top of page

Expansive island hopping across
THE MALDIVES

Life truly stripped down to the very fundamentals.

People before us knew that the Maldives offer a paradigm of paradise.

 

For instance, Thor Heyerdahl once wrote: “Each little island was a separate gem set in a ring of golden beach sand and with another wider ring of glass-green water outside where the coral reef approached the surface, rising like a giant mushroom from the bottomless blue”.

Island enthusiasts such as ourselves will simply need to travel here a few times during their lifetime.

 

The Maldives is the "original atolls" on Earth. What do we mean by that?

 

Well, without becoming too nerdy, the word comes from the local 'atholhu' in the islander's Dhivehi language, meaning fragmented islets of coral.

 

And that is precisely what the Maldives is: fragmented islands of coral that have accreted around the peaks of ancient, long-departed volcanoes that are now submerged in the vast Indian Ocean, now draped as twenty atolls and thousands of tiny islands across the Equator like a necklace of exotic diamonds.

 

Location: 15 different islands across five atolls in the Maldives off the Coast of southern India and Sri Lanka, during 1,5 months

 

To us, many island nations – e.g. Seychelles, Mauritius, French Polynesia, Fiji, and others – has the right ingredients for an escape, which is all about rest and relaxation: Pristine tropical islands with swaying palm trees, pure white sand beaches, and brilliant turquoise lagoons. However, we think that the physical beauty of the Maldives is perhaps unmatched in the world. Here, life is stripped down to simplicity and to the fundamentals: Bright blue skies, all-year sunshine and fantastic diving and snorkeling in lagoons with the temperature of bath water.

Most people tend to go here for one or two weeks for a "one in a lifetime-experience". We keep coming back and each time, we learned that it is best to know what one want from the islands, and then do a bit of homework, check out websites and see through relevant reviews until a few islands remains on the list.

 

So-far we have visited in 45 days more than 15 islands in five different atolls, incl. North Male Atoll, Rasdhoo Atoll, Ari Atoll, Faafu Atoll and South Male Atoll. Our next trips to the Maldives will focus on the far-away atolls at the poles of the archipelago.

Like islands off the Indian mainland? Check our other island hopping adventures close to India, incl. the Lakshadweep IslandsSri Lanka, and the Andaman Islands.

For other Indian Ocean island pearls, we can recommend Mauritius, Rodrigues & La Réunion and the Seychelles. If that isn't remote enough for you, check our Soqutra island off mainland Yemen or Mozambique's islands​.

 

Selected pics from our island hopping adventures in this region:

bottom of page