Venue
Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives
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Lhaviyani Turtle Festival, Naifaru guide
Naifaru's homegrown festival for sea turtles.
In short
Families and travellers interested in marine conservation will find this a genuinely local event on Naifaru, capital of Lhaviyani Atoll. It usually falls in late August or September, and 2027 dates had not been announced by the Atoll Marine Centre. Expect information stalls, talks and school activities aimed first at islanders, with visitors welcome to listen and learn.
The Lhaviyani Turtle Festival is a community event on Naifaru, the capital island of Lhaviyani Atoll, devoted to the sea turtles of the surrounding reefs. Schoolchildren, families and marine scientists spend the festival at information stalls, talks and school activities about how turtles live and what is putting them at risk.
It matters because it is homegrown. The festival was not designed for tourists: it comes out of a local NGO and the turtle sanctuary it founded, and it speaks first to islanders whose families have fished these waters for generations.
For a visitor, that is the appeal. You see conservation as a small Maldivian town practises it, with teachers, volunteers and researchers in the same room.
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Key Facts & Stats:
Where: Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives
Venue: Naifaru
Held: Every year
Type of event: Leisure Events, Cultural Events, Community Events
Currency: Maldivian rufiyaa (MVR)
Time zone: Maldives Time, UTC+5
Language: Dhivehi
Map
Getting around
Hotels near the venue fill up around the event dates.
Dress code on a local island
Naifaru is an ordinary inhabited island with mosques, schools and family homes, and the dress code applies everywhere outside your guesthouse.
- Cover shoulders and knees, men and women alike. Light cotton trousers or a long skirt and a loose shirt work in the heat.
- Keep swimwear for the boat or a resort; never wear it in the streets.
- Alcohol is not sold on the island.
- A hat and refillable water bottle help, since much of the festival happens outdoors.
Asking before photographing schoolchildren
Most of the festival audience is made up of children, many of them visiting in school groups from other islands. Ask a teacher before photographing a class or an activity, and do not post close-ups of children online without permission.
Stallholders and researchers are usually happy to be photographed at their tables. Ask first, and turn off the flash indoors.
How to behave around turtles in the water
The festival's lessons carry straight into the lagoon. If you snorkel or dive while you are in Lhaviyani:
- Keep your distance and let the turtle choose how close to come.
- Never touch, chase or ride a turtle, and never block its path to the surface, where it needs to breathe.
- Leave the flash off.
- Do not feed turtles or other marine life.
- Report a turtle tangled in netting to your dive centre or guesthouse, and do not try to free it yourself.
Etiquette and dress
Dress on Naifaru
Naifaru is an inhabited local island, so cover shoulders and knees around the village and the festival grounds; swimwear is for resorts.
Friday on local islands
The Maldivian weekend is Friday and Saturday. Offices and many shops close, and public ferries on many routes do not run on Fridays.
Staying on Naifaru or at a Lhaviyani resort
There are two ways to approach this festival, and they lead to very different trips. The first is to stay on Naifaru itself. The island has two guesthouses, more than 120 shops and markets and the atoll's hospital, and sleeping there puts you among the families the festival is made for. Rooms are few, so book once the dates are out and confirm that your host can meet the boat.
The second is to base yourself at one of the resorts scattered around Lhaviyani, among them Six Senses Kanuhura, Kuredhu, Komandoo, Kanifushi and Hudhuranfushi, and cross to Naifaru for the day. Resorts sit only a short boat ride from the capital island, but you will need the resort to arrange the trip, so mention the festival when you book.
Either way, treat the event as a local occasion you are invited into. Programmes are aimed at Maldivian families and schoolchildren, and most of the crowd will be local. Plan a few unhurried hours. Our Maldives travel page helps if you are building a longer trip through the northern atolls.
How a turtle sanctuary led to the festival
It all began with a problem. By 2012 too many young turtles on Naifaru were being kept as pets, so the local NGO Naifaru Juvenile set up a sanctuary to take them in. That sanctuary became the Atoll Marine Centre, now the hub for marine conservation and teaching across Lhaviyani, and the festival is its public face.
Its message is aimed squarely at the next generation. The 2022 theme, "Our Ocean, Their Home, Your Future", spelled it out, and the threats covered at the stalls are local ones, from plastic washing onto the beaches to turtles caught as bycatch.
That second point lands hard on Naifaru. Fishing has always been the island's main livelihood, and the country's first tuna cannery was built on neighbouring Felivaru because the local catch was so large. Many younger islanders now work in resorts instead. Seen from Naifaru, lessons about turtles touch both of the ways the atoll earns its living: the fishing fleet and the reefs that resort guests come to see.
Getting there
Flying in
International flights land at Velana International Airport, next to Malé. Check entry rules on our Maldives visa page; from Bangladesh, see Dhaka to Male flights.
Passenger boat from Malé
Naifaru lies about 140 km north of Malé. Two passenger boats run between Naifaru and the capital; the trip takes about nine hours, so bring food and water and confirm the departure day with your guesthouse.
Domestic flight
Madivaru Airport in Lhaviyani Atoll, run by Island Aviation, serves Naifaru. No flight within the Maldives lasts longer than about 90 minutes.
Seaplane for resort guests
Most Lhaviyani resort guests arrive by seaplane from Velana. Seaplanes avoid flying after dark and schedules are often fixed the day before, so leave slack around an international flight.
On Naifaru
The island is only about 1.1 km long, so everything is a short walk from the harbour.
Where to stay during the festival
The next date is 10 September 2027. Book your room as soon as your dates are fixed, since rooms close to the festival are the first to go.
Weather and what to pack
September falls in the south-west monsoon, the wetter half of the Maldivian year. On the 1991–2020 normals for Malé (Velana International Airport), the nearest long-running station with published normals, September averages highs of 30.5 °C and lows of 25.7 °C, with 213.7 mm of rain over about 15 rainy days.
Expect warm, humid days with passing showers and choppier sea crossings than in the dry season.
Worth packing
- A light rain jacket for showers and the boat crossing
- Motion-sickness tablets for the long passenger boat
- Food and water for the boat from Malé
- Clothes that cover shoulders and knees for a local island
- Reef-safe sun cream and a hat
Car hire in Lhaviyani Atoll
Airport transfer to Lhaviyani Turtle Festival, Naifaru
Met at arrivals at Dharavandhoo Airport (DRV) and driven door to door to Naifaru.
- Dharavandhoo Airport (DRV) → Naifaru
Restaurants and food in Maldives
Places to eat in Maldives before or after the celebrations.
Fresh in the Garden
Soneva Fushi, Kunfunadhoo Island, Baa Atoll, Maldives
Cuisine:Garden to tableContemporary
- Dine-in
- Outdoor seating
SEA Underwater Restaurant
Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas, Kihavah Huravalhi Island, Baa Atoll, Maldives
Cuisine:ContemporaryInternational
- Dine-in
5.8 Undersea Restaurant
Hurawalhi Island Resort, Hurawalhi, Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives
Cuisine:ContemporaryTasting menu
- Dine-in
Ithaa Undersea Restaurant
Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, Rangali Island, Alif Dhaal Atoll, Maldives
Cuisine:Contemporary EuropeanTasting menu
- Dine-in
- Private room
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Need help?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Stay & facilities
Yes, if the resort arranges the boat across. Six Senses Kanuhura became the festival's title sponsor in June 2026, so its guest team is a good first contact; at other Lhaviyani resorts, ask the excursions desk as soon as dates are announced.
General
Past partners have included Reefscapers, the Olive Ridley Project, Manta Trust and the Environmental Protection Agency, alongside smaller groups such as Clean Maldives and Coral Mission.
More than 3,000 in 2025. That year 13 schools from seven different atolls and over 20 organisations took part, a big turnout for an island of a few thousand residents.
The ninth, assuming the eighth went ahead as planned in September 2026. The organisers had not published 2027 dates when this page was written.
Walk past Madhrasathul Ifthithaah, opened in 1933 and described as the second oldest school in the country, and browse the island's shops and markets, which supply much of the atoll.
Green sea turtles are the ones most linked to the atoll, because its seagrass beds give them grazing. Stingrays are also unusually common in Lhaviyani's waters.
The 2022 census counted 4,832 residents, 718 of them foreign nationals, which makes Naifaru the sixth most populous town in the Maldives and by far the largest community in Lhaviyani.
Families & accessibility
It is designed for them. Activities centre on schoolchildren and their families, with stalls and hands-on activities pitched at young visitors.
Health & safety
Yes. Lhaviyani Atoll Hospital is the island's only medical facility and serves as the state hospital for the whole atoll.
Visa & documents
No. Passengers travelling between atolls no longer need an inter-atoll permit; the rule now applies only to people bringing their own yacht.