Had visited maldives on the 28/1/09 - 31/1/09, stayed at paradise island resort a 5 star property in maldives in a super deluxe room.
The airport in maldives is an island located 2kms from Male, the capital of maldives. Maldives is 1% land and 99% of beautiful water. The country is 100% muslim country, on arrival into the airport all your bags are screened and if any alcohol, cigarettes, holy books and statutes of other faiths are found they would be confiscated and you would get possession of your items on leaving the country.
However consuming alcohol and smoking is allowed at all islands, Only sun bathing naked is considered as an offence, but u can sun bathe in a tiny bikiny.
Once you are out of the airport you will find counters of all the 99 resorts of maldives, just go over to your respective counter and show your voucher, you will be then transfered to your hotel resort either by dhoni which is the local fast motor boat, speed boat, cantamaran or sea plane depending on what have you paid for at the time of booking.
Male is the main commerical center of male where most of the locals live, tourist usually dont visit male, if they do then it may be just for a few hours, Male looks like a north african city with mult coloured buildings.
Our hotel Paradise Island resort a property of the Vila group, is located 10 kms from the airport and it takes 15 mins by speed boat, on arrival to the island you are greeted by a welcome drink, given a map of the island, shown to your room and introduced to your room boy, if you are celebrating your honeymoon then you will be provided with a complimentary bottle of Brut Champange and a fruit platter.
The water at our resort was very blue and one could easily see the fishes in the water, the island had a length of 921 m and width of 223 m. The island had 5 restraunts and one main restraunt, a beach bar, swimming pool, spa, outdoor and indoor games, gift shops, electronic and photo shops etc.
The hotel also offered a range of spa treatments and excursions, private candlelight dinners were arranged beach side. Every night there would be some entertainment. All in all Paradise Island resort was a paradise but a very costly paradsie rooms start at $350 go upto $3000 per night for the water villas, transfers cost $120, water on the island cost $3.5, Coke is $5.0
Looking at the surface beauty of maldives I was tempted to explore the undersea beauty of maldives which was kind off disappointing.
We had taken a submarine ride, we went 120m below the sea but did not get the great views like in the photos. Night fishing was fun you are taken 10 mins from your hotel by dhoni and allowed to fish for 90 mins, Snorkeling trps did not provide the breath taking views had a much better experience in phuket and pattaya and at half the price.
The island hoping tour takes you to a local fishing village where one can see the local life of the maldivan people, followed by a trip to another resort, lastly a barbaque lunch at picnic island. The sea plane charter was a very good experience, one gets beautiful photos of the islands from the sea plane. Cost wise maldives is one of the most expensive places, 3 nights would cost you Min 60000 and if you want to enjoy then sky is the limit.