I am sure that each of us at one time or another have wonder what life is like as a guest on a luxury yacht. You do not have to own your own yacht to have that experience, many people will charter a yacht for a week and live that lifestyle. But one look at the price tag of renting a yacht can put you into shock. A fully crewed yacht can easily cost $10,000 a day, even a small one holding just a couple of couples can be over a $ 1,000 a day per person. Do not let go of that dream, maybe just be a little creative in your planning.

What is a Scuba Diving Liveaboard

If you are a scuba diver or know a scuba diver, you may have heard some discussion of scuba diving liveaboards. The most basic explanation is that these are vessels that take scuba divers out to remote diving locations and the divers stays onboard overnight. While there are some scuba diving liveaboards that just go out for one night or two, the most common length of a trip is seven nights. The trip offer divers a range of diving locations and include the diving and food while on-board. The typical diving liveaboard will offer the diver four or five opportunities each day to dive. Breakfast and lunch are mostly buffet style and you can have an excellent sit down dinner in the saloon. Cocktails will be served on an open deck as you enjoy more stars than you have ever seen before. Sun decks and hot tubs are also common.

If you are not a diver, you might be thinking what does this mean to me. Depending on the itinerary, Many of the liveaboards have the ability to train you to become a certified scuba diver while on the trip. The liveaboards may offer a discounted price for those who are not divers and just want to snorkel, even offering a free discover scuba dive experience. This is a scuba dive in shallow water with a dive professional.

Here is the important point. Scuba diving liveaboards have changed over the last few decades. When they were first introduced, they were for the hard core diver and offer minimal comforts. Shared rooms and shared bathrooms were the norm. Now days, divers are also wanting their creature comforts. They want comfortable even luxurious cabins, they want outstanding food and to be pampered. The average liveaboard today is custom built to provide not only the dive experience but also the yachting experience. Many of today’s finest liveaboards are being built by the worlds leading yacht builders.

Those that are not diving can enjoy the trip in the same manner as those chartering a yacht or joining a yacht holiday. Enjoy the time on the sun deck, go snorkeling on coral reefs, you might have the opportunity to have a BBQ on a deserted beach, the choices are the same as those expensive yacht trips.

While the luxury experience is very close to that you will find on a charter, the price is much lower.

Cruise Maldives in Style

There are many locations that can be used as an example to compare the experience and cost of yachting against that of a scuba diving liveaboard. The Red Sea of Egypt attracts thousands of both divers and those wanting the elite yacht experience, the Caribbean sea is anther favorite destination for cruisers and liveaboard divers, however, Maldives may be one of the best considerations.

Maldives has the reputation for being the best from many viewpoints. Hundreds of scatter islands with white sand beaches and beautiful reefs around them. A number of small islands that house only a luxury resort. It is considered by many as the Honeymoon Capital of the world. Divers seem it as one of the few truly pristine diving destinations with many of the islands and dive sites isolated and seldom visited. Those who love to sail or experience motor yachting flock to the same scatter islands with their remote coves among the reefs and cays.

Like elsewhere, a barefoot charter (no crew) will cost thousands a day, crewed even more. If you can find them, you could join with others on a luxury yacht that has an itinerary around the islands. While much cheaper than chartering a whole yacht, you can still expect at least $400 a day per person.

Now lets look at one of the scuba diving liveaboards in Maldives. The Soleil 2, shown in the photo at the top of the article, is a newly built, 44-meter-long yacht with 14 cabins, taking up to 28 guest on a cruise to four atolls. Some of these cabins have a private balcony.the master cabin is shown above. There are two areas to dine, the indoor air-conditioned saloon or the top deck with an open air but covered seating. There is a sun deck for when you want to just lay around and a hot tub to enjoy the sunsets. The Soleil has a traditional dhoni with it that is used to take divers to the dive sites. This 14-meter-long boat is also used to take guest to deserted beaches or to watch for whale sharks. The Soleil with scuba diving is about $130 a day per person, less for non-divers.

You can find out more about the Soleil II and other liveaboard diving yachts from the divezone.net website.