Category Archives: Tour

This research tour was the most difficult yet. It even got me questioning whether it is worth the expense and effort of keeping Maldives Complete going. Fortunately, the amazing experiences, discoveries (including 35 new Best of the Maldives pieces) and support from Oaga remind me I why I keep slogging through the extensive work and costs to provide this resource.

The destination is increasingly dominated by ultra-luxe international brands who want a marquee property here that they can sprinkle on their marketing material. They don’t know the destination, erect mostly cookie-cutter, corporatey constructions making my job of finding distinctives to highlight all the more difficult. But places like Oaga demonstrate how much room for individuality and creativity remains even after 200 resorts. And places like AIG at Fuvahmulah made me aware of how many new types of Maldives experiences are being developed.

A few overall observations from the week…

• Wooden Keys – Wooden proximity keys seem to be the new thing in room access as every place I stayed used them.
• Global Diversity – For years, many resorts were often characterized as dominated by a specific nationality of guests. German brands like Robinson Club being frequented by Germans, international brand hotels that started entering being favoured by the early Chinese trade. Middle Eastern and Indian guests were relatively rare (why come to the Maldives when you have similar tropical properties in your home country). But this trip I was struck by the international diversity of the guest profile of every resort we stayed at.
• Supply Issues – For some reason, everywhere we went, the properties faced some supply issues especially with soft drinks, but also a range of other F&B ingredients and items that weren’t available.
• Less “big 5” fish – The delights of snorkeling include “fish soup” teeming schools of fish, dramatic reef drop-offs that make you feel like you are flying, colourful gardens of coral. But the biggest excitement is seeing special aquatic creatures, especially the “Big 5” of snorkel safaris – shark, turtle, ray, moray, lionfish. When we first started coming to the Maldives, we would typically see two if not three of these on any given outing. Now, the majority of our outings we don’t even see one. The decline of spottings has been palpable for a few years now, but this year are especially pronounced as we didn’t see any on any of our house reef snorkels (and aside from the amazing tiger shark diving in Fuvahmulah, the diving wasn’t much more fruitful.

Stay tuned for a rich array of ‘Best Of the Maldives’ and other pieces coming from this trip.

That’s what I’m talkin’ about. Oaga is one of my top favourite resorts ever. I was thinking that after 26 of visiting and researching the Maldives resorts, if I were to design my own resort, Oaga comes closest to my vision of my ideal resort. Artistry, creativity, personality, distinction, attention to detail, fresh, current, good-big-accessible housereef, lagoon too. Truly Maldivian (not this ersatz Williamsburg-esque contrivance of authenticity where a bit of thatch makes anything “Maldivian”). Oaga knows what it is and is not afraid to lean into its vibrant persona. It is 5-star luxury for people who want something remarkable, not just polished conventional.

The entire masterpiece is quintessentially “Maldivian|”…owned by Maldivians (not an international chain, designed by Maldivians, run by Maldivians, and ,most of all, created by Maldivians (with an army of local artists).

I came away with 22 “Best of the Maldives” pieces to post in the coming weeks which puts it in the top quintile of properties (most of whom are considerably pricier).

The Standard ticks all the boxes including value for money. So often the more affordably priced properties are priced to accommodate some shortcoming in the resort (eg. proximity to Male affecting views, distance from Male affecting transferring, lack of house reef). The Standard meets all the standards of Maldives 5-star luxury, but at a sub-$1000 room rate (for most rooms during most months). Gourmet food in the outlets including overwater bar and overwater restaurant. A breathtaking experience that won’t take your life savings away.

We are off on our 21^st visit to the Maldives after which we will have stayed at 120 resorts:

• Heritance Aarah
• Oaga
• The Standard
• AIG Grand

We are experiencing the full gamut of transfer transport – international, domestic and seaplane flights (and speedboat to boot).

We will also explore a new ”atoll”, which also happens to consist of a single island– Fuvahmulah. It’s getting harder to find resorts we haven’t been to so we decided take a few days at an island/atoll long on our bucket list.

Tune in for new discoveries and a range of “Best of the Maldives”.

We have a family tradition that we started with our family trips to the Maldives years ago and now do with every significant trip somewhere. We also play it with people who visit us in the UK. We call it the “Interview Game” because it involves asking an extensive series of questions about the past week. It definitely draws on my journalism background.

I find that the key to a good interview is to ask questions about small details of the visit. Big questions like “happiest moment” or “biggest embarrassment” take too much thinking and can be fraught with sensitivities. But asking something like “What did you pack that you did not use?” does not take much intellectual or emotional energy. Just a simple reflection. Often with quite intriguing answers. That particular question gets to the heart of expectations which is something I love to probe after experiences.

Interviews are a common feature on Maldives Complete. And in fact, I’ve even featured a round of the Interview Game with one of my interviewees who we met up with at Amilla Maldives. So some of the more prominent questions are there. But I thought people would enjoy a comprehensive list to draw from so I’ve included a list of all my favourite questions below for you to go through at the end of your next trip wherever it takes you:

• What did you pack that you didn’t use?
  B – A couple of dress shirts (I perspired less and was able to re-wear some of my favourites)
  L – A couple of dresses
• What didn’t you pack that you wish you did?
  B – My spare Mac which would have been a better backup when my machine died and I had to use Lori’s less powered computer.
  L – Red filter for GoPro
• What did you pack that you used the most?
  B – My business cards
  L – My plain white swimsuit cover-up.
• What did you break or lose?
  B – My computer’s motherboard got a fault.
  L – Nothing
• What food did you most enjoy?
  B – Vilu Reef’s poppadom shots (a revelation)
  L – Iru Veli’s Wagu beef MB6 at the beach dinner.
• What was your favourite view?
  B – Iru Veli’s sandbank breakfast.
  L – Ailafushi’s underwater restaurant.
• When were you the most nervous/anxious?
  B – When my computer died.
  L – First dive as we hadn’t done a dive for a over a year.
• What surprised you most about the destination?
  B – The sparkling phosphorescent plankton blue stars on Vilu Reef’s beach.
  L – The welcome at Vilu Reef and Iru Veli (we’ve never experienced anything like it).
• What most disappointed you?
  B – Baglioni’s Kids Club.
  L – Ailiafushi’s lack of house reef.
• Name a word you learned in Dhivehi?
  B – “Boli” means “shell” (from Dhawa Ihuru)
  L – “Iru” means “sun” (from Iru Veli)
• Name a fun fact you learned about the place?
  B – Maldivian octopi are some of the shyest octopi in the world as they have many predators (especially nurse sharks).
  L – Two resorts connected (Lobigili and Ailafushi)
• What would you do (if money and logistics were no object), if you had an additional day to spend?
  B – Spend a day doing nothing on the deck of our Iru Veli water villa with periodic dips in the pool (our trips are pretty busy so I tend to fall short on the indolence).
  L – Spend more time lounging in by the pool.
• What tip would you give someone about to embark on a trip like yours?
  B – Don’t worry about the weather reports.
  L – Even in July if there is some forecasts of rain, it’s still warm so no need to bring a wrap or anything, And don’t bring nice shoes.

Our 20^th Tour and now 116 resorts in the Maldives visited with the following additions:

1. Dhawa Ihuru
2. Baglioni
3. Sun Siyam Vilu Reef
4. Sun Siyam Iruveli
5. Ailafushi
6. Lobigili (day visit)

What struck me most about this visit was the increasingly palpable improvements in the country and the lives of its citizen who welcome us to visit their paradise. Maybe it was the new modern seaplane terminal. Maybe it was the maturing skyline of Hulhumale. But more likely it was the conversations with the Maldivians who shared not just a specifics of their enhanced lives, but did so in a very upbeat and optimistic tone.

The other funny historical shift has been in the disfunctional photographic behaviour of the guests. Years ago we found it curious and a bit sad that we were sitting at the sunset bar sipping our pina coladas surrounded by lots of lonely women abandoned by the SLR-toting husbands and boyfriends who were all clamouring to get the best sunset shot with their nifty point-and-click gadgetry. Now, we saw lots of lonely women wandering the resort with selfie stick in hand posing in all manner. Revenge of the SLR widows onto the new group of IG widowers? This observation is just one aspect of the tectonic shift in photography shaking up the digital content world. I didn’t really use my SLR for most of my shoots as the iPhone is just as good for most pictures where you are not trying to be artistic or need deep of field. Furthermore, I am taking and posting video material for “Best Ofs” than ever before (especially after this trip) which is much easier to shoot on an iPhone than an SLR.

Finally, a 1^st world problem finally is being addressed as more resorts are using salt grinders in place of salt shakers which get perennially clogged.