verve

And as long as you are on the island there is absolutely no need for shoes!

skunker

And, shoes are optional.

As far as diving and snorkeling I would say both are worth it. My wife got me dive certified for Christmas just so I could go while there. I did 3 dives: 1 required at house reef and 2 tanks on the boat and were "guided" since I didn't have a dive partner. Total cost for the house dive with equipment was $107.27. Total for 2 dives on boat trip was $303.16. Remember, like verve and I said earlier, they charge equipment per dive, not per day, so there is no advantage to doing the house dive in the morning and the boat that night.

If you don't dive the snorkeling is well worth it around the house reef off the jetty. You can stay on the surface and see plenty of coral, fish, and anemones or dive down 10-15 feet to see more on the wall. Snorkel gear from the dive shop is free.

jmr50

The water is rough now as the wind is quite strong. This is making some excursions less interesting and the transfers quite stomach churning. Still, we're finding it incredibly beautiful here.

thexfactor

Though I know the weather is different in different atolls, how has the weather been there for the past 3 days?

According to the weather reports its been pretty dismal: rain, rain, rain.

thtsapaddlin

Unless you're Leah DeWavrin, who was doing a photo shoot in the pool and on the beach. I'll leave it at that, but will say that her entourage spent the majority of time around the bar with flagrant disregard for the dress code.

skunker

And, how much time did you spend at the bar?

farbster

Out of curiosity, if you were coming from the East Coast of USA, where else would you go to in combination of the Maldives? Not sure how long could stay at this or any other island resort (with limited eating etc).

canyonleo

Well, in true FT fashion, that question requires knowing what airlines you'll use as, so to know what are the most convenient and least costly - in dollars or miles - options.

AA from U.S. East almost requires use of BA for MLE, and that screams London stopover... but you're not going to find much inexpensive options there (which your food comment implies you'll likely look for?) and maybe pay big fuel surcharges.

I think another AA option is Ethiad or Air Jordan, you'll save in fuel surcharge (versus London), but you'll pay more in miles, but it will give you a stopover option in the Middle East.

I can't comment on DL or UACO options, I'll leave that for others.

If you want to do a "side-trip" out of MLE (keeping MLE as your destination to/from in your primary ticket) then SIN on a SQ rt or KUL on a MH rt are options.

farbster

No points with airlines, but our Ult. Reward balance is pretty good and we could sign up for AA credit cards with no big deal. We should be able to get the 3 each (me and my wife)

The travel time would be July most likely.

I was curious because it seems like that is the rainy season in Thailand and cyclone season in HK.

I think Etihad will start out of IAD going to Abu Dhabi and then on to MLE, but not sure how long one would stay in Abu Dhabi.

skunker

There is alway Sri Lanka. If you do Sri Lanka I would recommend doing it first as the culture shock going from a small, private resort to Sri Lanka is pretty big. The food in Sri Lanka is good if you like spice, if not you will lose weight.

canyonleo

From what I've read, July is a month with higher probability for bad/rainy weather... definitely recommend you do some web searches and read some forums, even call the property and talk to someone who has multiple years experience living there.

ronbo83

We just did this last month from Indianapolis (not really the east coast but airports we used in the US were all in the east coast). I had 200,000 CO miles so we had enough to go over in Business and return in Coach. Here was our routing.

Outbound - Business - 120,000 miles (60k each pax)
IND-PHL - US - First
PHL-FRA - LH - Business
FRA-DEL - LH - Business

We spent a few days in Delhi and Agra seeing the sights in northern India. It was much more fun than I had expected. We then paid with cash to fly Sri Lanken Airways from DEL-CMB-MLE. It was $500 per person one way. We spent a week at this resort and then returned MLE-CMB-DXB. We spent another few days in Dubai and again had a better than expected time. This was also on Sri Lanken Airways for $500 per person one way.

Inbound - Coach - 80,000 miles (40k each pax)
DXB-IAD - Coach
IAD-IND - Coach

If I had to do it again, I would do it the exact same way. It was nice to see 3 different areas of this part of the world and it broke the trip to MLE up so it did not seem like it took forever to get there. Other options on Star Alliance would be to go over the Pacific but that might be a but long coming from the east coast.

I would avoid using BA, even if using AA miles due to the rediculous fees they charge. Our total cost using UACO miles was $160 in taxes. We tried flying AA on this same routing but they did not have availability and the UA website shows partner flights so much better than AA.

ma91pmh

I see from their Facebook page they have added a private dining cabana and various beach cabanas that look beautiful. It is nice to see the ongoing investment in improving the property.

ma91pmh

Park Hyatt Maldives blog - let's hope it gets regularly updated and maintained

http://parkhyattmaldiveshadahaa.blogspot.com

Cheetah_SA

Ah, the work of the delightful and informative Arabella - such a credit to the resort!