In 1972, Kurumba opened as the first resort of the Maldives, ushering in an age of exotic tourism for the country. Recently, Kurumba has completely renovated and refreshed their facilities to continue to lead the luxury 5-star Maldives experience that it defined 40 years ago. With 180 bungalows and villas, the resort is large enough to explore, but small enough to have a feeling of your very own island. Even the name Kurumba, which means coconut in Maldivian, hints at a tropical paradise. We were very excited to experience the island.

When ready, we headed out for breakfast at Vihamana, the main restaurant. The buffet selection was excellent with different worldly cuisines. I had a freshly made omelet, roti and curry for a local taste, banana bread and a coffee.

After breakfast we met with Leah and Myla at the reception area. Leah, the sales and marketing manager, gave us some background on Kurumba before Myla took us for a personal tour of the island.

First we went to see some of the restaurants. With everything from Italian to Chinese, there was plenty of choice for dining. We passed by the conference hall which holds 500+ people and is often used for important government meetings. Then we saw some of the other room types including the very impressive Deluxe Pool Villa. The private villas would be ideal for families or those looking for some more luxury and privacy.

We enjoyed our drinks at the Sand Bar and lounged on the beach chairs on the sand. Sunbathing on white sandy beaches and dipping in the warm water to freshen up was what it was all about.

Unfortunately it started drizzling, so we walked back to our bungalow for a freshly brewed in-room coffee to wait for the rain to subside. It seemed the storm was headed in our direction, so we decided to make the best of it and get some snorkeling gear which is conveniently provided at the recreation center.

By the time we got our snorkel gear on, it was raining pretty hard. Though the sea was rough, the lagoon was still really calm so we just snorkeled around the lagoon’s reef. The rain was cold, but the water was really warm which meant it was hard to stop snorkeling!

After our swim, we took a nap before getting ready for the Guest Drinks at 5 pm. This was a complementary activity for guests to mingle at the Beach Bar over some nice cocktails.

After the drinks, Christina and I headed over to Vihamana for dinner. The dinner buffet, like breakfast, provided a large selection of different cuisines so that there was something that everyone would enjoy.

As I was settling into my food coma, we decided to call it a night. The rain stopped at this point and with a cool stroll back to the room, we ended our first full day at Kurumba.

Even with a tropical storm looming over the island, we couldn’t NOT have an amazing day!