The Magical Maldives

What better way to welcome in a new year than in the comfort of your own Maldivian hut, perched perfectly on stilts in the crystal clear waters, accompanied by the countless tropical fish of the Maldivian sea. This is where I found myself, and what a place to be. ‘Stranded’ on an island no longer than 100m in length, a trip to the Maldives calls for the ultimate rest and relaxation, and I was ready.

This was my first ‘beach holiday’, always worrying that I’d get bored and preferring instead to be more actively discovering new cultures. But there are only so many pictures you can see of the Maldives before you have to give in and put it high up on your bucket list.

Arriving into Male is not what you would expect, the capital of the Maldives is extremely densely packed to fit everything that it needs into a tiny surface space. But our hotel was on hand at arrivals to whisk us to our speedboat for the hour long ride across the waters to arrive at our island home for the coming seven days. As the tiny island came into view, I quickly came to realise that this was not going to be just a beach holiday, and as we were shown to our hut with our private terrace plunging straight into the expanding sea, I immediately entered relax mode and could not wait to get this holiday under way. 

Very quickly a routine emerged as I settled perfectly into island life. Breakfast, sun & snorkel, lunch, sun & snorkel, spa, sunset, dinner, drinks, bed...repeat. There are different activities to keep you busy if you do somehow struggle to get into the slow-pace of things, diving, gym, sunset cruise, daily feeding of stingrays on the beach, and much more beside this. But come the end of the seven days, I had tears in my eyes at the thought of having to change back to my London routine. While I was afraid of being bored before going, there is something about not having anything to do which makes you able to enjoy doing nothing. 

Unfortunately at the time of year that I went, the weather wasn’t perfect with the sea being choppy from the wind so I wasn’t able to get deep down under the sea, but that of course means that I must go back to explore further into the crystal blue seas and of course get back into my routine of pure rest and relaxation, can’t wait!