Snorkeling Centara Grand Maldives

One great thing about this island is that the snorkeling was perfect. It was suitable for all levels with shallow snorkeling, deep drop offs, and a great outside reef with stairs going straight down. I saw a lot of cool animals that I didn’t even see while scuba diving. 

Snorkeling “The Bay”

“The bay” (as I call it) was the area right in front of our beach villa. It was always calm with no current and very shallow with still lots of reef and fish. It is great for kids because it is very sandy and there are lots of rays hat hang out here. I saw many feather tail stingrays including a baby, and a porcupine ray which is probably the coolest thing I saw besides a whale shark on the tour and a manta ray on the tour. Sadly, I didn’t get any photos of the porcupine ray.
Other things you can see in the bay include pipefish, anemone fish, eels, baby black tip sharks, white tip sharks, nudibranchs, a flounder, and maybe a turtle. 

Above is a video of Maldivian Anemone Fish! What makes then unique to Maldives is the black fins underneath. 

Prefer One Video? Watch it on my YouTube Channel!

Click here for snorkeling on youtube

Snorkeling the Outer Reef

Snorkeling the outer reef is a free divers dream. It has a slope and a drop off and has lots of fish. It is actually a dive site that has a wreck on it if you start by the dive shop and go left and it has a really nice reef if you go to the right. 
There are two ways to access the outer reef that I used most. The first one is to swim out through the bay through the edge of the boat lane until the reef drops off. The other way is to walk to the dive shop, go around the back, and go down the stairs into the water which will drop you right onto the outer house reef. 
A popular routine for me was to go down the stairs at the dive shop, go right, and go all the way around the island until I’m in front of my beach villa and then swim in. I will Insert a photo of that below. 

The fish life out here is amazing but pictures speak louder than words so I am going to insert some photos and videos of snorkeling. ​

Coral Bleaching 

I hate to include this section but it must be done. Unfortunately, a majority of the actual reef especially in the shallows is dead. Not even bleached, dead. There are also a couple of bleached corals which I have some photos of. I was really sad to see areas with completely dead reef and very little fish. I do not have photos of the entire area, but on the map above it is the worst just to the right of the boat lane/ ending arrow.