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

thayes

Well we are back as well.

Just to add to what the others have said (I'll add more if I have time later). It is a lovely place, for the money you will not beat it.

They provide plug adaptors. Some points are standard Uk 3 pin (where the kettle is plugged in), some are not, but the hotel have adaptors.

The sun is dangerous, we got Boots 'Once' factor 40 and applied it once each days and even with swimming it lasted fine. They were doing an offer in Gatwick, 2 for 1 on quite a few sun products.

As you have to change planes it is easy pick up some of that stuff in Gatwick.

Flight connections on the return may be tight, if there is any delay. Up to an hour after landing for some bags to appear on the return leg.

Bring dollars (small bills) for tips.

Average wage is 250 dollars per week out there, so don't stinge.

Tips, 20 dollars per week, to your waiter. Same for your room cleaner.

It is nice to give teh bar staff and Chefs something at the end as well, they make every effort.

Also have a few small bills for the porters and the guys on the boats if you take any trips. 20 euro isn't much to you when handed out as a gesture, but it makes a difference to them.

There is an english couple in room 39 who have 2 Lilos for you (yellow and green) if you ask them. Theya re there until July 2nd, but touch base as I passed them on to them and asked them to give them to you if you asked.

Aldi have a great deal on snorkling gear tomorrow or Sunday, if you have space get them. You can hire life jackets out there, removes the fear and worry for 4.50 dollars each per day, and enjoy the snorkling safely.

They also have better lilos for 6 euro if you have space.

They also have an under water digital camera for 129 euro!

Watch the currents and just with them and you'll have a ball.

A turtle hangs out at the side of the reef between the new and old jetty, fab if you see him.

A scuba dive with instructor was only 75 dollars including the equipment (I had though the equipment was an extra 35), but it was 1 to 1 and I was down for about 1 hour or more. Great experience.

2 last things;
1- bring water shoes, there is a lot of dead coral, and the shoes make it much easier to walk out in the water (I almost got cut badly, luckily just skinned).

2- some english people had a thing for mossie bites that you pressed and it passed an electrical charge across the bite. YOu do 10 of them and it does stop the itch. Tecso sell them in the UK, not sure who sells them here, the 'Go' travel accessories crowd make one if that helps (also the missus swears by the bangles they sell to stop the mossies, if you don't want insecticide all over you).

Thats it for now, and enjoy.

thayes

Also forgot to mention, we had these 2 hard cases from d west who kept us up till all hours the first week we were there, drinking like fish! Took the second week to recover!
Mostly, English, German and some other euro types there with a few Japanese.

The westies will be glad to know that the strength of the strength of the booze was confirmed as satisfactory by nice1franko on the second week.

Even if you go all inclusive, you have to pay for drinks after midnight.

The rep, Adrian is great also, ask him for anything and he will be able to help. Vinegar for sunburn, which you get from the chef, and that is no joke - right lads?

vibe666

I don't think I've ever looked forward to a holiers as much as I'm looking forward to this!

I'm also fairly chuffed with myself for thinking of putting a thread up about it, it's nice to know that other people were able to enjoy it too because of that. so when's the boards.ie "bargain alert of the year" awards going to be?

seriously though, I'm so very chuffed with the whole thing and can't wait to get out there.

talking of which, only 3 more sleeps to go!!!

PIMPHO

Nice one Thayes! So looking forward to it. Can you rent snorkelling gear out there along with the swimsuits?

dos30

Thank for the info lads, when you say bring water shoes do you mean like booties for surfing?

vibe666

I think anything that will protect the soles of your feet will do. sandals or wetsuit/surfing boots will probably do fine.

according to info available online the water temp is 26-28 degrees, so you're unlikely to even need a wetsuit. all you'll want is a t-shirt that you don't mind getting wet and salty to put on under your BCD (the vest with the tank etc. on it) and you should be grand.

I used to go scuba diving a lot living in Tenerife and the water was about 17-18 degrees in the winter and up to 21-22 degrees in summer and I only ever wore the bottom half of a 7mm 2 piece wetsuit, which covers your legs and has a vest top in one. never ever wore a jacket in over 100+ dives and only ever wore just a t-shirt and shorts in the summer there and by comparison 26 degrees is like bathwater.

there's also the advantage that spending a long time in the water will eventually bring down your core body temp enough that it will take several hours to warm up again afterwards, which in 30+ degrees heat is a very good thing and will cut down on any uncomfortable hot sweatiness in the evenings.

i'm the first to admit that i'm a really bad sweater (like a racehorse), but when it was hot in TF I used to do 2 or 3 dives a day (as a trainee divemaster in the local centre) and I'd hardly sweat all night, no matter how warm it got.

JohnCleary

dos30 wrote: »

Thank for the info lads, when you say bring water shoes do you mean like booties for surfing?

Get crocs, booties will wreck your head as they don't air out your feet and

vibe666

or keep your socks soaked in surgical spirit while you're wearing them for a few days before hand. by the time you get out there they'll be like blocks of wood.

PIMPHO

Please God let them be wrong........................

http://www.accuweather.com/world-forecast2.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&locCode=ASI|MV|MV012|MALE&metric=1

Dades

For anyone who buys a lilo to bring out - don't inflate it before you pack it.

You do have to then blow it up out there - but you save loads of luggage space.

vibe666

PIMPHO wrote: »

Please God let them be wrong........................

http://www.accuweather.com/world-forecast2.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&locCode=ASI|MV|MV012|MALE&metric=1

balls, i could have done without knowing that a couple of days before.

I especially like the way it's sunny the day before we get there and then every picture till the day after we leave is a thunder and lightening cloud then it's sunny again after we leave. :mad:

Righto, someone's bringing the fecking Irish weather with them so own up, who is it?

PIMPHO

Nasty alright but I looked on other websites and it showed that it would be sunny during the morning and afternoon and then showers in the evening so I'd settle for that. Hopefully they are wrong, they usually are anyways!

Just got my 3M Ultrathon there, happy days! :P

On another low note; can't believe I'm going to miss the Euro final!!!

Tipped Spain right from the start, gutted that I'm going to miss it as it should be a cracker of a game! Doubt they will be showing it on the in-flight entertainment system? :P

thayes

Right, I'll try and answer some more questions.
re shoes for the water, you will be walking out over quite a bit of dead coral if you go snorkeling, so you will be swimming with the water shoes, corcs would not be ideal. I saw someone had 'socks' that looked to be made from wetsuit material. You want something to protect you feet from cuts etc. There is a bit of rubble down one end (it is fairly safe), but sometime rusting cans or that can get washed in from god knows where, you are in the middle of the Indian ocean!

Weather can vary, may rain during the night, and days fine. It is moving towards the centre of the monsoon season, but really the weather on each island vary, sometimes we had showers, sometimes you could see them in the distance.
Some days it rained in the morning and was lovely for the afternoon.

You can rent snorkel equipment and flippers for 2.50 dollars (+10%) per day, so it is cheaper and saves baggage space.

Re baggage, Monach only allow 1 bag for hand luggage and it has to be under 5kg. They will weight at check in.

We travelled with 2 bags each via ryanair, one each with clothes etc. (under 10KG and suitable for cabin luggage :-)) and I had a laptop (for films, which we didn't watch so a a waste brining it), and the boss had her bag.

Made it easy for the return trip as we were able to check in for the ryanair flight in the Maldives, there is a business centre at eth airport which is dirt cheap, 1 dollar to checkin and print out our ryanair boarding cards. Sadly I only had an extra dollar left as a tip for the guy. Took about 15 as firfox wouldn't let me check in for some reason and had to use IE. So when we got to gatwick, all the pressure was off us. But I realise not everyone will travel as light as that

In some ways I hope we don't build up your hopes too high and that you go expecting something that isn't there!

Bottom line is, that for the money, the surroundings, rooms very clean but slightly dated (so what you only sleep there) and friendly and good staff, you can't go wrong. It isn't 5 star and it is relaxed and if you dive get to know the people there, they really nice and you can have a laugh with them.

If ye do dive, place tell the manager, a spanish guy, that the 'English woman' sent ye. He kept slagging the boss and calling her 'an english woman' all good fun. He speaks with a german accent (born there) but says he is spanish, and he has a fast wit. Let me know if he remembers us! There is a lad from Brittany and a really nice Japanese girl, who is very good if it is your first dive.
You can rent wetsiuts etc from them
Lifejackets can be rented from reception, not the cleanest but they keep you alive, the one in the clare colours looks worst but it is fine, I had it for 4 days!

I hope ye do get good weather and they ye get the Dolphins they got last week, a school of a few hundred doing lots of tricks (we were not as lucky but at least saw some).

If nothing else get shoes you can swim in, it will make life easier wnen snorkeling. Also, sting rays do come in to sleep in the sand at night, so no night swimming, we saw them all around the island at different places,so heed the reps warnings. Also you will have fun watching the crabs down on the beech at night when they come out to eat. During the day there are small white ones to keep you entertained, they won't bite, just fun to watch.

vibe666

see if you can get text alerts or something from one of the big sports sites, sky or setanta maybe?

talking of which, never thought of that, did anyone notice if there was a mobile phone signal on the island? not that we're going there to make phonecalls, but still, would be nice not to be totally cut off.

Also, I went into Aldi last night and picked up the 6pm underwater digital camera they had on offer and I have to say that for te money it's pretty impressive.

I also tried one of the face masks in the scuba kit and didn't like it at all. I'm hopeful of something in Gatwick, or I'll just hire the gear for the week anyway. At least if you do that and it doesn't fit right you can take it back and swap it out.

The camera is *almost* perfect btw. it comes with a charger and 4x rechargeable AA batteries even though it only takes 2, so you can use one lot and charge the other. the charger will charge 4x AA or AAA batteries at once too, which is handy.

photo quality is average for a 6mp camera, nothing to blow your skirt up at and very basic, but it's rated to 30m depth (the max you can dive in the maldives anyway) so it'll be grand. video shooting is okay too, plenty good enough for youtube clips etc. but don't be expecting HD quality, it's 320x240 or something like that but still, for te money you can't argue.

it also comes with a 512mb SD card with support up to 2gb (i.e. older ones not the newer SDHC cards) which gives you 150 or so pics at max resolution or about 15 mins of video.

it also comes with a spongy luminous yellow lanyard to hang round your neck or wrist on a dive so you don't lose it, but it's too bulky to carry around out of the water to be practical if you're not diving. the camera itself is pretty heavy too.

the only real downside is that the battery flap pops open whenever you do ANYTHING to the camera. press the shutter button (actually any button) and you can hear it pop open. this isn't normally an issue as the battery flap is locked behind the outer cover of the waterproof housing so it doesn't go anywhere, but it does the same thing when you put in the USB cable and the battries fly out at you every time you pop in the cable which is a bit of a pain.

but again, for the money you can't expect any more than you get. it does it's job and does it pretty well.

thayes

forgot to say, the flippers i used for the dive skinned some of my toes, so be careful, a pair of ordinary socks would have prevented it happening. Afterwards I used plasters, and I would have healed faster had I not used them (although the salt water pierces for a few seconds each time you go in for a day or 2).
Not sure how snug the flippers should fit.

thayes

All the rooms have a basic underwater kodak disposable camera in them to buy at 20 dollars each. I am sorry now I didn't use it. So if someone forget or needs a camera out there you won't be stuck.

The mini bar in the room is the same price pretty much as the bar. The chocolate is a bit dearer in the minibar, but the shop sells twix etc for 1.50 dollars I think.


Look out for that zapper thing for the mossie bites just in case.

I think that is everything.

thayes

Enjoy your time there it will go too quickly. And be safe.

dos30

Thanks for all the info lads.

Two days and counting...:D

vibe666

yeah, thanks lads, hopefully we'll have just as good a time as you guys did (fingers crossed) and the weather holds out, but sure it's raining non-stop here anyway, so we'll be well used to it if it's not great.

ooh, forgot to mention, it might be a good idea to have a go in one of those tanning booths at somewhere like chartbusters. €6 for 6 minutes in the good booths, or 75c in the older ones. might just get you pink enough to take the edge off when we get there and stop you burning too bad.

righto, i guess all that remains is to say i'll see you at the airport TOMORROW!!!!

can't wait.

oh, actually I know it's totally geeky of me, but what the situation with internet access and mobile signals on the island? yay or nay?

p.s. i know it's criminally geeky of me to even think it.

matchthis

Anyone got any pics to share of what to expect?

vibe666

matchthis wrote: »

Anyone got any pics to share of what to expect?

are you coming too?

well, we're off in the morning, there I was shocked at someone spending 24 hours travelling and it suddenly dawned on me that the'll be leaving the house at about 10am'ish in the morning and won't be in biyadhoo till about 10am monday morning. :eek:

i think we have everything, herself is just in the bedroom trying to figure out how we're going to get everything packed into 2x 15kg + backpacks for the ryanair flight, then transfer the extra backpack weight to the main cases so our handluggage is within monach's limits.

what a pallarva! :rolleyes:

matchthis

not myself. was on honeymoon there in April. one of the lads in work is interested after seeing my pics, but is curoius if it's similar to where we went. Ours cos 7k :O and was perfect so this has him fixed. Just wants to see if its similar as it sounds

TequilaMockingBird

Right he's gone now!

Vibe has posted elsewhere on the site that he is proposing to his girlfriend on this holiday! Awwww! He has the ring all organised.

Hope they have a great time.

PIMPHO

Really? He never said it to me! Right I'm off lads, chat to ye when I get back! Enjoy the good weather while I'm gone! :P

interlocked

Vibe should be back, hope it's good news;)

vibe666

well me's not quite back yet lads but it was fooking awesome all the same! Just in london for the day ring shopping and i'm waiting for her now, so i thought i'd hop on here and do my first post holiers post. :-) we had a brilliant time anyway, with mrs vibe getting the shock of her life in the form of a proposal! Herself and pimpho both also got their PADI open water dives cert, and dos30 and his missus should be finished theirs today too, but they've another week to enjoy it as well so the rest of us are suitably jealous about that. We also had many sessions and drinking games were had too. all in all i think its safe to say a stonking time was had by all and nobody wanted to leave. :-( the only downside at all was the mossies who had a real feast on us all week, even with the repellent. Righto, got to go spend a fortune on a ring. Catch x'all tomo!

Oral Slang

Following on from this great deal, I booked a weeks cruise down the Nile today with this crowd, leaving on the 21st of July. £457 (thats the upgraded cabin) and that includes all food & tours on a 4 star cruise ship - the Domina Prestige Cruise Ship.
Wasn't even going abroad, saw this thread yesterday and somehow ended up booking a cruise for myself and the other half! Roll on Monday week!

thewools

vibe666 wrote: »

well me's not quite back yet lads but it was fooking awesome all the same! Just in london for the day ring shopping and i'm waiting for her now, so i thought i'd hop on here and do my first post holiers post. :-) we had a brilliant time anyway, with mrs vibe getting the shock of her life in the form of a proposal! Herself and pimpho both also got their PADI open water dives cert, and dos30 and his missus should be finished theirs today too, but they've another week to enjoy it as well so the rest of us are suitably jealous about that. We also had many sessions and drinking games were had too. all in all i think its safe to say a stonking time was had by all and nobody wanted to leave. :-( the only downside at all was the mossies who had a real feast on us all week, even with the repellent. Righto, got to go spend a fortune on a ring. Catch x'all tomo!

Congrats Vibe... Fair play....

Looks like me and the g/friend will be going in September now to Biyadhoo too, just have wait for holidays to be confirmed at work...

So looking forward to your impending review...

interlocked

Congrats Vibe, never doubted it for a minute.

If you couldn't get a yes on that island, you'd might as well have started drinking in the George:D

thayes

Congratulation. Delighted ye had a great time.

Whats the link to the Nile cruise? Must plan ahead!