Mega Maldives Tour & an Insider's Guide to Dhigali

I fell in love with the Maldives back in 2000. With some help from an instructor friend, Jim Evans, I managed to organise an assignment for Sport Diver Magazine to Kuredu in the Northern Lhaviyani Atoll. I was mesmerised by the sheer quantity of fish species including sharks, mantas and turtles, and this was just on the house reef!

Over the past 20 or so years, I have returned several times. Last year, with some help from Euro-Divers and tour operator Dive Worldwide, I planned an ambitious trip taking in three resorts in 12 days. Euro-Divers Marketing & Sales Executive, Susanne Valverde, suggested visiting diver's favourite Vilamendhoo, followed by Meeru and then a new 5-star resort called Kagi. Even though there were multiple seaplanes and boat transfers, the whole trip ran extremely smoothly. I can’t praise Susanne enough. She was up for the challenge and absolutely smashed it!

This year I thought I would push Susanne’s efficiency to the limits and make plans to visit four resorts in 16 days! Just to make life even more interesting I would be travelling to three different atolls, so logistics were in a word ‘complicated’. The first resort on my hit list was Dhigali located in the not so dived Raa Atoll followed by a brand-new resort Alila Kothaifaru, just a 30-minute boat ride away. I would then take multiple seaplane transfers back to Male and on to the LUX resort located on Dhidhoofinolhu Island in the South Ari Atoll, finishing up my trip with another seaplane transfer and boat ride back to Kurumba near the international airport in the North Male Atoll.

It’s worth mentioning that I visited during the low season for the Maldives, which is May through November. During this time there's more chance of clouds and rain. On previous trips, this hasn’t really been a problem but on this visit, the heavens occasionally opened, but rain rarely stops play in the Maldives so I still managed to do 3 - 4 dives every day except on travel days.

An Insider's Guide to Dhigali

The island where Dhigali is situated is approximately 1.2 kilometres long x 200 metres wide and there's a regular bus service (every 15 minutes) so nowhere is too far away. I was housed in a beach bungalow at the sunset end of the island, which was about a 10-minute walk from the dive centre (which is located around the middle of the island).

Thanks to the wet weather, my arrival was slightly more dramatic than expected. Regarding accommodation, don’t expect to see quaint-looking thatched roof bungalows - it’s a more square modern looking design that's more energy efficient for air-conditioning. All the rooms have a sea view, whilst my deluxe beach bungalow had an outside bathroom. There was also a sofa, table and chairs overlooking the sea. I had absolutely no complaints at all - everything was an excellent standard and my room was always kept clean and tidy. The Lagoon villas with a pool are the most expensive category with the best view (sunset) overlooking the beach and a sandbar which grows to around 100 metres long during high season.

Dhigali has created a great app that provides details on daily activities, information on bars and restaurants, spas etc. - there’s even a map of the island, so I wouldn’t get lost. I thought this was an excellent idea and frequently used it during my stay.

Most of the resorts I have visited in the past offered buffet-style food for breakfast, lunch and dinner; however it was slightly different at Dhigali with a buffet breakfast and à la carte lunch and dinner. Post Covid, I think quite a few resorts are changing to this format. There are a variety of restaurants to choose from offering a good mix of Indian, Asian and Mediterranean style cuisine. My favourite had to be the takeaway pizza station, which was open from 11am - 6pm every day. There was also a café offering a selection of pastries and cakes, so I certainly wasn’t going to starve! The best spot for evening cocktails has to be the Haali sunset bar, with its extremely tall cathedral-like design. Outside the bar, there are beanbags for everyone to melt into - what a perfect way to end the day!

The diving here is conducted through Euro-divers PADI 5-star dive centre, managed by Mauro Guimacaens-Valverde. The operation can muster up to four dive boats if required, comfortably carrying 12 divers each, and I went out on a 16.2 metre GRP hull Dorado Barracuda which had a shaded area, toilet and sundeck. The crew were brilliant, always helping with the kit. The standard cylinder size used is 11-litre aluminium, whilst there are some bigger gas guzzling 12s available and Nitrox is free of charge.

Mauro has been working at Dhigali for four years, and there are three full-time instructors on his team. He offers more than 30 dive sites of which 15 are regularly dived, however, there's no house reef. Mauro’s top four sites are Labyrinth Thila (which is five minutes away from Alila resort), Miyaru Thila, Uthuru Thila and Vadhoo Thila. Depending on the season, they have one manta cleaning station during West Monsoon called Solar Corner and three during the East Monsoon. Nearby the UNESCO World Heritage Site Hanifaru Bay offers snorkelling with mantas and Mauro noted in high season there can be as many as 200. I was paired up with instructor/guide Tomoko Yamanaka who was more than happy to pose for my pictures.

Apparently, in the distant past, the Raa Atoll was targeted by the shark finning industry, but despite this, I still saw sharks on most dives. The most predominant shark species include grey reef, nurse sharks, guitar sharks and the odd lemon shark.

Euro-Divers go out for a two-tank morning dive, return for lunch, and then go out again in the afternoon for a single tank dive. This works well for divers with families as they can go diving in the morning and then spend the afternoon relaxing by the pool or on the beach. Most of the dive sites are between 15-45 minutes boat journey (depending on the monsoon, the manta cleaning stations may be further away). The dive sites are mainly Thilas (underwater pinnacles) and marine life sightings are usually sharks, turtles and shoals of fish with the possibility of passing manta, eagle and mobula rays. There was even a whale shark sighting during my visit, and some sites are full of giant sea fans and have overhangs to explore.

Contact our team to book your stay at Dhigali Maldives, or read Stuart's next account from his Maldives diving holiday.