Veligandu Island, Maldives

Destination #3: Veligandu Island, Maldives

Year of Visit: 2006
Now this is what Maldives is all about. Seat back, kick those shoes away and enjoy!

The second Maldivian resort of our trip is the Veligandu Island Resort in North Ari atoll.

How to get there?

A 15 minutes ride on the sea plane or the Maldivian water taxi from Hulhule International Airport. That was my first time on a sea plane. I have not even seen a sea plane before.

This is what i have been waiting for. A scenic ride on the sea plane would have cost about U$ 90 for 30 minutes if you are interested. I must thank my host for arranging this 15 minutes scenic sea plane ride to Veligandu Island inclusive of a 2 nights stay at the exclusive resort.

Aerial view of the capital, Malé and Vilingili island.

It was rather noisy and stuffy inside the plane but it was totally worth it!


Look at the beautiful turquoise blue lagoons, reefs and beautiful islands!

They were truly breathtaking beyond imagination. They looked just exactly like what you have seen in travel magazines and one of those photos of Maldives circulated in the email but you just gotta witness this yourself at least once in your lifetime.

So beautiful beyond description. Unbelievable.


The 40 odd seconds video of the aerial view from the seaplane ride.

The 15 minutes ride ended here and now we have landed on this makeshift platform off the resort to catch another boat to the resort.

Welcome to the stunningly beautiful paradise where marine fishes can be seen from above the surface and the sand is white!

The hotel staffs were expecting our arrival at the resort and we were immediately led by the resort manager to the resort guest lounge for the welcoming cocktail and the wet towel. I think it is a common practice that new guests are served cocktails and given a wet towel.

We settled down a little to enjoy some sandwiches and drinks, especially the Fanta orange which was very different from what we have in Malaysia. The buffet dinner with a wide variety of food is worth mentioning too! Everything there is quoted in U$D, from food to scuba diving charges so you can forget about the Maldivian Rufiyaa (MVR) when at any of the resorts.

This is a testimony of the crystal clear waters at Veligandu Island - What do you see?

A baby shark chasing a school of fish!

These are the water villas ideal for honeymooners, with a great deal of privacy, facing the vast ocean and also - a romantic site to watch the sun set and to gaze at the gazillion stars that decorate the skies at night. The room rate starts from U$ 290 for a single room.

For those of you with the PADI certificate of scuba instruction this is paradise.

There are night divings as well and boats depart late at night for the night diving. For those of you without a scuba diving license don't despair. You can still go for snorkeling and still see many fishes and marine lives. However, you have to know the designated areas for snorkeling around your resort. There are certain areas which are not suitable for snorkeling and can be dangerous eg. rocks, sting rays etc so please be very careful.

We signed up for the catamaran sailboat adventure as well. It was one helluva experience, almost slipped off into the sea when the catamaran sailed at its maximum speed with sea water constantly hitting right into my face but wow it was awesome!

Life's a beach, surf it up! Haha!

Enough of water activities? Go baby shark sighting! Plenty of them near the beach.

Indoor activities like foosball and pool if you fancy?

Or sit/lie back and relax on the white sunny beach complete with a session at the spa.

Life doesn't get any better than this.

Veligandu Island Resort.

Signing off here. Maldives, the sunny side of my life.