Lonely Planet Maldives , livre ebook

Lonely Planet - Tom Masters

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216 pages

English

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Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet's Maldives is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Encounter hammerhead sharks on a dawn dive, find your perfect luxury beach resort or family-run guesthouse, and hop around by seaplane for a view of coral atolls, blue lagoons and tiny desert islands - all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Maldives and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet's Maldives: Colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sightseeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights provide a richer, more rewarding travel experience - covering history, people, music, landscapes, wildlife, cuisine, politics Covers Male, North & South Male Atolls, Ari & Rasdhoo Atoll, Northern Atolls, Southern Atolls The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet's Maldives is our most comprehensive guide to the country, and is perfect for discovering both popular and offbeat experiences. About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)

Sujets

Maldivas

Maldives

Informations

Publié par	Lonely Planet
Date de parution	01 octobre 2018
Nombre de lectures	5
EAN13	9781788681476
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	30 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0750€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Maldives

Contents

Plan Your Trip

Welcome to Maldives
Maldives’ Top 10
Need to Know
What’s New
If You Like…
Choosing a Resort
Diving, Snorkelling & Surfing
Big Creatures of the Deep Gallery
Eat & Drink Like a Local
Local Life Gallery
Independent Travel
Regions at a Glance

On The Road

MALE
Sights
Activities
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
NORTH & SOUTH MALE ATOLLS
Around Male
Hulhumale
Hulhule
Villingili
North Male Atoll
Kaashidhoo
Gaafaru Falhu
South Male Atoll
Maafushi
ARI ATOLL & AROUND
North Ari Atoll
Rasdhoo Atoll
Thoddoo
South Ari Atoll
NORTHERN ATOLLS
Haa Alifu
Haa Dhaalu
Shaviyani
Noonu
Raa
Baa
Lhaviyani
SOUTHERN ATOLLS
Vaavu
Meemu
Faafu
Dhaalu
Thaa
Laamu
Gaafu Alifu
Gaafu Dhaalu
Gnaviyani
Addu Atoll

Understand

Understand Maldives
Maldives Today
History
Maldivian Way of Life
Wildlife in Maldives
Environmental Issues & Responsible Travel
Arts, Crafts & Architecture

Survive

Directory A–Z
Accommodation
Children
Climate
Customs Regulations
Electricity
Embassies & Consulates
Etiquette
Food
Gay & Lesbian Travellers
Insurance
Internet Access
Legal Matters
Maps
Money
Opening Hours
Photography
Post
Public Holidays
Safe Travel
Smoking
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Travellers with Disabilities
Visas
Volunteering
Women Travellers
Work
Transport
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Health
Before You Go
Insurance
Medical Checklist
In Maldives
Availability & Cost of Health Care
Health Issues
Environmental Hazards
Diving Health & Safety
Travelling with Children
Language
Behind the Scenes
Our Writer
Welcome to Maldives

Unrivalled luxury, stunning white-sand beaches and an amazing underwater world make Maldives an obvious choice for a true holiday of a lifetime.

Resorts for Everyone
Every resort in Maldives is its own private island, and with over 100 to choose from the only problem is selecting where you want to stay. At the top end, the world’s most exclusive hotel brands compete with each other to attain ever-greater heights of luxury, from personal butlers and private lap pools to in-room massages and pillow menus. It’s not surprising that honeymooners and those seeking a glamorous tropical getaway have long had the country at the very top of their wish lists. But there’s also plenty of choice beyond the five- and six-star resorts.

Unbelievable Beaches
Maldives is home to perhaps the best beaches in the world; they’re on almost every one of the country’s nearly 1200 islands and are so consistently perfect that it’s hard not to become blasé about them. While some beaches may boast softer granules than others, the basic fact remains: you won’t find consistently whiter-than-white powder sand and luminous cyan-blue water like this anywhere else on earth. This fact alone is enough to bring well over a million people a year to this tiny, remote and otherwise little-known Indian Ocean paradise.

Underwater World
With some of the best diving and snorkelling in the world, the clear waters of Maldives are a magnet for anyone with an interest in marine life. The richness and variety is astonishing; dazzling coral walls, magnificent caves and schools of brightly coloured tropical fish await you when you get down to the reef. In deeper waters lurk manta rays, turtles, sharks and even the world’s largest fish, the whale shark. The best bit? The water is so warm many people don’t even wear a wetsuit.

Independent Travel
Maldives has undergone seismic change in the past 10 years, since inhabited islands have been opened to tourism and locals permitted to build their own guesthouses. Travellers no longer have to stay in resorts and remain separate from the local population, something that kept backpackers away for decades. Island hopping by public ferry, speedboat and domestic flights has opened up this incredible country to visitors on almost all budgets. A number of islands in Male and Ari atolls are now big centres for a booming guesthouse industry, with dozens of options on each.

Six Senses Laamu resort | LUCKYBABY/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Why I Love Maldives
By Tom Masters, Writer
I first came to Maldives with no idea how different it was to the rest of the world, how fragile or challenging life seems here at the mercy of the sea, with so few resources locally available. I instantly formed a bond of respect and friendship with the people who make these inhospitable coral islands home. It’s such a contradiction that this is also where to find some of the world’s most luxurious hotel properties, and this is a paradox – among many – that I continue to enjoy every time I return to this astonishingly beautiful country.
For more, see our writer
Maldives’ Top 10

Becoming a (Luxurious) Castaway
Nearly every resort offers some variation on this theme: you and your partner or family are given a picnic basket (in the most luxurious resorts it may be a full meal set up for you by staff) and dropped off on an uninhabited, pristine island by dhoni. The crew then jump back on the boat and leave you to your own devices on a white-powder beach surrounded by a turquoise lagoon. Explore the island, dine on great food, sunbathe and swim – this is the modern castaway experience.

CAROLINE VON TUEMPLING/GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Hanifaru Bay
Maldives’ most famous snorkelling site is this plankton-rich bay in the Baa Atoll Unesco Biosphere Reserve, where you can often see dozens of giant manta rays gliding acrobatically through the water as they filter their food. It’s an incredible experience when they appear in great numbers and the water is clear. Hanifaru is also regularly visited by those fellow plankton eaters, the whale sharks. Resorts and inhabited islands nearby arrange trips to Hanifaru Bay daily.

DIVEDOG/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Learning to Dive
You simply have to get beneath the water’s surface in Maldives; the corals, tropical fish, sharks, turtles and rays all make up an unforgettably alien world, which is best experienced by diving . All resorts and many guesthouses have diving facilities, and you won’t regret deciding to learn here. Maldives boasts excellent safety standards, modern equipment, passionate and experienced dive staff and – best of all – the water is so warm many people don’t even bother diving in a wetsuit.

JAG_CZ/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Staying in an Island Guesthouse
The guesthouse phenomenon in Maldives has only been around for a few years, yet it has already become a truly unique way to experience the ‘real’ Maldives on an inhabited island: interact with locals, eat traditional food and experience something totally different to life in a resort. The best guesthouses are those on remote atolls, far from the modernity of Male, where friendly local families will literally treat you like one of their own, take you to desert islands, and let you fish, dive and snorkel.

MARKELIZ/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Chilling on Maafushi
Maafushi is the first inhabited island in Maldives to become a big traveller centre, with some 30 guesthouses and hotels now operating. It’s probably the best place for a cheap beach holiday in Maldives, with lots of competition and low prices for accommodation, diving, snorkelling and other excursions. There’s also a good bikini beach, which means visitors can swim without offending the local population. What’s more, at just a couple of hours away from the international airport, it’s also very easy to reach.

TOBIAS HELBIG/GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Diving with the Hammers
Hammerhead sharks, definitely one of the weirdest-looking creatures in the sea, can be observed in abundance in Maldivian waters – if you know where to look for them. There are few more thrilling experiences than a dawn dive, descending free fall into the deep blue to 30m and coming upon a huge school of hungry hammerhead sharks waiting to be fed. The best place to do this is at the world-famous Hammerhead Point (aka Rasdhoo Madivaru) in Rasdhoo Atoll.

IAN SCOTT/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Swimming with a Whale Shark
The largest fish in the world, the whale shark is prevalent in Maldivian waters, especially in the south of Ari Atoll and during a full moon when the currents between the atolls are at their strongest. Swimming with one of these gentle giants is an incredible experience – they average almost 10m in length – and it’s also totally safe: despite their immense size, whale sharks feed only on plankton.

MICHAEL AW/GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Taking a Seaplane
There are few destinations where the mode of transport by which you arrive could be called a highlight, but that’s because there are few places in the world where you need seaplanes to reach your hotel. These zippy Twin Otters function like taxis in a country with no roads, and taking off from the water is an unforgettable experience, as is observing the spectacular coral atolls, blue lagoons and tiny desert islands from above.

JAG_CZ/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Male: Maldives’ Micrometropolis
The Maldivian capital is definitely the best place to get to know locals and see what makes them tick. The brightly painted houses, crowded markets and convivial teashops where you can chat to regulars and share plates of delicious ‘short eats’ are just some of the highlights of this unusual capital city – and they perfectly complement the resort experience. Don’t miss the National Museum, the best overview of Maldives history anywhere in the country, or the Old Friday Mosque, complete with its carved coral tombstones.

ANDREA IZZOTTI/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Watching a Bodu Beru Performance
Whether you’re staying at a resort or on an inhabited island, the cultural highlight of a