Lhaviyani Atoll

Diving here runs from resort dive centres. Prodivers has operated at Kuredu for 35 years and also staffs the centres at Hurawalhi, Komandoo and Nala. Boats leave the resort jetty for sites anywhere from a few minutes to an hour away: Salleydhoo Thila is 15 minutes north of Le Méridien, Maduvvari Dhekunu Kann 25 minutes west, and Meyyafushi Beyru and Nemo Thila, to the northeast and north, are 50 and 60 minutes each way. Between boat trips there is house-reef diving; Le Méridien's sheltered north-side reef holds five dive areas, two thilas and a small wreck, and is open year-round.

The atoll is a ring of about 50 islands cut by many channels, and the sites sort into the usual Maldivian kinds. Thilas such as Maduvvari Haa carry a reef top at 5–8 m falling to about 30 m, with overhangs on one side and a hard-coral garden on the other; Salleydhoo Thila has two tongues dropping to 20–22 m under thousands of glassfish. The channels are the fast dives. Meyyafushi Kandu crosses 12–30 m of open channel in about 20 minutes on the right current, and Faadhoo Kandu is only crossed when the flow is mild, because the bottom is too deep to shelter in. The Shipyard adds two 40-year-old wrecks at about 30 m, one upright and one on its side, thick with soft and hard coral.

The set piece is Fushifaru Thila, a pinnacle in the northeast channel that has been a 1,393 ha Habitat/Species Management Area since 1995. The reef is about 150 m long and 70 m wide, its top at about 10 m, ringed by sand, with the atoll rim dropping to 27–35 m beside it. A plateau of coral blocks works as two manta cleaning stations during the southwest monsoon, and logged reef-manta sightings there run from August to December, with October and November the busiest months. Sharks are the other draw: more than 15 species have been recorded in the atoll and six are seen regularly, with grey reefs schooling in the channels, nurse sharks resident at Ahga Giri and leopard sharks at Nemo Thila.

It suits divers on a resort week who want a whole atoll to work through rather than one headline event: thilas for everyone, channels for those with drift experience, wrecks, and a manta site that rewards a stay in the wet months. Beginners are well served on the sheltered thilas and house reefs, but the kandu crossings are for experienced divers and are skipped when the current runs hard. Anyone whose trip is built around mass manta feeding should look at Baa Atoll and Hanifaru Bay instead, and anyone who wants several atolls in one week is better served by a liveaboard route through the central atolls than by a single resort here.