The Maldives are AMAZING. We hate reading articles and blogs that are overly positive on every single place people visit and we like to think we give an honest view of what is good and bad about a place. If we don’t like a place we’ll say and we try not to be over the top…but the Maldives…I can’t think of much more to say other than: “Holy crap the Maldives are amazing!”

There are some places that you see pictures of that look amazing but the reality isn’t quite as great when you actually get there. Like pictures of idyllic beaches in Thailand that don’t quite capture the pile of rubbish just out of shot and the thick stench of that rubbish floating up your nostrils ruining the beauty a bit when you’re there in person.

Or the rolling hills covered in bright green rice terraces promising idyllic hikes in the countryside in Vietnam which don’t quite get across the fact that there will likely be 20 locals following you around every step trying to get money off you in one way or another (albeit with a smile on their face) and the shock that you will get when you round a corner and see a dead dog’s head on a stick at a market.

I still love Thailand and Vietnam and think they’re both beautiful places (that I’m excited to go back to one day) but they also are good examples of places that have their rough edges that don’t tend to get shown as much as those perfectly edited images of a promised paradise. Who likes to share an image of a beautiful beach with a pile of rubbish in the corner anyway? Well those idyllic pictures of Maldives don’t do the place justice. We just got back from seven nights in the Maldives as a delayed honeymoon trip and every day was like being in a dream. A perfect dream filled with amazing food, drinks, sunset fishing trips, snorkelling in warm idyllic blue water, beautiful sunsets and lazy afternoons laying in the shade of a palm tree.

The beauty of the Maldives was also a reminder of what we’re all going to miss out on as global warming starts to really take its toll. The Maldives highest point on their approximately 1,190 islands is about 2.4 metres above sea level so they are going to be among the first countries to be wiped out as sea levels rise. Maldives is near perfect as it is in my opinion but one of the few issues is that the warming of sea temperatures has already taken a huge toll on the coral reefs which have been bleached and killed by the warmer sea temperatures. I am in no way an expert on global warming or how we could possibly fix it but it does make me want to do a lot more to help even if it may be too late.

That more sobering thought makes me even more appreciative of how lucky we are to have experienced the Maldives. It was comfortably the most money we ever spent on a week’s holiday (as a comparison, 2 months in Southeast Asia was cheaper than our week in the Maldives) and we wouldn’t have been able to justify it to ourselves without some help from our wonderful wedding guests (SO THANK YOU ALL!). We couldn’t fit all of our 7 nights in the Maldives in to one video so have split it up. Check out our first Maldives video “Snorkelling with Manta Rays in the Maldives” (hint…we got to swim with Manta Rays and my heart still races when I watch the clip of those beautiful, gentle giants swimming past us).

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Click here to watch the second half of our Maldives honeymoon – More from the Maldives: Cocktails and Turtles