Maldives...

Bear said:
It's the first time we've been to Jamaica (Montego Bay) and would happily come here again.
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Went to Jamaica last year, stayed in the Iberostar Grand in MoBay (exceptional place), seen some of the island too, yes there are some ruff parts, but on the whole the island is a really nice place, i would go back again too :)

OP - You are really going to struggle with that budget for August in the med, yet alone the Maldives.
 
Minstadave said:
We stayed on chaaya lagoon hakuraa huraa in a water bungalow, it was quite a big island and primarily caters for Chinese guests, who are insane! We much preferred the first island we went to which was Makunudu, it was much smaller and friendly, just beach bungalows - it felt more special, whereas Chaaya was more mass market.
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We went to Chaaya Lagoon for our honeymoon about 12 months ago. Think it came at about £5200 for 2 weeks with Thomson for one of the wayer villa thingies.

I agree there seemed to be a large amount of Chinese guests.
 
BaJ said:
What a coincidence, me and the wife stayed there in January too, when were you there? We flew out Dec 30th for two weeks.

The water bungalows were good but the rest of the island wasn't as nice as our last stay in the Maldives, which was at Olhuvelhi.

Had the same experience with the Chinese, tripods everywhere, daft poses and what on earth was the deal with matching outfits! :o

Edit: Just remembered I sold you a tower unit that you collected from me, would have been even stranger bumping in to you over 5000 miles away!
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We got there on the second of Jan so must have been there at the same time! How strange!!!
 
Pc-Gamer12 said:
Hi guys need Abit of help, where's the cheapest place to book a holiday to the maldives ? Also what others places are like the maldives where the cabins are in the water ?
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If you are spending shed loads to get their in the first place go whole hog and get the real deal not cheap rooms etc.

We stated in a water bungalow. It was huuuuugewith 2 seperate bedrooms, a bathroom and living room and our own private decking area for sun bathing with steps straight into the sea. That cost an extra £600 or so for the 2 weeks. The "cheaper" option was a tiny box halved between 2 rooms, on stilts and was poor value for the large amount of money people were already spending.

Do it properly and you won't regret a second of it!
 
Minstadave said:
We stayed on chaaya lagoon hakuraa huraa in a water bungalow, it was quite a big island and primarily caters for Chinese guests, who are insane! We much preferred the first island we went to which was Makunudu, it was much smaller and friendly, just beach bungalows - it felt more special, whereas Chaaya was more mass market.
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We went there (Chaaya Lagoon Hakuraa Huraa) for our honeymoon, although it was 5 years ago now it was nothing like you described. Guests aside as obviously people differ over time, I genuinely don't understand how you can describe that as a big island. It was tiny and took about 5-10 minutes to walk around the entire thing!
 
Bobcat said:
Went to Jamaica last year, stayed in the Iberostar Grand in MoBay (exceptional place), seen some of the island too, yes there are some ruff parts, but on the whole the island is a really nice place, i would go back again too :)
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That's where are are at the moment, its been fantastic and the food is incredible. I'm coming home as big as a house.
 
Bear said:
That's where are are at the moment, its been fantastic and the food is incredible. I'm coming home as big as a house.
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Such a outstanding place (you will have a great time), Kadisha on the beach would always bring us our drinks at the waterside, im sure i put on at least a stone when i was there, as you say the food and staff there are fantastic, make sure you ask your butler to bring a BIG bottle of Appleton Rum to your room (complamentry of course), as the little bottles in the fridge just don't cut it :D
 
I've been to a couple of Maldives islands, and one twice... it's a great place.

The last we went to had everything as it was a larger island, but never felt busy. The best bit was the house reef and the 6-7 different places to eat. all inclusive is the only way to goto these places so you can sup cocktails all day and eat what you want where you want. We stayed in a water villa the last few nights but it was very expensive.

http://www.kuramathi.com/

Here is a video of the reef I shot........all from just snorkel. turtles, sharks, morays, squid all sorts :)



If you want the very cheapest island that is meant to be great, look up Biyadoo.

I used Kuoni for all trips as the quality of the resorts is great
 
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roboffer said:
We went there (Chaaya Lagoon Hakuraa Huraa) for our honeymoon, although it was 5 years ago now it was nothing like you described. Guests aside as obviously people differ over time, I genuinely don't understand how you can describe that as a big island. It was tiny and took about 5-10 minutes to walk around the entire thing!
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It's all relative, Makunudu was easily half the size and a third the number if guests. Felt really special with a la carte meals in the evening. Where as CLHH was all buffet, busy, service was pretty average.
 
Flukester said:
I've been to a couple of Maldives islands, and one twice... it's a great place.
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I'm also going to the Maldives for my honeymoon and Kuramathi with Kuoni is joint top of my list. The only thing that's putting me off is that the snorkelling rarely gets mentioned when discussing Kuramthi. What was the other island you went to and how did it compare?

Vilamendhoo is the other near the top of my list as it's a tad cheaper and I've heard better things about the snorkeling.
 
mpledge52 said:
I'm also going to the Maldives for my honeymoon and Kuramathi with Kuoni is joint top of my list. The only thing that's putting me off is that the snorkelling rarely gets mentioned when discussing Kuramthi. What was the other island you went to and how did it compare?

Vilamendhoo is the other near the top of my list as it's a tad cheaper and I've heard better things about the snorkeling.
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We went to Kuramathi and stayed in a jaccuzi water villa and you can step down off your deck straight onto the reef, its fantastic.
 
mpledge52 said:
I'm also going to the Maldives for my honeymoon and Kuramathi with Kuoni is joint top of my list. The only thing that's putting me off is that the snorkelling rarely gets mentioned when discussing Kuramthi. What was the other island you went to and how did it compare?

Vilamendhoo is the other near the top of my list as it's a tad cheaper and I've heard better things about the snorkeling.
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When's your Honeymoon? Looking at Veligandu for ours in September as had good feedback on TA, the Jacuzzi Water Villas look good and it's nice and small. Looked at the Taj Exotica at other end of the budget, looked amazing but was something like £9k for 10 days Breakfast and Dinner only!
 
mpledge52 said:
I'm also going to the Maldives for my honeymoon and Kuramathi with Kuoni is joint top of my list. The only thing that's putting me off is that the snorkelling rarely gets mentioned when discussing Kuramthi. What was the other island you went to and how did it compare?

Vilamendhoo is the other near the top of my list as it's a tad cheaper and I've heard better things about the snorkeling.
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There are two sides of the Island, one lagoon and the other is one very long house reef (almost 1km long).... compared with Thudufushi which also had a house reef it's much better with plenty of growth since the bleaching that hit most corals in the region.

There are also cheap snorkel safaris which take you 10mins past the neighboring 'village' island that has even better reefs.

I think the only thing that spoils the aesthetics of the place is the village island next door has a massive radio mast on it, but all in all it was great... and the food is fantastic

We saved a bit of money by going all inclusive on 1st week... so unlimited buffet / alcohol, then 'select all inclusive' 2nd week so we could eat in all the fab restaurants around the island for free... including eating every lunchtime at the Italian, pizza and maitai / pina coladas for lunch can't be beaten :)

There are golf cart style taxis running up and down island, but it's only a 30min walk end to end tops

You get in a routine of -

walk down beach to breakfast
walk up beach to pool
snorkel
bar for cocktails
read abit
bar again
buffet lunch
walk down beach to siesta at villa
walk to another bar
another snorkel
back to villa to get ready for evening
walk up beach to another bar
watch stingray feeding
walk to restaurant of choice
walk down beach to watch a live band and drink more

You don't really walk as such, just kinda shuffle along... it's something to do with heat / humidity I think and you just do everything in slow motion

Oh one tip, just wear sandals on plane there... I didn't step into them again for whole of fortnight.. just bare foot is all you need

edit: also take loads of strong insect repellent, though they do mist the island you get a few that insist on having a bite at you especially at 'Palm' restaurant
 
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Pc-Gamer12 said:
It looks like we probably won't be able to afford the maldives, so what are some other alternatives, we want to go to a hot place that's not jam packed with tourists, price limit is £650 per person including flights and somewhere to stay (with food included), and we don't want to fly any where longer than about 5 and 1/2 hours
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You've got to be kidding me, £650 inc flights "somewhere nice" even "like" the Maldives is just not possible.

I'm sat here looking at last nights fag packet scribbles

Bog standard holiday to Majorca costs as much as that.
Monarch return flight £167.98
Hip Palace hotel 3 nights half board £387.46
Transfers £15
NCP Carpark £25
Without my diving package @ £160 that's a total of £595.44 and that's just a long weekend away over the Mayday Bank holiday!!
 
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