Ja Manafaru - A Hidden Gem in the North of Maldives

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I have received messages from friends abroad that I should start to write my posts in English. As Finnish is my mother tongue I still hesitate to abandon it completely but I decided to give it a go and write some posts also in English. Let’s see how this goes and if you, my dear readers adapt the new language, maybe I continue this for good, who knows?

As a start I decided to translate some of my previous posts to which I have received messages asking if translation would be possible.. So here you go! First one is a post of our one-of-a-kind honeymoon in Maldives.

Just two weeks ago we arrived from the paradise straight to the freezing coldness. Although it was great to be reunited with our daughter, it is not often I have felt so emotional when saying goodbye to a holiday destination. To ease this still on-going travel fever I decided to write couple posts from our trip. “Couple posts” because the post would be miles long if I tried to squeeze everything into one post. Not to mention the flood of pictures. To tell you the truth I might have clicked several thousands of photos in only 9 days. So if you are tired of coldness and winter wind slapping your face, you might just want to skip the reading unless you are ready to book flights to a sunnier side of life!

After our wedding we did a road trip to South France with the whole family but the real ‘adults only’ – honeymoon trip we saved for later. Partly because we wanted to wait that our daughter would be a bit older, and partly because summer time was excellent time to enjoy French countryside. To choose the honeymoon destination was in the end fairly easy. We wanted to go somewhere warm, somewhere where we haven’t been before and somewhere relatively close without an enormous time difference. We only had a little over week to travel (as we didn’t dare to leave our daughter for a longer period) and thus we did not want to waste our time on a plane or suffering from jetlag. 

This left us with only three choices: Maldives, Seychelles and Oman. In the end the exclusivity and remoteness of Maldivian islands added with their characteristic water villas was the key factor which played in Maldives favor. Unlike in our usual travels where we are seeking destinations with lot to see and experience, this time we were looking for something totally opposite: we wanted to be somewhere with absolutely nothing to do and only explore each other.

If the decision on the destination was easy, finding our resort wasn’t. We spent hours reading through reviews in Tripadvisor and familiarizing ourselves with hotel websites. And after the hunt, we were as lost as in the beginning. Not because we couldn’t find any, on the contrary, there were too many gorgeous resorts to choose from. In the end we just listed the plus and minuses of each of our alternatives and ended up with the very one resort that had caught our eye from the beginning: JA Manafaru.

Maldives consists of 1920 islands from which 200 are inhabited out of which 80 are so called resort-islands. Resort islands are owned by private hotels (each with their own private island) and you can only access the islands by private sea planes or speed boats. Thus island hopping is not very simple with no public transportation between most of the islands. As you can imagine Maldives is not the cheapest destination nor the best place for backpacking. However, for honeymoon it turned out be a perfect pick.

JA Manafaru is situated in Haa Alifu Atol and it is the most northern resort of the whole Maldives. The locals told us that there is less rain in the North than in the Southern parts but during February the weather is in general purely sun shine all-day-long around everywhere when the rainy season is during the summer months. To get to Manafaru we took a 80-minute sea plane flight from Male, the capital of Maldives. Already during our flight we could see how unique place we had found when spotting the blue-green coloured atols, which shone below us like huge emerald craters.  

When our plane hit the water next to JA Manafaru’s pier we entered the paradise we had seen from pictures. On one hand the place was exactly as described in the brochures and then it wasn’t. It was more. In reality the colors are dazzling. All the greenery and blossom. The shades of turquoise and baby blue. The shining white sand and the chains of water villas, which throw their tails above the sea like snakes from each sides of the islands forming the village of bungalows so characteristic to Maldives, surrounded by the crystal clear sea water. The colors of the sea are so pure that it is almost impossible not to think out loud if the place really exists. Even though the scenery you encounter is  the same every morning, it feels like it alters a tiny bit every time. Colours of the water look slightly deeper and waves little whiter. Even through waves the water is so crystal clear that it is possible to spot the colorful fishes just standing on top of the pier. On calm waters, the surface is like glass through which you can wonder the marine life.

Even though the island itself is indescribably beautiful, the staff is still its biggest asset. JA Manafaru has been voted tenth best hotel in the world in 2017 by Tripadvisor. Even  if the resort is not even close to being the most expensive of the luxurious resorts in Maldives (prices being still not so wallet friendly as it sure is a five star luxury resort) it has succeeded to charm customers with something else than having largest pools or most exquisite villas. And that something in my opinion is its staff. 

As soon as we placed our foot to the resort we felt warmly welcomed by the personnel of the island. Only the towels given for refreshment and welcome drinks were chilly. On the pier was also waiting our own experience host, Jameel. In JA Manafaru there is a personal host designated for every villa, whose responsibility is to introduce the island,  keep you informed of the weekly program and to personally ensure that guests are enjoying their time. From the first moment Jameel seemed to know our where abouts and what our preferences would be for free time activities. We were able to contact Jameel at any time, and no request seemed too much of a trouble for him. We could do our check- in in our villa without a rush and we didn't need to visit the reception at all during our stay. Service was impeccable and smooth and staff was always greeting us with a real Maldivian smile on their face. We spoke with numerous people from the staff during our holiday and asked what is it that makes JA Manafaru resort so popular. Everyone from the staff said the same: they really enjoy being on the island and their work. For us it felt like they had a great team spirit among the crew and it really showed and made that little extra to the service. 

Same flawless service was present at each of the seven restaurants they had on the island. Every member of the staff seemed to know us from the very first evening on. They remember your name and what you ate previous evening and can make recommendations accordingly. Service is also very flexible. If something you are craving for is not listed on the menu, it is always worth to ask if they could prepare it for you as most likely they will. My overall opinion of restaurants is that they are excellent and there are a wide selection of them if you decide to spend longer on this magnificent island. There are as many tastes as there are people but I would say that restaurants are mostly fine dining level. As food is close to my heart, I'll write a separate post on restaurants and food served on the island. 

Especially I would like to mention the little surprises organised by JA Manafaru's personnel. For example our own in-villa jacuzzi was set up with bubble bath with scents and flowers two times while we were gone to have dinner. On a special day to us they had brought us a cake and an extra bottle of champagne even though we already had received one bottle of bubbly earlier that day. For our last night's dinner they had set up a table to the pier next to sea with flower and light decorations. And the list goes on and on with chocolate and fruit surprises, towels folded like monkeys or turtles and lot else! It is the details that make this place so special.

JA Manafaru resort is rather small. The island which you can go around by foot in 15 minutes (or half an hour if you decide to take a dip in the sea or take photos of the stunning sunset) includes 84 villas. It is highly recommend to go walking around the island if you choose to travel here. It is hard to imagine more relaxing walking tour than that around the island. Amusing and interesting fact for us was that the only time you actually really meet other guests is during breakfast. Most of the time the island felt completely stranded and empty. We picked up a habit to walk around the island before, during or just after the sunset. Often we met only one other couple or family on the shore. Many times the beach with its white sand was exclusively just for us. 

The villas are very private and even your next door neighbors are nowhere to be seen or heard. From the villa selection we decided to go with a sunrise water villa. Our villa was on top of water with its own private sun bathing deck from which you can just take few steps down to sea. On the deck we also had our own infinity plunge pool, which we took advantage of, if the distance to sea felt too long (hah) or if we wanted to enjoy a glass of bubbly while floating in the pool. We were considering long and hard between sunset and sunrise villa. Quite notable difference in price made us choose a villa with the sunrise view, as the villas are identical in other respects. This proved to be a great choice as we witnessed remarkable sunrises from our own deck and often we would sit on Infinity pool bar to enjoy the sunset while sipping aperitives before dinner. Being the only guests on the beach once again. For honeymooners I would definitely recommend a water villa for its romantic set-up, but for people travelling with children the beach bungalow/villa is also a very suitable option.

Our plan for the holiday was to do absolutely nothing. Our master plan was to have no plans but just to let the time pass under the Maldivian sun. In the end we were taken by a surprise of our own activity. We snorkeled, cycled (every villa has own fat bikes to go around the island), played tennis and badminton, kayaked, paddled with stand up paddles (or to be honest, mostly fell down to sea time after time as it was pretty windy the day when we decided to give a try). We even went for sunrise yoga at 07:00! As you can see there is a wide selection of activities to do on water or on island.

There was also very many different excursions to choose from. From a private dinner set up in deserted island to open water fishing or a day trip to island inhabited by local people. We chose the bubbly sunset dolphin cruise and snorkeling trip, which both were among the most unforgettable memories of our holiday. Dolphin cruise took place during sunset and to play it safe, we were prepared to the fact that it is not certain to spot dolphins. However we were extremely lucky ending up seeing dozens of dolphins playing next to our boat or jumping in front of the light of the sunset. Such a memorable moment to sit on the deck of a boat and see a dolphin jumping a spiral to the sunset.

Our snorkeling trip is definitely also worth recommending! I didn't know what to expect as snorkeling is a fairly new hobby to me so in that sense I cannot really compare our experience to anything previously experienced. But atleast to a rookie like myself the underwater life with all corals, plants and colorful fish was an exquisite experience! The highlight of our trip was when we got to spot a sea turtle swimming right below us. It is quite a magical moment to see an animal like that right next to you. 

All in all our honeymoon exceeded our expectations and more. It is difficult to squeeze everything we experienced in only one post so I will be writing more posts on Maldives for sure. So if you are interested in Maldives, stay tuned! As I am sure we will go back to the islands one day, I would be curious to hear your recommendations and experiences from Maldives as well. Especially if you have experiences in travelling there with kids, hit me with message or a comment.

Anyone out there with travelling fever now? ;)

PS. More pics from Maldives available on Instagram (@lungiville) as I am currently having a 30 days pic-a-day from paradise month!