Surprising Hulhumale

We planned to return to Malé to get our onward flight with a buffer day. Just to make sure that there were no boat delays (we heard during monsoon season, storms can cancel the boats completely) and to ensure we could do our laundry and sort our bags out before our flight to India.

So we didn’t really plan to do, well, anything in Hulhumale, and I just picked the cheapest accommodation I could find on the island…

We checked in to our place, which was more like an AirBnB style, a little apartment, and even had a washing machine which was free to use. Perfect for our laundry plans! We washed everything haha. But what we didn’t realise, was that it was right on the beach, with an ocean view, and the beach was surprisingly stunning… Pure white sand and turquoise water.

That evening, we walked down the beach to a little cafe for a vegan burger. The walk was great, in the soft sand. The sea front reminded us both of America, maybe Miami or LA. But it was also still typically Maldivian, and after work/school, the sea is bustling.

The restaurant was also a surprise, it was actually on a rooftop, and had a beautiful garden and view of the beach. And, there was finally something vegan haha, another surprise!

The next day we did plan to just sort out clothes and our bags, but we’d basically managed to do all that on the first evening, so we decided to try and book a final snorkelling trip in the local region. We didn’t have high expectations, but we did have some local currency to spend. We managed to book a 3-point snorkelling tour with Hulhumale Water Sports (on the beach) for just $45 each, which used up the rest of our dollars. And this was the biggest surprise of them all… As it was probably the best value trip we went on, the snorkelling was great!

We started at Kurumba island reef, which was sheltered with breakers on one side. The reef was great, lots of fish, but the best thing here was we saw probably about 20 black tip reef sharks!!  Of all shapes and sizes, some where MASSIVE! It was amazing – the most adult sharks we’ve seen so far.

The second spot was called the fish tank, and here we swam with sting rays for the first time, there was about 20 of them in the water together. It was a bit spooky at first, but them we saw how gentle they were, and they definitely didn’t see us as a threat, so we eventually got used to them.

The final spot was the Sheraton resort reef, which was also in very good condition, and was much better for coral variety, lots of table corals and different colours. But I also saw a shark here too.

We were so surprised that the snorkelling was this good, so close to the busy islands around Malé, with all the boat traffic and industrial utility islands. But I guess everywhere in the Maldives has the potential to be amazing…

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In the end, we were so glad we got to spend a few days in Hulhumale, the snorkelling trip alone was worth it.

The last day, we got up slowly and made sure everything was good for our flight to India.

We LOVED the Maldives, and were so happy that we were able to experience this beautiful underwater world.

The common misconception of the Maldives, is that it’s just for rich tourists who want to stay in fancy resorts costing upwards of £1,000 a night. But at the end of the day, these resorts are all part of the same ocean, and nobody is opening doors for you underwater!! You’ll have all the same experiences with nature, plus local islands show you some Maldivian culture too ☺️

We came here to swim with Mantas, Sharks, Rays, and with all the fish of the reef. And we did. We saw everything we wanted to, and more, and had some wildlife experiences to cherish for a lifetime.

I hope we will come back. Who knows, maybe one day we will splurge on a resort, but for now, I’m happy snorkelling all day instead!

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