The Maldives was exactly what we wanted for our honeymoon. Full relaxation on a beautiful tropical island, with blue skies and the clear Indian Ocean. It was even better than I imagined it would be.

We flew from Glasgow to Male with Emirates, with a short stopover in Dubai. We watched a lot of movies during the flights and the food was pretty good - especially the afternoon tea with scones on our flight home. We booked our honeymoon a few months back with Purely Maldives, who were fantastic the whole way through and offered us the best deal on flights and accommodation.

Our first two nights were spent in a deluxe beach villa at the all-inclusive Oblu by Atmosphere at Helengeli. It was just a short speedboat ride away from Male which was lovely and refreshing. The island was beautiful, with the added bonus of a house reef so we could snorkel from the shore. It’s quite a small island which was nice, and all of the staff were excellent. We ate nutella waffles whilst watching the fishes and rays in the sea, snorkelled alongside a blacktip reef shark, drank cocktails, played outdoor table tennis, ate wedding cake, and said ’this is incredible’ a lot.

After Oblu we moved to Atmosphere Kanifushi for five nights. The island is only accessible by seaplane and it was a great experience (though very hot!) and made the greeting on the island even more special. Champagne was waiting for us at reception and in our sunset beach villa. The island felt very luxurious, and it was quite different to Oblu as it was a fair bit bigger, though it still felt very quiet and secluded. The all inclusive here was fantastic, with a mini bar filled twice a day with food and drinks and a choice of places to eat and activities. The outdoor whirlpool bathtub was perfect to relax in and it was lovely to have a private bit of beach tucked away in front of the villa. We watched the sunset in the sea or on the beach each night, ate lobster, went on a sunset cruise, visited a nearby island dedicated to coral research, had a couples massage, snorkelled with fish including lionfish and unicornfishes, drank mojitos, went sea kayaking, and couldn’t get over how beautiful these islands are.

The Maldives, you were paradise.

S. xo