Visit Date: May 2009

Diving at island hideaway is very relaxing and safe. The instructor(s) (Yuko and Saweed) are very professional and try and satisfy every need. They try their best to ensure you have a good dive experience. I requested 3 dive sites which they were happy to accommodate. The instructor(s) give a very good pre-dive briefing and check the current and visibility before entering. The boat crew is friendly and helpful. The kit is assembled for you and the boat crew assists you when exiting the water. The cost is $92 which includes full kit and boat trip. This is well worth it as you receive water and fruit after your dive. I would recommend reading up on the dive sites beforehand (http://www.island-hideaway.com/recreation/dive_sites.htm ). I saw a variety of fish, manta ray, eagle ray and turtles etc.

Snorkeling on the house reef is very good and most of the fish which I saw on the dives I also saw on the house reef. I recommend purchasing the ‘Maldives Tropical Fish Guide’ from the Hideaway Bazaar which costs $8. We spent quite a bit time after snorkeling the house reef identifying the fish we saw.

Visit Date: September 2008

We were there mainly for the diving and suffice to say this was excellent. We never had more than 7 people in the water and never saw any other dive boats. This atoll is way North and the dive sites are still being discovered, outstanding. The dive centre staff, boat crew (local) are all excellent. Maureen, thanks for getting my 60+ stepfather out on a couple of discovery dives. Free nitrox, kit all moved, washed etc for you, faultless. (Appreciate staff turnover regularly in these places.) Rental kit appeared to be good quality, xenon torches for hire, Suunto computers etc. (Required in Maldives)

Mixture of wall/drift/wreck and thilas. Great dhoni with shower/WC! and top sun deck. 3 boat staff and usually 2 instructors for 7 people max! Fresh water, towels, fresh coconut all provided after dive. Good brief of dive site, good supervision.

Also the snorkelling is the best I have seen. Walk from the pool onto the beach and within a few metres you will be over the coral. Fin a short distance and you will be on the edge of the deep water channel. Here I saw: Turtles, moray eels, lion fish, scorpion fish, baby sharks and of course hundreds of different reef fish. The current was gentle and as long as you had sun block on your neck, legs etc it was quite easy to spend an hour watching life go by. Further into the channel dolphins occasionally came through. The coral is in good condition and the night dives are also done on this house reef.