Maldives - When and who to book with

pledgeX

I'm starting to look at booking my honeymoon to the Maldives in March 2014.

When is the best time to book? I'm struggling to find much info at the minute as the flights have not been released yet so a lot of websites won't let me go that far in advance. But what I don't want to do is wait for a few months for the flights to become available only to realize that the resort we're looking at has become booked up. This probably wont be a problem on the larger resorts but I imagine some of the smaller resorts get booked up very quickly.

Also, I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on the best travel agents to go with when looking at the Maldives. I've been using Kuoni for all my research so far as their website is very good and it's possible to tweak the board level, type of rooms etc, whereas on a lot of other sites this is not possible or a lot of hard work. Considering the type of board and room type can sway the price by several thousand pounds it will be handy to know up front and be able to tweak it!

Thanks for any help.

Ms_Chocaholic

We've booked with Kuoni and Hayes & Jarvis for previous trips, unfortunately Kuoni don't offer our preferred island.

Have you some idea of which island you want to travel to?

pledgeX

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

We've booked with Kuoni and Hayes & Jarvis for previous trips, unfortunately Kuoni don't offer our preferred island.

Have you some idea of which island you want to travel to?

We've got a couple of favourites so far:
- Kuramathi
- Bandos Island Resort

We want to go in late March, for 10 days (wish we could afford more ), full board (not fussed by all incl) with a budget of around 4.5k-5.5k for 2 people flying from London.

But I'm finding it hard to research because of the afore mentioned reasons where the websites don't easily allow you to compare board options or have the flights available etc. And as you've found, some providers don't cover certain resorts.

Ms_Chocaholic

I'm not sure where you have researched to get your favourites but I see your still open minded about what island to visit, I would recommend buying (or getting a copy from your local library) of Lonely Planet book on Maldives; it's not a huge read but it helped us extensively before our first trip.

bylromarha

pledgeX wrote: »

We've got a couple of favourites so far:
- Kuramathi
- Bandos Island Resort

We want to go in late March, for 10 days (wish we could afford more ), full board (not fussed by all incl) with a budget of around 4.5k-5.5k for 2 people flying from London.

But I'm finding it hard to research because of the afore mentioned reasons where the websites don't easily allow you to compare board options or have the flights available etc. And as you've found, some providers don't cover certain resorts.

I went to Bandos in June 2009 with hubby and our 2 kids.

It is lovely, but it really is family friendly. There will be kids in the restaurant. One other family's kids annoyed us as the parents had no control.

We went half board as the late breakfast and early dinner was more than enough to keep us going through the day. If we got hungry, then we went to one of the restaurants and bought a plate of chips to share. Full board means you get a huge buffet to dip into at lunch time as well - we didn't think the extra £200 pp made it worth it.

We stayed in a deluxe room and for all 4 of us for 14 nights, flights (Emirates) + half board was £4.5k with Virgin Holidays.

We then had a £1k bill of extras to pay on departure - drinks, day trips, diving, ice creams by the pool. Make sure you budget for that bit too.

pledgeX

Thanks bylromarha. That's one of the things putting me off the two places I've listed, they're both big and therefore cater for kids. We don't really want a 'family-friendly' location on our honeymoon!

bylromarha

pledgeX wrote: »

Thanks bylromarha. That's one of the things putting me off the two places I've listed, they're both big and therefore cater for kids. We don't really want a 'family-friendly' location on our honeymoon!

Bandos is big enough to cope with the families during the day, but you really can't get away from everyone else at meal times!

Your honeymoon, you're paying to get precisely what you want and if no screaming toddlers is part of your list, then I'd find somewhere else

silvercar

We went to Olhuveli, hardly any kids there.

We saved money by flying with Thomson/ First choice. Airline not as luxurious but no change of plane and much cheaper.

pledgeX

Any hints on the best time to book?

Archergirl

I imagine March is pretty much peak season, if you want certain dates and a certain island I would book as soon as you can.

Ms_Chocaholic

I think flights are only available to book 11 months in advance so, depending when you intend to travel, you'll be able to book from April/May.

I don't think there is a "best time to book"