Our journey to the Maldives started on Wednesday evening with a flight to Miami, FL from Austin, TX. We did this primarily so that Kurt could work remotely from there on Thursday since we’ve maxed out his vacation days for the year, but also so that we could get ahead of any potential issues with early Thanksgiving travel that could derail our travel schedule (and, who would have guessed that a hurricane would hit the Florida coast a week prior?). We stayed overnight in South Beach (our first time there).
The Maldives has been on our travel bucket list for awhile. The clear turquoise water, white sand, and lush green tropical landscapes are visually alluring, while the variety of marine life and underwater coral landscapes are the stuff of dreams for divers and snorkelers alike. But, it’s definitely a long way to come for a beach. The Maldives is an archipelago of over a thousand islands spread across 26 atolls in the Indian Ocean. Of these islands, approximately 200 of them are inhabited and about 85 are tourist resorts. The differences between the “local” islands and private resort islands are significant. The Maldives is a Muslim country with very specific customs and restrictions. For example, public displays of affection and alcohol are banned on the local islands. Conservative dress is also required, especially for women (wearing a bikini is only allowed at the resorts).
Why now? Well, we purchased a too good to be true travel package in the early days of the Covid pandemic in 2020 when we were confined to our house and could only dream of international travel. Little did we know that it would take us over 2 years to be able to get here though! I contacted our resort, Reethi Faru, in May 2021 once travel restrictions started to ease somewhat with the hopes of booking our trip for Thanksgiving 2021. But, this deal was so good that they were booked through April 2022! So, Thanksgiving 2022 it was then. The timing actually ended up working out well for us, as Kurt has had a stressful few months wrapping up a multi-year project at work so he was ready for a break. Since we are only visiting one destination and everything was prebooked with our package, this was the least amount of travel prep that I have had to do for a trip in quite awhile.
We boarded our international flight from Miami to Istanbul, Turkey late Thursday night. With a flight time of 9:45 during the overnight hours, we hoped to get some sleep along the way. Our first stop upon arriving at the airport in Istanbul was to locate the sleep pods, so that we could actually lie down and get some true rest for a few hours. Then, we spent the rest of our lengthy layover in one of the airport lounges where we ate and showered. Finally, it was time for our next flight from Istanbul to Malé, an 8 hour flight in the overnight hours again. We landed in Malé around 10am on Saturday morning (11 hours ahead of Central Standard Time at home).
Upon arrival into Malé, we passed through immigration very quickly, but then we had a long wait for our luggage (several other large international flights had arrived around the same time so the small baggage claim area was packed with people). As we watched all of the bags from our flight pass by on the conveyor belt, what we thought was our Cressi dive bag turned out to be someone else’s. Having never seen anyone else with this bag before, Kurt went to double-check the luggage tag on it before the passenger carted it away! I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise given that we are in a hub for diving to see others with similar bags. Thankfully, our dive bag finally emerged, and we were off to start the next phase of our journey.
Once we exited the baggage claim area in the international terminal, we walked into a gaggle of representatives for the various resorts. We eventually found our guy who then hustled us over to the domestic terminal to check in for our next flight. Our resort had arranged transportation for us to the island from the capital Malé, but we didn’t know the actual timeline. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long, as we were able to catch the Villa Air flight at noon from Dharavandhoo, north of Malé. After a short 20-minute flight, we were then shuttled by van from the airport to the water where we boarded a speedboat for the final 45 minutes of our long multi-day journey to get to Filaidhoo Island.
Unfortunately, we lost an hour along the way, as the resort is located on “island time,” one hour ahead of Malé. Our first stop after locating our room was to the dive center so that Kurt could get his plan for the week sorted out (Eat, dive, sleep. Repeat).
Then, he took advantage of the water entry from our back deck and hopped in for a relaxing float while I got unpacked and settled into the room. This is the first time that we have stayed in an overwater bungalow, and it definitely lives up to the hype! The resort also has beach and garden villas scattered around the island, which have the advantage of being closer to the various restaurants and other activities.
It will take a bit of time to adjust to the slower pace of island life, a far cry from our more adventurous recent trips. But, for now, the only decision that I have to make is what time do I want to do yoga and snorkel tomorrow?