MALDIVES
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| Beautiful Maldives- with different shades of blue! |
Gosh! It really is Amazingly Beautiful! After loads of stalking of pictures on Instagram, Facebook, google, other people's pictures, it was finally my turn to visit the beautiful Maldives.
Maldives is a nation right in the middle of the vast Indian Ocean and is made up on different coral atolls. It's capital is Male and they have been reclaiming nearby islands to extend it as it is getting very congested! It's really cool how little islands could form right in the middle of the ocean! I've never seen such beautiful shades of blue in a place before! Also, accompanied by the awesome white sandy beaches!
So.. after loads of research to look for the perfect resort which suited our budget and fancies, we finally found Meeru Island Resort & Spa (Link). And.. BOY were we superbly pleased and satisfied with our choice! We decided to go in July as it was in the middle of the month, as I couldn't wait till December to go.. However, it was during their rainy season, so we were kinda worried it would pour non stop, however! Thank God for giving us perfect weather and a perfect trip! It rained a few times, but usually late at night and early in the morning! We had sunny days for a few days- perfect for Traveller J and other days was cloudy- perfect for me! Oh! And prices are lower during the rainy season as well.
The only thing that peeved us a little was the attitude of some of the staff at Meeru Island Resort. Some of their local staff were not very friendly and in particular one of their bar staff. Come on! Smile a little, you're in Maldives making cocktails! However, the rest of the staff were pretty friendly!
-Days: 5 nights 6 days (Perfect! I could probably stay longer and chill more, explore other islands if I had a larger budget and if Traveller J had more leave.. maybe next time!
-Cost: Altogether our trip cost us around $2600 each for 5 nights including flights! A little on the high side, but for Maldives, I think it's alright! As, meals were all included, plus drinks, alcohol on 3 nights, plus the sunset/dolphin cruise, etc!
-Flight: Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
I took Singapore Airlines as the timing was better as it landed in the morning, as compared to Tiger Airways which also flies to Maldives! It's cheaper though! Can check that out too!My flight cost around $900 pp.
Flight was 4 hours+ and Maldives is 3 hours behind Singapore time.
TO:
10.10 AM(Singapore) - 11.35 AM (Male)
FRO:
12.50 AM (Male) - 7.50 PM(Singapore)
-Resort:
Meeru Island Resort & Spa (Meeru Island)
We chose to stay at 2 different room options which I personally liked..
First 2 Nights was at a Beach Villa (405) and the other 3 Nights was at a Jacuzzi water villa (Room 344 & 307) We picked the rooms which were on the East side of the island, where we could see the Sun rise and where the waters are calmer, as compared to the West which you could see the sunset and the North part of the island. You could choose those if you prefer more waves!
I liked our stay at the beach villas as we were a short walk from the beach, so most of our time were spent at the beach and snorkeling! Get some sand in our toes:D The water villas is a definite must- if you're in the Maldives- no explanation needed!
Itinerary:
When you go to Maldives, you'll probably not have a fixed itinerary! It's a place to chill and relax. However, do take note of the days and timings of the excursions, lessons or any events your hotel offers if you plan to try out everything on your trip!
After arriving at Male Airport, we went to our booth to wait for our boat out to Meeru Island Resort & Spa. As our resort wasn't too far away, we didn't require a sea plane. Our boat just took around 45 minutes to get there! We were the only guests to arrive at that time, plus others who probably were the staff at Meeru Island Resort. The island was relatively big and it wasn't noisy and was just the perfect relaxed, exciting and romantic getaway!
We got the all Inclusive package for our last 3 nights, which included free flow drinks, 3 meals a day, tea time snacks. Oh! Just remember to bring few packs of chips and all as those weren't included from the minibar in the room We even got a sample 15 mins of massage, Champagne delivered to us at sunset, a sunset cruise where we managed to see loadss of cute dolphins performing for us in the vast blue ocean. The other 2 Nights which was full board did not include drinks and all the activities, we brought water along, but still had to buy more bottles of water at 4.5 USD each for a big one.. Not too bad I guess?
The whole area of Meeru Island Resort was probably almost all on Sand. The reception and restaurants were on sand as well! How cool! Totally felt like we were on an island! The place was well kept and maintained. There were so many things to do to keep you entertained- if you choose not to just chill by the beach/sea!:D
The meals were really good considering we are assigned to a single restaurant depending on where you stay.
So for our first 2 Nights, we were assigned to the Maalan Restaurant which was located on the North tip of the resort. It was really peaceful and quiet here, where at this part of the island, kids were not allowed. The other 3 Nights we had our 3 meals at the Farivalhu Restaurant which had our awesome meals as well. It wasn't too noisy on this part of this island as well! It is near the reception, games room, water sports center, and where most of the 'happenings' were. Pretty satisfied with the food where there was quite a bit of variety, and there were some changes here and there on the 5 Nights we were there! I mean it's not fine dining food or anything but the variety and taste was pretty good! Only thing is that I would prefer if they had more seafood! Prawns, shellfish and that sort!
The drinks from the all inclusive menu was pretty good as well! My Favorite was the Coconut Dream, Sweet Something and the Blue Lagoon!:) YUM! I had such fun sipping cocktails by the beach, as well as on our room porch where we were allowed to bring drinks into our room as well!
We woke up on some days to watch the Sunrise. We were given the Over water villa which was the last (344) and nearest to the vast ocean on our first night, where the view was FANTASTIC, as nothing was blocking our view. This was perfect for the sunrise, however after that one night, I requested to be allocated to a nearer room! Got woken up in the middle of the night and suddenly had scary thoughts that I would be washed away to shore, or our villa was flooding from the high tide! haha! Was afraid of snorkeling as well, as we were the furthest away and nearest to the ocean.
Our Water villa (307) nearer to the island was perfect for snorkeling! I think we definitely saw more fishes, rays, sharks passing by more often. It was also less rocky and calmer with waters so clear we could clearly see all the marine life just below us! We snorkeled on the East side of the island most of the time and we could see such a lot of marine life!! Although the North side is the recommended snorkeling site, we didn't go there as the currents were pretty strong on that end.
One of the days we went kayaking which was on the West side to the North of the island, we kept getting flipped off our boat at the beginning, however, once we got the hang of it, we were pro kayak-ers! The staff told us to stay close to the island and not go further past the restaurant on the North of the Island as the currents and waves were really strong for that day!
On another day, Traveller J and I tried some golf on the island and I must say we were pretty good...
There were excursions out of the island as well, such as the complimentary house reef for snorkeling, kagi island, etc, however in the end we decided to just enjoy the resort, as it was more than enough for us! We saw quite a few sting rays, black tip reef sharks, Loads of cute, colorful, small and large fishes! We even saw 2 kinds of Trigger fish which was in the warning page in our room's booklet! How cool! On the first day we kept following the colorful fish around without knowing it can be dangerous! So many random funny looking fishes we saw as well! The waters were quite calm in the lagoon area, expect for a day or 2 which had high tide with stronger currents.
On the day we went for our sunset cruise, I was superbly excited! Love sitting on boats speeding out into the deep blue sea! What more, we saw a Huge pack load of dolphins! They were coming so close to the boat, flipping, jumping and performing in packs all around us from afar! How amazing really to see what God has made in this world! Our guide from Meeru told us to clap so that the dolphins would come out.. I wonder if that really was true, nevertheless we just clapped along! This was definitely one of the major highlights of the trip for us!
What we did majority of our trip was Wake up to Sunrise from our room, Breakfast, Chill, Snorkel, Lunch, Chill, Snorkel, Watch the sunset, Dinner, Chill on our porch! Not to forget our in between of mocktails, cocktails, beer and wine! How beautiful it is to wake up everyday and walk around with such awesome views!
When it was time for us to go back, we were sent off by a few of the Meeru Staff waving to us as we set off on our speed boat!- How sweet! Totally enjoyed our Maldives trip! No idea how some people could say there's nothing much to do here and not to stay too long... Just chilling on the beach and snorkeling in the calm waters is defo enough for me!
Hope you enjoy the pictures!
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| Arrival at Male Airport |
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| Male from afar |
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| At our booth waiting for our Representative from Meeru Island |
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| On Speedboat Leila to adventure off to our Island! |
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| Arrived Beautiful Meeru Island!! |
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| Reception of Meeru Island Resort & Spa |
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| Welcome Cocktails on our arrival! |
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| Maalan Restaurant |
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| Our wonderful Beach Villa so close to the beach! |
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| Checkout the Cute honeymoon suite and the Love boat! |
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| Traveller C chilling by the beach |
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| Our Over water Villa! The Last of the Lot!:D |
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Traveller C & J First Sunrise together!
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| Our little porch to watch the sunrise and the waves & fishes go by! |
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| Jacuzzi Over water Villas (300s)- Beautiful! |
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| My Cocktail, Traveller J's Beer+ Chips after a snorkel with the lagoon & sea at our doorstep - Perfection! |
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| Our delicious Bubblies delivered to our room just in time for Sunset in our room! |
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| Do Not Disturb!:D |
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| Water Villas on the Northern Tip of the Island |
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| Informative & Interesting Maldives Culture Night + Bodu Beru Cultural Dance Show at the Kakuni Bar |
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| Part of the Island~ |
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| Sunset- On our Sunset cruise with a cocktail in hand, and dolphins as accompaniment |
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| A Happy Dolphin performing for us! |
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| Waters So clear we could see the Cute Black tip Reef Shark |
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| Huge school of fishes gathering under the light of our Overwater villa at night! |
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| Saw a TriggerFish! Which apparently can be dangerous! |
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| Check me out- I'm an angry Sting Ray- Don't Disturb me!:) |
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| Cute Baby Hermit crabs |
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| See You Soon Marvelous Maldives!! We'll be back |
Sadly, every holiday has to end at some point! However we'll be back!!
Till next time again Maldives & Meeru Island Resort!!
XOXOXOXO
Great pictures and very helpful comments. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures, and very helpful comments. We are going to Meeru in February.
ReplyDeleteThanks Margaret! Awesome! How nice! May you have an Awesome trip! Makes me feel like going back again!
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