Snorkelling Safari with the Sun Siyam Iru Fushi
We were super lucky to be sent on a snorkelling safari tour with the Sun Siyam Resort – which turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip in the Maldives.
The tour departed at 8am which was a great time with little ones, giving us enough time to have a nice big breakfast before we headed off (because three hungry kids on a boat is never fun!). The boat was a traditional longboat which was roomy and comfortable with a large deck up the top.
Our first snorkelling stop was around thirty minutes away, the staff had washed all our snorkelling gear on the trip out so we were good to go as soon as we arrived. Once they checked the currents we all jumped in one by one (Jay bobbed around in his floatie on my back the whole time) and we followed the guide around. The boat waited back and if anyone was tired or had enough we could just put our hands up and they would come and pick us up which was great.
One tip of mine for longer snorkelling sessions – even if your kids are confident swimmers is to pop a life jacket on them if they aren’t super confident snorkellers yet. We find Max (8 years) really tires out when snorkelling and is so much happier and content when he can float around and enjoy the view, rather than having to tread water to fix his snorkels etc. Alysse on the other hand spends more time ducking under water than above it so she is fine just as she is without life jacket. We spent almost 40 minutes snorkelling and the marine life was absolutely amazing. We saw turtles, lobsters, sea snakes, lion fish and much more! Sunday, the guide on our trip, was so great with the kids and held Max’s hand while he pointed out all the fish or dived down to point out turtles .
Once back on board we were given some juice ,water and friuit and then something amazing appeared – a huge pod of dolphins came past, diving under the boat and jumping out of the water doing flips! Sunday was calling them in I am guessing a dolphins call and it was just amazing to see so many in the wild, especially the babies along side their mums.
The next snorkelling spot was just opposite the first spot and again we spent around 40mins snorkelling and the fish we saw was just incredible – like being in an aquarium and the kids took turns in jumping from the top of the boat with Sunday, the guide. We all agreed that we finally found somewhere that rivalled the snorkelling we experienced in the Philippines.
We arrived back at the island around 11.30 – 12.00 which was a great amount of time out for the kids who were now starving and ready for lunch. We had such a fantastic day and highly recommend this tour to anyone staying at the Sunsiyam Iru Fushi!
