Bucket List: The Maldives
The Maldives has been on my husband’s bucket list so when we were given the opportunity to take a trip, just the two of us this summer, it was the only place he wanted to visit.
Chilling in the beach hammock
GETTING THERE
The Maldives is located in the Indian Ocean, 400 miles southwest of Sri Lanka. Almost every flight I searched from Seoul to Male went through through UAE, so we flew into Male from Dubai. Dubai to Male is a 4 hour flight and we arrived around 9am. Once we landed in Male we had to wait for our seaplane to our resort. You won’t know what time your seaplane flight is until you’re checked into the lounge. We eventually left Male around noon and were at our resort around 1:00pm.
SEAPLANE
Off the seaplane, headed to the boat
Sun Siyam Iru Veli is only accessible by seaplane which was a bucket list item for me! Three things to know when booking your resort in The Maldives:
1) Seaplanes only run dawn to dusk. Our resort told me 9a-4p were the seaplane hours. Plan accordingly for your arrival into Male.
2) Seaplane flights can be pricey! Roundtrip for the two of us would’ve cost just under $1,000 however we booked using the Summer Offer which included roundtrip seaplane transfer for stays of 7+ nights. One resort I looked at quoted me - get ready for this - $8,000 for 2 people. That’s more than I paid for this trip! Make sure to figure out this cost before you book your stay anywhere in The Maldives.
3) Your luggage allowance is LIMITED. We were allowed one checked bag at 20kg each and one carry-on baggage at 5kg. These are doable figures if you’re going straight to Male but we were spending about 36 hours traveling with a full day layover in Dubai. Every little bit of clothing adds up! They will weigh every single piece of luggage you have to get an accurate weight for their planes. Every kilogram over costs $5, to be paid at the seaplane check in counter. (Also, up until writing this blog post, I mistakenly read that as $50 per kilogram. Every single time. For months now. $5 is much more reasonable.)
ACCOMODATIONS
At Sun Siyam Iru Veli every room has a private pool, from the ocean villas to the beach villas, which was one reason we chose this particular resort. Over the last few years we’ve looked at a ton of overwater villa resorts and typically children have to be 10+ to stay in an overwater villa. This is not the case at Sun Siyam Iru Veli. We stayed 3 nights in an overwater villa and 4 nights in a beach villa. If you’re staying for anything less than 5 days, I personally wouldn’t want the hassle of moving rooms.
View from the bathroom looking out onto the deck and ocean
The dolphin ocean villa faces the channel that the local dolphins like to frequent, so you have a better chance of spotting them swimming by, and it’s also a bit pricier. The dolphin ocean villas were completely surrounded by coral reefs and it was a stunning view. At low tide, you could climb down your ladder and stand up, at high tide you couldn’t. One morning I opened the shade on the bathroom window and looked down to see a nurse shark swimming by! You can’t get that experience on land! We loved hanging out in the pool and watching the fish swim by in the ocean beneath us. Having an overwater villa definitely lived up to the hype, it’s an experience I would pay for again and again, when I can afford it.
Both rooms were very spacious and similar but where they stood apart was in their bathrooms and outdoor features. In the dolphin ocean villa, the back wall of the bathroom was half shower, half water closet - and both had doors that opened over the ocean. It was quite the experience to be doing your business and watching the fish swim by at the same time. It was the only part of this room that I wouldn’t consider kid-friendly when opened. If our girls had been with us, these doors would’ve stayed closed and triple bolted.
The bathroom in the beach villa was fully outside with 2 showers, a freestanding tub, a large outdoor couch, two sinks and a toilet. Everything had a roof on it except the fully outdoor shower. This bathroom was spacious yet cozy, protected from but totally enveloped in nature, and did I say spacious? Could it have been better than the ocean villa? Don’t make me choose.
Every area of these rooms have been thoroughly thought out. The decks waere expansive. In the dolphin ocean villa, next to the pool was a covered couch for seating and a table with two chairs. In front of the bathroom doors were two chaise lounges that were not covered. There is so much space and you can enjoy it all no matter what kind of weather is rolling through. At the beach villa, the deck was half covered, half uncovered. There was a covered couch as well as a table and two chairs. There were two chaise lounges with an umbrella set just next to the pool. We ate lunch on the decks everyday and even sat through a rain storm on the couch.
When I finally caught the nurse shark on camera
Dinner on the deck at Roma
The resort claims it’s all inclusive however there are several board options when booking your room. Breakfast is included in all rooms and initially this is what we booked. After doing some calculations and not being able to find any reviews on the board options, we decided to upgrade to the “half board” option which included dinner as well. We priced out all options and they came to this:
Floating breakfast in our overwater villa
half board - $100/per adult/per night (dinner included)
full board - $175/per adult/per night (lunch and dinner included)
premium all inclusive - $400/per adult/per night (lunch, dinner, afternoon tea/snacks, most liquors (NO frozen beverages included), as well as some excursions)
For our 7 night stay, we paid $1,400 for half board. Would I recommend this? Yes. Overall, I think it was the best option. While the premium all inclusive option did include almost all beverages and a couple of excursions, I just could not justify an additional $5,600. Since our plan included breakfast and dinner, we only paid for lunches, snacks and beverages for our week long stay. On our final bill on the island, food accounted for just above $400 and this included lunches, drinks when we felt like it, specialty dining and the one time we tried the lunch buffet.
The lunch buffet was $75 PER PERSON and in our opinions, it wasn’t worth it. We visited it once, so we could see the options and I could price it out for review, but after that we ordered room service or ate at the pool bar. The menu at the pool bar was the same as the room service menu and there was no additional delivery or tax charge for room service. We ate lunch under $60 everyday which was less than what the buffet was for one person. Since dinner was included in our plan, I couldn’t price out for you what the dinner buffet costs. Our plan included dinner at the specialty restaurants, we did try those out as well. There are 2 specialty restaurants so we tried them both and they were fine, but the nightly buffet was overall better in our opinion.
While the food at the specialty restaurants was just fine, the locations were 5 stars for sure. At Grouper Grill they move all the tables and chairs to the sand and you literally have dinner under the stars. The sunsets from the deck at Roma are unmatched. Truly unspoiled, unobstructed, gorgeous views.
ACTIVITIES
Unlike other places we’ve traveled, there are no outside excursions offered here. You’re limited to what your resort offers and that’s it. However, there were a TON of options here! We have our own snorkel gear that we travel with but the resort gives you snorkel gear to keep in your room for the duration of your stay. The water is so clear and there is so much coral and so much marine life that you really could just snorkel your entire stay here.
We rented bikes ($10/bike/day), we kayaked and we paddle boarded (both free).
If you’re interested in scuba diving while you’re in The Maldives, you’re required to do an initial dive. Brandon did the initial dive and said it was good enough that he didn’t feel the need to go on a dive trip. I don’t scuba dive, I’ve tried, it’s just not my thing. A discount is offered if someone wants to tag along on a dive tour but doesn’t want to dive.
We did take the Local Island Tour. You can actually see the island across the way, so it’s not far. It was a hot day and a holiday so we didn’t see anyone around but we did get to visit the school, a convenience shop, a store, the clinic and we got to see the oldest Banyan tree in The Maldives. That was pretty awesome!
Other tours offered included snorkeling, night snorkeling with the nurse sharks, dolphin tours, sandbank tours, and a whale shark tour. On island activities included jet skis, boat rentals, a tennis/basketball court and an outdoor movie under the stars.
Walking into the spa
The one activity we did twice was the spa. Our initial stay included a free 60-minute couples massage and when we were finished, they offered us a 50% discount for a longer, exfoliating couples massage and we went for it. While the massages were top notch, the best part was the viewing hole under your bed. Not only did we see fish swimming by, we also saw tiny jellyfish, a nurse shark and a larger black tip reef shark.
You can view the price list on the app to decide what fits your budget.
KIDS CLUB
One thing we didn’t need, but was available, was a kids club on the island. Here is the schedule for the week we were there. It looks like there is a ton of stuff to keep kids busy and entertained!
TRANSFERS
Oh hey hot stuff
One area that I thought Sun Siyam excelled at was the transfer process. We were greeted at Velana and seamlessly whisked to the seaplane transfer desk with a helper. She got us to the front of the line at the seaplane desk, helped us get our bags weighed and tagged, and whisked off to the van. From there, we were taken to the seaplane airport and shown to the lounge where we had to wait a few hours. One thing I find interesting is how this process works. The resort corresponded with Transmaldivian to handle our flights, and the resorts themselves don’t get the flight schedule until the day before. Behind the scenes this is probably incredibly hectic but it all went smoothly for us. Once in the lounge, they regularly kept us updated on when our flight would leave. Once it was time to leave, they walked us downstairs to the “boarding gate” which is a room. This area felt like a doctors office - two hallways with “boarding gate” rooms. We waited a few minutes and then we were walked down to our seaplane and off we went.
On our return, we were curious how it would go. Once we were off the seaplane, we walked to the arrivals area, gave our room number and were shuffled into a van and headed off to Velana Airport. We were again met with a Sun Siyam agent and given an “escort” that helped grab our luggage and walk us through security and to our check in counter. [*I do feel this is a bit scammy, though. There were no lines, our check in counter was easy to find and we had minimal luggage so we didn’t need any extra help, but it felt like this was the way they do things so we went along with it. Luckily, we still had a bit of cash left to tip him but knowing the process, next time I’d tell them thank you and pass.] That being said, the whole process was as seamless leaving as it was coming and I appreciate that. Our check-in gate opened 3 hours before our flight time and we only had to wait about 5 minutes before the counter actually opened before we were being checked in.
OVERALL PROS/CONS
At check-in you’re assigned a butler for your stay that you keep in contact with through WhatsApp. He was able to get reservations for us at one of the restaurants that was “fully booked” and that was about it. We managed everything else on our own. We booked this trip a few months in advance and emailed to confirm that we were moving rooms mid-stay, which is a popular thing to do. When we inquired with our butler how the process would go, he couldn’t give us an answer until the morning of. The process was simple - be out of your room by noon, leave your bags packed by the door, and come to reception - so it was frustrating that those instructions couldn’t be given a day ahead of time. We were also told that our new room would be ready by 2:00 and it was 3:00 before we were given the keys. We hung out in one of the public pools this day to pass the time.
Just a few of the many baby sharks
Having travelled elsewhere, I felt that their excursion prices were inflated. I also felt like the bike rentals should’ve been included in the price of our stay OR the bikes should’ve been better maintained. The guy gave Brandon his bike and said “just be careful, the brakes don’t work.” LOL
Our last sunset in The Maldives
We had an awesome room attendant at the beach villa, but the room attendant for the ocean villa was very much slacking. Wash rags were never replaced. I found one on top of my suitcase in the bedroom when we came back one day, instead of in the bathroom - and even then, it hadn’t been replaced with a fresh one. They also never replenished the coffee pods that I was using or the sugar, so I started taking those from the breakfast buffet. Those are nit picky things but each one adds to the frustration. Our room attendant in the beach villa was superb though. Not only did he pay attention to which coffee pods I was using, he left several extra each day, along with extra sugars. Little things make the difference in customer service and I really appreciated that.
The entire island was pretty quiet and it felt very intimate, which I loved. Everything was clean, the spa was amazing, and the buffet was top notch. While it felt exclusive and worth the money, it also felt like a place I would’ve been comfortable bringing my kids to visit. They would’ve been over the moon to see the baby sharks all day long and would’ve stayed in the pool or the ocean 24/7. Aqua Orange, the buffet, has 3 seating areas and one specifically for adults only so you didn’t have to be around children during your meals. I appreciated that set up, and would have appreciated it with kids in tow as well.
Beach chairs
Overall, I felt like The Maldives really lived up to the hype. The turquoise color of the waters, the sunsets, the amount of marine life basically at your fingertips - it really was truly special. The views from the seaplane were spectacular and I was fully engrossed looking out the window the entire ride. The Maldives is known for being ultraluxrious and I’m glad we were able to do it in a way that was fairly affordable and I felt like we definitely got our money’s worth on this trip.
