Maldives General Tips by FletteMette

Favorite Thing: When travelling to the Maldives, know that you are in fact stuck on your resort island - most resorts will arrange day trips to other resort islands or local islands, but you will spend almost all your time on your resort island - which means that it's quite essential to do some research before deciding where to go, to make sure that your island has what you're looking for.

We (well, I;o) chose Kuramathi island for a number of reasons: First of all, the snorkelling there is known to be very good. (And it certainly was!) Most islands have decent snorkelling, but not all are *great* so if you're a keen snorkeller you'll want to make sure you end up on an island with an excellent house reef, since that is where you'll be snorkelling most of the time.

Many resort islands are tiny. Really tiny. I worried that I'd feel slightly trapped on a tiny little island - I quite like to walk around, I just can't lie still on the beach for long - so I wanted an island that was reasonably big. Kuramathi is supposedly the only island with three different resorts - the "one island - one resort" policy is the norm in the Maldives. Another advantage of being on an island with more than one resort, was that there were more restaurants to choose from.

Also, some resorts are very popular with honeymooners, on others you'll find lots of families with small children, and on others again lots of elderly Germans (or Brits, or Italians or...:o) - you might want to choose an island with an ambiance you can live with. :o)


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Favorite Thing: The Maldives are warm and humid year round, and the temperatures don't vary much - the temperature rarely falls below 25C. However, the monthly rainfall varies quite considerably.

The months from December to April are relatively dry - and February is the driest month. This is also peak tourist season in the Maldives - when hotel bargains are impossible to find and the resorts tend to be fully booked and rather crowded. ;o)

The wet season - the southwest monsoon - lasts from May to October / November. Average rainfall is a lot higher during this period, and there might also be fairly strong winds and rougher seas (which might make snorkelling and boat transfers a bit more challenging).

We visited in June, which is one of the months with highest average rainfall, and didn't find the weather to be an issue at all. It rained a bit almost every day, and it usually rained quite heavily - but the rains generally only lasted an hour or two, typically in the early afternoon. Pretty refreshing, really!

We didn't find the 2-hour boat transfer from Male to Kuramathi to be a problem at all, and didn't think there were any waves to speak of (but I have a feeling some of the other passengers on the boat might disagree, see transportation tip for more info;o) The sea was a bit choppy at times when we were snorkelling, but it wasn't a big deal.

Might want to bring along an umbrella or a light rainjacket, but I wouldn't hesitate in visiting the Maldives even during the wet season.


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Favorite Thing: I was a bit worried that I might get terribly, horribly bored, stuck on one small island for a whole week - which was part of the reason why I chose one of the bigger islands - I figured I would need some space to walk and move around! And to be honest, one week was enough. The Maldives are a fantastic place, and I would love to go back (to a different island) some day - it was an excellent holiday, don't get me wrong, but there's only so much relaxation a person can take, and if we'd stayed another week all that relaxation would probably turn to boredom...;o)

Because relaxing is, most likely, what you will find yourself doing for quite considerable amounts of time. You really haven't got much choice, the number of activities available on the island (Kuramathi, in our case) is fairly limited: there's snorkelling and diving, of course, and a couple of excursions, and then there is...heron-spotting, stingray- and shark-watching, hermit crab-counting, sunset-watching, sand castle-building, flower-sniffing... You get the picture.

Bring a stack of good books, and do like the guy in my photo (no, I don't know him;o): just *relax*! ;o)


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Favorite Thing: If you enjoy snorkelling, and don't have a waterproof case for your camera - then get a disposable underwater camera. Your resort will probably have underwater cameras for sale, but they will most likely cost quite a bit more than they do elsewhere in the world. I picked up mine at the airport (Gatwick) before flying to the islands.

The disposable underwater cameras are cheap, and the quality of the pictures is usually ok (and ok-ish pics are better than no pics at all!:o) - some of these cameras even come with flash. (not a good thing IMHO, the flash lights up any particles in the water near the lens and is not strong enough to reach the fish/turtle/child/whatever you're actually trying to take pictures of - I prefer the ones without flash.) It is a good idea to have the film developed as soon as you get home, the quality of the photos seems to deteriorate quite a bit if the camera is left for a while.

Most disposable underwater cameras seem to come loaded with a roll of 27 exposure film, and most can be used down to 15 feet (some supposedly down to 50 feet - but you'd need a light source that far down). These cameras are of course also great to use on the beach, where sand & sun lotion might give your regular camera a tough time.

When snapping photos with your underwater camera, remember to get *close* to your subject. These cameras don't work well in poor light, so taking photos close to the surface on sunny days will give you the best results.


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Favorite Thing: One of the things I'm always looking forward to when travelling to South-East Asia, is all those *delicious* fresh tropical fruits - of course we can buy most of these fruits in Norway (and the rest of the world!) too, but they really do taste *so* much better when they haven't been transported halfway across the globe.

To my disappointment, getting hold of fresh fruits on Kuramathi wasn't all that easy. There were rather expensive little "fruit platters" available in the restaurants (a slice of this, a small slice of that...) - but I'd rather just buy a bunch of mangosteens or rambutans or mangos or whatever - and fruit wasn't on offer in the small shops on the island.

Depending on the season, you might find various fruits for sale if you visit a local island. You might also be able to talk restaurant staff at your resort into selling you some fruits - we got the small fruit basket on the photo from Kuramathi Village :o)


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Favorite Thing: Kuramathi island is, like most of the islands in the Maldives, very green - the island is pretty much covered with vegetation. There were plenty of palm trees, of course - what would a tropical paradise island be without coconut palms;o) - the coconut palm has even been voted "national tree" of the Maldives. On the larger Maldivian islands you'll find areas of tropical rainforest, but the coral soil on smaller islands is generally too poor to support much else than bushes, grass and flowers. There are also mangroves on some of the islands.

If you're interested in plants and flowers, that's yet another advantage of staying on one of the bigger islands; the flora is more varied. In some areas of Kuramathi island you can see *big* banyan trees, mangroves, and also banana plants and fruit trees.

Among the many flowers on Kuramathi were frangipani (my favourites - mmmm that scent!), hibiscus, scaevola and bougainvillea - plus a whole array of others that I don't know the name of!;o)


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Favorite Thing: There are lots of flowers, bushes and trees on Kuramathi island, it's a very green island - and the gardeners seem to have quite a job keeping it that way!

Large bits of the island are covered by coral sand - which is very low on nutrients and can't really support most big trees and bushes and nutrient-demanding flowering plants - and some plants won't survive for long in this type of soil. And of course, many of the plants you'll see on the island aren't normally found in the forest or at the beach. ;o)

In the middle of the island (between Blue Lagoon and Cottage & Spa) there are a couple of small greenhouses where the staff grow a variety of flowers and other plants, many of which are later planted in other parts of the island. It's an interesting place to take a quick look around, and if you run into a staff member there they'll (probably) happily show you the place.

A few banana plants and fruit trees are also grown here - and then there's a big cage with lots of budgies and a few other birds, you definitely won't miss this area if you're walking on the "main road" between the Cottage and the Blue Lagoon, just walk towards the loud bird noise!;o)


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