If you love the sea and scuba diving, then why not charter a live aboard scuba diving cruise with your diving buddies. Collectively, you can save much more money and time if you live a board a diving cruise ship and go island hopping, scuba diving and fishing for the next ten days of your vacation. That is because you can do away with your hotel accommodation, save traveling time and can go to a lot more dive spots. Where to go for a cruise diving vacation? Try going to the Island nation of Maldives.



Although there are many world class spas, hotels and resorts in Maldives such as the Banyan Tree Spa resort, you have no need to stay in them unless you wanted to. Well, if you want to stay in a luxurious resort, it can be an excuse for you to travel to the Maldives again to enjoy these spa resorts. This is because, once you have scuba dived in Maldives, you will want to go back there again. Maldives is a scuba diver's paradise.

The atolls of Maldives were formed when millions of years ago, a great range of volcanoes rose from the floor of the Indian Ocean. As time passes, the volcanoes sunk back into the Indian Ocean leaving behind the coral reefs on the Maldivian atolls and islands we see today. That is why Maldives is best known for its white sandy beaches and crystal blue lagoons teeming with marine life.

The country have no big land mass, but instead is made up of about 1200 coral islands with a total area of 104,00.00 sq kilo 99% of which is the sea. Of these islands, only slightly more than 200 of them are inhabited. Most of the islands are not higher than six feet(about 2 meters) above sea level and scientists have warned that they are very susceptible to global warming and may one day, disappear into the ocean. There are already signs that this is happening.

Needless to say, the mainstay of the Maldivian economy is powered by the fishing and tourism industries. About 500,000 tourists arrive on these islands annually. The capital of Maldives is Male (pronounced as Ma-leh). Upon touching down at the airport, you will be whisked away by a fishing boat because the capital is no larger than a few football fields and have one of the most dense population in the world.

Maldives has been an independent sovereign country except for a brief occupation by the Portuguese. It then became a British Protectorate in the mid-fifties and gained full independence in 965. It has been an Islamic country for more than 800 years.

During the Ming Dynasty, Chinese sailors called Maldives the "submerged mountain chain" wrote commentaries about these islands.

If you enjoy vacations in tranquil tropical islands or simply love fishing and diving, then Maldives will be a great holiday destination for you. Oh, I forgot to mention, if you are a seafood lover, I think there are no other places on Earth where you can get such a wide smorgasbord delicious mouth watering seafood, except in Maldives.