The Luxury of Maldives
Have you ever experienced a level of service that literally everything felt like perfection? Food, drinks, accommodations, activities? When you start looking to see what the defect is? We had the incredible opportunity to visit the Maldives and it was everything and more than I could have imagined. We stayed at two different resorts and they were both excellent in their own ways.
We were flying from Doha, Qatar to the Male Airport in the Maldives. We had a very late night watching the Brazil vs Croatia Quarterfinal and didn’t make it back to our hotel until 3 AM. We had 2 hours to sleep before we had to get to the airport for our flight!! Luckily, the flight was pretty bare so we all got to stretch on the Qatar Airways flight. Side note, loved Qatar Airways. Highly recommend if you get a chance to have this airline as an option on your next trip. Once we landed, we were greeted by a Siyam World Host who took us to a private lounge to await our seaplane to the Siyam World resort.
As luck would have it, we did arrive to the island when they were experiencing some rougher weather out of the ordinary. Which meant some rain, rough water and high winds. But to just step out into the fresh air, a little wind and rain weren’t going to ruin my time in the Maldives. Our sea plane arrived and we took a 45 minute ride to the resort (side note – it was a pretty loud flight and they offer you ear plugs to drown out the noise).
We were greeted with Siyam World employees debarking us onto a shuttle boat and unloading our luggage to get us to the check-in lounge. They pampered us with some welcome drinks.
Check-in was pretty easy and seamless. The Siyam World host drove us on a golf cart to our bungalow and it was super cute. It was an over-the-water bungalow with a slide into the ocean and a private pool. Pool was cold but the ocean was divine. Once we dropped our stuff…we were starving. So we headed to the beach buffet as we didn’t get in early enough to make reservations at one of the other restaurants. But it was perfectly fine as we were all starving.
The buffet was massive and had tons of food for everyone’s taste. It was an “International” buffet so had different items of all cuisines. It was clean and food looked fresh. The servers would offer drinks at the table.
After dinner, we started to explore the island even though it was dark at this point. We found a sports bar, recreation area and soccer field. So the boys ran around for a bit and played some soccer. We then found a sports bar to watch the other World Cup Quarter Final matches that were on for that evening. The sports bar and recreation area had a foosball table, a pool table and some other activities for the kids to play. We even found a “nightclub” around the corner of the sports bar with music and dancing. We had to jump in and show our moves for a song or two.
The next day we missed breakfast because we slept in. It was tough adjusting to time zones and breakfast being over at 10:30. We woke up around 12:00 and immediately started using the slide in our bungalow and running to the massive bounce house over the water. This was the activity that sold us on visiting Siyam World and it did not disappoint. The problem was, we got caught up on having so much fun that we missed lunch too!!!! So we had missed breakfast and lunch and were starving at this point as everything closes at 2:00 PM to get ready for dinner. So needless to say, we had an early dinner. It’s not a typical vacation being at an all-inclusive and missing almost all the meals due to time change and maximizing our fun on the island that we totally forgot to eat!!!
We even found some friends on the bounce house and started fishing with all the cool fish that surrounded the bounce house. It was a “catch and release” option but we enjoyed our time with our new friends.
Since we maximized our day of playing in the water and on the beach….we were able to find some snacks and our concierge made us reservations at one of the “reservation only” restaurants called The Wahoo Grill. Since we still had time….we went back over to the soccer fields to play some more. There we found more friends to play a fun 4v4 game.
We finally went back to our bungalow to get cleaned up and head to dinner. We were sat and the boys loved the decor on the table. Dinner was good. We had Onion Soup, Ceasar Salad, Bread Basket and they had seafood, steak and chicken options. Everyone at the table found something to eat and all were happy.
The next morning it was time to depart Siyam World and head to our next destination in the Maldives, which was Soneva Jani. This is where the real luxury kicked in. Nothing against Siyam World which was amazing and everything was great. But Soneva Jani blew luxury out of this world. Luckily, it was only 15 minutes by speedboat from Siyam World. Totally worked out that we didn’t have to take another seaplane across the Maldives. We jumped on our boat and arrived with a beautiful greeting from the hotel staff and some coconuts.
We checked in and then were headed to our room and it was everything and more. It was huge and had an amazing pool with a slide into the ocean. Unfortunately, it was low tide so we couldn’t just go sliding in since it wasn’t deep enough. The kids were fine but the adults had to hold off.
We got settled in and wanted to go explore the resort. We checked out the restaurants, the spa, the kids club, the recreational facilities. It did not disappoint.
There was a Sushi Restaurant that had a Movie Screen and they had movies every night. What was great was the audio was through headphones. So kids could listen/watch the movie while adults could continue with conversation instead of shouting over the movie. It was great for kids and adults.
The Kids Club is by far the best Kids Club I have ever seen by size and activities. They had something for all ages and it was truly the nicest one I have ever seen.
They had a turf soccer field that the boys got to play on. They also had a resident ex-professional player offering training sessions. Boys got to spend a couple days with Graeme Le Seaux. They had a great time playing with him and his son.
The dinner and lunch options were amazing and you can’t beat the view. It sits on the beautiful water and you can even jump in while waiting for lunch.
We had a hostess who takes care of you with everything. Making reservations, providing you refreshments, taking the kids to the kids blub and getting them to dinner. It’s like you have your own personal assistant and for a mom, how do I go back to living normal again, lol! This was the most amazing perk because you felt so relaxed and you didn’t have to think about anything.
I seriously can’t say enough good things about Soneva Jani (I would love to get paid for this huge advertisement but I’m not a sponsor or paid contributor, lol). It just literally had everything, service is impeccable, food is delicious and the accommodations are out of this world.
The only downfall would be the low tide so us adults couldn’t really take advantage of the slide since it was too shallow. But apparently there is a “side” you can request that is deeper but they are also in the process of fixing this issue where it’s not so shallow. Since it isn’t cheap, people want to utilize every ounce of the accommodations.
Take me back!!!!!
