Raa Atoll, also known as Northern Maalhosmadulu Atoll, lies about 100 miles north-west of Male, the capital of the Maldives and the site of the international airport. There are about 90 islands in Raa Atoll, and only fifteen have local towns and villages - most are completely uninhabited Until fairly recently this part of the Maldives was not open to tourist development, but one island resort has opened and more are planned, including an ambitious property development on Lundhufushi island that proposes to sell luxurious private water villas as exclusive holiday homes, targeted at the super-rich.
The sole tourist development is the Adaara resort on Meedhupparu island, situated in the sheltered waters of the inner lagoon of the atoll. The beautiful island is relatively large and covered by enough tropical forest to support several native wildlife species. The resort development itself quite large by Maldivian standards, is also with more than 200 beach side bungalows and water villas grouped around the edges of the island. The resort is especially popular with Italian and British visitors. Most visitors transfer from the international airport at Male by seaplane - a short 45-minute flight low over hundreds of tropical islands, followed by the excitement of landing in the water beside the resort island. There is a range of accommodation options available, including a series of prestige water villas built out over the sheltered waters of the island's sheltered lagoon, with spacious sun decks and glass floor panels that afford a view of the living coral reefs and schools of fish below.
The on-shore guest facilities include a landscaped swimming pool, flood-lit tennis courts, beach volleyball and football matches, a health spa, fitness centre and shopping arcade. Equipment and coaching is available for snorkelling, windsurfing, jet-skiing and water-skiing, while the resort's scuba dive school offers diving certification training on the diverse house reef, as well as guided boat tours of several exceptional dive sites in the area. The iridescent blue waters and colourful coral reefs surrounding the resort are in pristine condition, and home to countless fish species, including rays, sea turtles, sharks and groupers. Raa atoll also features on the itineraries of several live-aboard dive boat safaris that tour the local group of Baa, Raa and Noonu atolls, where larger pelagic species such as mantas and whale sharks are frequent seasonal visitors.
Boat tours from the resort also offer visitors the opportunity to go sailing at sunset, deep-sea fishing, and to explore the nearby uninhabited islands of the atoll - for a romantic champagne picnic or a family swimming trip to an empty white coral-sand beach, shaded by coconut palms and tropical forest. The resort on Meedhupparu also organises sight-seeing trips to a traditional fishermen's island, where visitors can glimpse the character of traditional life in the scattered small villages of the Maldives, and purchase local handicrafts as souvenirs of their experience. Other popular boat excursions include seeking out the remote sandbanks that form in the inner lagoon of the atoll, to spend time swimming and playing in the warm, shallow blue waters and banks of white coral sand.