Where to Stay
When you are in-Maldives you don’t need to worry about your accommodation since it provides a wide range of hotels and resorts to make your holidays more joyful. Not only it offers luxurious star categorized hotels and resorts, but also it offers cost effective hotels and lodges for your budget accommodation. The hotels provide well-furnished rooms along with most of the comforts at your feet.

Things to Do
Maldives is a paradise for adventures and sports lovers. Go for Waterskiing Jet skiing, Windsurfing, Water surfing, Snorkeling, Sailing, and Parasailing or enjoy beach volleyball and basketball – It is the heaven to enjoy any adventurous activity.

You can visit the National Museum and wander around the Sultan Park located near the museum. You can also check out the Hukuru Miski, the oldest mosque in the Maldives. Go shopping at the Singapore Bazaar, a collection of stores selling local Maldivian products as well as imported items.

History
The Maldives has been an independent state throughout its known history, except for a brief period of 15 years of Portuguese occupation in the 16th century. The Maldives became a British Protectorate in 1887 and remained so until 26 July 1965. The independent Maldives reverted from a Sultanate to a Republic on 11th November 1968. The first written constitution was proclaimed in 1932.

It seems certain that the islands of Maldives were first settled by Aryan immigrants who are believed to have colonized Sri Lanka at the same time, (around 500 BC). Further migration from South India, as well as Sri Lanka, occurred. The latest archaeological findings suggest the islands were inhabited as early as 1500 BC. Around 947 AD, recorded contact with the outside world began with the first Arab traveler. One can imagine accounts taken home depicting the potential for trade in pearls, spices, coconuts, dried fish, and certainly the abundance of cowry shells. The cowry shells were the accepted currency from Africa to China until the sixteenth century. Together with the description of the exotic paradise islands and expensive natural resources, the news the travelers must have taken home probably resulted in the arrival of more ships bearing traders and other travelers.

The outside world influenced Maldivian life significantly as legends and history reveal. Early traders found Buddhist customs and practices. But the greatest contribution made by the Persian and Arab Travelers was the conversion of the Maldivians to Islam in 1153 AD. Dhivehi (Maldivian language) also underwent a certain conversion as a result of contact with the outside world. Perhaps blending rather than converting better describes the evolution of Dhives Akuru to Thaana, the present-day script. The writing of Thaana is from right to left, unlike Dhives Akuru, probably to accommodate the many Arabic words then in everyday use.

Ruling dynasties gave shape to what has become The Republic of Maldives just as volcanic movement shaped the 1,190 islands and coral reefs which rose above the ocean’s surface 100,000 years ago. After the conversion to Islam (by Abul Barakaath Yoosuf Al-Barbary), of the first known king of the Maley Dynasty, rulers in 1153 came to be called sultans. King Koimala was renamed Sultan Mohammed-bin-Abdullah for the last thirteen years of his twenty-five year reign. Recorded in Maldivian history are the names of eighty-four Sultans and Sultanas who belonged to six dynasties. The Maley or Theemuge Dynasty lasted 235 years under the rule of twenty-six different sultans. The Hilaii Dynasty ruled next for over a period of 170 years with twenty-nine rulers. During the Hilali period, Sultan Kalhu Mohammed invited the first foreign power to Maldives thus opening diplomatic relations with the world.