Paradise, No other words for it (Hotels in Maldives)

Member Name: pastyorf

Product:	Hotels in Maldives
Date:	20/03/03 (2433 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: sun, low thirties throughout summer, tropical fish

Disadvantages: quiet

We visited the maldives in the summer of 2000 (I know, a long time ago). Looking through every big brand travel agent took hours and after long consideration we thought we'd go back to the island of majorca. The price would be £3950 for a family of four on half board, flights included but no car included.

Then amongst all the online operators an advert suddenly poped up for the island of ari beach in the maldives. The pictures were to die for. It all looked as if it would cost a bomb. But being curious we clicked on the add and ended up in the kuoni website looking at a holiday that would cost £3750 for the family including flights for half board. This included one standard room and one superior room for parents.

The day of the holiday arrived and we set off for Gatwick airport (which has to be the worst airport to fly from). The fight took a little over 11 hours including a stop in Bahrain. The flight out was not too good though. There was no inflight entertainment so everyone was very agitated. The aeroplane was a very comfotable monarch plane. Seemed as if it was nearly new. We arrived in the late morning in the capital of the maldives, in temperatures in the low thirties. Kuoni bussed us to the sea plane terminal and we waited for our next flight.

The sea plane flight lasted 45 minutes and was an amazing experience. The noise was nearly unbareable inside the plane but the view down over the atolls was wonderful.

The hotel on the ari beach island seemed more like a complex of huts placed in the middle of the island. The rep greated us and gave us all a coconut to drink (which was horrid!)

There was a bar down one end which was teh bar and dining area we were assigned to. The dining area was open plan which was lovely in th morining when the sun rose and lit the dining area up. The bar was a large, again open plan seated area. The price of drinks was high. $4 for a glass of wine and $3 for a 1.5


l bottle of water. The rep warned us that we would need to drink 3 to 6 litres each other wise we'd end up in the hospital which was 45 mins away.

There turned out to be a water village down the far end of the island which was a long (400m) jetty with a bar and then a smaller 100m jetty and 20 or so bungalows over the water. The water village had the best bar area, but going to the water village in the mid day sun was like juggling with fire. The temperature of the jetty was unbareable to the feet and so placing a towl of the wood and shuffling became the only way to reach the village without 2nd degree burns.

On the opposite side to the water village (10m away since the width of the island is now very thin) is another jetty that had a sheltered seated area. This proved to be the best place on the island. We would spend hours snorkeling from the jetty. Directly below the sheltered area were a family of large angel fish. The largest being 40cm tall in the main body excluding the tip.

The weather was always hot, always sunshine, with low thirties every day for the two weeks. There were hardly any days on the holiday when we saw a cloud in the sky. It only rained twice while we were there and each time the rain would start very suddenly and drench everything. The downpours would be very hard but would only ast 4 mins max. It stopped raining as quickly as it would start.

We hired a peddal boat for 2 hours one evening and peddeled all the way round the mile long and upto 40 meters wide island. The boat cost $10 an hour. There are lots of sail boats available for half day charter but are quite expensive - $20 an hour up. The padi courses were $30 for 2 hours and there were regular excursions out into the middle of the atoll for around $30.

Eating outside of the halfboard is expensive with a small pizza 5" costing $8 and a full main meal in the order of $30 per person. The drinks as I said bef
ore w
ere expensive as well. I would recommend anyone going to book full board because just buying 12 litres of water a day can work out expensive. Also the lunch which half board misses out on will keep you out of the mid day sun which is extreamly hot.

Anyway back to the hotel.

The hotel has:
2 bars
1 medical center (small)
1 water village
2 dining areas
1 boat hire center
1 padi center
organised trips to neighbouring islands
snorkeling trips every 3 hours
trips back to the main island

The island was swept of leaves every day to make it look extra clean. There was one cleaner assigned to 6 rooms, so the cleaners were always through. It's expected to tip the cleaner and waiter. As a rough guide around $10 each per week would be sufficient.

Overall the holiday was a holiday of a life time. We swam with the fishes every day. Spent hours getting a good suntan. This is a perfect holiday for sun lovers and people who want to get away from everything. But if your after any kind of social stuff this does not have it.

Paradise

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