The Maldives (pronounced mal-deevz) are located in the Indian Ocean and consist of 26 natural atolls (an atoll being a ring of reefs sprinkled with islands). There are 1,200 islands, many uninhabited, and 100 of them are exclusive resort islands. It has the lowest elevation of any country on earth, and I must say, is one of the MOST beautiful! This was sunrise the morning after we arrived in the capital of Male.

We only spent one night there after many long flights transiting through Hong Kong (more on that later). But remember our entire airfare was only $85 and 150,000 AA miles, so we didn’t complain. Our resort representative met us at the airport and escorted us to a lounge, while they checked us in. My youngest son is working in the Middle East, and spent the night with us in Male, so this was a very excited mom!

We flew Maldivian Airlines to an island farther south and you can see the atolls and islands from an aerial viewpoint.

In the photo below, the “V” are over the water bungalows on another island. We stayed two nights in one on our island, details to follow!

Then we took a boat ride about 30 minutes to the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa, our own private island 55 km north of the Equator.