How to Spend 10 Days on a Remote Island

Islands are great, aren’t they? Beaches, the ocean, the highest humidity of all types of land formations. Neil had easily been talking about going to the Maldives since 2012. Back then, it was a place that sounded really far away and really expensive. It was still very far away and very expensive when we got the chance to visit in 2019, but we were able to make it work for us. We originally booked 6 nights, and after the terrorist bombings in Sri Lanka two weeks before our trip (which was to be our next destination), we ended up adding on 3 more for 9 total nights and 10 days. If you’ve already read about our journey to get to the Maldives, you know we were quite exhausted that first day we arrived. So what did we do for the rest of the days once we caught up on sleep? Keep reading to find out.

The Outrigger Konotta Island Resort is located in the Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll of the Maldives. This island sits about 50 km north of the equator, which means the sun is almost always out and very bright. In fact, it only rained for most of one day out of the entire 10 day visit. With all that sun, it was easy to spend time by the beautiful ocean-side main pool. On arrival day, we ordered lunch in one of the pool-side cabanas and then enjoyed a few minutes in the pool until our room was ready for check-in. Our overwater bungalow also had its own plunge pool which provided for several other great times out in the sun before the midday heat became too much to enjoy. This plunge pool was also great to hop in at night and stargaze the amazing clear skies. On nights when the sky is clear, you can actually see the other islands off in the distance, lighting up their overwater bungalows and walkways.

I am a fan of reading all genres, and while I will always have a place in my heart for a real paper page book, I took my iPad and used my Kindle app to get some reading in. The best part about the cabanas by the main pool—4 of them have fans which help to keep you cool in the middle of the day. There are also curtains you can draw to help keep the direct sunlight out of your eyes (or off your screen), and the bartenders will bring you ice water all day long. Neil and I both had a few emails to respond to, but since this was our view, we didn’t mind at all.

One of the main draws to this particular island was the snorkeling. The resort sits upon a beautiful house reef that has (so far) been limited in its damage by the bleaching. The reef circles the entire island, so you can literally enter from anywhere and walk out to the coral in a minute or less. From the overwater bungalows, the reef was right below the ladder into the ocean. It was so close, in fact, at low tide times, you probably couldn’t safely enter from your room since it was very likely you’d get cut on the coral. After going to the Dive Center to borrow snorkel masks and fins (for free!) on the first day, we ended up snorkeling at least once every day until the day we left. There are so many colorful angel fish, clown fish, needlefish, squid; the list could fill the rest of this post. On our second time around the reef, we saw 2 turtles and a ray (of course the camera didn’t cooperate that day). The different rays were hard to see while in the water since they are very sensitive to other creatures around them. We saw several while walking to and from our room under the walkway, and even ended up jumping into that area to try and chase ray to get them on film. 

The resort has a marine biologist on staff and she was incredibly informative. In order to attract reef sharks, the resort keeps schools of bait fish in the water. This means where the bait fish are hanging out, the sharks are never far away. By the middle of our stay, the school had moved to the walkways around the bungalows and we saw baby black tip reef sharks and grey sharks every day. The craziest moment was descending into the water from our room…and the school was surrounding the ladder. I swear something touched my foot but of course, being reef sharks, they will not bite, or give two thoughts about, humans. We did a night snorkeling excursion that was really worthwhile. After so many days around the reef, you feel like you know it, but going into the water at sunset and then staying in past dusk, you see an entirely different group of ocean life. Tons of red fish come out that you will never see during the daylight because they’d be easy prey. Parrot fish, which are stunning in their rainbow colors during the day, still look colorful at night, but they secrete a bubble around themselves to protect them while they sleep. 

While we were staying on the island, the resort held a coral planting day in honor of Mother Earth Day, just ahead of Mother’s Day. Along with a few other guests, we were able to help revive broken pieces of coral through propagation. The process started by tying the pieces to a wire frame with several twist ties. After we had completed that, we all swam out to the reef and found a stable spot to submerge the frame. The entire thing took about an hour and it was really cool to help rehabilitate the reef a tiny bit.

We spent a few hours one day at the Navsana Spa. Neil and I had a couples massage where we were in the same room, each with our own masseuse. After the full body massages, we then had facials as well. By the end of the treatments, we were so relaxed that we had fallen asleep. A unique feature of the spa is the hydropool. You can use it even if you aren’t partaking in a spa treatment, but I would advise getting one! The hydropool has a variety of water features with different strengths of sprayers that will massage and invigorate you. We found this was great after we used the gym too! The gym itself could use some updating, but if you want to run on a treadmill or lift some weights, there is at least a place for that.

One of my favorite experiences from the trip was being able to do yoga on the beach. The resort offers a class at sunrise and at sunset every day. On the days it is raining, or the beach is too wet because it rained overnight, they hold the class in the gym. I think the most attendance I encountered in 8 mornings and 1 evening was 4 other people. I would encourage anyone to try yoga while on an island, because, even if you hate it, you were at least watching a beautiful sunrise or sunset while you got some stretching in!

Outrigger offers a range of excursions, like the night snorkeling I mentioned earlier. We also went on a dolphin safari. For a few hours total, you get to ride on a jet ski out to the area where the guides think you are likely to encounter dolphins. Obviously, they can’t guarantee what you will see in the ocean, but we got lucky and did come across a pod of about 6 or 8. After hanging around there for a bit, we went back towards Konotta, stopping at a sand bar along the way. Neil wanted to get some cool shots with his drone since we were out in the middle of the ocean, so we did that for a bit. Then we were able to snorkel around the reef below the sand bar. We saw more black and white tipped reef sharks and so many colorful fish. It was a great way to spend a few hours around different parts of the ocean.

There are so many resorts throughout the Maldives and spending 10 days at any one hotel could get tiresome. We were never bored, but did feel that after a week, we had done everything, which is not to say that we wanted to leave! Other resorts offer more nightlife, or more family oriented things (Outrigger has some kids activities, but there weren’t many around), but we enjoyed the quiet, laziness of getting to sit out in the sun and snorkel our days away.