The Maldives have long been on our 100 Things List after seeing countless breathtaking photos of the idyllic white sand beaches, turquoise water, and gorgeous resorts. Continue reading to see how much we loved our stay at Diamonds Thudufushi Beach & Water Villas!

The Maldives went to the top of our list for honeymoon destinations after we got engaged and we quickly realised that if we wanted to go without breaking the bank, some in depth research was needed. You know we’re all about value for money!

How did we save thousands on Diamonds Thudufushi?

There were three factors that contributed to us saving thousands and having a relatively budget friendly Maldives honeymoon. But first, I need to point out that we had certain requirements and because of them, the trip was not cheap. It was, however, the best value for what we were looking for. 

There are ways of making it less painful on your wallet (like staying at guesthomes etc), plus flights were a decent chunk of our cost because we were flying from London (whereas you can fly from Sri Lanka for really cheap). But we wanted luxury and a once in a lifetime type experience and you do have to spend a lot of money to do that (and to not worry about breaking the country’s strict laws – resorts are kind of a rule free zone).

Our requirements were:

• An overwater villa. This is an item on our 100 Things List and I almost gave it up. That was before I learnt that the Maldives are actually one of the cheaper places to stay in an Overwater Villa. And you know what, we like a bit of luxury from time to time and it was our honeymoon, damn it!
• All-inclusive. But like, actually all inclusive. So many of the all-inclusive packages actually exclude a crazy amount of things. You can get half or full board but when you’re stuck on one island with only one option for food, then it’s going to work out cheaper to get all-inclusive.
• A good house reef. You’re stuck on an island for a week, if you don’t at least have a good house reef to snorkel around, you’re going to be bored out of your skull. Or at least, we knew we would be.

With those requirements, we found a couple of resort finalists to choose from but none were really doing it for us. It wasn’t until someone that Matt worked with recommended the place she stayed at a few year before.

Diamonds Thudufushi Beach & Water Villas ticked all the boxes and looked like a gorgeous place to stay. So with that decided, it was time to work out how we could afford to go!

As I said before, there were three factors that helped us get a good value honeymoon in the Maldives. They were:

• Finding an already good value for money resort. This took a lot of research but Diamonds Thudufushi Beach & Water Villas on it’s own was quite good value and ticked all the requirements for us.
• Going in low season. This reason alone saved us HALF of what it would’ve cost us in high season. We went the second week of June and the weather was perfect. It only rained once and that was during the night so it was no big deal. It was a bit windy but frankly, it’s so warm a little breeze is very welcoming!
• Getting a package deal. Normally I don’t like package deals or using travel agents but for resort centered places like the Maldives, they’re both a good idea as the agents will always get you a better deal than if you were to book separately and on your own.

Booking Diamonds Thudufushi with Kuoni

We ended up booking our honeymoon at Diamonds Thudufushi Beach & Water Villas with Kuoni. They offered the best value for money deal on the All Inclusive option and were so personable, happy, and easy to work with. They are truly experts on these luxury places like the Maldives and they actually go to the resorts themselves.

They can speak in detail about food and drink there and what activities are good rather than just quote from a brochure like most travel agents usually will. We loved that they gave us strong opinions on what they thought of the resort which really made us trust them to look after us. And of course, they were so nice and genuinely excited for us!

They even have agents that live at a some of the resorts in the Maldives (can I have that job, please?) so if anything were to go wrong, they’re just a phone call away. Our resident agent even called us a couple days after we arrived to make sure everything was going ok.

They greeted us at the Male Airport when we landed and gave us a card congratulating us on our wedding plus all the information we would need for our stay.

I’ll be honest and say that I usually hate travel agents and will do almost anything to avoid them but Kuoni totally changed my mind and I’d definitely use them again.

Our stay at Diamonds Thudufushi Beach & Water Villas

So did Diamonds Thudufushi live up to our expectation? You bet it did!

Overwater Villa

Our overwater villa (number 17) was all we could’ve asked for and more! Make sure you watch our video below for a full tour.

We asked for a villa on the sunset side since we’re not really morning people (especially on holidays) and wanted to be able to watch the sunset from our deck. We did so almost every night while drinking wine from the mini fridge in our villa which was restocked daily and included in our all-inclusive package.

On top of that, our villa was absolutely HUGE and had a walk in closet, massive bed, a Mac computer fully stocked with movies, relatively fast internet (better than I was expecting anyway!), the most well designed shower I’ve ever seen, and deck that was bigger than our London flat.

Watch our video below to get a really good look and feel for the place.

Food & Drink

There was a huge variety of food at the buffet restaurant with different theme nights, all of which were quite delicious (especially the desserts from the huge dessert table). I don’t think I went a night without having mango chutney or the freshly grilled chicken/fish. 

Since we were staying in the Overwater Villa, we had access to the Overwater Restaurant which was more of a fine dining experience. You chose your courses from a set menu which largely remained the same with a new special each day.

We did start to get a little bored of the options at the Overwater Restaurant so we would do dinner in the buffet restaurant the odd night for some variety.

The drink selection was great and actually taste good which you don’t always get at all-inclusive places. The included wine selection was delicious and their rosé was one we get ourselves back at home. Being cocktail snobs (Matt’s to blame for that, being an ex bartender) we weren’t expecting them to be very good but were pleasantly surprise! They were strong and tasty.

We drank more than I care to admit in the week we were there but hey, we were on vacation!

Activities

We did end up relaxing/reading on the couches on our deck a lot more than I was expecting but still took full advantage of the available activities. They had quite a bit included in our all-inclusive package like snorkelling equipment for using around the house reef, beach volleyball, table tennis, and daily yoga.

We mostly snorkelled around our villa and got to see 2 turtles, lots of fish, and even small reef sharks (a dream come true for me)!

Other activities cost extra but the prices weren’t unreasonable. We opted to go sunset fishing, searching for whale sharks, and had a wonderful couples massage.

Needless to say, we loved our time in the Maldives and were so upset to leave. Everyone at Diamonds Thudufushi made our stay that much better and we couldn’t have asked for more from the resort or Kuoni.

It was definitely worth the money spent (which we couldn’t have done without the generous gifts from friends & family for our wedding – THANK YOU!) so if you have the opportunity to go to the Maldives, take it.