Originally Posted by
G-CIVC
Thanks. This is our first trip to the Maldives but it's not like we are going to take our own lives if the weather is disappointingly inclement. (And honestly, I'm quite confident that I'll end up liking it so much there'll be a return trip (or many) sooner than later, or either never again - two extremes...)
I'm looking forward to more R&R than water activities etc, so I guess even in the chance that the weather does not go in our favor, we can at least have some hard earned rest. I just hope the weather is not as bad as having to be stuck in the villa and not even able to get around the island much.
On the weather front - we’ve been to the Conrad every single year in August for 2 weeks for about the last dozen years (and quite a few times outside August too). My perspective on the weather as follows,
- in that time I’ve experienced 2/3 years where we’ve been literally trapped inside a water villa for a few days non stop (a storm has come through that made it uncomfortable to walk the 50/100 yards across the bridges connecting the beach to your villa - the wind being enough to blow you off. Eg we woke up one morning with one of th umbrella embedded in the thatched roof like a dart!)
- I don’t recall a single year where we didn’t have a noticeable amount of rain. However, by that I mean the sort of tropical rain that arrives from 15 after it being blue sky, is absolutely torrential for about 15 mins and then reverts to blue sky. As MaldivesFreak mentioned, for me it’s the most amazing time to go into the water. The temperature is unchanged and it’s a surreal experience worth doing.
- my experience has been that the rain comes in blocks/cycles of a few days: a few days of blue sky, followed by a few days of it getting a little cloudy and several tropical 15 minute downpours, then a really bad day before it clears up and repeats. (Means if you’re there for 14 night’s then no problem whereas if you’re there for 5-7 days you could end up feeling like it was a total wash-out).
- we also tend to spend a week on the island next door (Mirihi) in August. Conrad is the place to be when it’s rainy - simply it’s size and facilities - plenty more areas and places to sit and relax (I wouldn’t claim there’s plenty more ‘to do’ and the whole place has little to do except eat and drink amazing wine; and of course snorkel and play with some pretty amazing water sports kit they have like their jet blade).
- the weather has become a lot more unpredictable over the years, certainly in the early years we went we noticed it was pretty sure to see plenty of rain; whereas the last half dozen haven’t felt nearly so much like rainy season.
Noticed your we’re also considering Seychelles. We went there for New Year’s Eve last year. First trip there so I’ve no breadth of experience with it, but what we saw was somewhere utterly different to the Maldives. The Maldives has the ultra small, middle of the ocean, walk round the island in 10 minutes feel. The Seychelles is certainly beautiful, but has more of a coastline feel and thfree water certainly wasn’t as walk-in from th beach good as the Maldives.
Hope some of that helps. Given your not life-or-death comment on the weather, then I reckon you’ll love it there and actually enjoy the odd downpour. You do just need to brace yourself for a 1 in 5 year total washout experience if your there for just 7 days.