Noelwr! Advise Please?

[wannaBMrsH]

Noelwr, you honeymooned in the Maldives, right?

DH and I still haven''t taken our HM and we are planning a trip to India in August for a wedding. The wedding is in Chennai and we were already planning on staying for a week and taking a short trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

While looking for hotels, we came across a deal on airfare from Chennai to Male and once we threw in hotel, it seemed to good to pass up. We are now thinking of going for 12 days and going to Chennai/Agra for 7-8 days (two days of travel there and back, 3 days to explore Chennai and attend the wedding and 2-3 days to travel to Agra and explore the Taj area). My question to you is do you think it would be worth it to fly to Male for only 4-5 days? And how much should we budget for food? All the reviews say that food prices are comparable to London/New York, but we don''t really spend that much on food and are always sharing main dishes when we travel to those places anyhow...so that doesn''t help me.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! TIA!

 

[noelwr]

are you planning on staying on Male? if yes, then don''t bother. I haven''t been, but there are excursions from all the hotels to go visit Male to experience local Maldivian life, and I hear it''s just a village and really not that interesting. if you mean a hotel on its own island (which most of the resorts are), then DEFINITELY! it is so beautiful in the Maldives.

because you will be staying 4-5 days, I recommend picking a hotel resort near Male (like 30 min by boat). some resorts are still a 2 hour sea plane ride away and only go once a day. so if you picked one far away, you''d probably lose 2 days just in travel.

yes, food/drink is incredibly expensive at the hotel resorts because you''re stuck on an island and can''t go to another restaurant, plus most of these places are 5 star hotels. we did the all-inclusive thing with Club Med (which is 30 min by boat from Male and they make sure to pick you up when your flight gets there and bring you back on time). is it worth the ridiculous prices? YES! if you love beach/sea/snorkeling/scuba diving, it is worth it. make sure to buy some swimming booties. it isn''t all soft sand... it''s mostly coral. and make sure to book an excursion with a sea plane that takes you to other islands for more beach and snorkeling.

 

[wannaBMrsH]

THANK YOU! I will see if I can steer DH towards an All-Inclusive resort...thanks again for the suggestion about distance, I would never have thought of that!

We are getting so excited! It''s only 6 weeks away!