December to April - This is the dry seasons, a few extra hours of sunshine. This is the high season and resorts can be fully booked and prices are higher than the rest of the year.

May to November - It is still warm but the skies can be cloudy. Humidity is higher and rain is more likely. This is the low season and there are fewer tourists and prices are lower.

November and April - Increased water clarity and better visibility for divers.

Light cotton dresses are recommended to suit the humidity and the equatorial temperatures. Dress is informal.

The Maldives is an Islamic country and nudity is strictly prohibited. Tourists are requested to wear clothes that cover thighs and upper body while visiting inhabited islands.

Beachwear and swimsuits are allowed in the resort islands.

Bikinis and other scanty beachwear are not acceptable in Male or on any other inhabited island.

When entering a mosque, the legs and the body, but not the neck and the face, should be covered.

Tipping is discouraged in Maldives. It is prohibited at the airport and discouraged at hotels and restaurants, as most have already added a 10% service charge to the bill.

Water transport is the most popular mode. Dhoni, the locally made wooden boats are primarily used for transport.

Speedboats are also used to cater for the tourism industry. Speedboats can be hired as well.

From the airport, tourists are transferred to the resorts in dhoni, speedboats, helicopters and seaplanes.

The national airline Air Maldives operates domestic flights to the other four regional airports in the Maldives.

Male and some other islands offer taxi services. The taxis have a fixed fee and the normal fare for a taxi in Male is MRF 15.00 per trip. Most islands are small enough for a brisk walk to cover the island.

The resorts offer diverse international cuisine including oriental, Middle Eastern, Indian and continental ones. Most resorts have more than one restaurant to cater the needs. For light snacks and refreshments the coffee shops in the resorts are ideal. Generally the liveaboards feature set menus while some may have restaurants that offer ample choice.

Maldivian food is spicy but milder than the food found in some neighbouring countries. Sweet, sour, hot and spicy food is found.

Hedhikaa is the short eats popular in many cafes. Hot and spicy savouries are made of smoked fish, grated coconut, lime juice, onion and chilli. They include bajiyaa (pastry stuffed with fish), kulhi boakibaa (fishcake), keemia (fish rolls) and gulha (fishballs) and masroshi (small pancake stuffed with fish).

The sweet items are made from flour, sugar, and essence. They include foniboakiba (cake made of flour), githeyo boakiba (made of flour, onions, and butter), and huni hakuru folhi (made of grated coconut, sugar and flour). A cup of black tea (kalhu sai) is the usual option to wash down the short eats.

A traditional meal consists of rice and garudhiya (fish soup), with fish, chilli, lemon and onion. Curries are also used instead of garudhiya. Fish paste known as rihaakuru is also a fine side dish. Alternately, roshi (chapati) and mas huni (made of grated coconut, fish, lemon and onions) are a popular dish. Fried yams are also widely eaten.

Sweet dishes include custard, bodibaiy (rice mixed with sugar) and fruits such as bananas, mangoes and papayas. Watermelons are a favourite during the fasting month of Ramazan.

Most of the resorts have special nights called Maldivian Night serving traditional local foods.

Alcoholic beverages and pork are prohibited by Law and only found in tourist resorts and liveaboards for tourist consumption.

Male, the capital, has a few simple restaurants which serve local and international food. On the other islands, there are a few restaurants in addition to those run by the resorts. Cuisine is international, with all foodstuffs other than seafood imported. There are no bars, except in the resorts, where there is a good range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks available, reflecting the demands of the visitors.

Things to know:

1. All bars are situated in tourist resorts (No alcohol is available on Male). Locals do not drink at all. During the month of Ramadan, visitors are not allowed to drink alcohol in public except in the tourist resorts.

2. There is little or no organized nightlife, although most resorts have informal discos around the bar areas, sometimes featuring live bands playing either traditional or Western music. Beach parties and barbecues are also popular. On some evenings, many resorts have cultural shows and some show videos.

Location: A group of islands in the Indian Ocean. 500km southwest of the southern tip of India.

Capital: Malé

Population: 338,000 (UN, 2005).

Local Time: GMT + 5.

Country code: +960

Electricity: 230 volts AC, 50Hz. Round-pin plugs are used, although square-pin plugs are now becoming more common.

Visa is not a requirement for tourists. A 30-day visa is provided upon arrival. A valid passport (6 months) is needed for arrival.

Dhivehi is the National language of the Maldives. English is used as a business language in government offices and the commercial sector. Other languages are used within tourist areas.

The Maldivian Rufiyaa is the official currency of the Maldives. The current exchange rate is US$1 = MRF 12.85 and €1 = MRF 15.00.

The US Dollar is the most popular foreign currency. However, other international currencies can also be exchanged at the banks and authorised moneychangers.

The commonly used credit cards are MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Diners Club, JCB and Eurocard.

Traveller's cheques are accepted by most hotels, resorts and banks.

The Republic of the Maldives is a chain of around 1200 islands stretching 750km across the Indian Ocean. The exact number of islands varies according to the season and method of classification - islands come and go with the wind, waves and currents!

The tiny islands are geographically grouped into ring shaped reefs called "atolls" and there are 26 of these atoll formations. The outer reef, which forms many of the islands, is often broken by deep channels that allow oceanic water to flow into and out of the central lagoon.

Of the 1200 islands only 200 are inhabited by local Maldivian people, 88 islands have been developed as tourist resorts and the remaining islands are uninhabited. Inhabited islands are either tourist resorts or inhabited by locals and it is a Government ruling that there can be no combination of the two.

While there are 26 geographical atolls, tourists are most likely to see just 11 of these as the Maldivian Government has taken steps to restrict the impact of tourism on the local community. Tourists can only be accommodated on registered tourist islands with quite strict regulations governing tourist visits to uninhabited and fishing islands. The tourist development area has been restricted to the seven atolls of North Male, South Male, Ari, Felidhu, Baa, Lhaviyani and Addu Atoll. In 1997 the Government announced the proposed development of 14 new islands opening the atolls of Meemu, Faafu, Dhaalu and Raa to tourism.

The People
The Maldives has been a crossroads for sea traders for many centuries and the origin of the people of the country is mixed. Not much is known of the early history of the island people but the language and some archaeological finds of Buddhist relics indicate that the early settlers were from the southern Indian continent and the Buddhist Sinhalese from Sri Lanka. Now, of course, the Maldives population of 240,000 is entirely Muslim.

There is no party political system in the Maldives: the citizens Majlis (parliament) comprises 48 members, two elected from each atoll and eight nominated by the President. The president himself is nominated by the citizens' Majlis and elected by public referendum for a renewable five year period; the president then appoints his own cabinet.

Protection against foreign influences, however, comes from a desire to exist as their fathers had, in a close-knit society; a national 'family' that is close to Allah. Like the coral reefs that protect the islands, Maldivians maintain a commitment to keep their own world to themselves, to maintain the Maldivian culture and to protect it from the sometimes negative effects of outsiders.