Rasdhoo

Locals are very welcoming and always ready to welcome visitors to their lifestyle and traditions. The bikini-OK beach of the island is quite short — about 30 meters in total. However, two beautiful sandbanks lie some 200 meters into the ocean. An uninhabited Madivaru island is also nearby — go there to get your well-deserved tan and to enjoy the strange gift of complete solitude.

In Rasdhoo, you can feel like a real Robinson, but with all the perks of civilization. As an atoll capital, Rasdhoo has an ATM and a bank, a few restaurants, souvenir magazines as well as a 24-hour medical center and a police station. The Bathala island resort lies not far away from Rasdhoo — you can visit to enjoy the facilities along with restaurants and bars where alcohol is sold.

Rasdhoo is surrounded by excellent coral reefs that provide a superb delectation for snorkelers. The region nearby, sometimes called Rasdhoo Atoll, is famed among divers and connoisseurs of the underwater world as great giants like mantas, hammerhead sharks and myriads of colorful fish, sea turtles, dolphins and harmless reef sharks. Divers have even dubbed the atoll ‘fish soup’ for its sheer variety of underwater creatures.

The island has several diving centers where, for a modest fee, you can learn to dive or to dive under the supervision of an instructor if you know how to do so already. The trip to Rasdhoo from Male takes about four hours with the public ferry, which goes to the capital three times a week ($10), or about an hour on the speedboat six times a week for $40.