Maafushi Full Day Nurse Sharks and Stingray Tours
End of March 2024, we travelled to the Maldives. This was a last-minute trip, so we didn’t organize much nor look too much into the Maldives.
We visited 2 public islands, Dhigurah and Maafushi. We opted for public islands because we weren’t willing to put a 1000€ or so per night to stay in a luxury and private island.
Both islands we visited were different. And while there, we learnt some great tips and this Maldives Itinerary is not following what we did but what rather what we would recommend doing after being there.
We spent 6-day in the Maldives, and we believe it would be the perfect amount of time and the best way to budget the Maldives while still being able to experience the real Maldives.
In this article, we will tell our story about one of the most famous things to do in the Maldives and Maafushi, a Full Day Nurse Sharks Stingray Tours. So, if you too are planning a trip to the Maldives and to Maafushi, then let ‘s dive in these Full Day Nurse Sharks Stingray Tours.
Here is our complete video from this trip :
Table of Contents
Mapping the day
Organising the tour
Organising such tour is super easy in the Maldives. There is really no need to bother yourselves in advance. Once you arrive at your accommodations, you can simply ask them for the tours taking place.
Depending on the island you are, tours time will change. However, if you are on Maafushi which is the most touristic island of the Maldives, you won’t have any trouble. Either your hotel can organise it or you can pick one of the multiple tour agencies in town. They are in the end all the same.
Cost of the tour
What you need to know is that there are multiple variations that tour. The basic one is Nurse Sharks and Stingrays. The variations we did also included a shipwreck snorkleing.
All of them will also include lunch on a sandbank.
Cost wise, the standard tour is 60 USD per person and with the shipwreck is 75 USD per person.
When to Visit
The Maldives is a year-round destination, with hot and sunny conditions throughout the year. Temperatures remaining reasonably consistent, with highs ranging between 28°C and 32°C and lows rarely dropping beneath 24°C.
There are two seasons in the Maldives:
November to April, the Dry season: It is the peak season, and most resorts runs from January to April which is also the driest time of year. The conditions are optimum for a dreamy Maldives holiday.
May to October: the Wet season: During this time there is a higher risk of rain, however heavy rain tends to be short. With the peak rainfall being typically in June
Therefor it is mostly recommended to travel to the Maldives between January and April. We travelled to the Maldives end of March and we had mostly a great weather. We only got one cloudy day and some rainfall either in early morning or at night.
Full Day Nurse Sharks and Stingray Tours
Beginning of the tour
We had a big day ahead of us and needed a good breakfast to get us started!
After that, we went down to the lobby to get snorkeling equipment and then waited the start of the tour. Once everyone there, we headed to the boat. From Maafushi, it seems that tour boats are speedboats.
After getting some information, we departed for our first stop!
Nurse Sharks
It was fun, especially with music playing all along. 45min later or so, we arrived at the Nurse sharks’ spots. There were many boats there, and each of them are first feeding the sharks to make them come behind the boat. They are many sharks as each boat has a bunch of them.
Before jumping in the water, we were told to go one by one to get pictures and then let the spot for the next person or group. Actually, the whole day will be like that, a kind a photoshoot one after the other.
I must say that at first it was impressive seeing all the sharks but after a while you realize that they really don’t mind you and some of them are popping that closed that there are touching you. However, you should never try to touch them.
At some point, I wanted to lunch my drone to get aerial shots but it wasn’t accepted as we were leaving soon. In truth we left 20min later, so I would have had plenty of time. Especially that there were drone flying around.
Dolphins
Once back on the boat, we left the for our next stop, the shipwreck, on the way we found a group of dolphins.
All the tours will try to spot dolphins as a bonus.
Shipwreck
Once at the next spot, we jumped in the water, we snorkeled a bit around the shipwreck
But honestly it was too crowded, and it was the same drill as before, pictures, pictures and pictures one by one.
So, we quickly escape that and went the reef that was right on the side.
For us that was much better, we finally alone in the Maldivian waters snorkeling around. It was warm, there were fishes and some nice corals.
Sandbank Lunch
Once back on the boat, we went for lunch on a sandbank. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that easy to find an empty sandbank as there are many many boats and tours.
After a few attempts, we got to a small. Where the team installed sun umbrellas and gave us lunch boxes. We first received a regular one with meat, so we told the guy there, he then gave us the vegetarian one which was the same as the regular one but without the meat… No eggs, nor fish, nor anything else.
Once our lunch box finished, we quickly went as the sandbank was being flooded by the rising tide.
Stingrays
We were then on our way to our final destination, the island of Fulidhoo to observe stingrays. This was probably the coolest thing of the day trip from Maafushi as it was super fun to be able to touch stingrays.
We only had to be careful not to touch the part under their tail where we could get stung. But globally there were really friendly
Here also, we each went one by one to be in the middle of the stingrays and we even had a friendly turtle that joined. But once our turn passed, as there we many of them, they came to where we were on the side.
After a while it was time to get back on the boat and return to Maafushi.
We returned to our hotel, took a shower, chilled a bit and then went for diner as we were pretty hungry.
ضرب الحديد ماحدو سخون Strike the iron while it’s still hot. (Take advantage of the opportunity before it passes you by)
