The picturesque of Maldives invites visitors just to come and ease in the breeze of the wonderful, calming tropical beach. However, a lot of visitors are keen to pursue water sports, especially, scuba diving for which the island is renowned. Snorkeling, sailing and windsurfing are available at all resorts but less demanding while water-skiing and parasailing are offered at some of the bigger ones and more expensive.

Diving

Maldives is the paradise for scuba diving, it's estimated that over 60% of visitors dive at least once. There are hundreds of renowned diving sites, many of which are accessible from resorts - the rest can be reached by boat or diving safari trips. Aside from multitudinous fish and corals, there is the thrill of diving with turtles, moray eels, manta rays, sharks, and whales and exploring some of the Maldives accessible wrecks, including the Maldives Victory off Hulule Airport, believed by many enthusiasts to be one of the most exciting wreck drives in the world.

Surfing

There is some great surf in Maldives; though there are only small numbers of accessible breaks are within the tourism zone and they only work from March to November. It is optional for surfers whether to base themselves at resorts and taking a short boat trip to the nearby breaks or taking a live-aboard safari cruise to the less accessible area. Either way, arranging in advance with the reputable surf travel operator is advised as Maldives is not such a place that surfers can just turn up spontaneously. The period of the south-west monsoon (May to November) generated the best waves and the best breaks occur on the outer reefs on the south-east sides of the atolls where only the gap in the reefs allow the waves to wrap around. All of the recognized and reliable breaks in the tourism zone are in the North Male and South Male Atolls.

Island hopping

Every resort offers guests the opportunity to visit some of the nearby islands, usually on a half- or full day 'island hopping' trips. In general, a full-day trip will include a visit to a fishing village on an inhabited island, an uninhabited island for snorkeling and a barbecue lunch, and then another resort island where drink and provision are provided. Half-day trips usually just go to a fishing village and an inhabited island for snorkeling.

Fishing

Most resorts organize regular night fishing trips of which about a dozen people go out in a dhoni for two or three hours with a handline each and a bucket full of bait. On a typical evening over 80% of them are expected to catch something and everyone would get a few nibbles and they can always arrange to have the catch prepared by the resort's chef. Some resorts arrange traditional Maldivian fishing trips, which start early in the morning and return in the afternoon. Traditional fishing is for tuna, with a pole, line and unbaited hook. This is a much more authentic experience. For the high rollers there is a game fishing on the open sea between the atolls with a fast modern boat and some specialized equipment. This is an upmarket option but there is a 'tag and release' policy which means you cannot keep your catch so bring your camera along.