Carpe Vita
This liveaboard is a gorgeous boat, with very large cabins. It is only a couple of years old. The crew is superb -- divemasters give great briefings and are conscientious. The food is good, but not great -- it's kind of bland. The diving is all drift diving, so you must be comfortable with that style of diving. Bring a reef hook. Also, the diving in the Maldives is more about the big stuff, mantas, tuna, whale sharks, sharks, rays, etc., than small macro stuff (although there is some of that). The scenery while cruising the islands is spectacular. The tour is all-inclusive, which was very nice. It included a half-day tour of Male, the capital. I went in March. February and March are the best months to go for diving. One tip on travel:
Don't fly through Mumbai! It's a horror of an airport. The best way to get to the Maldives from the U.S. is to fly through Dubai. I would highly recommend Maldives diving and the Explorer Ventures Carpe Vita. I would go again -- that kind of says it all!
