Liveaboard advice - Maldives or Southern Red Sea

[Damo]

I did my first liveaboard earlier this year touring the northern wrecks & reefs, through Tony Backhurst. Having had such a wonderful time, I'm totally hooked on the liveaboard concept.

I'm now in search of encounters with some 'big stuff'. I thought that I was decided on where I was going - Southern Red Sea, doing the 'Simply The Best' tour on Hurricane, in either Jan or Feb. That was until I was browsing through the Tony backhurst website and noticed the Maldives liveaboards, which are only a couple of hundred pounds more.

I can't decide which one to book, obviously looking for the best diving, so would appreciate any advice from people who dived these areas during the Jan/Feb time of year.

Am I right in thinking that it is whale shark season during the early part of the year in the Maldives???

Has anyone been on the Nautilus 1 boat which is available through TB???

Are there any other Maldives operators I should be considering???

Thanks in advance...

[colinpjenkins2]

Damo
It all depends on what you want out of your diving. The Maldives offer some great diving with lots of encounters with shark and Manta rays, lots of fish life but not many wrecks and coral OK. Simply the Best, Rea Sea, some fantastic reef diving, good wrecks, and good chance of some bigger shark action and i think more fish, coral definatly better. Weather Jan/Feb can be a bit iffy in the red sea, Maldives Jan/Feb weather good. Whale shark all year round in Maldives just on different side of atolls. I have done both and think Maldives better but thats personal. Check our Maldives Scuba tours. Look at the liveaboard drop down and trip reports and you will see what they see. Its all true!!

[Kev W]

I went on the two week shark and whale search with Maldive scuba tours in May last year (I know a bit later than you are looking at)We saw lots of big mantas,white tip,turtles,a small pod of Orca and when we went looking for Whaleshark,spotted six over a 4hour period-fantastic.
But like has already been said we only did one wreck and it wasn't a v.good one.The guides on the boat were both english - from Falmouth and the food was good.
Then again the southern red sea is on my wish list 4 trips to Egypt,all liveaboard and the best week was on the Brothers.whichever you choose its a win win situation.

[Damo]

Thank you both for the replies. In answer to Colin... I did plenty of wrecks in the Red Sea earlier this year, so now my sole focus is to see some 'big fish' .

I've checked out the Maldives Scuba Tours website and the trip reports... I've checked out the sightings for January this year, unbelieveable!!, Whale sharks. manta's, eagle rays, this is exactly what I am looking to see.

How did you find the standard of the boat/food/service/guides, in comparison to the Red Sea???

[Kev W]

As i said english guides,so no probs there.they did a dvd of the holiday which could be bought.The food was varied and good, bit of everything really.curies,chineese etc.There were only seven guests on board when I was there as it was the last week of their season, and we dived from a dhoni.the crew were v.good.I opted out of one dive and one of the crew took me ashore for a guided tour of one of the non holiday islands which was interesting as it was only five months after the tsunami and I could see first hand some of the damage and also how they were just getting on with things.Nothing seemed too much trouble.
Then again i've always had v.good guides and crew in the red sea aswell.
But the food in the red sea is more basic and not as varied IMO

Oh yea we also had the company of Alex Mustard the photographer.shooting for his new book "the art of diving" so he gave an impromptu slide show - absolutely stunning

[Damo]

When I did the Red Sea liveaboard all the guests were British. Do you tend to get more of a mixed nationality on board in the Maldives???

It's just I've checked out a guest book for one of the boats that I'm interested in and there all from Germany or Austria.

Not sure my Germans that good

[Kev W]

Well of the seven on board two were german and the rest were from england

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by Damo

When I did the Red Sea liveaboard all the guests were British. Do you tend to get more of a mixed nationality on board in the Maldives???

It's just I've checked out a guest book for one of the boats that I'm interested in and there all from Germany or Austria.

Not sure my Germans that good

It would depend on the tour operator you used, I used the same on as Kev Maldives Scuba tours and they are a UK operator so most of the guests will be British, on my trip there were 5 in my group which included a friend of one couple from Belgium, another couple from the UK and a single lady from the UK.

[jaques]

I've just returned from my first live-abord in the south Red Sea.

Booked through Regal Dive, it was on the Emperor Majesty. Food was good, cabins comfortable and a fine DVD library and plasma TV for between dives. On the last day dinner was a full size roast turkey.

Good varied dives, Some Hammerheads, Grey Reef and Whitetips, turtles, shoals of Barracuda and spectacular rich corals with innumerable small stuff. A huge humphead parrot was a nice extra. And one site has friendly Batfish that like to investigate your fingers.

All arrangements went well (though admittedly I'd forgotten the delights of paying for soft drinks and headphones on Excel but there's an extra 10kg luggage allowance thrown in.