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Dive Review of Bandos Dive Center in
Maldives/North Male Atoll

Bandos Dive Center: "Back Again and update", Oct, 2018,

by Bill Kasischke, CO, US ( 2 reports with 5 Helpful votes). Report 10603 has 3 Helpful votes.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 5 stars Food 5 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 5 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving 2 stars
Snorkeling 4 stars
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments Return trip - Last visit October 2017 - Last review November 2016

I've been diving from the Bandos Island Resort since 1995.

Since my last review in 1996, I've found the hard corals around the central North Male atoll and on sites at the North (Vaadhoo caves) and South ends (Kandoomaa Thila) the South Male Atoll to be mostly without live hard coral. The soft corals around those sites and others seem to be in good condition. The fish life in most cases is still robust.

The Bandos Island resort buffet food is still very good and the rooms and facilities excellent.

The dive operation is also still excellent and has added a very nice new dive boat which is faster than in previous years. Nitrox is still complementary to those certified for it. They run 2 tank morning trips, 1 tank afternoon and a selection of sunset and night dives weekly. All those dives were drift dives. The local house reef is available for diving and snorkeling, but the corals are gone. It's still an OK dive as the fish life is still plentiful.

During this trip the currents were running fairly strong and lots of white tip, black tip and grey reef sharks were spotted. To be fair my group was offered some special trips that the general groups were not as we have been diving with them since 1995.

Mantas were spotted on several dives at cleaning stations and occasionally on other dives. Having a dive without at least one turtle spotting was very unusual.

Bill
Websites Bandos Dive Center   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 501-1000 dives
Where else diving Hawaii, Honduras, Texas lakes, Australia, New Zealand
Closest Airport MLE Getting There DEN-SFO-SIN-MLE

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy, cloudy Seas choppy, surge, currents
Water Temp 80-86°F / 27-30°C Wetsuit Thickness 1
Water Visibility 30-150 Ft/ 9-46 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions 30 meteres, 60 minutes
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas Squadrons
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 2 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 5 stars
Large Pelagics 4 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter N/A Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments [None]
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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