shore accessible) house reef for diving? We have been to a couple of islands and Vilamendhoo was not bad, but would like to try another one. We are looking at November which is monsoon swapover time - has anyone been around this time of year? Whats it like in Nov and which regions/atolls are the best bet for mid-late nov.

[lampwick]

Kuredu, the only Island I've been to, twice, easy access to the house reef, huge variety of fish, from stone fish, watch your pinkies, to schools of bat fish, grouper, eagle rays, and a whole lot more.

Try , http://www.prodivers.com/ 5 star dive centre on the island, can't help on the weather in nov, but its great in august, aside from the odd 10 miniute downpoor, about 3 in the 2 weeks we were there.

[lampwick]

Knew that reply was a mistake, just been on

http://www.kuredu.com/index.aspx
and
http://www.prodivers.com/

I wanna go back again, were's the lotto ticket????

[Manta]

Any of dozens of resort islands could be recommended, for specifics on the time of year and individual resorts you may be better off asking on a diving forum, Maayafushi where we stayed was pretty highly rated by visiting divers but they all seemed to rave about nearby Ellaidhoo - iirc it was a nightmare getting a booking for the resort though, hence why Maaya was second choice.

[cynikill]

Cheers, ill look into it. Kuredu does seem to crop up a lot in recommendations so is under consideration, not heard much about Maayafushi - ill check it out.

[Kraken]

Hi, just returned from Dhonveli in the Maldives. I was going to spend some money in the dive centre but all the marine life was in the lagoon to see.We just snorkelled in the lagoon and around our water bungalow.Saw a lot of Stingwray's and Reef Sharks.
There is a house reef also to view even by snorkelling.

This is a good island has it is a 30 minute speedboat ride from the airport. There are a lot of strong currents around the island and only 1 beach on the lagoon side.

I have also dived in Kuredu in 1997 and it was great,don't know how good it is now.

[Kraken]

[deeperdiverdude]

Just back from Kuredu, the house reef is OK but is lagoon side at around 5m and quite a long surface swim. The Kuredu outer reef is difficult to get out to as the reef plate is shallow and there arn't many access points there for more a a boat thing.

Prodivers in Kuredu were very good, some nice Manta dives.

Also did Kuramathi which has quite easy access to the outer reef which was much better than Kuredu's inner reef and has some really nice big plating corals but lots of bleaching (which is common across the Maldives).

DDD

[thumper]

what about Bandos small island not far from male
or meeru in the other direction
i have also been to Kuredu and can echo what has been said the reef is a bit of a swim to see good stuff, and the corals were a bit bleached, however we went on a snorkelling private excursion by speedboat and you didnt have to go far to see better corals, komandoo for one
hth

[simon garratt]

Not only one of the best reefs in the Maldives (probably the best imo), but also one of the best reefs you'll ever see for a whole host of reasons.


http://www.reefsmagazine.com/showthread.php?t=72046


regards