Maldives – an Illusion of the Ultimate Dream Travel Destination?
What I will write now and tell about, for those of you who not yet have had the opportunity to get your dream journey come true, you may think I am a bit negative. If so, I apologise if I just ruined your dream trip and illusion. You just have to go there yourself to prove me wrong.
My husband and I went in March this year for three nights and four days to the Maldives and the island we stayed at is called Lankanfinolhu and it is situated in the North Male Atoll. I wouldn’t say it is easy to choose among the hundred plus something islands with resorts in the Republic of Maldives. You just have to go by your wallet and your own spending ability on which resort to book I suppose.
“Is it really that magical and special like nothing or nowhere else in the world?”
The Maldives is expensive. It is very expensive I would say, as most people also know. The resorts or travel agencies only want payment in US dollars and don´t favour their local currency. It was our most expensive daily rate in a resort ever I believe and we only choose a mid range expensive one. There is so many more luxury ones for the very, very, very wealthy people (!) or at least those who care to spend more money than we wanted.
After all it´s pricey enough as it is. Anyway, when it comes to us mostly women I guess, who read this magazine Expat Life, we all live in South East Asia for a number of years and we all travel, some more than others. We go to wonderful spots only a few hours away. We see so much and we compare with each other and give tips to our friends to get the best out of your next travel.
We experience fantastic beaches, clear blue water and white sand in Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Australia etc. and we tend to be quite spoiled with the natures glory, and especially are we spoiled with not having to spend a fortune on a great long weekend away from the bustling and vibrant Bangkok.
So with this in mind and my new experience and knowledge, if you ask me again: Is it worth it? The Maldives? Is it really that magical and special like nothing or nowhere else in the world? Since many years the Maldives has been the “dream travel destination” in the Indian Ocean among the tourism industry and its customers. Like all places there are plus and minus, so also here. I will write a few things about both opinions and note please, this is from my very personal point of view.
We are all a bit different and have various travel experience and requests when it comes to our holidays. The photos speak for themselves and of course it was lovely. But. There´s always a but… Some people like it, when it is all organised from the minute you arrive to the minute you leave and the older we get, perhaps the more we tend to want it that way.
Our adventurous youth has faded away a little bit. We also get a bit lazy as we get older when we are on holiday. But when it comes to the Maldives and this resort we visited, they almost at some point overdid it. For me that takes away the charm somehow. We arrived at Male airport and exited the arrival terminal and almost immediately stepped into a speedboat.
Within 25 minutes we were at the resort. It all went very smooth. After checking in we were taken to our room maybe 300m away from the lobby. The room was very simple and nothing special at all considering the rate (!). But I figured that it is not the resorts’ hotel room that is the most important here and what you pay for. You pay for the pleasure of experience the most fantastic water you have ever seen in your life most likely.
You have all seen the turquoise colour and felt that – well yes you can always make photos to whatever colour you like these days. But it really is the most turquoise water I have ever seen. No doubt about that. And I have been to a few so-called Blue Lagoons. The sand is very white so the three main colours you see around you white-turquoise-blue will indeed dominate your days.
To walk along the beach and be accompanied by swimming baby sharks was nothing I thought would ever happen to me in my life. I even had a big shark swimming just beside me when I was snorkeling. They are luckily not dangerous and this typical species is called Black tip coral shark. One of the evening “happenings” at the resort was that they fed the sharks and the ray-fish and hotel guests were able to watch this and of course lots of photos were taken. Not a single hand in the air was seen without a smart phone in it.
Half board was included in our “stay” and this meant that you between 19:30 – 21:00 went to one of the two restaurants there was and to a large buffet. The restaurant was very over furnished, tables everywhere so you could hardly walk between them all. You sort of struggled your way through all chairs and tables. You were not allowed to pick where to sit, but the restaurant had chosen a table for you during the whole stay.
I was not so fond of that (this is the “too organised” bit I don´t like) and I definitely did not like where they had placed us, which was for some strange reason very far away from both food and people, so the following nights we got a new table after I made a request. The food was very nice, nothing bad at all in fact but when so many people should eat during 1,5 hour it becomes a bit stressful and with long queues lining up – I don’t like that feeling when I am on holiday, that we have to hurry up.
The other “too organised tourist things” I am not so fond of, was the evening activities/ events/music. Every evening something new was going on and the music was quite loud when we wanted to enjoy our glass of wine. The activities could be; muscle competition for men, Ms Maldives beauty contest, karaoke etc. Some may like that and find it amusing but it was not our “cup of tea”.
“…Worth it? If you value and appreciate water sports, snorkeling, marine life and water, I would absolutely say yes.”
To summarise my story and experience about Maldives and answer if its worth it? If you value and appreciate water sports, snorkeling, marine life and water I would absolutely say yes. Once in a lifetime thing, if you can afford it that is without having to suffer too much for the rest of the year. You will see incredible beautiful and clear water, sharks and stingrays and other colourful fish.
If you value other things like peace and quite, simplicity and charm, nice restaurants I think I would say no because you find all that to a much lower price in the country we are in right now. You can do three different trips for the same money with much higher standard of hotel rooms, as good food and a shorter flight in Thailand. We paid for 2 persons for the flight and 3 nights with half board (buffet)? 70,000B. It´s an awful lot ofmoney for only 3 nights. You betterlove and enjoy turquoise water for that kind of money. Would we want to go back one day? No, I don´t think so. We don´t regret the trip but as you can understand by now, doubtful if it´s worth all the money.
Happy Travel!
Additional info:
We were a bit reluctant at start if we dared going, because of the political situation in the republic and in Male city and if it would affect us somehow. It was called “State of Emergency” not too long ago and even talks about curfew. However we were reassured from the agency, that when landing at the airport we would be directly transported to the resort and would never see or hear anything and didn’t have to worry, unless you were to take a day trip in to Male. But why would you want to do that is my question? The agency is correct. We didn’t see anything troublesome.
When it comes to air quality and pollution even the Maldives can be affected by winds from Colombo in Sri Lanka and from India. When we visited much to my surprise the sky was not totally clear and we could see and sense a greyish sky in the horizon.
They are dumping enormous amount of garbage offshore the Maldives. Male city is the most densely populated capital in the world with 350,000 people on 2,2 square km in size. The Maldives is a 100% Muslim country.
Human rights is a contentious issue in the republic. To add problems is the unequal treatment of women. In 2013 the court sentences a 15 year old rape victim to 100 lashes and 8 months of house arrest for having had “extra marital relations” (!!). The conviction was based on the confession of the girl after being raped by her stepfather.
Info above taken from Wikipedia. https://www.iamat.org/country/maldives/risk/air-pollution
