Scroll all the way to the bottom of this post to view a video I put together of our trip!
Let me start with the difficult – Travelling to the Maldives with a Toddler
Travelling to the Maldives with an already jet-lagged toddler, having just came into Manila from the States, is one massive feat. I wasn’t completely aware of the amount of travel by sea, land and air it took to actually get to our Maldivian resort, Angsana Velavaru. Of all the 70 + flights I’ve taken with my son, travelling to the Maldives easily shot to the top of my list of ‘Don’t do this again!’. After two 4 hour flights via Singapore Airlines from Manila to Singapore and then Singapore to Male, we had to take a 30 minute speedboat, two 15 minute van rides, wait 45 mins at the seaplane holding area, take an hour long seaplane ride, and then one last 10 minute boat ride to the resort…
It doesn’t look like too much travel time, but having to sit for a very short time and get right back up again is far worse than taking a child on a straight 9-15 hour flight. Luca has taken at least 10 of those long hauls and he’ll sleep really well right through them. But with these short rides, Luca couldn’t get more than a few hours of straight sleep the entire travel time, which took us a day and a half (we had to stay at a stop over resort before heading to our actual resort for a few hours because seaplanes don’t fly in the dark and our flight into Male was very late…)
Luca, unfortunately wasn’t his best self the entire trip, but he did enjoy the ocean and sand for as much as he could. And we would sleep 15 hours every night while he was recovering from his jet lag!
Mommy tip: If you plan to head out to the Maldives with children, research for a resort that is very close to the main island of Male, and please be prepared to be in constant motion! Also please get yourself a very good travel booker who has experience with booking hotels and flights in the Maldives.
Wellness tip: When travelling, pack organic ginger candy to help relieve any dizziness and nausea.
First Impressions + The Resort: Angsana Velavaru
I’ve heard mixed reviews from Filipinos about the Maldives, and maybe we have an unfair advantage coming from the epitome of a geographically diverse island country with beautiful beaches and wildlife alike. I don’t say this lightly.
Seaplanes don’t fly in the dark, so you won’t need to worry about not catching that iconic shot of those beautiful little islands that seem to be sprinkled delicately throughout the Indian Ocean. Coming into our resort via seaplane, I anxiously stared out of the window looking for every island I could snap a photo of – after all, what a privilege it is to even get to see these soon to disappear islands. I wasn’t disappointed, I found islands left and right that looked so incredibly unbelievable, they might as well have been man-made sets for the movies!
Arriving at our resort, which consisted of two separate little islands, one for the water villas and the other for land villas, I felt such a relief to feel solid ground under my feet. Our room was on the water villa side and we stayed in the bigger family sized villa towards the end of the strip. Each water villa comes with its own private pool and steps from the deck that lead you straight into the ocean water! My husband and I tried to snorkel around our villa area but after seeing the biggest sting rays I’ve ever seen, we decided that was enough sight seeing. We did a private boat tour of the nearby islands and had the chance to free dive the coral reef. I’ve never stayed in the ocean longer than the 2 hours we spent free diving, and it was surprisingly the most rewarding part of our visit to the Maldives.
Angsana Velavaru was a beautiful resort. When you’re in the Maldives, you will most likely be spending 90% of your vacation on the resort island as nearby cities might be a seaplane ride away. So it’s important to choose a resort that offers a wide range of activities and the utmost comfort for its guests. Angsana Velavaru has two islands: the main island which has soft white sand, a beautiful beach, a kiddie playground under the palm trees, and a beach bar that offers the most amazing food and drinks! The two islands are only a 3 min boat ride away from each other, so if you plan to stay on the water villa side you wont miss out. We headed out to the main island almost everyday we were there! The resort offers a wide range of ocean sports and activities like snorkeling and even sting ray feeding! You can reserve romantic beach dinners or have a BBQ on the roof of your private villa! It’s safe to say that there are far more activities at Angsana then the amount of time you’ll have to try them all!
Restaurant & dinning area on the water villa side:
Lasting impressions + worth the trip?
Have my readers been to the Philippines? Once again, I guess it’s kind of unfair to compare the Maldives to the Philippines. But for the amount of time and money that it takes to travel to the Maldives, I would highly recommend some inexpensive and accessible trips to the equaling stunning Palawan, El Nido, Siargao, Bohol and the likes, in the Philippines first! After visiting the Maldives I have made it a resolution this year to explore more of the Philippines. There are so many places I haven’t been to yet in the Philippines, a country of over 7,000 islands!
I’d love to hear from my fellow Filipinos, if there are any suggestions of places that are a MUST visit in the Philippines, please comment below! I’ll be making a dream list of places to explore this year and will hopefully get to share those experiences here!
