Close your eyes and imagine yourself in paradise. Is it turquoise water, white powder sand, unlimited amounts of amazing food and alcohol, an atmosphere that allows your heart and mind to relax, or above all, extreme amounts of privacy to do whatever you like. If it's all of the above, you have just described the Maldives! 

This is a type of place you visit and realize that that there is a higher power in the universe that exists, that loves us, and wants us to be happy! This higher power, made the Maldives. 

The Maldives is a group of 1200 islands separated into a series of 26 coral atolls that is just north of the equator and in the Indian Ocean. An “atoll” is a ring-shaped island (or collection of islands) formed of coral. Out of the 1200 islands, only 200 are inhabited and 100 are resorts. 

We stayed in Lhaviyani Atoll. It is where our resort, Hurawalhi was located. Like all the resorts there, it is located in one small island, surrounded by a beautiful lagoon, an amazing house reef and long stretches of white, sandy beach. This atoll is about 400 meters (.25 miles) long by 165 meters (.10 miles) wide. Yes, it took us about 15 minutes to walk the entire island.    

This was not the easiest resort to get to, as we had to take a 45-minute seaplane ride from the main airport located in the main island, Male, and then take a speed boat from another island, to arrive to our resort. All of this was well worth it, because the view of the Maldives from the seaplane is exactly how you see it in the postcards. I recommend it!

Once we arrived, we were greeted with song and dance, literally. The resort team plays local music as you walk through the main entrance. Image yourself entering your very own palace and the community awaiting your much-anticipated arrival. It was like that! 

Once we arrived, our host, who took extreme care of us the entire time we were there, welcomed us with so much genuine kindness that I had to ask her if she lived on the island. And of course, she did. After giving us the tour of the island in a golf cart, she took us to our first room, the beach villa. Wow, it’s no surprise that my husband and I looked at each other and said, this is where we should retire! 

We chose the beach villa to experience the stay on the beach, but after two nights, we moved to the water bungalow to experience that as well, which are very popular and common to find in the resort islands in the Maldives. We loved the experience in the water bungalow, but when we go back, we would stay in the beach villa only because we missed having our own private beach, in front of our own private pool. 

One of the reasons we chose this resort was because of the balance of activities and relaxation that it offered. We wanted to have the option of relaxing all day, or doing activities all day, or dancing at night, or quietly enjoying the moonlight. This resort offered it all. 

But above all that, what really attracted us was the experience of eating in their restaurant located 20 feet underwater. Only a handful of resorts in the Maldives offer this type or underwater experience. It’s not just a spectacular culinary experience; its design, surrounded by Mother Nature, is breathtaking as well. Everything about this restaurant is unbelievable, it’s absolutely a must do!

Now that we’ve been to the Maldives, these are just some items that we wish we new before we arrived. 

1) Alcohol: The Maldives is a 100% Muslim country, which means that they have strict religious rules that they follow. These rules include entering any type of alcohol into the country, including if you purchased it at the duty-free at the airport before you arrive. We knew about the countries religious beliefs, but did not know that alcohol was not allowed to be entered into the country, even if we didn’t plan on consuming it there. We had purchased some whisky to take home and it was taken away from us by Maldives immigration. 

 2) Drinking Water: The water is safe to drink. We purchased the all-inclusive package but were surprised to hear that the bottled water was not included in the package. At first this worried us, but then we were informed that the water is recycled and treated and totally fine to drink. The resort brings water in custom glass vases to your room everyday, which was fine because I never felt like we were short in water. 

3) Seaplanes: The seaplanes do not have a set schedule. This is because of how the flights work. They base it off the daily pick up and drop of times, therefore, there is no set schedule on when they arrive or depart Male or your island resort. This can cause long wait times when you arrive at the airport, so make sure your hotel offers an airport lounge where you can hang out, connect to WIFI and get something to drink and eat. Hurawalhi had an amazing airport lounge (we lucked out), and were really grateful for it when we arrived to Male (after our 10 hour flight) because we had to wait four hours for the seaplane to arrive to take us to our resort.  

Overall, our stay in the Maldives was splendid and simply not long enough! Below is a quick recap of our itinerary to provide you with an idea, but if you can, stay longer and visit other islands.

Wed, 5/16: Day 18: Arrive Maldives
Th, 5/17: Day 19: Scuba Dive
Fri: 5/18: Day 20: Dinner in water restaurant
Sat: 5/19: Day 21: Hang around resort
Sun, 5/20: Day 22: Leave Maldives
4 total nights

If you’re wondering how easily this can be done, how much it costs and who I used, I can send you my full itinerary. Just email me for the details. 

My itinerary includes: 

• Who I used to booked the hotel
• How the seaplane was scheduled
• How to customize your stay in the island
• Travel visa requirements – who needs what and where to get it
• Hotel and restaurant recommendations
• Excursion ideas and tours to other islands
• Currency tips
• Best time of year to visit 
• What to pack and wear
• Unlimited amount of questions you can ask me for your travel