Honeymoon in Maldives ❣
Unbelievable, but still believable that we had an opportunity to go for our Honeymoon in Maldives. I must say that I was quite stressed before we finally sat on a plane since there was many variables involved. The most present one was of course Corona. And we had to make sure that not just us, but also our parents (who were going to look after Nolan 😉) would remain negative. As always I was also concerned about that flights will be canceled, the weather will be bad etc. but everything was perfect.
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| From the photoshoot |
I was actually even surprised that the flight was so full both from Tallinn to Istanbul and from Istanbul to Maldives. Luckily nobody sat next to me. The only downside was that I had got cold before our trip, so I was coughing quite bad and had runny nose. So it was like a prison to wear the facemask. Luckily Maldives cured me and on the way back it was much more pleasant. But let´s then deep dive into the trip.
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| Beginning of our trip in Tallinn Airport |
Why Maldives?
Maldives are one of the most desired Honeymoon destinations and I am not surprised why. I was also considering some other place like Seychelles, but I still felt that if even we would go there, I would still feel like going to Maldives also. And it is super expensive so I thought that since it is Honeymoon, we are more willing to pay for it. 😀
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| Maldivian sunset |
Trip
We got married in September but went for the Honeymoon at the beginning of January. One reason was that the best time to visit Maldives is from December to April, so beginning of January seemed like a good choice. However half of our time there still went under high season, so it was slightly more expensive. And during high season the cancellation rules were more strict.
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| View to the other overwater villas |
I was actually quite stressed about the weather since when I googled, then it showed rain and thunder. Weather forecast improved the closer the trip arrived but still it showed rain on some days. In the end it actually did not rain at all, a lot of sun and no wind. There were clouds once in a while, but it was rather nice then. Only the last day when we were leaving it was windy, but still pleasant to be by the pool or swim in lagoon. Maybe only not so good for snorkeling. The weather looks much clear and nicer if there is no wind and you can clearly see the fishes in the lagoon without even being in the water. 🙂
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| Sunrise yoga view |
Boat tour
We only went to one trip. It was a a evening boat trip where we went to seek dolphins, snorkeled and then saw sunset on the water. The highlight was to see dolphins so close. They were chasing our boat 😀. I saw them also under the water when snorkeling and at the beginning they just looked like a big fish. For snorkeling I would say that the reef around the resort was even better.
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| Boat tour, some overwater villas on the background |
There was also 2 other couples on a trip together with us. One was about middle age people. We were snorkeling and the guy asked why the corals look so dead, the guide asked that it is due to climate change. The guy still did not fully understand and I said that we are just snorkeling referring to the fact it cannot be the tourism and then I clarified, that it is because of humans that many corals were dead. 🤦♀️
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| Met the dolphins |
Ironic, we always talk about future generations that we need to save the planet, but then I suddenly realized that we are already the future generations who cannot enjoy the nature the way people before us could. I then googled and it was 1998 and 2016 heat wave that had left the biggest damage to coral reefs in Maldives. There are still some corals in Maldives and I can see that the they are a bit generating themselves, but hurry up people! It is also said Maldives will be under the water in our lifetime. 🙁
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| Another Sunset view |
Back to the trip! We also snorkeled by one uninhabited atoll. I snorkeled out to the land and there were actually quite a bit of trash that the water had flashed out. The guide said that they sometimes clean up there (but I am not sure they do that). They should take all the tourist there for voluntary "save the planet" clean up as part of the Maldivian experience. 😉 The resort was super clean though, I just saved 3 plastic trash from the water that I came across while snorkeling.
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| Cocktails time |
Snorkeling
Part of the resort offer was also complementary guided snorkeling around the island. We also got free snorkeling gear for the whole time we were on the island, so we could go to snorkeling whenever we wanted. I was first in doubt if we should use the guided snorkeling offer since it was 9:30 in the morning so we had to wake up early to get breakfast before.😀 I also thought that it is mainly for people who does not feel safe to snorkel alone. There was actually one family who were not good at swimming. Overall it was the best decision since the snorkeling guide helped us to find the sea turtle that we would not have found on our own.
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| Met one of the 4 local sea turtles 😍 |
For snorkeling around the island on our own there was 2 snorkeling channels to get behind the reef. As mentioned, the corals were not in the best shape but at the same time there were still many colorful fishes. We also saw many baby sharks. At first it was a bit scary since the water at the reef is super deep, but in the end got used to it. We also saw big ray.
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| Our lovely Honeymoon! 😍 |
Kayaking
From the watersport activities we also rented glass bottom boat kayak. Glass bottom was nice in the way that we could kayak over corals and see what is going on there. We survived one hour kayaking together without getting divorced so I guess our marriage is promising. 😅 One hour was enough to kayak around the island in the average speed and also enough time to take all the photos and videos.
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| Kayaking :) |
There were also possibility for more watersport activities, but did not seem like worth the money.
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| Kayaking over corals (we did not hit any 😉) |
Choosing the resort
The name of the resort was Amari Havodda. I choose the resort by making an excel table.😀 We still kind of had a budget in terms of how much we are willing to pay so I was looking anything around that price range. Our wish was to stay on a overwater villa, but in the price wise we were also willing to split the stay between overwater villa and beach villa. In most cases the overwater will is more expensive. In the end we spend all 5 nights in the overwater villa which was nice since we did not need to spend time to repacking. Besides of the price I also considered what meals are included, how much the local transport to the resort costs, if they have any honeymoon deals and cancellation policy.
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| Map of the resort |
In terms of local transport it also depends what time the flight arrives. In some cases there was no transport to the resort after like 16:00, especially if seaplane transport is only available. If the resort is just a speedboat away from the Malé airport, then it is cheaper and sometimes it is also possible to choose between local flight (cheaper) and seaplane. The local flights can take longer time. It was possible to get to our resort with local flights only. It was a bit time consuming and sometimes there could also be delays due to weather conditions. Luckily we had only slight delay and still made it to the dinner.
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| Jump picture |
The meal plans are another research area. 😀 Our was full board, meaning all meals were included and also soft drinks. Alcohol was not included. One cocktail cost about 8 USD, so I calculated that in order for all inclusive to make sense, then we should drink about 5 cocktails per day.😀 It would be fine for maybe one day, but every day it might be too much. It was possible to upgrade for last day. Some resorts also offer half-board, so lunch is not included. The a la carte food has so big selection and it took us couple of days to adjust our stomachs so that all the good staff would fit in. In that case it would also fine to just skip the lunch, but since we paid for it, we still showed up to all meals. Sometimes it could also be that buying meals separately is more expensive than buying the official meal plan.
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| Our lagoon 😍 |
Honeymoon packages is available in many places for minimum stay and only certain time after getting married. In our resort it was 6 months and I had to send our wedding certificate. We got the bed decoration and bottle for cava. For the most benefits it is good to stay 7 nights, then there could be also free candle light dinner and free room upgrade.
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| Bed decorations on the night we arrived |
Since the resorts are quite expensive and never know what will happen, I also tried to look for a resort that had free cancellation. For that you actually may need to pay extra and if it is high season (Christmas and New Year) then they might not even offer it as I found out after booking. 😀 Luckily we had the travel insurance linked to Kevin´s bank card that covered the trip.
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| Maldivian sunset sky |
During our stay in the resort we did not need to pay for extra drinks but just sign the paper and payed everything in the end. This was also for souvenirs bought from the shop, trip and corona test. The PCR test was taken in the afternoon and we already got the result later in the evening on the same day. It was worth to sign up for the loyalty program since it gave 10% discounts. I also got that when booking the resort at their official website.
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| BBQ dinner on the beach |
I used booking.com for looking the resort and filtered out 5 stars resorts and ratings over 9.0 and then sorted based on price.😅 The resort where we stayed actually did not have that many reviews, maybe around 200 and it was about the same or even less for other resorts on the list. For security I also checked pictures in google and Instagram.
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| Never enough pictures 😘 |
RESORT
Resort was not that big. It took about 20 minutes to walk from one end to another. There was one place where you could eat. That was outdoor with ventilators. In additional cost it was also possible to book for a beach BBQ dinner that we did for one nights that was quite nice since we got some seafood, grilled shrimp and fish. For drinks there was a bar by the pool that was open from 10 until midnight. It was possible to also buy pizza with additional money.
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| Sunset on fire |
For entertainment there was a library, gym and the courtyard for playing tennis or football. I also used the complementary yoga. It took place either sunrise or sunset. Sunset was actually better since the weather cooled down. With the sunrise the weather got hot quite fast.
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| Pool at night |
We did not experience any mosquitos, flies or other dangerous animals. They though made a fire in the island once in a while that was supposed to keep the mosquitos and other flies away. So I guess it helped.
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| Pool and cocktails in plastic classes |
If any questions then every quest got their own employee who kept in touch via WhatsApp. That was quite convenient so did not need to show up or call the reception all the time. All prices were in USD.
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| Inside the island there were some exciting trees |
The only thing I did not like so much was that we ended up being there during the Russian Christmas, so there were quite many Russians. They all behaved nicely but I kind of expected that there would be bigger variety of nationalities. 😀 There were though more children too than usual, that sometimes was a bit annoying during the meal times, since they did not fully understand the concept of queue. We did not have Nolan with us, so I am allowed to complain.😅
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| Going on the local flight on the way back |
Photoshoot
There was actually a photograph in the island. Part of the accommodation everybody got the complementary 30min photoshoot and one physical picture. And then you had an opportunity to buy digital pictures. We went for 20 pictures. It was quite difficult to choose since all of the pictures looked so good, since the environment was amazing. It was a nice opportunity to get the group pictures without asking other people or using self-stick. 😀 The photograph already know the right places and angles so there was no stress with that. We actually postponed the first shoot booking since it had got a bit cloudy and the photographer advices to try another time. First time it was evening before sun set and then we mover to morning before the lunch. It was super hot and we had the towel with us to swipe the sweat away. 😀
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| 🥰 |
Food was excellent. There was a la carte breakfast, lunch and dinner. For breakfast you could get the fired eggs. There was huge selection of fruits, small cakes and ice cream. Salat bar was also big. You could choose between all kinds of foods around the world, Chinese, Thai, Korean, even Danish pastry.😀 Let´s say that it was quite complicated to fit all this food in the belly. I am quite surprised that they managed to get all this big selection of food to the island. Even Kevin was in seven heaven even though he is quite picky about the food in terms of praising it.
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| One of the many amazing meals |
Overwater villa
All 5 nights we stayed in the overwater villa. In the resort there were also beach villas with or without the pool. Our room was on the other side of the island and it was the first room on the row, so the entrance from the balcony was straight into lagoon water. The villas further into water were on top of the coral. In terms of viewing fishes it would have been better, but not so good for swimming when water was low. There were also some fishes swimming by our villa especially after the sunset. A good thing about having villa close to the island was that we sometimes forgot our room card in the room and then we had an opportunity to get in from the balcony by swimming.😀 I notice our neighbors did the same once, so I guess it is quite common.
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| Our backyard |
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| We took quite many pictures there 😀 |
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| Indoor shower with view to lagoon |
Overall we sent quite some time also swimming in the lagoon by our room, especially during the sunset but also in the afternoon. At night it was nice to look at the stars and hear the waves. It was a bit challenging though since being by the pool or on the beach was also nice and making time for eating 3 times a day so I would say that still not enough time for me to finish reading my book! So definately not boring.😀
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| Enjoying our complementary Cava 😁 |
Budget
Our aim was to spend for honeymoon about the same money as for wedding, even a bit more. So in total it cost around 7200 EUR for 2. Now looking at those number it looks insane, especially if looking in euros. We kind of paid in DKK, so it seems less! It might take a while to get that money again.😅
Plane tickets: 1000 EUR (per person, Tallinn - Istanbul - Malé)
Hotel (5 nights for 2, 3 meals without alcohol): about 4000 EUR. I got 10% off by signing up for membership and booking from their website.
Local transport from Malé to resort (for 2): 500 EUR
Additional expenses in the resort (drinks, covid test, beach dinner, trip, some souvenirs, photoshoot): 700 eur (for 2)
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| Room view inside |
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| Bath time |
Summary
Overall I was super happy that we decided to go for Maldives for Honeymoon and it was also great that we had an opportunity to go there without Nolan. It would definitely not be as relaxing when having him around. We though facetimed with him every day, so that was nice and according to my mum he behaved overall well. However, there were quite many families with small children, so it is a nice place to go besides of the long travel time. Do not need to think about the food and stress about sightseeing since the main thing is the beach and water that children either way love the most.
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| Lagoon 😘 |
Now it is definitely difficult to go to any other beach vacation since we are comparing it with Maldives. So until next time! 😍
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| On a way back 6h paid sleep in Istanbul airport hotel 😄 |
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| See you soon Paradise on Earth 🥰 |
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