It takes just an hour to fly from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Male, capital of the Maldives. We’re booked at the Sun Siyam Iru Fushi Resort (https://www.sunsiyam.com/resorts/iru-fushi-maldives/) which is on one of the roughly 1,200 tiny coral islands that comprise the Maldives. We’re only in Male long enough to pick up our luggage and find the seaplane that will fly us to the Iru Fushi. It’s a magical experience as the seaplane rises above the remarkably blue Indian Ocean and drops us off directly at the resort.
If you’ve ever dreamed of a nearly deserted island paradise, this is it. Shawn and I have been to many beach resorts, but this place is very special. We were originally booked in a Beach Villa – which is really, really nice – but once we saw the Water Villas, we knew we had to try for an upgrade. If you’re going to come this far – and it is really far from the U.S. – you might as well try to get one of the spectacular rooms that are suspended above the crystal blue sea.
It just so happened that there was one Water Villa available, so we snatched it up and were very happy that we did.
There are fourteen bars and restaurants here and they are all good. Even better than good are the French restaurant – Flavors, the Italian restaurant – Trio and the seafood restaurant – Islander’s Grill. We had a half-board which included an awesome breakfast and dinner at most of the restaurants.
There is an excellent dive center on property. We took advantage for two days of great diving in the warm clear water. Again, more great stuff!
Also took advantage of the award winning spa which was truly fantastic. The resort has tons of water sports as well. We didn’t take advantage of those, but they seemed to include windsurfing, wave runners and a water jetpack that looked best suited for young people.
For the most part we just relaxed!
If you are looking for a beach vacation, the Maldives is truly excellent. It’s a long, long way from the U.S., but if you are in the area – the Maldives is a must.
Now, we’re off to another world – Vietnam and Cambodia!