Diving delights at Iru Fushi Beach & Spa Resort, Maldives

	Iru Fushi diving delights

The Maldives offers some of the best diving in the world and there is now a new atoll to pull on the fins and explore. Surrounding the soon-to-open Iru Fushi Beach & Spa Resort on the pristine Noonu Atoll are thirty dive sites with an abundance of marine life ranging from magnificent manta rays and rare humpback turtles to regal reef sharks and a rich variety of colourful corals.

What’s more, divers at Iru Fushi can also visit Snow White and Christmas Tree – not quite what visitors would expect from the Maldives!
Iru Fushi, with its unspoilt landscape and virgin waters, offers fabulous diving for both beginners and the more experienced. Diving here is relatively easy compared to other atolls because of the wide channels, shallow depths and gentle currents. The sites range from 10 minutes to an hour’s journey by the diving boat, called a dhoni. It’s also easy to pick up a few memorable souvenirs as most of the sites are ideal for videographers and photographers thanks to the shallow reefs.

The house reef is located near the diving school and gently slopes down 18 metres to a sandy bottom. Covered with sponges and corals and teeming with neon coloured reef fish, it provides the perfect setting for beginners to experience a breathtaking first dive and a free trial dive in the lagoon is offered to all guests.

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Lily Beach Resort & Spa is set to reopen as a Platinum Plan all-inclusive resort at Huvahendhoo, Maldives, in January, Luxury Travel can exclusively reveal.

The plan includes premium wines and spirits, dining, excursions, sporting activities, and luxurious accommodation. The resort's four 78sqm Sunset Water Suites boast direct lagoon access, four-poster beds, an oversized day bed, day loungers, infinity pools and 52" LCD flat screens ........ read more

Renaissance of Luxury
Lily Beach Resort; currently enjoying a great reputation worldwide, for its pristine beaches, lush green vegetation, wonderful dive & snorkeling sites is being RE-LAUNCHED as Lily Beach Resort and Spa at Huvahendhoo, the first Luxury ‘Platinum Plan’ Resort in Maldives! ........ read more

From 1 September, the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island will offer guests a new Spa Retreat menu, comprising treatments from three new spa lines – Eminence, Terrake and ghd spa - as well as a wealth of new wellbeing and fitness options.

Each new spa range will complement the Spa Retreat philosophy with aromatherapy blends, treatments and spa cuisine tailor-made to the symbolic elements of earth air, fire and water. The introduction of a fifth element ‘Plant’ will also offer guests a range of nourishing and fortifying therapies.

For those seeking a truly natural experience, the organic Eminence line, introduces hand-made skin care products using herbs, fruits and vegetables with no artificial colours, parabens or sulphates. Treatments include an Air ‘Organic Cranberry Pomegranite Sugar Scrub’, designed to energise and enliven, and an Earth ‘Organic Yam and Pumpkin Enzyme Peel’ with its grounding and balancing benefits.

The luxury five-star spa line Terrake, which draws inspiration from the ancient alchemy, will be used to offer a range of rituals based on Terra Magica; Primordial Waters; Air and Light and Luxuriant Plant Life. The holistic therapies combine unique body therapies, such as the Primordial Waters ‘Relaxing Waters Body Ritual’ with a facial treatment such as the ‘Origins of the Sea Facial’ to achieve a targeted result, be it to relax and calm, energise or enliven.

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"But what do you do there?” asked a friend who knows me well when I told her I was going to the Maldives for a holiday. "It’s just beaches, isn’t it?” Perhaps she was thinking that because there’s no grand shopping or rocking nightlife to enjoy, the Maldives equals zilch. As I relaxed on the oversized, plump cushions on the sun deck of a dhoni, while the sail above me billowed in the wind, I realised the Maldives means excitement.

Boredom, nothing to do; hassles, stress, traffic, other people’s children; tired buffets and tiresome staff are unheard of there, if you choose the right resort. And with over 90 islands open for guests and about 50 more resorts in the planning stage, there is a huge choice and great competition to offer something unique.

That’s what drew me to Dhoni Island. It’s a tiny island of lush vegetation and leaning palms, with a beach of fine white sand all around it, set in a translucent lagoon brimming with cocktail-coloured fish. Just 164m by 96m (that’s less than four acres in area), it lies in the centre of Ari Atoll, 90km from the capital, Male, itself only 90 minutes flying time from Colombo.

The island is unique because each couple (never more than 12 guests at a time and absolutely no children) stays on a dhoni. A dhoni is a Maldivian boat used for fishing and transport, hand-crafted from local timber with a broad beam and steered by a helmsman using his foot to control a tiller. Adapted from a design evolved over two millennia, the dhonis based at Dhoni Island have been custom-made, each with a luxurious stateroom, saloon, sun deck and fishing platform, as live-aboard sail and engine-powered vessels.

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August 28th – September 11th

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Lion's Head in Maldives is one of the protected marine areas located to the southern end of North Male Atoll in Vadhoo Kandu. The area is filled with gray reef sharks and beautiful coral gardens. The overhang appears as if it's a lion's head. Facilitated with 3 meters long reef top, caves and overhangs, Lion's Head has strong water current. While diving in this deep blue wall reef, get prepare to have encounter with variety of small and big pelagic species, including red tooth triggers, rainbow fusiliers, tunas, sharks, napoleon wrasses and turtles. It provides an opportunity to witness colorful and peculiar aquatic species .

Several turtles can be viewed at the reef top and on the reef wall spot several fishes, lobsters, sponges, octopus, sea anemones, pincushions and many other species. The regular feature of the area is Hawksbill turtles. While moving on to overhangs, watch schooling of nudibranchs and superb coral formations. For underwater photography, use wide-angle lens of 14mm to 28 mm if you want to capture large pelagic species. Underwater photography is an ideal way to capture your thrilling experience beneath the deep blue sea....... read more

Lion's Head Reef Basics: Wall, drift dive
Depth: 5 - >40m
Visibility: 15 - 40m
Currents: Can be very strong
Surface Conditions: Can be choppy
Water Temperature: 27 - 30°C
Experience Level: Intermediate to advanced
Number of dive sites: 1
Diving Season: All year round. Liveaboards less likely to visit May to July
Distance: 2.5km west of Thila Fushi, 9km west of Male Town
Access: Liveaboard

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