Preliminary information: I shared the Maldives Travel Notes article in 2016, that is, one of the first articles of the blog.. In 2019, I updated it with very minor changes.
If you don’t get out of the water for hours when you find the sea, if you cry for joy when you see fish, especially if you have a diving badge, Maldives is just for you.. The Maldives Islands, which are among the best diving spots in the world, are also an extremely popular honeymoon spot.. We chose Maldives for our honeymoon in 2012 and it will be a bit of a cliché, but we had a truly unforgettable 5 days.. Honeymooners to the Maldives may comment that the islands are so boring that they can’t swim because of sharks.. In Maldives Travel Notes, I will not share a “Maldives travel guide” similar to other travel posts on the blog, but I will try to answer frequently asked questions about honeymoon in Maldives.
Transparency is important! The Maldives travel article you started reading contains some collaboration links. With any reservation or purchase you make through the links, you can ensure that I receive a small commission at no extra cost.. Thanks in advance.
About Maldives
I will refer to it as “Maldives” in the rest of the article, but actually the official name of this place is Maldives Republic. It’s an all-Muslim country, they’re pretty strict.. Atheists are sentenced to death, for example. It’s hard to come across one of the local women with their heads uncovered.. It is forbidden to bring alcohol and pork products to the island.. You can consume alcoholic beverages and pork products only in island-hotels.
The Maldives consists of approximately 1,200 islands located in the middle of the Indian Ocean.. Why is the figure approx? Because there are islands that disappear or appear during the day due to the tides. The number of inhabited islands is around 281.. While local people live in 195 of these, the rest are used as island-hotels.. What is an island-hotel, that is, an island-resort? An entire island belongs to a hotel business, there is nothing else.
There is no soil as we are used to in the Maldives, they are all white sand.. Flour-like sands formed by the erosion of dead corals… Of course, land life was shaped accordingly.. Difenbahyas, which we bought as a living room plant, grow spontaneously here.. There weren’t even bugs on our island; instead, crustaceans were roaming around.
Why We Chose Maldives for Honeymoon?
Of course, every couple’s tastes and expectations from their honeymoon are different.. That’s why I can’t predict whether a honeymoon in Maldives will suit you, but I can tell you why we chose it and why it was the right decision for honeymoon even after seeing Seychelles, one of the most beautiful places in the world 7 years later.
Blog for months in our normal travels. reads, takes pages of notes, makes plans, travels to the point where our energy is sufficient, tries to get to know the culture, we do not return without the mouse of the environment. But on our honeymoon, our wish was very clear: to sleep! We wanted it to be a special experience, not to deal with plans and programs, and not to interfere with places to visit.
Lucky and I didn’t want to have a wedding because we found it unnecessary, but when the families objected, “Well then, do it. wedding, we’ll come.” we said roughly So we didn’t get involved in almost anything about the wedding organization.. Despite this, I can say that we have been through tremendously stressful times for the family, especially in the last month.. Believe me, who will sit at the table with whom is a problem! Our heads swelled up like a balloon when we had to deal with countless situations like this. How nice we were going to get married and get rid of it Anyway… A big OHHH as soon as the wedding is over! We couldn’t make a travel plan in all this turmoil, nor could we take a dusty trip after it was over. !” discomfort would occur or we should have planned a longer honeymoon. Since we did not have annual leave that year, we could only spare 6 days.. The most ideal destination for this period was Maldives, which has not many places to visit.
How is Maldives for Honeymoon?
In Maldives, every day dazzling We woke up to a blue and went into the sea from our balcony where we didn’t see anyone.. If we wanted to see someone during the day, we could go to the common areas, but other than that, we were like on a deserted island; we heard nothing but the sound of waves. We went for a walk on the white sands and tried to see the biggest seashell; we raced to get to the bottom of the sand crabs that fled to their nests as soon as they saw us; We swam with the colorful fish we saw in the documentaries, every day; we wanted to read a book, we didn’t want to hit our head and sleep. We found little surprises in the room every day as we are honeymooners.. We got rid of the nervous stress that had accumulated on us before the wedding in 5 days on a dreamy island.
How We Arranged Our Honeymoon in Maldives
In Maldives, on local islands until 2009 tourists are not allowed to stay. There are now cheaper options to stay on local islands.. But since we went in 2012, there were almost zero resources on this subject and as I mentioned above, we neither had time to deal with the details nor were we in the mood to take risks.. That’s why we talked to tour companies directly and finally agreed with Peninsula Tur, which we liked.. (I don’t know if it is still in operation or good, but we were very satisfied at that time.)
If you do not have a honeymoon plan to visit the island, make sure to contact a tour company before making your reservations.. Why? Tour companies have special agreements with hotels and airlines. They can get price offers far below the prices you encounter on the internet.. There is no guide, there are no places to visit, there is almost no difference in terms of travel quality whether you go with the tour or not.. Why would you pay a higher price?
How Much Did the Honeymoon Cost in Maldives?
Interview with Peninsula Tur in April at Medhufushi Resort 19-25 We have made our reservation for June.
• Qatar Airways round-trip flight tickets
• Transportation from Mahe Airport to the island hotel and back in the same way
• Health insurance
• We paid a total of € 3,600 for 2 persons including 5 nights and 6 days full board accommodation (breakfast & dinner)
included in Water bungalow. Other than that, our extra expenses were the internet we bought at the hotel, souvenirs, paid activities such as diving, alcohol and lunch in between.. We spent €4,300 in total. (The sad news; Euro was 2.3 TL in the year we went to Maldives, and the honeymoon cost 10.000 TL all-inclusive.)
Of course, there are options where you can keep the price a little lower.. Water bungalows, iconic accommodation of Maldives. A very different and unique experience where you can stay in bungalows floating on the water.. The level of luxury varies according to the island; On our island, the beach bungalows were among the greenery, still far from people but on land options and were slightly cheaper.
I would like to have the water bungalow experience when you come to Maldives, but if you want to reduce the price, 2 night water bungalows. , you can consider options such as beach bungalow for the remaining nights.
There Are Sharks…How Did You Swim?
Yes, that’s right.. There are countless sharks of different types in the waters of the Maldives, but the ones seen on the shore are harmless. If you want to research it, you can look at it as a black-tip or white-tip reef shark.. The length of those wandering on the shore does not exceed 1 meter; they feed on small fish and crustaceans and are generally afraid of humans. As soon as they realize that you are approaching, they are already away from you.. So you don’t have to worry about the sharks you see swimming around the island.
If you want to worry about one species, you can use sting-ray and manta-rays (they have general names like stingray or angelfish in Turkish, but they are actually much broader). a family) you can worry. Some are harmless, some can crash.. Especially the camouflaged stingrays buried in the sand on the shore are a bit dangerous; Care must be taken not to step on it when entering the water.. If you are going to stay in an overwater bungalow, it is better to enter with a protective bootie.. You can find the products we use for snorkeling by click here».
The biggest problem in swimming in the Maldives is the severe tides and currents.. The situation may be different on each island, but on the island where we stayed, when the sea was low, it was too shallow to swim.. When the sea rose, there was a very strong current; As soon as we stepped onto the island, they handed us a leaflet showing the current map.. If you are not very good at swimming, think again before you go, because when you go, this will be the only activity you can do on the island and you should definitely bring fins.. It works both for snorkeling and for swimming against the current.
When to Go to Maldives?
As Maldives is located in the tropical belt, the year-round temperature is 30 around °C. It has two separate seasons, rainy and dry.
November-April dry period with little precipitation. The rainiest months, December-March, are the highest season for holidays.. Christmas, New Year’s or Easter holidays, when prices peak.
After May the monsoon rains begin, continuing until November. But we’re not talking about monsoons where you can’t step out of the hotel; it rains. The month with the most rain, June. So when the prices are the lowest.
Guess when we went? Yes, in June. Frankly, we thought it would be a different experience to see the monsoon rain.. But surprisingly we didn’t come across any rain. As you can see, you can go to Maldives at any time of the year.
How to Go to Maldives?
Whichever island you choose for your honeymoon in Maldives, your first stop is the capital Male. will be the international airport in. THY’s non-stop flights from Istanbul have now started; The flight takes about 8 hours.
As there were no non-stop flights at the time we went, we went with Qatar Airways via Doha.. No need to praise Qatar Airways, it’s already a renowned airline. You can choose with your eyes closed.. Doha Airport is also an extremely comfortable transfer hub; There is everything you need.
The transportation after Male varies according to the island resort you choose.. Your mode of transportation can be a brisk plane called an air taxi or a boat from the hotel.. Transportation to the island we chose was provided by air taxi and the flight took about 45 minutes.. When we landed at Mahe airport, we booked the air taxi ourselves, but some hotels send private staff and make sure you don’t have to worry about anything.
Maybe it has changed now, but for that time the air taxi system was not working very well.. We waited a long time to make a reservation.. Our suitcase was given to the next one on the pretext that it was too heavy for the taxi we were going to take.
Whispering planes are a little scary.. It shakes a lot and feels like it will fall at any moment.. The fact that the pilot uses it with bare feet or having a mini fan for ventilation has a great effect on this.. If you have a fear of heights, it can be a painful journey for you.
Things to Consider in Maldives
• It is necessary to pay attention to the Maldives sun. Just like in Seychelles and Zanzibar, it burns badly here because it is closer to the Sun and the sun rays reflected from the white sands are also effective.
On the first day of the holiday, we went to the sea in front of the bungalow we stayed in.. Our goal was to cool off for 10 minutes and get out.. But we were in the water for 2 hours without realizing it, so that we could follow the sea turtle that suddenly appeared.. For the first time in my life, I was unable to lie on my back for 3 days.
• If you go by tour; After arriving on the island, a general information is given, then you are completely free.. The best thing about being a honeymooner is all the staff treat you like you’re the biggest lover in the world.. You always come across a surprise when you return to the room.. Of course, it hurts you to tip.. You should take care to have coins for tipping with you.
• We did not receive a SimCard at the time of our trip; Now the tourist package is being sold at the airport.. We used the hotel’s paid internet when we needed it, but it was terribly slow.. We regretted that we paid a thousand times.
• Do not try to buy a drink from Duty Free on your way to the country because you cannot bring alcohol into the country.. They don’t sell it when you know where you’re going, but keep in mind in case of skipping.
• Do not touch any living things you encounter while swimming, including corals.. Also, years later, I learned that it is not right to buy any sea shell, even if it is empty, because in the future other crustaceans will nest.
What to Do in Maldives?
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Although most of our time is spent swimming and boarding at the hotel, there are other activities that can be done in Maldives.. These activities may vary depending on the hotel, but if you are going to an island hotel for your honeymoon, you will find more or less similar things.. Examples of the Medhufushi Island Resort where we stayed are as follows:
Snorkeling tours to a nearby reef are organized daily for free. There are also local dance performances, DJ or barbecue parties at the bar every evening.. You can also participate in paid activities such as diving, sunset fishing, dolphin watching.
We went fishing at sunset.. Since everyone in the group managed to catch at least 1 fish, I can say “a guaranteed tour” Another day, we realized our dream dive.. Even if you do not have a badge, you can do a 1-hour introductory dive with an instructor up to 10 m.. I did my first dive in my life here and I definitely put diving in the Maldives in the top 10 on the list of things to do before I die.. Yes, you can have a holiday on beaches similar to Maldives for much more affordable prices, but you cannot find this underwater anywhere.. This is the biggest plus of Maldives for me.
If you want a holiday where angel fish pass in front of you while drinking your coffee on the balcony of the bungalow, reef sharks roam the shores and you can collect the largest seashells, Maldives will not regret you.
What to Pack in the Suitcase for Maldives Trip?
• Let me write it again; Don’t be fooled by the white flour-like sands.. A little messy in the water. Be sure to buy shoes or booties that you can wear in the water.
• Bring your snorkel and flipper, if you have one.. There were times I stayed where I was even though I flipped flippers while swimming in the current.. If you don’t have it, you can rent it on the island, but I think there is no need to waste money.
• If you don’t bring a camera that can take underwater photos like a Gopro, you might regret it.
• My special advice to honeymooners: wedding dress Me Of course I didn’t take it, but I don’t mind the area either.. You can take amazing photos as an alternative to wedding photos.
* Sun and after-sun burn cream are a must.. I explained the reason above.
• If you have an idea to visit Male, you’d better buy closed clothes.. It is not welcomed especially for women to go out in public.
Basic Information About Maldives Trip
• Maldives does not require a visa from Turkish citizens. It is sufficient to have a passport with a minimum validity of 6 months.. You don’t need to get any vaccinations before you go or take medicine during the trip.
• Currency Maldives rufiya. We did not need any currency exchange as we stayed at the island hotel throughout the trip.. All our expenses were credited to our room account and we paid in dollars on departure.. Euro, Pound or credit card also accepted. You can exchange currency for souvenirs; Other than that, there is no need.
• Maldives time zone is GMT +5. It is 2 hours ahead of Turkey time.
• In Maldives, the sockets are British type with 3 sockets, but in some places they can also have two sockets.. We didn’t bring adapters (see. inexperience) but luckily we found adapter at hotel. You can take a plug converter to avoid being in trouble.
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