What You Need To Know About Maldives:
Unlike many other places on the planet and one of the things that makes the Maldives extraordinary unique is that each hotel is located on a private island of itself. In order to understand this concept, we need to realize that this island country is composed of a chain of 26 coral atolls each of which is made up of hundreds of different islands all dispersed through roughly 90,000 square kilometers making it one of the world ’s most dispersed countries! These hundreds of islands are miniature islands, most of which are inhabited and left untouched. For this reason, each island can only “host” one hotel and also one of the reasons why most hotels have water bungalows. This is why planning a trip to the Maldives is extremely different than planning a trip to most other tropical destinations, and why it’s crucial for you to do lots of research to choose the right hotel since you will be spending all of your time there. This means you will sleep, eat and do all of your activities in the hotel. In the Maldives, you can not simply leave the island and go somewhere for lunch or explore a different beach (Unless you are staying in the capital, Male ). This means that essentially the hotel that you choose to stay in will define your whole Maldives experience.
Location & How to get to Maafushivaru
Once you land in Velana international Airport in Male, you will be greeted by one of the staff members from Maafushivaru. Since you need to take a seaplane flight to reach the island, they will assist you and take care of your check in for the seaplane flight. From there they will take you to the lounge where you can rest and wait for the flight. Once the flight is ready, you will be escorted to the seaplane terminal to board your flight. The island is only a 25 minute flight away from Male, so the flight is short and you are not likely to have any stops along the way. Since the island is very small and there are a few other resorts near by, you will land by a floating platform (in the middle of the ocean!) where you will wait for the boat that will take you to the arrival jetty in the resort. It is just a 2 minute boat ride away, but this little extra step makes all the difference in the little islands when it comes to reducing the noise from the seaplanes. Plus landing in the middle of the ocean is quite the experience too!
Our Villa
We were welcomed into one of their beautiful overwater pool villas. With a very modern design, the overwater pool villas are newly renovated to offer a clean, slick and contemporary twist to the bungalows. At 1,500 sq, the bungalow offers a bedroom with an open concept bathroom, his and hers closet, office desk, complete with your very own infinity pool, and sun bathing area. You also have an outdoor shower and stairs that take you straight into the lagoon for a swim.
The deck is definitely the place where we spent the most time in , specially since our pool had the beautiful view of a tiny little island that sits right in front of the property.
At night the pool has some beautiful lights that look like bioluminescence plankton, that was definitely a very nice touch.
Amenities & Dinning
At just over 350 meters in length, you can walk around the whole island of Maafushivaru in about 10 minutes. This island resort might be small but there is a good variety of dinning options and activities to keep you active and entertained during your stay, though it will be hard to leave the main pool area as it is one of the most beautiful areas of the resort. The infinity pool has a beautiful view of the beach, spa, overwater bungalows and is complete with a jungle vibe from the lush vegetation. The view is beautiful from any angle of the main pool – we were hoping from one sun bed to another to alternate the view.
The resort hosts 6 different dinning venues with a variety of different cuisines offered. Cuisine Gallery is the main dinning restaurant where breakfast and dinner buffets are served focused on international cuisine. The dinning options here are great even for vegetarians but are quite limited for vegans. For lunch, the main restaurant is Las Tapas which is right by the pool. Here they have delicious veggie friendly options including Beyond Burger! You know I am not one to have these often, but this was a first in Maldives so I had it every day for lunch 🙂 If you are looking for a lighter meal you can have some high tea and sandwiches at the Library Lounge. Oh and they have ice cream too.
Aside from the main dinning options, Maafushivaru offers 3 signature dinning restaurants – Cielo, Umi and Moodhu Grill. The restaurants you experience during your stay will be determined by the meal plan that you choose during your booking. There are 3 different meal plans available for you to choose, with the Half Board being the standard package and DAAI which stands for Dine Around All Inclusive being the most comprehensive and all inclusive option. I would suggest to review the meal plans carefully in order to choose the best suitable option for you and if you are not sure, make sure to check with the property (as the meal plans can be a bit confusing) and they can assist you in finding the one that is right for you.
Something important to note, which we learnt the hard way is to book your dinner reservations ahead of time – if they allow you to do so, I’d say to make your bookings before you even reach the island. During our 3 night stay the island was running at almost full occupancy so all the signature restaurants were fully booked. They managed to get us a last minute booking in Moodhu Grill for one of the nights but the other nights the only option was to dine at the buffett. The buffet at Cuisine Gallery was great, but it was a shame that we didn’t get to experience Umi the most popular Japanese restaurant on the island or Cielo, the restaurant right above the pool area.
And of course, the place you shouldnt miss – the Spa. We had a lovely couples massage at the spa. The masseuses were great, but the relaxation area definitely stole the show. It is all open air, with all around water views and it has a gorgeous glass edge infinity pool.
Disclaimer: Though this post is in partnership with Maafushivaru, as always, all opinions are my own.