For my birthday, Ben made my bucket list dreams come true! He took me to the Six Senses Laamu in the Maldives and spent 14 days in a dream.




Traveling to the Maldives: We flew out of San Francisco International airport, took a 14 hour flight around midnight and arrived in Hong Kong early the following morning for a 10 hour layover. From Hong Kong we took a 6 hour flight to Male, and landed in the evening local time, so we stayed at the airport hotel to shower and rest. The next morning we continued on and took a 30 minutes ride on a small seaplane to another island. We were immediately greeted by the Six Senses staff and escorted to a boat and took a 20 minute ride to the Six Senses island resort. While we were on the boat, the staff explained to us that the property has a no shoe policy, and placed our shoes in a bag and I didn’t see them until the day we left the island.





Once we arrived to the island, we were welcomed by Sato, our “GEM” (Guest Experience Maker). Sato gave us a tour of the property and showed us to our villa. Sato was available to help us set up dinner reservations or activities that were available on the island, and anything we needed he was there for us.


We spent the next 10 days in complete bliss and relaxation. There were a couple days of rain and storm weather but the temperature was always in the 80’s and the water was warm, clear and the most beautiful blue. Each guest is provided a bicycle with their initials to ride around the island, and at every location there are bicycle parking lots.

The Villa

Our villa was at the very end of the dock, which gave us additional privacy and had an amazing view of the sunrise. Our villa felt like a tiny tree house, we had our own private plunge pool, outdoor dining area, and an outdoor shower.


Most days would go like this: I would wake up just in time to watch the sunrise, workout in the gym (only time I wore shoes), order room service breakfast, yoga, lay out, listen to audibles, dip in the plunge pool, take a nap, get ready for dinner, eat, sleep, repeat. Some days were a little different because we wanted to do some activities and exploring.

Water activities

We decided that we needed to do one form of water activity so Ben did kneeboarding and I chose tubing. You can’t tell from the drone footage but I was terrified the entire time I was inside the inner tube. I felt like I was slipping all over the place and I thought I was going to flip over and fall into the ocean and get eaten by a shark. But Ben did a fantastic job kneeboarding, it looked very difficult and he was graceful the entire time.

Cooking class

We signed up for a private cooking class with one of the Six Senses Chef’s who specialized in Maldivian food. We showed up to one of their signature restaurants during the day while it was closed and used their kitchen for the class. The chef showed us how to prep the vegetables and showed us every spice in the spice rack. We made a maldivian curry dish with fish, and a spiced fried rice. We had our own cookbook to bring home and at the end we earned a certificate of completion.

Aerial yoga

I have always wanted to try aerial yoga, so why not try in the maldives? The instructor was so strong and flexible, he made everything look so easy and when we would all try to do it ourselves, it wasn’t as graceful. I thought I would have a hard time hanging upside down for a long period of time but it wasn’t that bad. What I learned, the key to aerial yoga, is the trust the instructor and trust yourself, when you let go of the cloth that you weren’t going to fall, and I did and I think I did pretty well.

Dolphins

One night we signed up to go on a boat to chase the dolphins. We watched the sunset, and got to check out the other mini islands that were close to Six Senses. And then finally the dolphins came out to play. We were on the boat for about an hour until we headed back to the island and went to dinner. One morning during breakfast, we saw a huge family of dolphins swimming around the island, it was a lot of fun being able to see all different types of marine life in the clear water.

Turtles

I was most excited for turtles. We signed up to experience turtle egg hatching, which meant if it happened in the crack of dawn or in the middle of the night, they would call our villa and we would hop on our bikes and head over to the beach to watch these little baby turtles find their way into the ocean. Unfortunately, they did not hatch while we were on the island but luckily everyday turtles would swim next to our villa and pop their heads up and say hello.

The food

We ate at almost every restaurant on the island. There was a japanese restaurant, Zen, where we had delicious sushi.  A breakfast buffet during the day and a relaxing dinner stop during the evening, Longitude. Chill Bar, was a great spot for lunch, where they served Asian and American cuisine. And lastly SIP SIP, was the pool bar and restaurant with lots of delicious small bites.


I would say the most special dinner was the “Wines Around the World” in the wine cellar. This wine cellar is all windows on the front and when you walk in you look up and there’s seating on a glass ceiling. They provide guests with hot water compress for your feet because it it literally sitting in a refrigerator. We ended up being the only guests who signed up for this dinner so we had the entire wine cellar to ourselves.






Six Sense Laamu was an amazing experience and the time we spent there was just not enough. I feel in love with the view, the food, and the staff! When it was time to leave, I felt sad to leave everyone we met at Six Senses. Everyone was so positive and genuinely happy to be working on the island. This was an adventure of a lifetime and I am so thankful to have experienced this amazing trip to the Maldives