
The Maldives Soleil 2 liveaboard – Overall review rating 9.3 out of 10 and 4.5 stars
If you’re set on scuba diving the Maldives, your next decision is whether you do resort based diving vs scuba dive from a liveaboard. But as you’re reading this Soleil 2 liveaboard review, it’s possibly safe to assume you intend to dive from a liveaboard.
Maldives Soleil 2 liveaboard review: A review of the Maldives Soleil 2 liveaboard reveals a large stable 44 metre (144 feet) custom-built boat for scuba divers. Sleeps 30 scuba divers over 15 cabins with en-suites and air conditioning. Western and local food served buffet style indoors and alfresco with a saloon and bar. Dive trips of 8 days 7 nights.
The chance to see whale sharks, manta rays, eagle rays, turtles and more.
Features of Maldives Soleil 2 liveaboard

The features that are included with your stay on the Maldives Soleil 2 liveaboard are as follows:
- The Maldives Soleil 2 is a large stable scuba diving vessel and is 44 metres (144 feet) in length.
- Designed for up to 30 divers across 15 luxurious cabins.
- Cabins have private en-suite bathrooms, air conditioning, TV/DVD, charging ports and storage space. Some cabins even have a balcony!
- Daily housekeeping and laundry service.
- Warm water showers.
- A sun deck for those sun-worshippers who like to relax and enjoy sunbathing in-between dives.
- Food includes western style and local food and is served buffet fashion.
- Specific dietary requirements can be catered for including vegetarian and vegan options.
- Indoor air conditioned saloon with bar with the option of outdoor alfresco dinning.
- Free internet.
- Nitrox available at an extra charge.
- Non-divers are welcome.
- Scuba diving facilities include: DIN adaptors, separate rinse for underwater cameras and equipment and scuba gear rentals.
- Kayaks and fishing on board.
- Jacuzzi, plus a spar, massage and yoga at an additional charge
More Reading: How to book last minute liveaboard deals Maldives (Maldives diving deals)
Maldives Soleil 2 scuba diving
The diving from the spacious Maldives Soleil 2 is highly rated and she was custom-built for scuba diving. On this large stable scuba diving liveaboard, you’ll be in the hands of experienced and professional crew.
Search for your favourite Maldives Liveaboard here:
Table of Maldives liveaboards
This list of Maldives liveaboards is in descending customer rating order, followed by Scuba Diving Luxury Rating (SDE Lux Rating, see below), so the liveaboards with the highest customer rating and the best SDE lux rating will be at the top of the list. If you want to change the list order, use the “Sort by” dropdown below.
Liveaboard main photo | Discover Liveaboard | Customer Review Rating Out of 10 | SDE Lux Rating % | Flexible Booking | Dive Courses | Dietary Requirements | Nitrox | Gear Rental |
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Review Link: MV Scubaspa Yang; Booking Link: MV Scubaspa Yang | 9.6 | 85 | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
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Review Link: MV Emperor Explorer; Booking Link: MV Emperor Explorer | 9.6 | 63 | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
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Review Link: MV Theia; Booking Link: MV Theia | 9.5 | 85 | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
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Review Link: MY Princess Dhonkamana; Booking Link: MY Princess Dhonkamana | 9.5 | 79 | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
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Review Link: MV Scubaspa Ying; Booking Link: MV Scubaspa Ying | 9.4 | 87 | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
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Review Link: MV Sachika; Booking Link: MV Sachika | 9.4 | 83 | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
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Review Link: MV Emperor Serenity; Booking Link: MV Emperor Serenity | 9.4 | 60 | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
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Review Link: MV Soleil 2; Booking Link: MV Soleil 2 | 9.3 | 96 | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
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Review Link: MV Emperor Atoll; Booking Link: MV Emperor Atoll | 9.3 | 77 | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
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Review Link: MV Azalea; Booking Link: MV Azalea | 9.3 | 77 | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES |
The Scuba Diving Earth Luxury Rating (SDE Lux Rating) is explained on each liveaboard review when you click the “Discover Liveaboard” link, and is my own Liveaboard Luxury Rating I’ve assigned to all liveaboards. Choosing between liveaboards is helped by customer scores, and if you get stuck choosing between two or three liveaboards, where each one has a high customer score out of 10, you can use the SDE Luxury Rating to help narrow down your choice.
Think about it like using Booking.com when searching for the best hotel. Booking.com also use a customer score where each customer rates hotels out of 10. This is similar to the liveaboard customer rating, which is also rated out of 10. But let’s say you only like to stay in hotels rated 8 and above on Booking.com, but you also want the hotel to have WIFI or parking, or to have a swimming pool etc. The features each hotel has is usually secondary to the score out of 10.
Scuba diving options on the Maldives Soleil 2 liveaboard:
- Ari, Vaavu to Thaa Atoll dive trips – 8 days 7 nights. 15 dives in total. Advanced open water certification required or similar + 10 minimum logged dives. The chance to see marine life that includes large schools of grey reef sharks, nurse sharks, big schools of snappers, jack fishers, fusiliers, barracudas and dogtooth tunas. You also see eagle rays, hawks-bill turtles, napoleon wrasse and of course the magnificent manta rays, and huge whale sharks.
You can check the availability and prices for this Boat here.
Maldives Soleil 2 liveaboard review by customers
Scuba divers that have stayed on the Maldives Soleil 2 comments include: Tiger sharks; Diving with tiger sharks, mantas and whale sharks; Best decision ever!!! Whale sharks at night!!! Amazing boat & friendly crew; Mantas, and the night dive with the nurse sharks.
More Reading: Maldives liveaboard single cabin (Maldives diving as a single person)
Here’s a review by a customer who rated the Maldives Soleil 2 10 out of 10 and 5 stars:
Incredible experience. “Diving with tiger sharks, mantas and whale sharks. Amazing fish life on every reef. Incredible wall dives with tons of sharks. Boat owner and crew were amazing and super helpful and friendly, even in a period where the covid-19 was affecting their business. Food on the boat was very delicious as well!” Recommended for: Diving, crew and food.
Cornelis E, Netherlands
Video of Maldives Soleil 2 liveaboard
This is the video from our one week Scuba Diving trip to the Maldives in September 2019. Many Sharks & Guitarshark, all kinds of Rays as well as the magnificent underwater worlds of the Maldives in the Central Atolls. Hope you enjoy!
More Reading: Liveaboard Maldives 3 days all inclusive (Maldives liveaboard diving trips)
I hope you enjoyed this article about the Maldives Soleil 2 liveaboard review
I’d love to hear from you. Tell us about your adventures of diving and snorkelling. Please use the comments section below. Please also share your photos. Either from your underwater cameras or videos from your waterproof go-pro’s!
But in particular if you’ve dived either in the Maldives or in particular on the Maldives Soleil 2, please share your experiences.
If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkeling or scuba diving (or specifically about the Maldives Soleil 2 liveaboard review), please comment below with your questions.
There will also be many more articles about scuba and scuba diving safety tips (and on snorkeling too) for you to read and learn about this fabulous sport.
Have fun and be safe!