Maldives, a country of thousands of islands with stunning white sand beaches, turquoise water and a mesmerizing underwater world, was meant only for luxury travel till a decade ago. But after the government allowed guest houses on the local islands, more options opened up in Maldives.
I am sure water villas are great, but I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at local islands. Local islands have the remote, untouched feeling and friendly local people. Though with more and more guest houses opening up every year, local islands are also becoming touristy and losing the local touch.
The first island we stayed in was Fulidhoo - I just fell in love with the picture-perfect island and idyllic life there.The island is less than a km in circumference with a population of 500 people.
So what all you should do on this tiny island....here's my top ten
1. Relax on a beach
Fulidhoo, like most islands in Maldives, has beautiful beaches with white sand and blue water. Swim in the turquoise waters, make sand castles, relax on the Maldivian hammocks or hammock style chairs. I loved the beach near the Kinan Retreat (where we stayed) - it had a lot of space for kids to run around, play football and spend the whole day. You can also catch crabs if you wish to.
There is also a bikini beach on the island - the only beach where swimwear is allowed on the island. It is good but smaller beach filled with sun beds and tourists.
2. Snorkel on coral reefs
Snorkel around corals, colorful fishes and turtles - marine life is amazing in Maldives and waters are crystal clear to snorkel.
Unfortunately, almost all corals in Maldives bleached/died due to global warming specially during El Nino from 2014-2016. So there are hardly any live corals in Maldives as of 2019. But the vast reefs are still beautiful in their own way.
3. Swim with white sharks
Take a trip to the shark snorkeling point. Wear your gear and get into water to be amazed how close the sharks get.
4. Watch dolphins at dolphin point
We were surrounded by hundreds of dolphins in the lagoon at dolphin point. They were moving around in groups, popping in and out the water. I could never imagine to see so many dolphins at on go. Though since dolphins keep moving, you do not always get to see them in lagoon, so a bit of luck involved.
5. Scuba Diving
Fulidhoo dive centre is a good place in Maldives for training. They are professional and good, and organize trips to great dive sites. Though they take 4 people with 1 trainer. As a beginner, it was not the best for me.
6. Watch sting rays
The beach at Kinan retreat is known for sting rays. When we reached Fuildhoo, the first thing we saw was sting ray, as some tourists were feeding them. Later we even saw them when we were swimming in the water.
7. Stay at Kinan retreat
Great location, great people, decent rooms and food. They are right on the beach - a perfect place to relax
8. Take a trip to longest sand bank - one of the trips I missed was to the sand bank. This sand bank is visible only in low tide and supposed to be lovely
9. Watch flying fish
One of the most amazing things I saw in Maldives was "Flying Fish" (remember movie Life of Pi). This is not specific to Fulidhoo, but whenever you are in boat, keep an eye for it. We saw a lot of them on our boat ride from airport to Fulidhoo.
10. Watch local performances
I believe you cannot plan it, but go and watch if you hear local music around. We could watch music and dance performance by locals on one of the evenings. Tourists were also invited to dance - we too shook a leg.
Moving on : to Maafushi
After Fulidhoo, our next stop was Maafushi. I did not like it as much as Fulidhoo as Maafushi was more commercial and buzzing with tourists. Did not have the serene feeling as Fulidhoo. But there were some advantages of Maafushi.
1. Plenty of restaurants and food options - if you are finicky for food, Maafushi can be better choice. They had good Indian options as well.
2. Water sports - You can enjoy all kind of water sports here - like paddle boating, kayaking, banana boat, sky boarding, surfing and what not. You can arrange for water sports in Fulidhoo also, but it’s much easier and more prevalent in Maafushi
3. Biyadhoo reef - not far away from maafushi, Biyadhoo is a great reef to snorkel (though no live corals now)
4. Beach swing - there are swings everywhere on beaches in Maldives, but this long swing right on the (bikini) beach has a special appeal.
5. Cycling - we enjoyed double cycle around the island, with our two year old on the bar in front.
6. Boat for drinks and dinner - you can spend an evening at a boat for drinks and dinner as liqour is banned at local island. These boats typically play loud music for dance, but since we were the only customers, we could ask him to play Kishore instead :)
I so much wanted my holiday in Maldives to never end, and still dream to go back there - may be another island next time. Like little kiddo Vatsal says - Bye Bye Island, Bye Bye Maldives !
