The Maldives in southern Asia are known for their dozens of luxury resorts, most occupying a private island, that are scattered across the country’s 1,192 islets in 26 atolls. The scarcity of land on these islets prompted the Maldives hospitality industry to pioneer the concept of water villas, where accommodations extend out over the water on stilts.

Many visitors come for the pristine beaches, excellent snorkeling and resort experience, but a large number also come for the scuba diving. The Maldives are consistently rated among the top diving destinations in the world, particularly in the southern atolls.

Last year we dove in Roatan, Honduras after a decade-long hiatus. It was a bit of an experiment, diving for the first time without our own gear, but it went really well. We had a great time exploring underwater Honduras, and it prompted us to get serious about diving again.

The Maldives have long been high on our list of diving destinations, but we stayed away when we crossed the Indian Ocean in Dirona back in 2015 due to the piracy threat, which at the time extended thousands of miles from the epicenter in Somalia. So when a few free days became available earlier this year, we jumped at the chance to fill that gap. The trip also was a bit of an experiment of another kind for us in that we’d never stayed at a self-contained resort with no nearby town or other amenities, and were concerned the entertainment options might feel a bit limited.

Reaching the Maldives from Seattle require a fair bit of travel time. A 14.5-hour flight brought us to Doha, Qatar where we spent the night before a 3-hour flight to the Maldives international airport in Male. We spent nearly as much time traveling there and back as we actually did at the resort. But we enjoy traveling, particularly when we can book our favorite business class seats, Qatar Airlines’ Qsuites, which transform into a private cubicle with a double bed. And the Doha airport has excellent facilities, including the inside-security Oryx Hotel, so we can transfer between the hotel and our gate without any security, immigration or customs formalities.

In Male we transferred to Trans Maldavian Airlines, the world’s largest seaplane operator, with a fleet of 65 planes flying to 79 destinations out of 32 gates. The resort we were staying at, Lily Beach in South Siri Atoll, has a dedicated lounge at the seaplane terminal where we enjoyed a snack overlooking the busy docks while waiting for our flight. A 45-minute seaplane flight, with sweeping views over the Maldives islets, then brought us to South Siri Atoll.

The seaplane landed at an offshore dock, where a boat met us for transport to Lily Beach Resort. There we were welcomed with a glass of champagne and received an orientation on the property.

We had booked a Sunset Water Suite, one of four at the western tip of the resort. The suite was wonderfully spacious and comfortable, with a private plunge pool, large deck and sunset views. The only negative was that the air conditioning really struggled to keep up, particularly since the doors to the outdoor shower and bathroom didn’t seal well and let in hot, humid air.

Lily Beach has four restaurants: a main buffet-based venue overlooking the beach; Asian-influenced Tamarind, on stilts over the water; a communal Japanese teppankayi experience; and the fixed-course, fine-dining Les Turquoise D’Aqua. Light snacks and lunches can also be had at the resort’s two bars. We tried all the different restaurants and enjoyed them all, but favored Tamarind for dinner and the Aqua bar for lunch. Other facilities at the resort include tennis courts and a spa, that we did not use, and a small, but reasonably well-equipped gym where we worked out most afternoons.

We particularly enjoyed the evenings at Lily Beach, when the temperature drops a bit and the resort lights come up. The sunsets also were wonderful.

What we really were here for though was the diving, and it was spectacular. On the afternoon of our arrival day, we did an orientation dive along the house reef to demonstrate skills and ensure our rental gear fit and operated well. We were expecting the house reef to be rather tame, but the sea and coral life was quite impressive and attracts many snorkelers. We emerged from the dive just outside our suite.

Accompanying us was Ludwig Hofmann, who with his partner runs the on-site dive shop. Ludwig was our divemaster for all the dives, and did a fantastic job. Before each dive, he drew colorful chalk maps of the site as part of our orientation. And we just really enjoyed spending time with him and learning about his background and interests.

We spent the next four days making two dives a day at some of the nearly five dozen sites in the area. The fish life, coral, underwater topography and visibility were exceptional and we loved being back out in the deep blue underwater world.

We also were happy to spot two nudibranchs, the namesake of our boats (Dirona Albolineata is the Alabaster Nudibranch, an invertebrate indigenous to the Puget Sound that we often saw when scuba diving there.) Over 3,000 Nudibranch species live throughout the world’s oceans—their fantastic forms and psychedelic colors make them among our favorite sea creatures.

South Siri Atoll, where our resort is located, is home to the world’s only year-round aggregation of whale sharks. We really wanted to see them, and on one morning went farther afield to the southern end of the atoll in search of the gentle giants. Ludwig sent up a drone to search for them and we got lucky. We quickly jumped on the water to witness the huge animals as they glided effortlessly past.

Our few days in the Maldives passed quickly, and soon it was time to return home. We’d had an amazing trip and really enjoyed Lily Beach and particularly the diving. And the experiment on visiting a self-contained resort was a real success. The several on-site restaurants gave us variety in food and locale, and between diving every morning, exercising in the afternoon, and James keeping up with work, we ended up keeping pretty busy.

Our routes around South Siri Atoll are shown on the interactive map below. Click here for a full-page map.