How to travel to Maldives

Maldives, dream destination. Not only for me but for so many other travelers around the world. My dream became true (again) and an Edelweiss plane took me to Malé airport at one of the 1200 islands which makes up the Republic of Maldives. I visited Maldives about ten years back in time but did not liked it. It was different at that time. In a more developing state. No tall buildings, an airport which was as small as the one in my hometown of Västerås and you could notice it is a muslim country from the moment you enter. Ten years is a long time in a developing country. Constant development are taking place and new islands are built all the time. Because many of the islands where luminary resports are located are manmade ones. If you plan your dream vacation to the Maldives, prepare to enter a fake world. Not like Dubai or Singapore but in a different sense. A fake paradise.

Where to stay

Depending on your budget you can stay from a basic place to an ultra luxury place. Like any other place in the world but here the luxurious places are more luxurious than any other place. We headed to one resort that opened last year about 30 minutes boat ride from the airport. There is nothing apart from our resort on the island and price level reflects that so to say. Activities cost 5 times as much as if you decide to go from the main island and food. Yes, food is crazy overpriced. Pizza is even more expensive than Peppes in Norway so if you want to save money I would recommend a detox here. Or a breakfast only diet. It is all worth it though. For most people it is a once in a lifetime destination and if you go I would recommend to spoil yourself at least for three nights at a luxury resort. When you are fed up with resort life I also recommend two nights in Male and if you would like to have more island experience I would say that the island of Maafushi is the place to head to. There you stay in more basic guest houses.

Life at a luxury resort

We checked in at Hilton Amagiri resort & Spa (not sponsored) and got warmly welcomed from the very beginning. Staff were great, accommodating and easy to reach through Whatsapp during our whole stay. At first we was a bit disappointed to not get an over water villa but in the end even more happy with out beach house located right on the most beautiful beach on the island.

A typical day stated for us with a visit to the gym in order to get hungry for breakfast. It was rarely other people there and the view was amazing. Inside the gym building there are also several different saunas. They also host a fair amount of sport activities like yoga, pilates, tennis, soccer, badminton and jogging. I liked the gym.

Breakfast was next up on the schedule. A huge one. They had everything you could dream about. My favorites were avvo toast, coconut smoothie, pancakes and overnight oats as well as matcha chia pudding. Yum. Could have breakfast all day.

But breakfast all day wasn’t an option.Enjoying the beautiful waters of Maldives and go swimming was up next on the not so busy schedule. Weather wise it is a bit difficult to predict but we mostly got sunny days. Sometimes with some clouds also but the sun is very strong here so honestly it was just more enjoyable with some shade and I hope I made enough photos under clear blue sky anyway.

During the late afternoon we headed over to one beach bar to have drinks. Every day there were different drinks.

The resort island was fairly large. I was running around it a couple of times and running all streets made a 4K run. Not bad. All guests also got bikes and it was a nice feeling to bike around so we did that quite a lot. I love bike only islands. That really adds an extra vacation dimension to me.

You might think that the evenings got a bit boring but they did not. Sunset was around 18 and of course nothing you wanted to miss out. I can’t get enough of beatiful sunsets. In the evening there were some nights live music and one evening it was outdoor cinema. That was great. I have tried to so many times to go to the one in Stockholm during summers but fail every time. Either it doesn’t suit my schedule or it is pouring down rain.

They also had a wide range of games like polo, ping-pong – love it, scrabble, Monopoly and other board games to use.

I visited the Maldives with a former uni friend of mine. Although this is the typical honeymoon destination this resort (at least) wasn’t overfilled with honeymooners. There were many but also a mix of older couples and different family constellations. We were the only Scandinavians and according to the staff it was rare with visitors from the north on this resort. The majority of guests came from UAE or America.

To round off and answer the question I got so many times, how much does it cost to go. Well, it is not a budget friendly place. If you want to go be prepared it will cost a few dollars and more. If it is worth it. Yes. Any other questions about resort life in the Maldives? hit me.

/ Pernilla that soon will head back to reality