Maldives, Angsana Velavaru — What You Need To Know Before You Go
Executive Summary:
- I enjoyed this resort and it is a great property
- Plan your trip in advance! Work with the staff there to develop a daily schedule. Although they will work with you on arrival it is better if you know your schedule 30–45 calendar days prior to your arrival especially for the Spa
- The Floating Tea is a great event solo, couples or for a family
- The professional photographer is amazing!
- Take a tour of downtown Male with a local guide
If you are contemplating a trip to the Maldives, you should know that the team at the Angsana Velavaru/Banyan Tree Hotels delivers an amazing Maldives experience! In summary, this resort delivers on all facets of an all-inclusive resort from the logistics to get you to the island, the activities on the island, the dining experience, and departure from the island. I was extremely happy with my time at the Angsana Velavaru/Banyan Tree Hotels property.
Your Angsana Velavaru experience begins at the moment you land in Male. Upon landing in Male, you proceed outside past the “swarm” of resort sign holders and meet at Booth 7. There you will be greeted by one of the helpful resort members that will tag your luggage and guide you to the Seaplane transfer. The team member will handle the check-in process for you at the Seaplane. The next step will be the bus trip to the terminal. At the terminal, the Angsana team has a lounge where you can rest and use the full-service restroom before the trip to the Seaplane. The lounge has some nice beverages and wi-fi for your use.
Upon your arrival at Angsana, you are escorted to the reception area and greeted with a fresh warm towel and a cool refreshing palette cleansing flavored treat. You will handle the paperwork for your arrival and confirm your package selection. Shortly after your arrival, a What’s App group will be created for communication with the resort. Upon completion of the check-in procedure, a team member will escort you to your room and give you a nice tour of the room. Pro Tip: Install What’s App ahead of time. If you are traveling with a non-smartphone, consider getting one for this trip. The resort relies heavily on What’s App and it allows for a great “Team” approach to create an amazing experience.
If your room is an overwater Villa, be prepared for sheer awe! The view from the room is incredible and the amenities make your stay picture perfect! The bed will face the picturesque windows looking out into the beautiful water. Standing on your deck you will potentially see a variety of marine life, or just use the stairs and snorkel around the area. The Housekeeping team does a great job to refresh the room daily.
Upon settling in, you can start to take advantage of all of the great activities at the resort. To fully consume the activities, you should start coordinating your activity selections with the resort via email approximately 30–45 calendar days in advance. In the initial email, request a copy of the Activity Brochure, Water Sports, Spa, and if you are staying in one of the overwater villas’ request the ferry schedule. Knowing the ferry schedule will allow you to determine the timing to return to your overwater villa room for an outfit change or time to relax before your next event. To visualize your events consider setting up a table with the following columns: Date of the activity, Time of the activity, Description of the Activity, Price of the activity, Remarks about the activity. If you prefer to “plan at the moment”, the resort can accommodate that but you may not get your desired day and time for your activity. You should also confirm if there is a lunch window where the activity may not be available. Editors note: I owe an entire week of thanks to Karen that was so patient with me as I built my schedule over several weeks. Karen, Thank You from the bottom of my heart for creating the best Maldives experience!
My experience with the Angsana activities was amazing! The sunset cruise allows you to get on board a nice boat and take a trip to see the sunset and search for dolphins. Onboard, the great staff serves a glass of champagne, soda, water, and a light dessert for your consumption. The boat has a nice seating area upstairs, downstairs and on the front of the boat, although there are no seats on the front of the boat.
The Spa is the highlight of the resort and needs to be booked in advance. They deliver an organized and pleasant experience. On this trip, it was consumed four times with the massage option and each experience exceeded the previous one. If you want a spa treatment, the staff here is well versed in this activity and can help you feel great!
If you are into water sports, Nick and Abraham have you covered at the Water Sports Center. They have all the toys to play with from Jet Ski experiences to Wake Boarding, Water Skiing, or tubing. They do a great job to maintain the equipment and provide for an exhilarating time on the water. On this trip, the package I purchased included 15 minutes as a resort credit per day for a JetSki trip. If you have never been on a JetSki, 15 minutes is plenty of time to get the feel of the machine and is enough time to get started. If you feel you want to ride longer, you can get more time, but start with 15 minutes before booking additional time. Pro Tip: Demonstrate proficiency with the machine on your first trip and then on your second trip inquire if another “route” might be available.
You can continue the great water sports activities with a private snorkeling tour. The speed boat will zip you out to a reef location where you can snorkel and see the incredible marine life. Pro Tip: Even if the guide is not with you in the water, take the trip to see the reef and the amazing marine life.
Another amazing adventure is the night of snorkeling. On the night of November 25, 2021, the best night snorkeling guide took us on a reef tour. (This is the same team member that provides the Stingray feeding as well. Unfortunately, his name escapes me.) This tour starts with a review on the use of the flashlight and then you view the amazing nighttime marine life. The guide does an excellent job to point out exciting organisms living in the sea and is a great complement to daytime snorkeling.
Overall, all of the snorkeling trips provide a great experience to see the marine life here in the Maldives. Take the time to book the experiences in advance.
One of the highlights of a trip to the Maldives is capturing the moment. This place is the epitome of Instagram! The Angsana resort has one of the best photographers on staff to help you remember this amazing experience. I highly recommend booking a photoshoot with Shiyaz. You can view his great work on IG @VideoMadives. The photoshoot will include Shiyaz’s great work to re-touch some of the photos for the perfect picture and you will get the raw photos as well. A 2-hour photo shoot will create a guaranteed memory. Although the photoshoot can take place anywhere around the resort, if you are staying at the in-water Villa, you can capture the moment in your private pool and around your Villa for that great memory. Again, this is something to plan in advance but can be scheduled upon arrival. The package includes a high-quality book of the selected photos printed on the heaviest cardstock paper I have ever felt. It truly captures the moment! Pro Tip: Bring a special outfit to capture the moment. All white works great for the backdrop here. Also, review some tips on your favorite website for poses. Shiyaz is great to make suggestions as well.
The resort has many dining options that you can select with your package, but for that extra special moment, consider the Magoo Lobster Dinner. They will set up a private table for you on the beach with a beautiful lighting complement. The food is plentiful and you may want to consider ordering the Asian and Maldivian dinner. Pro Tip: Work with the resort for the location. If you sense the beach will be windy ask to relocate it near the pool area and eat lightly throughout the day as there is a lot of food!
The Angsana team can create an amazing villa dining experience with floating tea. This is a great afternoon snack that you can sip on while you are in your pool. If you are looking for something more they have an entire floating breakfast.
The Angsana resort has several options for dining options to make your Maldives experience memorable. In my experience, we benefitted from the package that included breakfast and dinner but did not include lunch. Since I do not drink alcohol, I did not opt for any package that included that. My cursory review of the guests at the resort indicated that most guests traveling with kids purchased the lunch option. If you do not select the lunch option you can still purchase lunch at the Kuredi restaurant. Pro Tip: If you did not purchase the lunch package, use the Kuredi restaurant for lunch as you can see the prices on the menu. The lunch at the Kaani restaurant is a buffet and could be more than you need.
My favorite dining option was breakfast. The buffet-style setup included a variety of breakfast items and delicious juice. Watermelon juice and bite-sized pancakes are just two of the highlights. If you are staying in the beachside Villa’s take the time to ferry over to the Villa island and eat out over the water. It is spectacular!
Similar to arrival, the resort makes departure seamless. They coordinate with the Seaplane and handle transporting your luggage. The team will be there at the dock waving goodby as you head off.
The Angsana Velavaru/Banyan Tree Hotels delivers a quality product for your Maldives experience. Work with the resort for your accommodations, package selection, and activity schedule for an amazing experience! You will not have any regrets about the Angsana Velavaru/Banyan Tree Hotels.
Now that you have decided that you are going to go to the Maldives, let’s dig into the logistics that need to occur.
The Maldives requires planning! If you want to show up and “plan on the fly” you can but as of November 2021 it is a new world we live in with COVID procedures and government paperwork. Your trip to the Maldives will be easier if you are vaccinated. This author does not advocate one way or the other, but the number of forms that ask for the status may make it easier for you. The logistics documented here are based on vaccinated individuals.
Once you have your resort booked, develop and share a spreadsheet to plan your trip. This will help you see how you are using applicable resort credits or what your expenses may look like. Work with the resort to book your Spa treatments and excursions in advance. You will appreciate making the tough decisions now and allowing yourself time to relax knowing that you are not juggling logistics for you or an entire family. Here is an example from November 21 — November 26, 2021.
In parallel with your resort scheduling, make a note on your calendar to get a PCR test in the required window prior to your departure to the Maldives. Due to changes that occur frequently, this author is unsure of the exact window, but for arrival in the connecting country of Qatar/Doha, the test was performed on Wednesday, November 17th for arrival in Doha on November 22nd. This is 4 days in advance. This author used the CVS location in Fairfax, VA. You do not want to scramble for this test, so make a note on your calendar to book this test and arrive on time and with patience.
In order to get to the Maldives, it will be a combination of large airlines and then use of the Maldivian airways which are the Seaplanes. It is ill-advised to try to piece together all of your own travel. If you book with Angsana/Velavaru they will handle the Seaplane transfer. Booking Qatar airways business class will give you an opportunity to use the Qatar business lounge where you can have a meal and use their showers. It is important to note that all commercial airline travel to the Maldives from the United States will take several days. Review your airline travel time against the cost. Ideally, you want to minimize layovers and continue on your journey as quickly as possible. Regardless of how you get to the Maldives, it is worth every minute and every penny!
Once your air travel is reserved, take the time to review the airline website for the forms they require to board the aircraft. In November 2021, Qatar required the following listed below. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the forms, fill them out in advance and print them.
- Qatar Passenger consent form
- Authorized test results from the PCR test
- Traveler health declaration. Note the time to fill this out and all of the data you need to have! This form was averaging 15 minutes for me to complete as I did not have the data readily available. Consider creating a spreadsheet with all of the data. Also note, for the field titled:”Which Facility (Guesthouse) will you be staying in?”, this is not alphabetical. The entry for Angsana is present. You can copy and paste the words or scroll, but again it is not alphabetical. Please note the headshot you need to have available as well. It would be prudent to review this form and test your system to make sure you have all of the data available
- Upon leaving the Maldives on Qatar we were presented with a 4 page document to “attest” to our COVID status. It is unclear where this document originated from, but plan on quickly checking some boxes in order to complete the form. You may want to bring a pen for everybody in your travel party to allow for parallel completion of the form.
Having completed all of your forms, it is time to start your packing routine. If you have a layover in a city and access to a business lounge, consider packing a light change of clothes in your carry-on bag. In the business lounge, use the shower (Pro Tip: Remember these could get busy so don’t delay!) and change into a set of comfy clothes especially if you have been sitting for hours. This could merely include a change of shorts, socks, t-shirt and sweatpants.
During your travel on Qatar Airways, you can benefit from their in-flight Wi-Fi. You can save money if you purchase this in advance. For the trip from Doha to Male, this is a mere 4 hours and you can save a few bucks and use that time to sleep or browse their movies. For the longer leg of your journey, you will benefit from it and you should purchase it in advance.
One item you do not want to deal with on the flight to the Maldives is your technology setup. In the Maldives you are going to take a lot of pictures. If you use the Photos app in the Apple Ecosystem, make sure you have enough drive space to save all of your pictures. If you also use Google photos make sure you have enough space available for storing the photos there as well. For November 21 — November 26, 2021, 2 people traveling took over 1K pictures. This was across an iPhone, Samsung, Underwater Camera and DJI Osmo Pocket camera. Make sure you have all of your cameras cleared out of all previous trips and you have space available to store your new photos from this amazing experience. For my trip, I spent the time cleaning out the devices but did not check the Apple Mac for adequate drive space. I spent several hours making harsh decisions on what to delete or move elsewhere.
The Maldives is a “water” experience therefore you need to consider what products you want to bring to keep your materials dry. For my trip, I used a simple “Water Resistant” pouch to keep the phone dry on the boat and the room key in an easy-to-find location.
Traveling to the Maldives is a worthwhile experience. If you need to cut costs for your trip consider a location like the Angsana Velavaru/Banyan Tree Hotels where you can book a beachside villa for a few days and then transfer to a water villa for a few days. You will immensely enjoy this location.
At the end of your Maldives experience, you will return to the airport. If you happen to have several hours before your departure, you can take advantage of the nice lounge at the airport or you can take a tour with a local tour guide of Male. Your resort coordinator at the airport can introduce you to a tour guide. In my case we were fortunate enough to meet Chikanjo on Instagram @Chikko . This was a 10 minute taxi cab ride to downtown Male and then a 1.5 hour walking tour complete with a stop at a gift shop and a nice Male restaurant called Gourmet. The cost of this service is based on Gratuity only. For our tour we offered $50 US Dollars for compensation.
I am glad that I saw the Maldives at a point in life where I can take advantage of all of the activities. The location is amazing and the people are welcoming. I highly recommend a trip to the Maldives.