Slow Travel at the Sun Siyam Olhuveli, Maldives

Our travel planning for Summer Holidays as a family begins as soon as the Christmas Holidays are over. We shortlist our next travel destination from our Travel Wishlist and secure it as early as the beginning of the new year. If we are not going home for the summer then we try and pick a different country to explore for 4-5 weeks and really like to go with the flow. Since my four years with Travel Counsellors, I have planned 'Slow Travel' for my personal family holidays to countries like Austria, Switzerland and Bali. This year we picked the Maldives. In this blog, I have shared why I choose Maldives as my pick for 'Slow Travel during Summer', our experience at the Sun Siyam Olhuveli and why we had to cancel and rebook our trip to travel 3 days later due to positive PCR test results.

Why the Maldives?

During this stage in a pandemic, there were not many countries open and accessible yet for travellers from Dubai for Tourism purposes. Maldives was a popular hotspot at this time not only out of the UAE but also from the rest of the world for the obvious reasons that it is naturally made for social distancing and privacy. The one island one resort concept of the Maldives and having your own private beach villas on the island means you will not see anyone if you don't deliberately want to. This is not the kind of holiday we were looking for after being isolated in our homes already for so long. We were seeking new experiences, meeting local people, getting immersed in a new culture and the novelty of something new. We had been to the Maldives on our honeymoon a decade ago so this was not a new destination for us. It was just this urgent need to travel somewhere so we took the plunge and locked in the Maldives as our destination for our Summer 2021 anyways. We were prepared to return back to Dubai either as single parents or a bigger family and maybe who knows even both, after all, we were going to be spending three weeks on the island. We took a chance and tried to test it out and see if this Slow Travel to the Maldives will sustain our marriage.

After all the research and planning we decided to make Sun Siyam Olhuveli our home for 3 weeks in the Maldives.

The Maldives is an expensive destination and is an ideal place to visit for 4 - 7 days. While the word expensive can be a relative term it is advisable to book your trip well in advance to secure the best deals and to find availability especially when you are planning to spend more than 7 days on any of the islands. We took advantage of Travel Counsellors Low Deposit Travel to secure our resort at the beginning of the year with a minimum deposit.

Sun Siyam Olhuveli is not only a slice of paradise with Sun, Sand and Sea but it went beyond our expectation of what we were seeking from our holiday, the joy of doing things for the first time and experiencing the new. The highlight of our trip was swimming with Nurse sharks on the 3 point snorkelling trip organized by the resort. I would recommend this trip to anyone who wants to feel alive again, you will feel every goosebump on your skin and the dopamine flowing through your brain as you are aware of these giant sharks about hundreds of them swishing past you underwater.

The staff at the Sun Siyam Olhuveli were very gracious and hospitable in welcoming us to their island and making us feel at home. They went out of their way to meet and socialize with each and every in house guest on the island at the cocktail evening that was organized by the resort. The staff that were locally from the Maldives were very proud of sharing their traditions and cultures with us including the chef who prepared sumptuous Maldivian dishes for us every Wednesday.

The Dive Centre at the house reef at the Sun Siyam Olhuveli was just another reason that made this resort more alluring. Having access to the reef all day whether we spotted colourful fishes underwater either during the day or at night gave us a chance to reconnect as a family. We really had a chance to slow down while our 3 weeks in the Maldives and appreciated the small things. My son has a new fascination with hermit crabs thanks to this holiday. They are hard to miss, you will find them everywhere on the island.

Thanks to the surge in demand that the Maldives has seen in the last few years there are only a few resorts in the Maldives that are exclusively adults-only while the rest cater to families with children. Although my son who is 8 yrs old thought he is too cool and old enough to be at the Kids club gave in once he joined the other children at the Maakanaa Kids Club at the resort for some fun activities like Fun Tube rides and Mocktail making classes.

We had an amazing holiday and definitely a one to remember and cherish with so many magical sunsets that we had a chance to experience as a family. It was not so much of the domestic drama that we were expecting on the holiday but what really weighed us down was the fact that I and my son were tested positive before taking the flight to the Maldives. As a result, we had to cancel down our holiday and rebook it once we had two negative results after getting a positive. After the retests that I and my son had to go through until we were good to go which was 3 days later our holiday booking had already unravelled. After a few phone calls and emails, the booking was reinstated and we needed no more reasons but to make the most of our time in the Maldives.

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog. I want to leave you with a quick tip for PCR testing before travel which I learnt from my own experience this time when travelling to the Maldives: If your PCR requirement is 96 hrs before travel then get your tests done as soon as possible within that time frame so if you do need to make any changes to your booking once you have your results then you have enough time to do so.