How I wish
How I wish you were here

Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here

…and could join us in that paradise on earth!

But let´s start from the beginning!

Last week we talked about planning and booking our trip to Maldives.

We got our Wizz All You Can Fly tickets for Vienna – Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi – Malé. On November 2 we started our trip in Vienna. After a decent breakfast in beautiful Vienna Airport Lounge we boarded the Wizz Air flight to Abu Dhabi. The plane was not too full and so we found seats together (of course we booked just random seats, a matter of honour 😉). Some 5 ½ hours and three episodes of a downloaded Netflix series later we arrived on time in Abu Dhabi. We thought of taking a Uber for the 1 ½ hour trip from Sheikh Zayed Airport to Dubai, but the Bus was about to leave and we quickly bought two bus tickets to Ibn Batutta Gate. Same duration, much cheaper.

From Ibn Batutta Gate a Uber-Limo took us the last 15 minutes to lovely Anantara Downtown Dubai hotel where we would spend one night.

Hotel Loyalty Programs

When you follow our blog you will find we mostly book hotels which are part of the GHA Discovery-program (Anantara, Avani, Kempinski, NH-Hotels , Viceroy and many other brands). We have the top status in this program (Titanium) which gives you many benefits and is relatively easy to reach if you travel a lot. We regard it much better than Marriott´s Bonvoy program or the Hilton program. The only loyalty program which is even better is top status (Diamond) in Shangri La´s Golden Circle, but unfortunately we did not stay enough in Shangri La´s to maintain that status (Shangri La hotels are mostly located in Asia).

Dubai

Back to our one night in Dubai. We always like spending an evening around Burj Khalifa. Walking a little around Dubai Mall, then having dinner sitting on an outside table at Wafi Gourmet. Enjoying very good Lebanese food and watching the fountain is always a nice experience. Many of our friends do not understand why we like busy and “artificial” Dubai, but you know, tastes are different and we just love it!

The next day we decided to spend on the hotel pool, reading and relaxing for the overnight flight. We had a decent dinner in the hotel restaurant. A Uber-Limo took us to the Airport in Abu Dhabi (beautiful new Airport!).

Night Flight

Luckily, we boarded a flight with many free seats. We had a row for ourselves (no need to say we booked random seats again😉) and tried to sleep as much as we could. It was a smooth flight, but sleeping in an upright position is nearly impossible for me. So I closed the eyes, imagined sitting in the Bar in the back of an Emirates A380 Business Class with a cocktail in my hand and my spouse on my side and floated away in my 71cm space seat in row 4 of the Wizz Air A321 neo….

When we approached Malé, a magnificent view of the Atolls from above gave us a first glance of the paradise we would experience in the coming week!

We were picked up by a hotel representative transferred to the Seaplane Terminal and enjoyed breakfast in the private lounge. After about an hour watching seaplanes start and land it was time to board our Manta Air Twin Otter. The Twin Otters are the most frequently used seaplane in the Maldives (if not worldwide). The are reliable and very sympathetic planes. A much too short 35 minute flight with calm weather and stunning views of the atolls and islands took us to the Avani+ Fares Maldives Resort (another one of the GHA Discovery alliance).

Avani+ Fares Resort

What an amazing island, just the right size, great reef for snorkelling or diving, lovely staff and a young Australian General Manager, Judd, obviously managing the resort with passion and a good hand!

We soon found our daily routine of having breakfast, spending some time in privacy in front of our beach apartment, talking to some of our neighbours or reading. Then we would go snorkelling to the edge of the reef and float to ”Smugglers Shack”, one of the two beach bars. From there we would walk back for a rest, spend some time on the beach and do a second round of snorkelling, do some kayaking or have a massage in the afternoon. Have a sun downer, prepare for dinner, have dinner in one of the three restaurants. Walk bare barefoot to the room, sleep and start over the next morning. What a hard life in the tropics! 😉

The island is small (one round walking around the whole island equals about 1.300m, around 15 min. walk. But there are buggies shuttling regularly around the island and who is too lazy to walk can just hop on and off.

Before arriving we were a little concerned about the weather. Early November is the change from rainy to dry season and we heard it can be quite wet. Well, the gods were with us and we had a wonderful week with short rain twice in the night and wonderful sunny days with perfect temperatures (air around 28-32°C and water around 29-31°C). It really can´t get better!

The days were flying and the week was over much too fast!

Malé

As Wizz Air leaves Malé early (08:05am), we had to take a Seaplane out to Malé the day before departure home. So with tears in our eyes, new friends and great memories we boarded Manta Air seaplane to fly back to Malé.

The people in Malé were very kind and friendly but the city itself is really not something that would attract one for more than one stopover night.

So here we are, sitting in the Wizz Air A321 neo approaching Abu Dhabi.

Louvre Abu Dhabi

We used the six hour stopover to visit the Louvre Abu Dhabi! A very interesting museum offering a journey throughout the world civilizations.

On time back on the Airport for a quick dinner in Abu Dhabi Airport´s nice Pearl Lounge and then back on a long flight to Vienna.

Tired and exhausted but with great memories we arrived home.

The Journey Economics

We saved about € 400,- compared to the cheapest flights with the Wizz All You Can Fly tickets. That is quite something! We move close to break even after only three months of All You Can Fly!

We already said we use to travel pretty comfortable and do not really save on accommodation and food. Our stopover night in Anatara Downtown Dubai was a wonderful experience. We picked a 5* resort (Avani+ Fares) which gave us extra benefits through our Titanium Status in GHA Discovery (as in the Anantara Dubai). On the Island we did not spend much more (well, as mentioned above, we indulged in an outstanding massage in Avani´s fabulous SPA). Pretty expensive was the seaplane Transfer to the Maldives resort, which amounted to USD 600 for the two of us (including a 50% discount!).

In the stopover night in Malé, a nice small guest house was fine for our purpose.

Altogether we spent some € 4.000,- for 10 nights abroad (one of which on the plane!), which seems quite reasonable for a 5-star experience. The flight saving amounted to about 10 % of the total travel cost, which seems to be the percentage we will achieve over all in our Wizz All You Can Fly year.

This means, we save a lot of money on flights, but we will still have an expensive travel year in front of us!

Next trip

We hope to find time (and tickets for a quick visit of Barcelona, Rome or Nice before Christmas. And in January, Saudi Arabia is on the list. Stay tuned!