MALDIVES | How It Killed Beach Holidays For Me

Once you go Maldives, you can’t go back.

A rich man’s playground, a poor man’s fantasy, she becomes the benchmark upon which you judge every subsequent beach holiday against, like an annoying boyfriend/girlfriend who keeps comparing to the ex. You forget what frugality is, you forget what contentment means, you forget to bring home your Havaianas from Maldives, if only to give yourself a perfectly justified reason to go back and retrieve it because let’s face it, your life is absolutely incomplete without those slippers.

Or maybe it’s a piece of your heart that you leave behind. Once you go Maldives, you are never the same again. And that’s how Maldives killed beach holidays for me.

Fifty Shades of Blue: An aerial view from a seaplane, of ring-shaped coral reefs, islands or series of islets that surround a lagoon, collectively forming atolls which make up the Maldives.

When I first set afoot on the soft sands of the Maldivian beaches, a warm fuzzy feeling came over me. It felt a lot like love. The sand sank gently beneath my soles, squishing up against my toes and leaving white specks of happiness all over my feet. I just wanted to dive headfirst into the white sand and roll around in it with a toothy grin till the end of my days.

Welcome to paradise! This is the stuff that dreams are made of!

To make things even better, the Maldives is an archipelago of over 1,000 islands off the south-western coast of India in South Asia, of which only about 80 of these islands host the slightly-over 100 resorts – you can imagine the extent of privacy, intimacy and seclusion they have to offer, with most resorts having an island all to itself.

White sands and blue seas, all to myself… what more can I ask for?

It wasn’t difficult to find a spot on the beach to call your own. But if you are that allergic to humans, you could even pay for a Robinson Crusoe tour where you are dropped off on a private, uninhabited island for a few hours of unadulterated, private bliss with no one to disturb your sanctuary.

Suddenly, other beaches I’ve been and would subsequently go to no longer meet the mark. “Oh, the sand is so coarse here”. “Oh, the sand isn’t as white as it was in Maldives”. Or, “Oh, this beach has other human lifeforms”. Oh, who died and made me the authority on beaches?

Maldives has killed beach vacations for me.

A little piece of heaven – you’ve got to see it to believe it!

Situated in the Indian Ocean, Maldives is hundreds of kilometers away from major land masses, resulting in an island-nation not only gifted with white, powdery beaches but also with glistening, crystal clear waters and abundant marine life. You could go on snorkeling trips to search for whale sharks and manta rays, or go diving between expansive coral reefs and explore underwater wrecks, or simply take a sunset cruise with champagne in one hand and canapes in the other and who knows, spot playful dolphins if you’re lucky.

A beautiful sunset cruise to end off a beautiful day.

I was even able to snorkel with black-tipped reef sharks just off the beach, amidst colorful shoals of fishes and other sea creatures. For someone who cannot swim and doesn’t even know how to tread water – who is only able to overcome my fears under the security blanket of a life-jacket, I cannot tell you enough how much I count my blessings to be able to float around in the azure waters of Maldives and personally witness the unfamiliar, terrifying but extremely breathtaking marine world.

Hey, fishy fishies!

And I probably should be equally grateful anywhere I snorkel, seeing how that’s the closest I can get to being at one with the ocean. Yet on all the snorkeling trips I’ve been to post-Maldives, I often find myself thinking “Oh, the water here looks murky”. Or, “Oh, the reefs and fishes aren’t as colorful or abundant as they were in Maldives”. Guess my heart is stuck in Maldives and I have forgotten what it means to be contented in the moment.

The Maldivian waters are so clear and blue, it’d put a smile even on the grumpiest person on earth 🙂

There are many accommodation choices in Maldives, from dive resorts to family bungalows to the dreamy over-water villas for that ultimate luxury and privacy. While I’m all for the less-expensive options available around Maldives, I succumbed to the lures of luxury of the Four Seasons and the Centara Grands and smashed my piggy-bank onto the floor with conviction – it was the luxury-resorts way, or the highway.

And I have no regrets.

Over-water Villas are a must – it takes your holiday to a whole new level!

Staying in an over-water villa, built on stilts in the middle of the ocean with coral reef and marine life all around you, the ocean is your front yard and your back yard. I remember how speechless I was when I first ran through the over-water villa out onto the sun deck, seeing the ocean stretch infinitely into the horizon and the world at my feet. I remember how amazing it was to wake up to the sounds of the ocean lapping at the stilts just beneath me and being able to jump right into the ocean the moment I got out of bed without even brushing my teeth. I remember sitting at the edge of the villa’s sun deck, front row seats to the fiery, orange sun setting in the distance while a turtle paddled slowly, two meters away from my dangling feet, and a reef shark darted in and out of the coral reefs below. If there was paradise on earth, this must be it.

It’s like I had the world at my feet!

Who needs a swimming pool when you have the vast ocean right at your doorstep?

Yes, the accommodation is pricey, but to me it was worth every penny. Since then, I find myself constantly scouring the internet for overwater villas at every beach holiday I plan for. If there was none to be had, I would search for villas on the cliffs or right on the beach, as if to emulate the experience I had in Maldives as closely as possible – even if that always meant a more expensive trip. Hotel rooms at beach resorts just wouldn’t cut it anymore, and it’s all because of Maldives. I have lost my heart, and my dollars and sense.

Maldives stole my heart, can you tell?

Fergie and Josh Duhamel spent their honeymoon there; Blake Lively was spotted strolling its pristine beaches; even Prince William and Kate Middleton lent their royal presence to the Maldivian shores. And I’m glad that Maldives, once the stuff of my dreams, is now also my reality and my memory to keep.

There’s much to jump for joy at Maldives!

Of course, there are many equally, if not more, beautiful beach destinations around the world, but until I find my toes wriggling in their sand or dipping into their cerulean seas, Maldives will continue to hold the number one spot in my heart.

Even if it has killed beach holidays for me since.

Time to go retrieve my flip-flops, perhaps.