How To Choose The Best Luxury Hotel in the Maldives For Your Vacation
I planned an epic Maldives vacation for my 4oth birthday, which included a stopover in Dubai on our way to the Maldives.
If you are going to the Maldives from the United States, it only makes sense to stay in Dubai for a few days. If you read my post on how to spend 3 days in Dubai , then you will understand why you should take advantage of an extended layover in Dubai on your way to the Maldives.
I researched every luxury hotel and resort in the Maldives, and ultimately decided to book at Per Aquum Huvafen Fushi. Here are the top 3 reasons that I chose Huvafen Fushi, and how you can choose the best luxury hotel in the Maldives for your vacation.
1- The proximity of Huvafen Fushi to the Male airport in the Maldives.
In order to get to the Maldives from the U.S., we flew 16 hours to Dubai then another 3.5 hours to Male. After 20 hours in the air, the last thing I wanted to do was take a seaplane or a charter flight to our Maldives home.
Huvafen Fushi was one of the closest luxury hotels to the Male airport. We flew into the Male airport, and literally boarded the Huvafen Fushi boat from the airport terminal. It was a short 30 minute boat ride to Huvafen Fushi.
As you can see in our Maldives vacation video, it was rather easy getting from the Male terminal to the boat!
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2- The House Reef at Huvafen Fushi is better than the other Maldives hotels.
I had narrowed my search down to luxury Maldives hotels that were within a 3o minute boat ride from the Male airport. Next I extensively researched the House Reef’s at these hotels. Initially, I was very interested in Gili Lankanfushi. Afterall, they were awarded the #1 luxury hotel in the Maldives by Trip Advisor. In fact, Gili Lankanfushi along with Huvafen Fushi had the best house reefs of the Maldives hotels that were close to the airport.
Ultimately, Huvafen Fushi beat Gili Lankanfushi for the best house reef. For me, the allure of staying in an over the water bungalow is that you can snorkel right off the deck of your villa! Huvafen Fushi won bonus points for being able to snorkel under your living room glass floor.
As you can also see from our Maldives vacation video at Huvafen Fushi, we literally snorkeled right off over the water bungalow #39. You can also see how close the reef is to the Huvafen Fushi over the water villas in this picture that Daniel took with a drone.
3- Huvafen Fushi had lower rates and complimentary half-board.
There is nothing cheap about vacationing in the Maldives. At first glance, the prices are shockingly high. Then you finally settle into the fact that its going to cost you an arm and a leg regardless of where you stay. I was prepared to spend a lot of money for our Maldives vacation.
Of the luxury Maldives hotels that met my first two criteria, it appeared that Gili Lankanfushi and Huvafen Fushi were tied in food and service.
If all other factors are equal, then I’m going to choose the lower price hotel. Its that simple.
Huvafen Fushi was less expensive than Gili Lankanfushi and they offered complimentary breakfast and dinner. Having complimentary half-board may seem like no big deal, but let me tell you that the food and drink prices in the Maldives are shockingly expensive.
Speaking of which, the food at the Huvafen Fushi’s complimentary half board restaurant (Celsius) were very very good. Im use to the crappy food in the Caribbean, so this was a pleasant surprise.
If you are wondering how I researched the 3 criteria for choosing the best luxury hotel in the Maldives, it was rather simple. I found a Maldives blog that has a search feature that allows you to plug in your criteria to find the your best match!
I highly recommend that anyone who is planning a trip to the Maldives use the Maldives Complete search before booking a hotel.
Now that I have told you how we chose Huvafen Fushi as the best luxury hotel in the Maldives, I bet you are wondering whether our opinion changed after vacationing at Per Aquum Huvafen Fushi.
To find out, you will have to check out our review of Huvafen Fushi !! Coming Soon!!