There are longer and wider beaches
in the world, but for proximity to your room, quality, colour and combination with lagoon and reef, you can’t beat the Maldives.
For quality, I mean the fineness of the sand and the cleanliness of it. The resort islands are uninhabited and, in most cases, always have been. So there is no rubbish, no agricultural run off, no sewers, no water pipes, indeed no rivers, streams or anything to disturb what nature has built up over many centuries.
A Maldives beach is fifty to sixty percent dead coral from its own reef, most of which is the excretion of coral munching fish, such as the parrotfish. The rest is made up mostly of algae (halemeda, which can be seen as white, crumbly threads on the beach).
On the move
The key thing to know about the natural state of the beaches is that they move. Most islands, in fact, move within their reef over time. But the beaches move twice a year, once with each monsoon. During the northeast monsoon, the high season, the bulk of the sand moves around to the southwest and then the pattern is reversed during the southwest monsoon, the off-season.
Unfortunately this is unacceptable to tourists. We want a beach outside our room whenever we are there. So some resorts have built groynes jutting out from the beach. They have built little walls at the edge of beach and out around the reef. But nature won’t be denied. So most resorts now pump sand from the lagoon onto any diminishing beach.
Channels cut through the reef to help snorkellers get in and out, jetties built into the lagoon and construction on the island, and construction on neighbouring islands – all contribute to beach erosion.
Best in the world
Having said all that, it is still true that your beach experience in the Maldives is very likely to be wonderful, second to nowhere else in the world. For most rooms most of the year there is a glorious beach right outside the door. And when there isn’t, the islands are generally so small that you only have to stroll a few seconds away to get to an area of ideal beach. And ultimately, the management is always willing to move you when a better room becomes available.
And for the cream of the crop, have a look at my top 7 beaches.
I have also written a “Definitive Guide to the Resorts of the Maldives”.
This guide is designed to help potential holidaymakers choose the correct resort island to exactly meet there needs.
I have included a pictures of the kind of detail you will get in the resort guide, which can be found on Amazon In your own country by clicking the relevant link below
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Adrian Neville lived in the Maldives and writes the definitive guide book: "Resorts of Maldives", now in its fifth edition. Having tirelessly reviewed every single resort, he is now continually asked ‘which is the best Maldives Hotel for my