Honeymoon to Maldives and Dubai

medicman

Hi all!
Just after a bit of advice on our honeymoon. We're getting married on 8th July and planning honeymoon to Maldives with 1 night stopover in Dubai on the way back.
The best price I have found is from Emirates holidays as follows:
Deaprt with Emirates airlines on 10/7/06 to Male. Transfer to Taj Exotica Resort and Spa. 7 nights Half board with free upgrade to Deluxe Lagoon villa. Leave Male on 17/07/06. Stop in Dubai for 1 night at Burj al Arab. Return back to Manchester on 18/07/06.
Just wondering if anybody has been to the Maldives in July? I'm a bit unsure about the weather in the Maldives. Will it rain all the time? Does anyone have any experience of this hotel. is it any good? I've been quoted £4200 incl tax for the flights, accommodation incl. Half board in Maldives, B&B in Dubai and transfers. Does that sound reasonable?
Would really appreciate any help.....

davidlizard

Cannot help with the weather (although https://www.weather.co.uk has climate stats for most places). We have been to Maldives and Sri Lanka several times of the year (but not July) and when it rained it tended to be very heavy, but brief (20 mins max or so). It does get very humid - the air is hot and wet.

One thing I would strongly recommend is consider taking an all-inclusive package if you can, or at the very least check out how much food, drink and activities may cost on your selected resort. Where we went (in 2000) a beer was £5, small bottle of water £3, lunch around £15 and dinner £30 to £50 per head which would have cost a small fortune over a week or so - however the vast majority had fortunately elected to go AI. Also, its not like other places where one can eat out locally very cheaply, as each island tends to have a single resort on it.

Maldives is great for diving. Suggest take a mask, snorkel and flippers each unless you are certain there are sets there you can use (the sea is as warm as bathwater and tons of brightly coloured fish everywhere) - it may be worth considering diving lessons before you go so you can take advantage of that whilst you are there.

(We paid about about £900 each, but it wasn't our honeymoon and included Monarch flights (yuk!) and a week in Sri Lanka, then a week in the Maldives)

Congrats on your forthcoming marriage - enjoy the day !

PUREHOMES

was the £4200 quoted a total for two of you or per person?

We were wanting to get married in the maldives at the hilton resort, but unfortunately weddings out there arent legally binding.

So instead we are thinking of just going for the honeymoon. We got quoted ridiculous prices for a sunset villa at the hilton resort!

medicman

Yes £4200 is for the both of us (£2100 each). Any further advice would be really appreciated....

LesD

Unless you're an alcoholic, half board in Maldives should be fine! Most meals are usually buffet style so two meals a day ought to do!

However, it is true that you are gonna be a captive audience for the resort you choose, so you should check food and drink prices for the extras just to be sure.

July is said to be in the 'wet monsoon season' but we were there in November (supposedly the start of the 'dry monsoon') and got caught in a couple of almighty storms. But, as said above, these were short-lived and did not detract from the supurb beauty of the place.

Finally, each resort is unique. So you really need to find more info on the resort you're going to rather than general comments on the Maldives as a whole. As the Taj Exotica website quotes a room rate of $800 (£450) per night for bed and breakfast, your price sounds a good deal!!!

medicman

Thanks for the replies...Any further advice particularly on the likely weather in july would really be appreciated.

whereishergar

My brother went two years ago in July and it rained every day of his holiday, then he went to St Lucia the following year and had rain every day!!! Dubai will certainly be hot hot hot in July!!

hlhassall

Hi there

We went on our honeymoon to the Maldives last year - last week of June into first week of July. We had really good weather although there was occasional rain on a couple of days. We stayed for two weeks all inclusive at Veligandu (booked with Hayes and Jarvis) for just over £3000 in total and flew with Emirates.

Party_Animal

We stayed in Vilivaru. Its one of the best holidays I've ever had, though it was totally different to my usual holiday. There wasn't much to do othere than dive or snorkel, read and sunbathe. I've done a lot of diving and snorkelling all over the world. The snorkelling off Vilivaru was the best I've ever seen. A circular island all the rooms back on to the reef. Step out your back door on to the reef. The snorkelling was all mapped out in sections and we did the whole circumference of the island. The friends who went with us weren't divers but they loved it. My friend's missus read 5 books and totally chilled out.
I would recommend all inclusive as it wasn't cheap there.

jenza8

Hi, We went to the Maldives this year for our honeymoon (Kuredu in one of the Northern atolls). We stayed from 31st July to 15th August and the weather was perfect - the only time we had any rain was the day we left and the sea was quite choppy which made the sea plane takeoff a bit hairy! It was slightly cloudy on the day that we arrived but still very hot. One one of the days in the middle of the holiday big black clouds came over and we thought it was going to throw it down but it was just a wind storm that lasted no longer than 10 mins but was quite spectacular. We had been concerned about going in July/August because of reading various weather reports saying it was the rainy season but really the weather couldn't have been better. Hope this helps.
Just thought - I seem to recall something about different atolls being affected differently by the rainy season can't remember exactly what though.