As promised my tripreport
it was my dream to once visit the maldives. Our last trip to china was very nice, but not relaxing. There was always another market, a must do attraction. We got up early....
This time i wanted a vacation that will be: doing nothing!
My sister just came back from sem and was willing to watch the kids for 9 days, so this was our chance.
Some info on the maldives: its a country, that has 100's of little islands. Every hotel is build on its own island. Most hotelrooms in the maldives are private villas on the beach or over the water. The maldives is a expensive place, as well as hard to get to, as not to many airlines fly there. June is the wet season, so you could get alot of rain. I took this chance, as during the dry season, the nice resorts are way to expensive...b'h we got lucky and had 6 days sun with 3 quick showers, that lasted 20 minutes
Flight:
BA- was not a option for me, as they fly from gatwick and i can not fly from zuerich to gatwick, only lhr or lcy and i didnt want to transfer to a diffrent airport
Sq- shlep, as its not a direct route and good luck scoring 2 business seats sin-mle
So i decided to book a star alliance mix with emirates airlines. Continental was perfect for that, as they were partners with emirates. From dubai to the maldives i only had economy, but as i paid the business amount co promised to allow me to upgrade to business, as soon as it becomes available. At the end of march continental finished its partnership with emirates and was not able to upgrade me to business, as they had no way with communicating with emirates, so i cancelled the dxb-mle part and booked it with emirates miles. My ticket was the following:
Wed. Zrh-fra lh c. 10-11 am
Wed. Fra-dxb lh f. 3-11 pm
Thu. Dxb-mle ek f. 3-9 am
Wed. Mle-dxb ek c. 10am-1pm
Fri. Dxb-vie os c. 2am-6am
Fri. Vie-zrh. os c. 7am-8am
i used 67500 co miles and 70000 ek miles a person. With these flights, i had a chance to try the first class terminal in Frankfurt and the new emirates first class lounge in dubai. I was actually planning on upgrading the return flight from dubai to f class as well, but lx and lh didnt release any seats, so i was stuck flying with austrian in business.
Hotel:
I was looking to stay in a overwater villa and wanted my own private pool on the porch. I found the perfect hotel called halaveli. Big overwater villas, plunge pool, new resort and very small. Exactly what we wanted.
The outdoor porch on our villa:
Check out
www.halaveli.comThe resort normally charges close to 1000 Dollars a night, they had a special buy 4 stay 6 promotion, a sale on the room and a 10% prepaid early booking promotion, so i got it down to 500 a night. I know you will think its expensive, but for that type of room a bargain in the maldives
Dubai has alot of nice hotels. the famous 7 star hotel burj al arab was 1000 dollars a night, so not within my budget. I booked the grand hyatt. I used a suite certificate to upgrade to a suite and as a diamond staying in a suite you get: free minibar, free pickup and drop to airport, free internet... I paid about 135 Dollars, that was a steal for a suite incl. all benefits.
Food:
You cant get any kosher food in the maldives, so i was planning on taking frozen bread, longlife milk and hermolis meals along and ask the hotel to warm them up for me. With a suitcase of nosh and other goodies we should be able to survive. I send the hotel a email, explaining to them what kosher is and asked them if they would help me out in storing food in the freezer and heating it up for me on a daily basis. They agreed... I spoke to a frum guy, that stayed at the conrad and he told me that they supplied him with kosher meals through kleins catering from australia. I contacted halaveli food and beverage manager and he said, they never did it, but anyway get once a week a shipment from australia. He was fine with me sending stuff along and gave me the number of their shipping agent. After a few phone calls around the world, the shipping company agreed to place a order bei kleins catering and also pick up kosher food items at a local grocery. The hotel told me, that they would add 80% to the cost price, so all expenses (shipping,customs...) are covered.
Kleins had a big selection of meals for 17 dollars, so i ended up paying 30 dollars for a good meal and didnt have to worry, that was worth it. I ordered challa,bread,milk,yoghurts,danishes,smoked salmon, ice cream and other food items and all was shipped to the resort.
I know i wrote alot about the planing, but for such a trip, especially to a such a place, its necessary, if you want to have a perfect trip.
Finally the big day arrives:
To be continued, a fellow dd member is planing a trip to the maldives, so I wanted to help by posting this already
