A first-person travel vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting arrival to the Maldives and a villa tour at a Soneva property. After long travel (almost two days from New York) they take a seaplane transfer and arrive at an expansive villa with a large living area, private yard, pool, hammock, an unusually large bathroom with an outdoor waterfall shower and tub, and a very fluffy bed. The island offers guest amenities including bikes (two per villa), a chocolate room, a self-serve ice cream room, and evening dining in a treehouse; the couple express strong emotional excitement and gratitude about the experience. The stay was an invited visit by Soneva for three nights.
Questions this video answers
Three nights
About 50 villas
Almost two days
Seaplane
Chapters
I think that our plane might have crashed on the way here, and we might just be in heaven right now. That's what it feels like. It feels like we've just died and gone to heaven.
After almost two days of travel from New York, we have just arrived in the Maldives. But that was not our last flight of this journey.
The Maldives are like my number one dream destination on my bucket list, especially the place we're going. It is going to be a dream. But my number one fear are small planes. And we have to take a small plane to get there.
We are taking a seaplane. I cannot be more excited. Garrett could not be more nervous.
No way.
Thank you, Nate.
Thank you very much.
Nervous.
Here we go.
Good afternoon.
Good.
How are you?
Our very first seaplane. I'm so scared.
Wow.
The water is so blue.
We've made it to dry land. Kind of. We're on this platform in the middle of the ocean. Now we have to swim to the island. Just kidding. Boat's coming to get us.
No news. No shoes. Bye. Bye. Thank you, Z.
What a welcome. That flight was absolutely incredible. Definitely the most beautiful flight.
It wasn't even scary. It was so smooth. I'm so happy. And the water is so blue.
Like, blue is an unreal shade of blue. I didn't know that coming existed in real life.
We're here. So pretty. This is actually our main area.
I feel like I'm gonna cry.
This is absolutely incredible. Say, I don't even know where to start.
I don't either. Like, this. The Maldives, Me here right now. This is what I've always wanted. I've always wanted to come here. And we're here, and I just can hardly contain my emotions.
And this place could not be any more incredible. If you follow our videos, you know, like, normally we wouldn't book a place like this for ourselves, but when we decided to come to the Maldives, Soneva invited us here for three nights. And we could not be more impressed with this place.
It's just like, we are so thankful for this opportunity. I just can't believe we're even here. This place. Look. This is our living room. It's massive. I could do at least five cartwheels. Welcome to our front yard.
This is our yard. This beach with these chairs, an entire pool, a hammock, and then all these palm trees. I can hear the ocean. This is all ours. Can you believe it? I really can't believe.
Look at this.
Now let me show you my other favorite part of the house.
Can you hear this sound?
Just wait. Just wait.
This is our bathroom.
Hurry, hurry.
Is this not the dreamiest shower you've ever seen? There's a waterfall. They have soap out here. It's made of bamboo. I can't wait to take a shower. I normally don't look forward to this very much.
Can we take a minute to appreciate that our bathroom might be bigger than our entire house? And that I'm just wading through an absolutely unnecessary but awesome water feature that has been added to the bathroom?
We also have this huge tub and a second shower. And this might not look like much, but.
It is the fluffiest bed I've ever been in in my life.
How crazy is this? This is our backyard.
What? So less than an hour ago, we arrived at Kara's dream destination. And look where I found her.
Jet lag. Get the best of you. Making the most of your time here in the Maldives. I heard there's ice cream here.
We're pulling ourselves away from this villa. Whoa. That was really hard. And we are taking the local form of transportation.
So this island is actually really big. There's about 50 villas here, so it's not just, like, super easy to walk around. So they give you two bikes that come with your villa. So everybody just bikes around the island.
I don't know where we're going. I couldn't be in the front.
This is so fun.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh. I wish I could explain the smell in here. This is a chocolate room in the middle of the island.
What? As if this place wasn't perfect enough. And my dream destination. I didn't even know it had a chocolate room. It's open all day. You can come in here and eat chocolate.
I can't believe it. Which one do you want me first? Coffee? Passion fruit. Mmm. It's so good.
You're gonna have to help control me. I think we need a mont.
In addition to a chocolate room, there is also a serve yourself ice cream room. Kara's love for chocolate is unmatched, but I come close to it with my love for ice cream. Like, there could not be two more perfect rooms on this island for both of us. I'm gonna try them all before we leave. That's my new goal.
I think that our plane might have crashed on the way here, and we might just be in heaven right now. Like, that's what it feels like. It feels like we've just died and gone to heaven.
Where's Jesus?
This is crazy.
I feel like I'm feeling extra emotional because one we haven't slept in two days and two. It's just like everything I've ever wanted and more. Like, normally, when you want something so bad, it's kind of scary because it's like, if it's not as good as you imagined, that's really disappointing. But it's better. I just want to cry.
If this level of enthusiasm is annoying, you should probably just, like, not watch our next three videos, because I don't think it's gonna go away.
Sam.
We are back on the bikes and heading to dinner. Wow, this is beautiful. At night, trail is lit with tiki torches.
As if this place wasn't perfect enough for me, we had a huge sushi appetizer. My favorite food on the beach.
After that, we had a delicious dinner in a tree house overlooking the garden where it all came from.
Look.
How cute. But I think the best part was getting to feed the local baby bunnies afterwards.
His little ears burn up. I love them.
Hey, I heard there's ice cream here.
Hey.
I was gonna insta story. I bet. Like, these little bikes. How cute.
Mom's gonna eat ice cream and chocolate every day in the sunshine.
I'm still in the bathroom. Still in the bathroom. Still? Yep. Still in the bathroom. Still in the bathroom. Okay. This is the shower where we started.
