Why Honeymoon Destinations Like the Maldives Are Great Vacations for Any Reason

Who says paradise is just for lovers?

Las Vegas? Miami? The Maldives? The world’s Main Honeymoon Vacation spot actually isn’t a top-of-mind location for a platonic friendship retreat, however the Maldives was simply what the physician ordered for my pal Layla and me late final 12 months. After being quarantined on reverse sides of the globe, this journey was a much-needed reunion with relaxation, revelry, and an air of romance to fall again in love with the world.

Having been starved of in-person bonding time (like many mates the world over), we had been thrilled to have the ability to expertise our shared dream vacation spot collectively. Earlier than I set off, nonetheless, I used to be repeatedly requested why I selected a spot that’s rife with honeymooners when touring and not using a romantic accomplice. This brought on me to ponder our tendency to guage locations in response to the sorts of vacationers that frequent them and the way we view locations as seasonal or appropriate primarily based on our respective life levels.

It dawned on me that earlier than this journey alternative arose, I had by no means thought of visiting the Maldives and not using a hunky romantic companion. In my thoughts, the archipelagic state had a symbolic “{couples} solely” signal hanging over it, and I assumed it is likely to be boring with out somebody’s eyes to gaze into adoringly at sundown. I used to be improper.

1. Emerald Maldives 2. LUX South Ari Atoll

One Water Bungalow for Two, Please

To take advantage of our 24-hour journey to the Indian Ocean, we selected to island-hop between two resorts and blend and match our excellent trip. Emerald Maldives Resort & Spa was a showstopping introduction to Maldivian hospitality, which started with a glass of celebrity-worthy champagne and an brisk Boduberu musical efficiency. The deluxe all-inclusive resort provided the whole lot wanted for a screensaver existence: an eye-watering infinity pool, delectable eating in 4 eating places, a formidable spa full with a scorching tub smack within the middle of a koi pond, dhoni boats for sundown cruises, and 120 dreamy villas. Our momentary house was a water bungalow cantilevered over the ocean with a timber ladder to step proper into it (which we did typically and gleefully). Our days had been spent pinching ourselves and utilizing our two complimentary bicycles to hop from one powder-white spot to a different.

Layla and I had been dwelling in swimwear and predominantly regarding ourselves with which cocktails to sip, which water sports activities tickled our fancy, and what to put on for our seashore picture shoot with a professional photographer (additionally complimentary). Going wherever together with your finest pal makes life enjoyable, even in a sea of {couples}. Vital others may not at all times have the endurance or need to preen and pose for pictures or perceive that generally you actually do must deliver seven “emergency” bikinis.

1. Emerald Maldives 2. Emerald Maldives

Regardless of the place we go, Layla and I make nice companions as we have now shared pursuits and an analogous stage of excitability. Throughout our first ever seaplane trip heading to Emerald Maldives Resort & Spa, we alternated between enthusiastic squeals and awestruck silences whereas looking on the endless expanse of blue water and tiny islands. We had been too busy being enthralled and entertained by dolphin cruises, and comedy-filled teppanyaki dinner exhibits to care about being the one platonic duo on the island.

We additionally made mates with some sprightly {couples} and wonderful employees members that finally felt like our island friends, too. Brian, a sommelier from South Africa, typically regaled us with tales of Maldivian paradise dwelling every time he got here to refill our glasses. Emblematic of the resort’s stellar service, he by some means at all times knew which scrumptious drink we’d need to toast with subsequent.

Friendship Is a Trigger for Celebration

Snapchat’s 2020 Friendship Report, a examine of over 30,000 individuals all over the world, confirmed (unsurprisingly) that shut mates are key to our happiness and almost half of all surveyed individuals (45%) felt extra distant from mates as a result of they couldn’t spend time collectively in individual throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The report pulls intel from numerous international friendship specialists, together with Large Friendship authors Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, who notes how lasting friendships genuinely want safety. “At a cultural stage, there’s lots of lip service about friendship being fantastic and vital, however not lots of social assist for safeguarding what’s valuable about it,” they spotlight. Individuals typically journey to commemorate and rejoice romantic relationships with bachelorettes, vacation spot weddings, honeymoons, babymoons, and such, however how about journeys that remember and honor grownup friendships?

1. Emerald Maldives 2. Emerald Maldives

Collectable Experiences

It was ever so valuable that Layla and I obtained to spend time collectively in such a scenic setting and dwell out each of our wildest goals. After a number of blissful days at Emerald Maldives Resort & Spa, we fortunately boarded one other seaplane flown by a barefoot pilot sporting shorts to get to resplendent resort quantity two, LUX* South Ari Atoll. Located on the hard-to-pronounce-but-impossible-to-forget slender island of Dhidhdhoofinolhu, this resort had a few of the most excellent seashores I’ve ever seen. All LUX* Resorts & Inns have a superb set of expertise packages known as Collectable Experiences, that means one isn’t hungry, bored, harassed, or uninspired. At LUX* South Ari Atoll, these embrace the Digital Detox bundle, Be taught to Sail in The Maldives, and The Maldives Bucket Listing, which incorporates snorkeling with whale sharks in a protected marine space earlier than canapés and drinks on a dhoni boat.

Eat, Sleep, Repeat was the Collectable Expertise we opted for, and it crammed our calendars with a private coaching session, 4 sleep-enhancing spa therapies utilizing natural oils from Dhigurah Island, a post-spa picnic on the lagoon subsequent to a modern sand bar that lightly parted the Indian Ocean (the stuff of goals) and a non-public three-course Maldivian meal within the resort’s herb backyard the place falling raindrops had been simulated only for the 2 of us. Certainly.

It’s simple that such dreamboat resorts are uber-romantic. Which couple wouldn’t admire snuggling as much as watch a film at LUX* South Ari Atoll’s out of doors Cinema Paradiso, studying a great ebook dealing with the swaying ocean on the Wanderlust Library, out-of-this-world full-body couple’s massages within the over-the-water bungalow remedy rooms, or closing your eyes to make a want collectively on the resort’s famed Tree of Needs? Locations like this may really feel like couples-only zones, however all over the place might be pleasing with an air of openness and the proper perspective.

Goodbye To One-Dimension-Suits-all Journey

This Maldivian “froliday” confirmed me the significance of making our personal narratives for locations no matter how they’re perceived and to whom they’re marketed. Paris isn’t solely a lover’s metropolis. Bali received’t assure Eat, Pray, Love-style non secular awakening. Bonaire isn’t only for diving, and paradisiacal locations just like the Maldives transcend being the “the sunny facet of life.”

There are already sufficient boundaries to journey with PCR checks, visa necessities, and financial inequality. Our relationship standing shouldn’t be one other impediment thrown in the best way of the place we select to journey. Journeys might be something we would like them to be, and we are able to take whoever we would like alongside for the trip. A vacation spot being “romantic” doesn’t imply you may’t take pleasure in it alone or with a cherished pal as a result of an important friendship is a present price celebrating within the Maldives, Miami, or wherever else.