Mirihi - minding it's business perfectly

Resorts

Publicerad: 2009-10-21

Pure and perfect. Few islands in the Maldives, indeed the world, have such a good repute among it's visitors. This might be the epitome, the essence, of the paradise island. Absolutely adorable!!!

maldives mirihi jetty

This is where you arrive..not too shabby? :-)

Your dream treatment starts after you passed passport control at Male International Airport. A person working for the Resort will be waiting for you, help you with the luggage, do all the formalities for the seaplane check-in, accompany you to the seaplane terminal, take you to the Mirihi Lounge, do all the check-in formalities, while you relax having a drink and some snacks, then take you to the seaplane boarding. I must say, we landed after a 17+ hours travel, so it was extremely nice to be taken care of in such a professional way. You will get also a couple of refreshing bottles of water for the seaplane trip, which is a nice gesture. It gives you straightaway the idea that they're trying to foresee your needs. At the resort, the General Manager and some other members of staff will be greeting you (and waving you goodbye, when leaving), and giving you a flash-brief of the island, while offering some refreshing and nice welcome drinks. While your luggage (and shoes:) are taken to your villa, a member of staff (in our case, dearest Nadha) will give you a flash-tour of the island, while you're taken to your villa. At the Maldives weather is always a comfortable 32 degrees (+/-2), so even if in the first part of our stay it was rainy and kind of gloomy, temperature was still comfortable. It's fun to swim and snorkel, while tropical raindrops amuse your head and back. However, once the Sun come out, the island, the ocean and everything in it just acquire a wagonload of colour that you wouldn't think to be possible, without some photoshopping...But it's true, it's THAT beautiful! There are too many highlights on this island, so I will try to write down what comes to my mind: -

maldives mirihi

Lovely setting for a dinner

Food: We were on HB, so cannot tell about lunch, but dinner buffet was simply amazing. Every evening of the week it's a thematic night, so you can try different cuisines every evening. We stayed for 10 days, so got repeats of some evenings, but I could notice that in detail even the same thematic evenings would vary from one another. Chef Felix explains to you what you can taste that evening when you come up to the buffet and both him and his staff make sure that you leave satisfied! It's virtually impossible not to leave with a full belly, unless you consciously decide not to taste the several delicacies offered...But why would one do that on vacation in such a nice place, with such nice food?

mirhi restaurant

Mirihi a la carte

General infrastructure: I liked very much the idea of a shoeless vacation, and I did not wear ANY footwear from the moment I arrived to the main jetty, to the moment I left from there (apart from 1 small occasion, own choice). This is also because the sand is so soft, it's a pleasant massage to walk in it barefoot. Important thing is that it never gets overheated, just warm, so you'll never burn your toes. Main this is that reception, lunge, bar and main restaurant areas have sand as well, therefore you never need to worry about bringing sand into those areas! You always have wooden buckts full of fresh water (and replenished everyday) in front of your villa, in order to rinse your feet, before entering. - general entertainment: this is a relax island, so forget entertainment! If you want entertainment, just stay home with you 60" TVs and blueray players! Indeed, there's no tv in the villas, and it's not needed. There's enough to do anyways: snorkeling, kayaking (I was often paddling around the island, everytime venturing also farter into the lagoon - your very own way to explore Mirihi), table tennis, diving going on excursions, or simply, the main point of such a vacation, lazying around in your villa or on the beach, or jsut stay with each other (so I'd recommend this island to couples for a romantic stay or solo travellers that want to stay with their own thoughts). With a clear nightsky, Shariff would be on the beach with his telescope and show you amazing views of Jupiter and the Moon. Friday night is beach cinema night. Some special dining evening would be organised at the a la carte restaurant, but we never went, so cannot say. -

maldives shark mirihi

Elegant black tipped reef shark

Snorkeling: I read, before going there, that the house reef is very healthy, and it's true! I had the best snorkeling in my life there! We saw a couple of times a white tip shark, that apart from having a lazy look at us, wasn't interested at all in us (but we were in it!). We also saw sea turtles and it was interesting to watch from under water how they would swim towards the surface to breath, then, from the surface, to see those tiny heads emerge from below...Very cute! We also saw eagle rays, and a stingray. Apart from these loads and loads of reef fish of the most varied colours you can immagine. And we'd see new ones on each occasion! I also counted the types of coral. There 2 largely predominant ones (so you''l find mostly yellow and maroon colours), but apart from them, I counted another 5. Most alive and healthy, but the waves sure do their deal of damage. Also, I saw more than once a show that I could see previously only on documentaries: larger reef fish getting cleaned from parassites by smaller ones! And they had such happy faces too:D! You have to swim very slowly and look close, in order to catch these shows of nature, otherwise you just don't notice them! - excursions: we went on two, both worth it. One was the night snorkeling, where Juergen, on of the diving instructors, will give you a brief of what you might see and do's and don't's on the night coral reef. Then you'll have a ca. 40 minutes swim on the south side of the house reef (the most easily accessible at low tide). We noticed a curious whitetip swimming along with us, which then it lost interest (especially when Juergen shone the underwater lamp into its eyes, to show it to the rest of the group). The second one is the whaleshark excursion which I warmly recommend, especially if you care to see the largest fish ever! You'll be briefed not to touch it, as it will leave and dive into deep waters, ruining everybody's fun. Just take note that people from many other resorts will be at the same spot, and most of them will ruthlessly swim over you and/or push you underwater or to a side, in order to catch a better view of the shark themselves. It was mostly enjoyable (we got 4 nice swims with an adult and a baby whaleshark), but when that happened, it was as if there were a pay-one-get-three offer on. People from the other resorts will just take you as a nuissance to themselves, not as a fellow swimmer trying to admire the beauty of those animals...But still totally worth it!! -Room Tip: Only small thing, if you're staying in the semi-circle water villas: choose the ones from 27 upw... See more room tips

Maldives Mirihi flower