Not only do you discover aspects of the planet denied to most people, but you make a lot of good friends as well!The Maldives is famed for its rare underwater beauty. The profusion of psychedelic colours and the abundance and variety of life underwater have fascinated divers and snorkellers since Maldives was discovered as a diving destination. The highest level of visibility that one could expect- sometimes exceeding 50 metres - and warm temperatures throughout the year makes diving in the Maldives a delight you would want to experience over and over again. The Maldives has some of the best dive sites in the world and many visit the Maldives repeatedly for the sole purpose of diving.All resorts in the Maldives have professional dive schools with multi-lingual instructors and conduct courses for beginners as well as the advanced. Many of the resorts have excellent house reefs. Just a short swim from the beach and snorkellers too can experience the same pleasures from the surface.

The Maldives is located at the equator and experiences monsoonal climate. The Maldives has two distinct seasons; dry season (northeast monsoon) and wet season (southwest monsoon). In these two seasons the temperature varies very little. Northeast monsoon extends from January to March, change over period in April then Southwest Monsoon from May to November with December being the changeover to Northeast Monsoon.

Daily temperature ranges from around 31c during the day to 23c at night. The mean daily maximum temperature for central parts (Male) is 30.5c and minimum temperature is 25.7c.

The highest temperature ever recorded in the Maldives was 36.8c recorded on 19 May 1991 and the minimum temperature ever recorded in the Maldives was 17.2c recorded on 11th April 1978. The wet season- southwest monsoon runs from mid-May to November. In this season Maldives experiences torrential rain.

Central, Southern and Northern parts of the Maldives receive annual average rainfall of 1924.7mm, 2277.8mm, and 1786.4mm, respectively. The highest rainfall ever recorded in the Maldives with in 24 hour period was recorded on 9th July 2002 and amounts to 219.8mm of rainfall. The fact that the Maldives is located on the equator means that they receive lots of sunshine throughout the year.

On average Southern atolls (Gan) receive 2704.07 hours of sunshine each year, and Central (Male) receives 2784.51 hours of sunshine per year.

It is not possible to define the exact date of the arrival of the summer monsoon, Different countries have adopted different criteria’s to determine arrival date of monsoon. The start of a wet spell of three or more consecutive days of rainfall and change in wind direction was considered as the arrival of the southwest monsoon in Maldives.

The last 5 years or so has seen the arrival of the Southwest monsoon around 1st May but it has been documented that it should arrive around the 16th May and the Northeast monsoon has recently arrived around the 17th December but should arrive around the 1st December, this has had adverse affects on the weather with peak and off peak weather affected.

The islands which extend from 1 Degree South of the Equator to fractionally over 7 degree North, lie scattered along and on either side of the 73 Degree East longitudinal line.

The temperature changes very little in every 24 hours the day-equals-night clock with sunny days throughout the year is seasoned only with the two-monsoons that prevail in the region