Planning a trip to the Maldives

Hey everybody, welcome to Travel in 10, where this week we're gonna be talking about what many people consider paradise on Earth, the Maldives just off the coast of India. David and I have both been there, we're both excited to talk about this destination. David, how are you doing this week?

doing great. I just got back not so long ago from from the Maldives was was there just a little over a month ago and it may have taken the place of my favorite destination in the world. have to say I Tahiti, Fiji, Maldives, I love the tropical beach locations, places with lots of underwater life and if it's not at the top of the list, it's certainly very near the top of the list after after my experience there.

Absolutely. mean, to me, it looks like you're still radiating some of that energy from the Maldives Maybe you still a bit of the tan, maybe not, I don't know. what are some of your favorite things about this destination? What makes it so special to

There you go.

I mean, it lives up to the Instagram hype for sure. mean, it is crystal clear waters, it is white sand beaches, it is some of the most marine life that you're gonna find and best preserved reef, reefs that I've seen anywhere doing snorkeling and diving. But it's a lot more than that too. It's incredibly hospitable, friendly locals. It's, you know, they've

There is no shortage of opportunities to do that in the Maldives for

Absolutely, And so, I mean, I know with my experience, your time in the Maldives and how special it is will be determined by where you stay. And I know you have a couple of favorite places. So please talk about that.

Yeah, for sure. mean, I definitely went on two very different ends of the spectrum. I mean, I was lucky enough to go stay in one of those iconic private island resorts, a place called Kagi Island, Kagi Maldives. It's, you know, a resort just opened about a year ago.

beautiful over the water bungalows. It really focuses in on health and wellness focused experiences. So they've got a great yoga studio there, great gym. They even do like sound meditation classes that you can take when you're there. It was it really lived up to the expectations of that over the top luxury experience in in in the Maldives.

And then on the other end of the spectrum, I also went to a local island, a place called Mafushi, where tourism has just started to emerge over the last few years and a lot of brand new resorts there as well. Very different from a budget perspective, but you get a lot of what you would get at those like Uber Luxury resorts at a much lower cost that you can get there as well.

Absolutely. mean, Maldives, it's so interesting because, you know, when you fly into the airport in, know, in Male in the capital, in many cases, especially if you're staying in the luxury resorts, you know, you're met by an ambassador for the resort, you're escorted to a seaplane, and then that seaplane takes you to your resort. And for many, many people...

That's the entire experience. let's be honest, that's really an amazing experience. mean, for me, you know, for me, I stayed at two resorts, Fairmont, which was on the northernmost atoll at the time that actually had development, and then Conrad, which was very interesting.

It's a great experience.

because they had an underwater hotel suite and then they also had an underwater restaurant. And I mean, I did a tour of the suite and...

I mean, I think it would be an amazing thing to stay in that suite. I did not stay in the suite, but I did a tour of it. I mean, all the walls, there's fish going by, there's other sea life going by. You have these coral reefs that are still alive. And then did kind of a champagne experience in the restaurant. Which.

Yeah, in terms of float planes, it's got more sea planes and more float planes that fly out of that international terminal in the Maldives than anywhere else in the world. And I don't know if it was built out when you were there or not, but they've got a quite new sea plane terminal. It's like four stories tall. every level of it is filled with these over -the -top, uber -luxury airport lounges. And there's one that's the local...

Seaplane company has got like their own lounge that takes up about one floor of this terminal. then, and it's got, you know, you can get a massage, you can get a shower, can eat great food, everything you would expect at a really upscale airport lounge.

But then a lot of the you know, why why it is four stories tall is because a lot of the individual resorts have their own exclusive lounges as well So the Four Seasons has got its own airport lounge the Westin has got its own airport lounge So as you go through, know, you you you're whisked from your international flight into you know, this exclusive Lounge area you hang out there for a bit and then and then you're off to your island But you do really have to you know, one thing I would say about planning a trip

to the Maldives is you really do have to think about the transfers and figure out the timing because it will make a big difference to your experience. When your international flight comes in, then some of the islands, it's gonna be a trek, right? There's a few you can get to by boat, but the vast majority of them it is by seaplane and just lining up the timing of when your flight comes in and when it goes out. Certainly that...

airport lounge experience helps mitigate that, but you're going to want to factor in how much time it takes.

yeah, I mean, you know, after like 14 hours in the air, you know, having a shower, you know, is such an important thing. And, you know, maybe being able to change your clothes or whatever. And I think when you get on that seaplane, that moment when you get airborne and you're starting to fly over some of these islands and you just see.

you know, the open ocean and then that blue sea, know, that electric blue sea that surrounds these islands and then they're just like little tiny green, you know, polka dots or whatever in the sea. I think that's when you really realize that this is a different destination, you know, than maybe any place that you've been before, you know, at least it was for me. And I know you have a few favorite things to do. know you, and we

build this out into a separate episode or bonus episode. But you spent some time with Dive Masters and you spent some time in the ocean. And you know, that is definitely one of the top things to do here. And, you know, tell us more about that.

Yeah, for sure. mean, the experience at Kagi, there was an enormous amount to do there. It had an incredible house reef where, you know, you would go right from your over the water bungalow, take a couple of steps down and you were right in the water and surrounded by marine life. And I had a chance to talk to the dive master there a little bit about what the diving and snorkeling experience throughout the Maldives is. So for sure, we'll put up another bonus episode this week with a little bit about her talking about some of what you can see from an underwater and a sea life

and yeah it was just it really was a phenomenal experience and a great great resort and somewhere I would I highly recommend.

Absolutely, absolutely. One of the things that I really enjoyed when I was at Fairmont was going out on a traditional wooden fishing boat. You know, I mean for centuries, know, the Maldives, you know, it's not always been this tourist destination and they survived on land and sea for many generations, I should say. And so going out and I think we were fishing basically with just hand lines as the traditional fisherman would have

And that was kind of a special experience because you talk to local people who were two guys who were kind of the local guides. Their families had been in the fishing business for many, many years and they talked

you know, living off the sea and what that was like and how much it's different now. I mean, I think better now in many ways, but that was such a cool experience. I mean, there's so much sea life in this area, right? It just flourishes with sea life. yeah, that's definitely one of my special experiences. Now, can you talk a little bit more about, because I know it's a fairly recent,

phenomenon in the history of the country to be able to stay on a local island. So can you talk a little bit about the cultural impact of that and your experiences

For sure. mean, I would say there are, you know, the thing that I think most people, when they think of the Maldives, they do think of these private island resorts, the great international resorts with the overwater, the bungalows, and there is no, an endless supply of those that you can choose from when you're there. But a new emerging part of the tourism sector there is, you know, these local islands where a lot of local population lives that for years were sort of off limits to tourists.

It's a fairly strict Muslim country and as a result of that, alcohol is not allowed on a lot of the islands or any of the islands where the local population lives and because of that, they hadn't really built out any hotels for tourists. That's changed just really in the last five, 10 years that the government has allowed.

the local islands to start building out their own tourist infrastructure. And the one that I stayed at, Mufushi, I mean, it's the closest to Male, the main island that you first fly into. You know, you can get over to it on a private water taxi. It's about $25, takes you about 45 minutes. And, you know, all the hotels are brand new. I stayed at one called Triton Prestige Seaview. It was phenomenal. had a rooftop infinity pool.

a great beachfront restaurant, and it was only about $120 a night, including breakfast. So really, really good value. There was a chain of hotels there called Kani They had the Palm Beach, the Sea Grand View. All these places are right on these white sand beaches. You're walking straight into the water and have phenomenal snorkeling, and you're getting to meet

local population and it's so it is a much different experience that you're going to have at these private island resorts and you know a good good example of that I went out you know they have two beaches on Mufushi the bikini beach where a lot of the tourists congregate and the no bikini beach which is where most local population is the best snorkeling is actually at the local beach the the no bikini beach and my first day out I went went and did some snorkeling around and I happened to run into

some Germans who were there snorkeling as well and two girls who called me over and were saying, you know, come check out there's sea turtles and sharks and so snorkeled around with them for a few minutes. But then they told me, you know, a few or an hour earlier, we'd been just around the corner and there's a place where the locals have planted a coral garden where they're, you know, protecting the coral and helping regenerate it. And, and there's a lot more sea life over there, you have to swim quite far out from the beach, but you should go around the corner.

I did and went snorkeling out there, but I'd been out for about half hour, 45 minutes trying to find it and having no luck. And can see some locals on the beach could, you know, they'd seen what had happened when it transpired. knew what I was trying to do. And so a guy who was standing on the beach jumped in the water, swam out to me. And I thought, you know, is he going to ask me to take a tour or demand some sort of payment or something, but quite the opposite. mean, he, stayed with me for an hour and a half.

He kept encouraging me to go further and further. He took me out to the coral gardens. We saw sharks. saw amazing undersea life. He took my camera and was doing pictures where he could get spots where I couldn't. He was doing some pictures and videos and taking pictures of me. Stayed with me essentially all afternoon and then swam back to the beach and basically just said, have a great day. Glad I could show you my island. Didn't expect anything in return.

I happened to run into him because it's a very small island. You can walk around the whole island in probably an hour or less. He was a dive master at a local water sport shop and just could see that there was somebody who was trying to get the most out of their time in the islands and wanted to make sure that I saw everything that it had to offer. And I found that that same hospitality really extended everywhere that I went. The local population was

so friendly and these local islands are just like there's no cars really everybody's getting around by bike or so I think there are a couple of golf carts that would help you get your your luggage from the from your boat to the hotel but very peaceful you know and my understanding is Mafushi is probably the the most active of all the local islands and it was super peaceful like you go out at night and it's it's you know just a very relaxing experience you know you've

You can see all the stars, can crystal clear waters. And you're getting a lot of the experience that you would get at resorts that, you know, people are paying thousands of dollars a night, but it's hundreds of dollars a night and they're brand new, beautiful hotels. You know, the one thing is it is, you know, you do have to respect the local culture. We've talked about the Bikini Beach, the no Bikini Beach restrictions. There is no alcohol still allowed on those local islands. Although in the case of Mifushi,

They do have a sort of boat that's parked off the island that you can do excursions out to if you really need to go have a few drinks you can still do that. Exactly. And you can also do excursions out to a lot of the private island international resorts as well as a day trip as well. So, you know, there really are those both ends of the spectrum. know, if you want the...

love it. The booze boat. You know, you can do a booze cruise. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Uber luxury resort, the over the water bungalow. There's lots of that there. But if you want to get immersed in local culture and have something that's much more affordable, there's that choice there for you as well.

Absolutely, I mean, I love that I didn't get that same experience. You meet the local people even at the international resorts, but the next time I go back to the Maldives, that is number one on my list, is to go to one of these local islands and really experience a little bit more of the local culture. I think maybe you've just described it, but before we wrap up, any...

must -do standout experiences that you want to highlight.

I mean, they've got some great local cuisine to try out. You you certainly see the influence, the Indian influence, the, you know, some African influence on their, on their cuisine as well. A dish that I, it doesn't sound super appetizing when you describe what it was, but I loved it. It was a breakfast dish they had, I believe it was called mishuni. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but it's a traditional Maldivian breakfast dish where they take a blend of

Yeah.

fresh tuna, grated coconut, onions and chili. Maybe doesn't sound like your top breakfast choice, but it's super tasty and they serve it together with a Maldivian flatbread. So that was fantastic. I certainly highly, highly recommend that.

Yeah.

And then the other thing is just like in terms of marine life, you know, there is so much to see, snorkeling and diving there. And one final tip I would have is like, if you are going out to some of the islands you have to go out to by seaplane, again, thinking through the logistics and the timing because anybody who's a scuba diver knows like you can't really dive within.

24 hours of having flown, particularly on a non -pressurized seaplane like that. So it's important to make sure that you're just thinking through the logistics of when you're going to be able to dive while you're there. And you've got to make sure that you schedule your trip so you can do that. You're going to see so much. It's one of the few places in the world where you've got whale sharks year round in the Maldives, in some of the more remote atolls that you can get out to.

And just, yeah, the moment you get underwater, it really does live up to expectations for sure.

Absolutely. Yeah, and I mean for me for sure the standout experience was Joining, you know with a marine biologist and going out and just seeing all that sea life and you're just surrounded by it, right? I mean when you're over the coral reef There's so much to see as you've already described sea turtles and so many different kinds of fish And then there's that point where it kind of drops off and it's just that blue of the Pacific Ocean

that just stretches on forever, you know, and it reminds you that you are on these islands. the cuisine is very interesting. I mean, I think all islands are interesting when it comes to cuisine. Maldives has so many fresh fish and so many influences from around the world, curries and all that kind of stuff. So I'm very excited thinking about maybe my next visit to the Maldives.

been a pleasure talking about these islands with you David.

Sounds great. Okay, Tim, well, looking forward to having you back next week. And as always, encourage everybody to jump over to our website at Voyascape.com where you can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world and some new podcasts that we're building out in coming months as well. So lots of great content there to help plan your next trip. And in addition to that, we're starting to build out some travel guides, downloadable travel guides to some of the destinations that we're covering in the podcast as well. And you can find those on the website as well.

Yeah.

Perfect. Can't wait to chat with you next week, David, and have a good week. Great. Thank you.

Thanks, Tim.