Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.
In this episode, Hotel Maven Jennifer Merritt heads to the Maldives...in her head. Enjoy.
Ever since a PR person's pitch for the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island arrived in my inbox, I cannot stop thinking about this place--and that was a year and a half ago.
Set on two private islands accessible only by seaplane, the hotel is surrounded by coral reef and a lagoon. It features an all-glass, undersea restaurant, two spas and various levels of luxury water villas scattered throughout miles and miles of white sandy beaches.
A friend of ours was fortunate enough to be able to make the trip to the W Maldives a few months ago and of course the green-eyed monster came out when looking at her vacation pics.
The W seems to be everything it promises on the website, in the magazines, in the ads and more. We will go there someday. Oh yes, we will go there someday.
In the meantime, check out this sweet W boat that ferries guests around where they need to go--like the airport. Do you think they would sell that in the W online store?
A relatively recent opening in the Maldives, the Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru has quickly become a very popular destination over its first couple of years. In a UK Independent report last week it got an extremely positive write-up:
Food and cabins - there are some 50 "beach pavilions" and 38 "water bungalows" - are, needless to say, so faultless you'll want to cry when it's time to leave.
When we see this photo of the pool out the back of a water villa, we can understand never wanting to say goodbye. And each room and villa come with such a long list of life's daily needs that we could probably stay and work from there anyhow: they have CD and DVD players, multi-line telephones with voicemail and wired and wireless internet access. Plus the housekeeping service drops by not once, but twice a day.
However, our dream of living at the Landaa Giraavaru forever has already been quickly shattered because we checked the prices. The cheapest nightly rate (and that's not for a water villa with this pool, obviously) comes in at US$700 a night using a stay four, pay for three package; if you want a Bed and Breakfast deal it comes in at $960 per night. Might have to be satisfied with a short vacation there instead.
When we think of the Maldives, snorkelling, scuba diving and relaxing at the pool are the kinds of activities which spring to mind. But those heading to the Hilton Maldives Resort and Spa (to become the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island in December) should add another activity to the list: cheese-tasting.
We do love us some Maldives action, and their policy of having only one resort on each island does make it a heavenly kind of place. But you all love the Maldives too, and they're looking to expand.
So how do they do it? According to the Deputy Director of the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board, Abdulla Naim, it's all too easy:
There are currently 89 resorts in operation in the 300,000 population Maldives on a one-resort-per-island policy. We want to increase the number of resorts but don't want to change this guideline so the only thing we can do is develop more islands ... The government has gazetted 50 uninhabited islands for tourism development in the near future. The plan calls for the addition of 7000 beds in the next three to four years. This would increase the accommodation inventory to 27,000 rooms by 2011.
At some stage of course they'll have to run out of uninhabited-but-habitable islands: although there are about 1192 islands to choose from (unless global warming covers up too many). Apart from the well-known snorkelling and scuba diving possibilities, the Maldives are also trying to push surfing as a must-do, which should fill up another dozen or two islands.
Overwater bungalows, sea-plane transfers, deserted beaches. C'mon, no one can resist the Maldives resort scene can they?
This year the Maldives hotel scene popped onto our for many reasons--W Maldives opened, Maldives fly overs via Google Earth, TomKat honeymooned there briefly, and there was a post-tsunami new resort boom on the islands.
Expect the Maldives hotel fascination to continue, at least through the long, not-as-cold-as-it-used-to-be winter in the North East.
It is gonna take more than some silly TomKat spat to kill our travel crush on the Maldives.
Our latest Google Earth flyover has us thinking we found our Maldives overwater bungalow destination Full Moon, not that we are going anytime soon or anything.
Why? Well this resort was completely rebuilt after the tsunami, so it has that new resort smell. Add to the fray a five star spa connected to the island by a wooden footbridge, a split-level infinity pool, and brand new overwater bungalows. Usually we don't even look at the price tags on these places, because we know we can't afford 'em, but this one seems reasonable--from €110? Really? We aren't math wizards, but that works itself out to under $300, doesn't it?
Drawbacks? It is close to Malé and the airport, so you probably have to endure some fly overs, but it is a freakin' island, not like the resort is on the runway. Plus after that long haul flight to Malé you just might think proximity to the airport is a blessing rather than a curse.
If you have been to Full Moon, feel free to burst our bubble by posting a review on the hotel page.
The proverbial they say that a couple's honeymoon can be an accurate predictor for the future health of your marriage.
While it struck us as odd that TomKat chose to spend an extended amount of time aboard the Arctic P, a 285-foot converted icebreaker since their Italian wedding a couple weeks back, it struck us as doubly odd that it has been widely reported that Tom invited his best man, Scientology leader David Miscavige to join them on their trip.
Triply odd is that the couple cut their trip short, allegedly due to bad weather in the Maldives. Bad weather in the Maldives? No way, we refuse to believe it.
Anyway, we haven't heard any reports reviewing what it is like to stay on the Arctic P, however, YachtSpotter is reporting the boat in question was indeed docked off Male as of November 20, 2006.
We are trying not to let this whole episode end our travel crush on the Maldives.
0 Comments - Add Yours
by jennm
