help choosing hotel in Maldives
 

Hello Everyone,

I am looking for hotel suggestions in Maldives in Oct 2011. I am looking to try out some scuba diving; so will be good if I can find hotel with good scuba diving facility.

Also I am a beginner with scuba diving; will be getting my open water diver certificate in few weeks; so any good spot suggestions in Maldives for beginners would be great. I am looking for hotels in price range 400- 800 $ per nt.

Also are there any good all-inclusive properties in Maldives?

Looking forward to hear back on the tips and advice :)

Thanks in advance;
Shanky

There are quite a number of AI properties (in fact, you can filter on 'All Inclusive' on MaldivesComplete to get a list with prices. Some of the ones I rate highly...

Athuruga
Club Med Kani (has nice premium side of island)
Kandooma
Komandoo
Kuramathi
Kuredu (has nice premium side of island)
Lily Beach (reputed the highest quality AI)

All resorts will have great diving facilities. Maldives is an excellent spot for beginners because there are lots of shallow, calm, simple dive sites with plenty to see.

Bruce
www.maldivescomplete.com

Thank you Bruce. Is Oct a good time for diving or will there be lot of rainfall as I was reading in the forum that it's in the middle of rainy season?

Cheers;
Shanky

Hi Shanky

The resorts Bruce has suggested are a great choice. I would also suggest looking at resorts which have 'house reefs' as they tend to be better for diving and snorkeling.

As for rainfall, we send clients to the maldives all year round. From the feedback we've had October is equally as good and diving hasn't been effected. The rain tends to be short and sharp and clears away very quickly.

Steve
http://www.notjusttravel.co.uk
and our dedicated site www.notjustmaldives.com

Thanks a lot Steve for the suggestion. Will look into this.

Cheers;
Shanky

Please excuse for hijacking this thread, but is there a list of resorts or hotels with house reefs? What are the best hotels with house reefs?

Hi <b>shanky</b>-we are also headed to Maldives (and Sri Lanka) next month!!!

I was also concnered about the weather and Steve confirms my research that when it rains it is usually brief.

We chose Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru (deluxe beachfront villa, meals included) and booked through a travel company. The price is about $1200/night but there are more cost-friendly accomodations available at this resort. In particular the oceanview villa (not deluxe) which BT informed me can only be booked through a travel company. If memory serves the cost was 800/night so on the higher side of your desired spending-but if it has the diving you want and meals are included and the hotel appeals to you maybe it will be worth it.

They have a 5 star dive center and a house reef.

I have only been diving once but they've said they will accomodate all levels of experience!

Here are some traveler comments on the house reef (open link then click on "house reef"):

http://tinyurl.com/BT-house-reef

Have a really great trip!

<b>ctkathy</b>-hi! It seems like there are many. I tried to find a list but all I could really find were discussions like this one:

http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/s...d.php?t=398048