Our honeymoon in Maldives

Our honeymoon was an unforgettable once in a lifetime experience, it was SO good! I don't think J and I are the only ones to have been caught daydreaming about over the water villas on a turquoise sea during our childhood and well up until now! It's something you see in magazines, on TV, on the internet... and catches your eye right away. We're so happy to finally having had the chance to visit such a dream place! We spent months doing research trying to find the hotel that would better meet our expectations, and we were not disappointed (or just a bit, more on that in a while).

The resort we stayed at is the newly opened Maalifushi by COMO, which occupies the whole Maalifushi island, about 45 minutes away from Male. It was the soft opening of the hotel during our stay, meaning that some of the villas where still under construction, for which we got some special promotions, like full board for the price of half board, which was such a bargain! We stayed at the resort for 6 days, which was just about right, taking into account you couldn't get out of the island! Well, we did kayak to the nearest inhabited island, but that's about it.

The private sea of our water villa ^.^

The hubby swimming with the sea turtle!

We loved the resort, the facilities, our water villa, the amazing food... everything was outstanding. The only thing we were disappointed about was the transportation. From the very beginning, only resorts which had a seaplane for transfers from the airport to the hotel made it to our shortlist. J was really excited about the seaplane thing, and I wanted it because taking a domestic flight was not a very good option: domestic flight run on a schedule, so it's hardly possible you'll get a flight that fits your international flight schedule perfectly. We booked Maalifushi by COMO because it was one of the hotels that offered the seaplane option. What was our disappointment when, two weeks before our stay, we received an email from the hotel telling us the seaplane wouldn't be an option because their legal permits where taking longer than expected. I was so infuriated. We ended up having to take a domestic flight, my worst nightmare!!! From the airport to the hotel on our arrival it was alright, since we didn't have to wait long. But on the day we checked out, they made us leave the resort at 2PM because our domestic flight was at 3PM, and our international flight wasn't until 11:30PM!!! You can imagine how outrageous I thought this was. 

Anyway, this bad experience aside, if Maalifushi by COMO gets its license for the seaplane, it will definitely be a resort to love, seeing how the domestic flight was the only thing I didn't like about it.

Best nap ever :p

All in all, it was an amazing honeymoon the hubby and I enjoyed to the maximum. We loved every single experience, our relaxing villa, the white sand, the wondrous snorkeling... We swam with sea turtles and sharks, I mean, OMG!!! It was also specially nice to get there on Valentine's Day, the hotel had a special exquisite dinner menu for the occasion, and it was the best Valentine's Day of my life!

Wedding Wednesday: About our Honeymoon

I don't think I ever mentioned where we'd like to spend our honeymoon, so here is a whole post dedicated exclusively to our honeymoon plans! I didn't really know what to talk about today and I asked you guys on my instagram what you'd like me to write, and I got a nice comment suggesting honeymoon, so here it is. 

Now, before I tell you about what we have in mind, let's talk about honeymoon per se. I think honeymoon is not what it used to be some years ago, for my parents generation, let's say. Why do I think this? Well, I don't know about your parents, but mine had never really traveled together until their honeymoon, so it was a HUGE thing. Jeff and I, as most of the couples our age, have traveled together many many times and to gorgeous places that could perfectly be a honeymoon destination, like our trip to Thailand some months ago. Because of this reason, I think planning the honeymoon is now more difficult than it has never been, and this trend has obviously just begun. People travel more and to more remote locations, making it difficult to choose a honeymoon trip, which is supposed to be the grandest and bestest trip of your life!

With this scenario I personally could only think of two kind of trips that fulfilled the grandeur requirements: 1. A round-the-world tour 2. A water villa in Maldives / Seychelles / French Polynesia, etc.

So... yes, we decided we'd like to go to the Maldives for a week and pamper ourselves in a water villa!!! We've never done this before so it looks special enough for it to be our honeymoon :) J has been wanting to go to Maldives since forever, so I think we both are really going to enjoy this trip! {Now, with this being said I know a lot of people who have been there without it being their honeymoon, and I'd really like to ask them what they did they do for their honeymoon then??}

The timing of our honeymoon is going to be a bit special because it won't be right after our wedding, and this for several reasons. First of all, as I mentioned several times, we're getting married in Catalonia on the 6th of October, but we're having a wedding reception in Hong Kong on the 29th of December, and it seemed just wrong to go on honeymoon before celebrating with our Hong Kong family and friends. Right after our Hong Kong wedding, we'll be going on a Thailand trip for 10 days with my parents, brother and uncles who will be in Hong Kong for the reception. At the end of January is already Chinese New Year, which we have to spend with our family, and this year so even more given that it will be our first year as a married couple. So... all this brings us to mid-February... which is why optimally we'll be going on our honeymoon at the end of February or beginning of March! :) That's 5 months after our October wedding, but it really seems like the best time, so I don't mind waiting! We'll have plenty of things to do in between. Besides, weather-wise it turns out February and March are the best months to travel to Maldives, woohoo!

I'd really like to know your opinion on honeymoon nowadays. Do you believe, as I do, that it's becoming increasingly difficult to find the perfect destination?

Picture via Elegant Maldives