Enchanting Maldives

Food

Being full board means we could enjoy the amazing buffet three times a day (Breakfast starts at 7am, Lunch from 12pm and dinner from 7pm) with drinks (Juices/soft drinks and selected alchols). Of course premium wines and cocktails were excluded. The buffet choices were excellent and never repeated on the days we stayed. They did have a lot of local Maldivian dishes which were yummy along with other choices like Indian, Chinese, Mediterranean. Seafood was in plenty due to the country’s close proximity to the sea. Vegetarians do have few options as well. There was a huge selection of fresh salads and dessert section with cakes, pastries and mousses that could compete with any 5 star hotel. A server and a table were assigned to us during our first meal and it remained the same until we checkout. Special requests can be made to dine at the sea, we didnt try that as we were worried about any insects that might fall in the dark.

We wokeup at 5am to witness the sunrise followed by a swim in the sea and headed for breakfast. After the breakfast we walked around the Ranhali island which can be completed in 15mins. All you hear is the sound of the water striking the stones, its very hot in the afternoon so we usually hangout at the bar after  lunch for few drinks and head to our water villa to rest in our balcony all we see is the vast ocean, evening we head out around 6pm to view the sunset from the bridge and I must tell it was one of the best sunsets I had seen in my life (tip: from the new water villas you cannot see sunrise or sunset from the deck you will have to come out to the bridge, choose old water villas at Rannhali if you want to see it from your room). After the sunset when you look to the opposite side of the bridge you will see the moon and by 8pm you are really guided by moonlight. The  sound of the calm sea and the moonlight is a must experience we will definetly go back there again. After dinner the club becomes active with live music and themed drinks party.

Activities

Being on a beach the activities such as jet skiing, snorkeling, diving tours and parasailing were readily available but with a steep price tag. We didn’t find it worthy to spend so much on water sports that were available at a more justified price elsewhere. We did go for snorkeling which is free if you have the equipment with you (tip: carry it with you highly recommended), the water level is very low in the morinng and evening you can literally walk in the indian ocean.  The reef around Adaaran villas was beautiful, we saw stingray’s, small sharks, other pretty fishes, turtles and reef sharks swim by the villas.

Standing outside our villa

 During sunset

The main highlight of this trip is after our 2nd night stay at the resort, the staff upgraded us to their luxurious ocean water villa at Adaaran select, Hudhuranfushi. We knew about this resort as it was one of the resorts we shortlisted but dropped because of the price and voila we were going to the same resort. Though we were incredibly happy with the service, food and our villa at Rannalhi we decided to give Hudhuranfushi a try. And thus packed our bags and boarded the speedboat the next day morning. The transfer from Rannalhi to Hudhuranfushi was complementary.