When I first booked to go to the Maldives, I pictured myself lying on an empty beach with warm, soft, white sand, surrounded by turquoise waters on a sun lounger with a cocktail in one hand and a good book in the other. Much to my surprise, the Maldives offers so much more than just a paradise to relax in that we ended up exploring and trying out activities I didn’t even know existed.

Riding an underwater scooter:

Many of the activities you will try when visiting the Indian Ocean are sea based, due to the nature of the landscape. For those that are visiting Maldives, many hotels offer snorkelling trips, and there are a number of excellent dive schools. If you are not a qualified scuba diver and not keen to spend part of your holiday in a classroom, here is your answer. You can now take a bubble scooter underwater to safely take you down to where the fish, coral and shallower dive sites are to experience marine life. It is an excellent way to discover the ocean giving you a stunning picture powering through the crystal clear waters of what this ocean has to offer.

Underwater restaurant:

Fine dining has reached a new level, with new excellent underwater restaurants in the Maldives, offering guests a chance to experience what it is like to be under water. Each restaurant has its own speciality but what these restaurants have in common is the incredible experience of seeing the numerous varieties of sea life swimming around and above you during your meal. Dine in SEA or SubSix if you would like a roof above you and to watch the lion fish, parrot fish and angel fish, if you are lucky stingrays or blacktip sharks swim around you. For the more daring restaurant 5.8 or Ithaa under the sea restaurant completely surrounds you with the ocean. See the inspiring SubSix Niyama Private Islands below!

Scuba diving:

Arguably one of the best places to go scuba diving and a firm favourite of mine, the Maldives not only offers a huge range of marine life, it also (time of year dependent) offers some of the warmest and clearest waters in the world. Here the range of larger marine life is incredible, you can swim with manta rays, a large variety of sharks and also the spectacular whale shark. There are also a huge amount of stingrays and fish as well as incredible coral sites that are as alive and colourful as any I have seen around the world.

Most islands and hotels have their own scuba diving centres and schools, whether you have never tried diving or are an expert, they can tailor to your needs ensuring a fantastic experience.

Free diving:

Free diving is an interesting concept to me and as a scuba diver one that had not particularly appealed. It is very different to scuba diving for a number of reasons. Firstly it is about not only being environmentally friendly, it is about promoting fitness and health. You can be as shallow or as deep as you can go for as long as you can hold your breath. It is a form of underwater diving which anyone can try, and the free-dive instructors help you to make the most of your time underwater as well as teaching you different techniques to hold your breath. By the end of the course I was holding my breath for about three times longer than when I started.

Coral adoption:

One thing that I consider important is the preservation of the sea life and coral that live around the islands in the Maldives, as well as the islands themselves. As a scuba diver, it can be very sad to see the coral destroyed by tourists or fishermen, and to revisit a site that has depleted in its marine life in only a short amount of time. Many of the Maldivian islands are becoming more eco friendly and sustainable. One program which some resorts are now running in order to enrich the marine life and help sustain it is to adopt a coral. One of the things you can do whilst snorkelling or scuba diving is to plant a coral in the ocean, which has your name attached to it. It is much like planting a tree, this in turn with a number of other newly planted corals will encourage a new reef to grow. Once the coral starts to grow new marine life will form around it and hopefully create new reefs for the next generation.