Chris and I decided that The Maldives would be the ideal destination for our honeymoon as the weather would be perfect, just a little over 30oc whilst England was experiencing freezing temperatures, we just couldn’t wait to arrive.
The flight took nearly 10 hours but well worth the wait. On arrival into Male and after patiently waiting for our luggage, we were met by an array of kiosks offering transfers to the many resorts to over 200 Maldive Islands by boat and by sea plane.
We had chosen the Kuredu Island resort due to the diving facilities and although the biggest of the islands we had heard many good reports. Once we had found our transfer, our luggage was then taken separately by boat and as we were lucky enough to be travelling by seaplane.
It is important to mention here you should keep some essential items in your hand luggage as you won’t be reunited with your things for several hours and in our case this was 8 hours. You’ll need a wash bag, change of clothes, sun glasses, flip flops and most importantly, sun cream…. No-one wants to look like a lobster by day two!
The 40 minute flight to Kuredu Island was breath taking, although a little noisy so do remember to take the ear plugs they offer you! The views of the islands on route were incredible and to travel in such a small plane with no door to the cock pit and the pilot wearing flip flops was a little surreal!
After a surprisingly gentle landing onto the Indian ocean we were finally at our destination. Walking down the jetty towards the island it hit us we had arrived in paradise! At this point Chris couldn’t resist to get wet and with rolled up jeans and bare feet, he jump onto the beach with a bit fat grin!
We were then greeted at one of the bars with a cold refreshing drink and allocated our accommodation. We had chosen the Beach Villa but were lucky enough to be upgraded to the O Villa on the other side of the island, some 5 minutes away!
Kuredu offer various choices of accommodation, each allocated to a specific restaurant. I would strongly recommend a fully inclusive package giving you 3 meals a day, soft drinks and some alcohol beverages; otherwise it could become pretty expensive, paying as you go.
Staying at the O Resort meant we also had a choice of all 4 restaurants. There are also 2 al a carte restaurants, with a 20% discount but we didn’t think it was worth the extra cost, especially as the other restaurants, particularly the O restaurant and the Sangu had an amazing choice of high quality and delicious meals. There was something to suit every taste and if you were still undecided, the chefs were busy cooking pastas, steaks, fish from their open kitchen. If ever there was a complaint it would have to be too much choice! On our first couple of days we were in ore of the variety and quality of the food and we ended up trying a bit of everything… but we soon realised that spaghetti bolognaise didn’t really compliment chicken curry!
The O villa was an added luxury with a bedroom that overlooked the ocean, just a stones throw from our decked porch and a luxurious outside bathroom really made it something very special. Sitting on the loo watching the lizards took some getting used to!
Before we knew it we had settled in to paradise and it was easy to forget that Christmas was looming!
On our first day we decided to explore the island and set off to walk around it, estimated walking time given was 45 minutes. Well we must have taken a very slow walk. The beaches were so fantastic, we also stopped for lunch and perhaps a drink or three. Along the beach near our villa were baby black tip reef sharks just swimming in the shallows. You had to see it to believe it. We had now familiarised ourselves with the island, sampled the food and tasted the drinks and now definitely looking forward to the rest of our week ahead.
Once we had settled in, we headed to Pro Divers and booked in for a days diving. We were really impressed with the how well organised the dive centre was and the staff very friendly. They firstly gave us a guided tour of the dive centre, explain how everything works and where everything is. It was easy to arrange our dives, you simply sign your name on the board for either the morning or afternoon dive or both. PADI courses are also available and specialist courses such as the Shark and Manta course can be arranged. There are 48 dive sites in reach from Kuredo resort, so plenty of choice. The most popular sites however seemed to be closest to the island such as The Caves, just 15 minutes by boat and home to many turtles and The Kuredu Express where you are likely to encounter Mantas and Sharks but obviously never guaranteed! In fact many of the dives sites offer a fairly likely chance meeting with a Shark, Turtle or Manta and one of these encounters seemed to be on our to do list from day one. All the dives were a fantastic experience and although we missed the Manta by 4 minutes (our fellow divers enjoyed telling us when they surfaced… We’re not bitter) we did mingle with a few turtles and a leopard Shark. We loved the fact that the water was warm enough to leave the wet suit behind and we ended up diving for 3 consecutive days.
There is also a water sports centre on the island that offers Wind surfing, Kite surfing, Canoeing, Kayaking and much more…
It’s also the only island large enough for a golf course but they do charge and you even have to buy the golf balls so if you intend to get on the green then try to remember to pack a couple of balls!
The beaches are just superb with white soft sand and clear blue water. There’s a fantastic house reef too where turtles are common visitors. Many areas around the island are also popular with snorkellers. Or perhaps relaxing by the pool with a book may be your choice of the day. So it’s a great place for Non-divers as well as divers so no-one needs to be left behind.
One of the most memorable moments was watching the sunset on the end of the island with a tasty cocktail and of course my new husband! The water lapped over the stretch of sand that seemed never ending with a glow of orange from the fading sun as a back drop, this holiday was the best choice we could have made.
Before we knew it our 7 nights were up and we packed our bags and went to check out, only to be told that due to the snow in England our flight had been delayed by 24 hours! Snow! - So difficult to comprehend with our white bits, sore bits and fresh sand between our toes. Oh dear, we were stranded in paradise and there was nothing we could do about it!
After a couple of phone calls home and a couple of drinks we were soon grateful to have the extra day thrown in, although it did only now give us 2 shopping days until Christmas!!