Amazing holiday deal: 7 Nights full board in the Maldives for £599!!!

Dades

Looks like a good deal, lads. Just bad timing for me - would be tempted otherwise.
One thing about weather - no time of yr is guaranteed - so just fingers crossed.


Enjoy it whoever is going!

SteM

Looks amazing but what's the difference between All Inclusive and Full Board?

Soarer

Full board is bed, breakfast, and evening meals.

All inclusive is as above but with lunch, snacks, drinks, etc. included.

yop

+1 on the tipping, we left ours until the end, we had the same waiter for breakfast lunch and dinner. He was unreal. On our last night he knew we were on honeymoon, so he got us a special dinner, specially hand made from reeds table mats, special candles and the lot. He also made a "Happy Honeymoon" from stones and leaves on the ground outside our table.

There is also a "Bed Boy", this person, generally in their early teens will turn down your bed and give you room a little tidy every evening. He also scattered petals on the bed for the 1st two nights!

vibe666

green123 wrote: »

vibe666 wrote: »

she had recommended getting some US 1$ coins to use to tip people

???

good luck with that

how so?

Soarer

I think it's because dollar coins were mentioned as opposed to dollar bills.

Very witty when you think about it! :rolleyes:

TM

yop wrote: »

There is also a "Bed Boy"

That poet who likes Nepal will be booking so...

SteM

Soarer wrote: »

Full board is bed, breakfast, and evening meals.

All inclusive is as above but with lunch, snacks, drinks, etc. included.

This trip is marked as 'Full Board' on the website but the OP says:

with it being full board inc. drinks (inc. most spirits) etc. we're expecting it to be about €1000 all in per person for the week.

So drinks, snacks etc aren't included.

vibe666

Soarer wrote: »

I think it's because dollar coins were mentioned as opposed to dollar bills.

Very witty when you think about it! :rolleyes:

aha, that explains it.

never been to the US so had assumed that as a dollar is about 2/3 the value of the euro and 1/2 the value of the pound that there would be dollar coins floating around. actually the more i think about it, you normally only get foreign notes when you exchange currency, unless you're doing it into the local currency, so even if you did get dollar coins you'd be unlikely to be able to find them outside of the US anyway.

dollar notes it is then, thanks for hte headsup.

as for the full board/all inclusive thing, I was just going by what has been said on tripadvisor for that resort, so don't take my word as gospel.

tinkerbell

Yep full board just = breakfast, lunch & dinner. Doesn't include drinks at all.

All Inclusive includes everything. Drink is meant to be very expensive in the Maldives as well which is why many travel agents recommend you go AI as it works out cheaper and sometimes includes some watersports / boat trips to other islands, etc.

GG66

yop wrote: »

On our last night he knew we were on honeymoon, so he got us a special dinner, specially hand made from reeds table mats

Eating Table mats? Maybe the full board isn't all it's expected to be..

interlocked

The all inclusive deal is paid for on arrival, if you decide to go for it. Works out $31 a day or roughly €20,

I think I might just get my moneys worth out of that.:D

Thanks OP, woohoo,

Still available btw!

vibe666

yeah, just looking at another review and it looks like the all inclusive thing is an optional extra.

20€ a day for all inclusive?

I think we might be able to make that work, assuming it's all inclusive as much as you can eat/drink.

Did you book it then interlocked?

what date are you going?

thayes

Booked it for meself and the missus today as well. Seems they have got a good few booking from this forum! Going for 2 weeks on June 8th. Swineair flights to gatwick, got their €5 inc taxes fares for once, each way!
Hopefully we won't get bored after a week!
Thanks.

interlocked

Myself and a buddy are going out 8th June, no single supplement in June, so got separate rooms!

So myself . Thayes,and niceonemarko can have a Boards beers in Biyadhoo, now that's oneupmanship:D

BigglesMcGee

I spent 6 months travelling around the Maldives (very close to this resort) and south coast of India about 5 years ago. I'd love to go again.
Its one of the most beautiful places i have ever been. Spent the whole time diving (The rain doesnt matter when you're underwater).

Talking about rain - Just make sure you check the weather for your dates (you'll find very accurate monsoon predictions for your location) carefully before you book, because when it rains, man does it rain and for weeks at a time. Its not like the showers we get here. Its like someone flushed a giant toilet in the sky. It rains for 3 hours, then its sunny for 30 mins and and rain for another 3 hours. It is so bad you cant even sleep with the noise of it at night (I needed ear plugs, and i love the sound of rain normaly). At least its warm rain though and quite fun for the first couple of weeks.

If you're going for a diving holiday i recommend visiting several different sites. You can hire guys with speedboats to take you almost anywhere you want and they'll know the best spots.
You can also get them to take you to remote beaches where you'll be the only people on them. Bargain with them.

Bring sun cream with you as the stuff you get there is not good quality.

Good holidaying.

nice1franko

right, maldives next week...

snorkel: check

suncream: check

loads of beer: rang the resort, they said check.

anti-mosquito stuff: where's best to get this? Boots maybe?

toothbrush: check

am I missing anything???

thewools

Did everyone that availed of this deal use "Markstravel"

Was looking at some of their other trips and very interested, was there many extra costs etc?

For example what was the total for the Maldives trip... how much more than > £599

nice1franko

I used markstravel. there were no extra costs at all.

they just rang me there to let me know there was a slight change in times with the flights because they knew we were getting connecting flights so very good to deal with imo.

vibe666

wow, I'm really getting excited now and I'm so glad I had the forethought to start a thread too, it's nice to see so many other boardsies going as well, i'm actually quite chuffed with myself about it!

is anyone except me and PIMPHO going on the 29th June or is everyone else going earlier?

don't forget, full reports (with pics) and tips & tricks as soon as you're back.

oh, and as far as mosquito repellent goes, I went for the 3M Ultrathon as it's used by a lot of the militiary in the US & UK when 'working' abroad so it has to be pretty good.

The tax man

nice1franko wrote: »

right, maldives next week...

snorkel: check

suncream: check

loads of beer: rang the resort, they said check.

anti-mosquito stuff: where's best to get this? Boots maybe?

toothbrush: check

am I missing anything???

If you want to get further than Dublin airport.....your passport.:D:D

Hope ye all enjoy your hols. Looks a stunning spot. The locals will be wondering about the influx of milky white Irish holiday makers.:p

Great find+post vibe666,shame I can't avail of it.

vibe666

milky for day one, followed by prawn cocktail pink on day two and a dr. zoidbergy ferrari red by day three!

BigglesMcGee

I know you think you wont need it but , bring a jumper for night time. It can get very cold at night there, believe it or not.

jonny68

Great deal for sure, have fun.:)

vibe666

and probably a decent book too.

PIMPHO

nice1franko wrote: »

I used markstravel. there were no extra costs at all.

they just rang me there to let me know there was a slight change in times with the flights because they knew we were getting connecting flights so very good to deal with imo.

Hey nice1franko, what did the flight time change to as I've booked connecting flights with Ryanair already so hopefully it won't cause us to miss the connecting flights? We're going on the 29th June.

vibe666

i don't think they've changed our flights, just his. think he's off on the 8th.

PIMPHO

vibe666 wrote: »

i don't think they've changed our flights, just his. think he's off on the 8th.

Ya I know but it states on the website that departure times could differ so just worried that they could easily change them for our trip too? Hope not.

nice1franko

PIMPHO wrote: »

Hey nice1franko, what did the flight time change to as I've booked connecting flights with Ryanair already so hopefully it won't cause us to miss the connecting flights? We're going on the 29th June.

Yeah, we're going 8th june.

The new flights:
Going out: 19:15 (depart at LHR)
Coming back: 18:35 (arrive at LHR)

so our ryanair flights:
going out: arrive LGW @ 17:05
and coming back: depart LGW @ 21:15

uh oh. when the fella from marks travel rang on thursday I jotted down LHR but the ryanair flights are from gatwick :eek:

it says gatwick on their webpage, maybe i just wrote it down wrong over the phone. I'll check that when I go home!

vibe666

well it's definitely Gatwick which is good because you had me worried there for a minute, but they've also definitely changed our flights too PIMPHO, sorry.

BUT we just got this in the post today so I imagine you'll be getting one too.



although it's not actually that bad because they go out slightly later (giving us a little bit more time in Gatwick on the outbound journey) and we get back to Gatwick on the return a little bit earlier, giving us a little more time to catch the connecting flight back to Dublin, so it's all good in the hood.