happy_life

Hi all,

I'm traveling solo in the Maldives for a week in March and want to know the best place for surfing and how far is it from Male?

Many thanks in advance

Hanuman

I recommend that you do some research on the Maldives first before you ask your question. The islands there are all mini atolls and there are no good surfing area.

Cicerone

Actually, there are places for surfing in the Maldives, and one is reachable from Male in about half a hour by speed boat. It is quite near the Four Seasons Kuda Huraa, which is how I found out about it, see http://www.fourseasons.com/maldivesk...n/surfing.html. I am not a surfer and have not surfed there, but have been to see it, and it looks quite fun. It is a wave area created in the space between two small islands. The surfing are itself is very small; I don’t think it is Hawaii or anything, but I believe people do come from various parts of the world to do it. There may be another place in the south where you can surf as well. March would probably be a good time as that is the start of the rainy season and you get the winds blowing to bring the rains. You could do this as a day trip from Male, which I would not recommend as Male is not the nicest place, but there are less expensive resort islands nearby, like the Dhonveli see http://www.dhonvelibeachresort.net/ which is next door to the Four Seasons and you could almost wallk to the surfing place.

happy_life

Great! Thanks for your very detailed reply.

Hanuman

Well bite my tongue! Apologies for not doing the research myself before answering but in all of my trips to the Maldives I've never seen anyone surf or the kind of condition that would be suitable for surfing.

Cicerone

Yes, I was surprised myself as you would not think a series of flat coral islands in the middle of the ocean would lend themselves to surfing, but when I was at the Four Seasons one of the staff members was talking about it, and then I asked to go see it. Seeing is certainly believing and it really looked fun.

happy_life, by Googling, I just found
http://www.surfcampholidays.com/mald...ysmaldives.php which lists a number of surf sites in the Maldives. It also mentiones Tari Village Resort which is apparently what Dhonevi Villaage used to be called, and this place has Pasta Point which is its own exclusive surf area. Might be worth looking into. They apparently host surfing competitions.

Cicerone

Sorry, I see from another listing at
http://www.surfcampholidays.com/mald...ysmaldives.php that there is a surf site IN Male. It is at Lonuziyaarai Beach in the south east corner of the island, which means you can walk to it from a Male hotel (or take a ferry over from the airport hotel).

There is also apparently a fair surf site at Full Moon Beach Resort. This is now a Sheraton, it’s just OK as a resort (may be a little nicer than Dhonveli), but is even closer to Male. See http://www.starwoodhotels.com. I’m going to stop looking now, but that site seems very helpful.

happy_life

Thanks again. Honestly you've done all the (hard) research work!

MaldivesComplete

I've accorded Chaaya Island Dhonveli the 'Best for Surfing' award - http://maldivescomplete.com/blogs/ma...-dhonveli.aspx - since the Association for Surfing Pros world qualifying contest was held there. Can't be bad.

Bruce
www.maldivescomplete.com