Tag: Maldives

Tips for UAE and Maldives

I’m one of those people who LIVES on message boards and reads everything I possibly can about places I am about to travel to before I get there. Preparedness, I find, keeps me out of unnecessary situations when traveling. For my recent trip to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Maldives I read up on the rules, laws and other touristy stuff. I also made a financial breakdown for those wondering how much all of this would cost. 

Even after ALL of that? There was some things that caught me completely off guard once I landed that I don’t think these message boards explained well or were just very vague about. I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of Tripadvisor reviews and message boards but it can be pretty confusing and not definitive at times. I wanted to just tell everyone some of the things that I was either surprised by or not prepared for. 

Money:

The first surprise we were in for was the taxes at the hotels on food. My goodness. I swear to you, EVERYTHING had like a 22% tax on it. I wish I had taken better notes of it but it was something along the lines of a 10% tourist tax, another 10% property tax and I can’t really remember what the other 2% was. Now imagine? Our breakfast was already a walloping $35 per person or drinks were $10 per person, now add 22% tax to ALL of that. This is a necessary piece of information for all of you to know because adding almost 1/4th + tip to everything when you go eating and drinking can really add up.  

On the topic of eating, the food prices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi were really ridiculous. I’m sure that there are cheap eats somewhere in those cities, however, we would have needed to taxi or Uber to those locations which would defeat the whole purpose of trying to save money. There were moments we would go into restaurants and wonder how it was possible the appetizer and the main course were only a $3 difference? Makes no damn sense to me. Luckily, Maldives had very fresh food that was much much cheaper in comparison to our spots in the UAE.

Transportation:

Note that there is no Uber in Abu Dhabi but there is Uber in Dubai. I did read that somewhere in the message boards but I figured I would include that here because it may save you some time and headaches knowing beforehand. The nice thing about Abu Dhabi’s taxi services is that they are heavily regulated and they all had Wi-Fi inside. And when I say regulated – the taxi drivers dashboard would begin making a noise if the he went above a certain speed limit ‘YOU ARE GOING ABOVE THE SPEED LIMIT. YOU ARE GOING ABOVE THE SPEED LIMIT. PLEASE SLOW DOWN‘! Imagine that being a thing in Toronto or NY the way our cabbies drive? No chance.

In Dubai, all the Ubers we got were either a BMW or Lexus (that’s basic Uber, not even Uber Black) and yes, they do have UberCHOPPER there as well just in case you want to fly over the traffic. Wild. Do note that there are now designated Uber pickup locations in Dubai so you can’t just be picked up everywhere and anywhere like we can here in Toronto. In places like Mall of the Emirates and Dubai Mall there are two or three areas where they are allowed to pick you up or otherwise face a fine. 

On the topic of transportation, I would highly recommend using the bus between the two cities that only takes about 90 minutes and costs $9.00 (Canadian) one way. There is no need to pay all that money for a taxi to bring you from Abu Dhabi to Dubai or vice versa when these buses are safe, they have reclining seats and are well air conditioned. I was pleasantly surprised.

Airports:

Dubai airport is the busiest place I have ever seen. When they tell you to be there two hours early, please do listen to them. I suppose because we flew from there on Christmas Eve maybe it was a little extra busy but I wouldn’t risk it there. There are people yelling across the room everywhere and even some standing on the conveyor belts to push the massive cargo going through. Also, be prepared that in some parts of the airport there are still just squat toilets. Wish I had known that before wearing a romper.

On the other side of this spectrum was the main airport in the Maldives. We were told that during the holiday season the recommended time to arrive was three hours before departure. I am so happy we did NOT listen to that. This airport is very small and there is nothing to do there, so if we had sat there for three hours? Our journey home would have felt even longer than the 40hrs it already was going to take. We arrived at the airport about 45min before boarding and still had time to spare. Maybe everyone else listened to that three hours before nonsense and that is why there was no lineups, I’m not sure. I just know we arrived and were blessaz.     

Other:

I was completely unaware of how dense the fog in Abu Dhabi and Dubai was. Wowzers. I just assumed these were hot places with nice weather all the time and the occasional sandstorm. There was some mornings in Dubai we couldn’t see our own hotel if we looked up, that is how dense the fog is. When you book activities like going up to the Burj Khalifa or doing the Dining In The Sky, this fog situation is really important because it can make the experience not as awesome as it should be. 

Probably the most VAGUE thing I read about was clothing in the UAE. Everyone is full of shit. I’m just going to tell you that from the jump. I’m not saying you should be out there in pum pum shorts and a crop top, but seriously, it is NOWHERE as strict as some people try to make you believe. When we got to Dubai I threw on a backless maxi dress and not a single soul screwed up their face at me at all. Everywhere had tourists walking around in shorts and tank tops just fine. I could have brought ALL my thottie dresses to Dubai and Abu Dhabi and gone to the club without any disturbance. So please, bring your thottie dresses to go out at night – no one cares.

My one final piece of information that kept coming up with others when talking about this trip was that many people are unaware about the liquor laws in UAE and in Maldives. In my experience there, drinking in Abu Dhabi and Dubai went great. We were inebriated in Abu Dhabi twice in one day and in Dubai we were able to drink by the pool as well. Not saying you should get publicly intoxicated or expect wine and beer to be served in restaurants – but it is definitely accessible. Now the Maldives? Ah. We stayed on a local island not a private one. Note that on these local islands there is NO LIQUOR. It is completely dry. No liquor at the restaurant and no liquor at your hotel. I believe it is even illegal to bring liquor in your checked-in luggage to the Maldives. (I’d do some research on that one) The private islands are the ones that have access to alcohol so if you are trying to go on your honeymoon and get wine lusty, local islands are NOT for you.

If you feel to add any other tidbits that you think people traveling to UAE and Maldives should know, just comment below this post. I’d love to read your tips as well!

– Mirna 

Maldives 2017 Recap

An additional synonym for ‘paradise’, the word would be the Maldives.

This is part 3/3 of my recaps from my trip in December. (if you haven’t read already, part 1 and part 2 are up!)

The Maldives are one of those places most people I know just plot for honeymoons one day and think it’s super expensive and inaccessible. False. Completely false. When I tell you the Maldives are accessible and are NOT only for honeymooners, please believe me (as written in this itinerary I posted for Maldives). You definitely do not need to wait until right after your wedding to come here. This place is magic and worth the trip at any point in your life. 

Monday, Dec 25, 2017

We planned our trip accordingly and were able to land in the Maldives on Christmas morning. I have flown over various islands in my life but trust me when I tell you that the view over the islands in the Maldives is something totally different. The water is so many shades of blue and there are so many tiny islands that you just try to guess which one of these beautiful plots of land could be your home for the next week. Unfortunately, our plane from Sri Lanka was running late and it had put us in a very tight schedule to make our speed boat to Maafushi. I rarely travel with checked-in luggage and this was MOST DEFINITELY one of the days where I wish we had none. Luckily, we made our speed boat just in time and enjoyed the bumpy 45min trip to Maafushi as best as we could. (Sidebar: Sherry and I had gone through a horrific boat ride back in 2015 coming from Venice to Croatia so since then, boat rides weren’t exactly our favourite activity.) 

Arrival – the small island of Maafushi. It was about 11am when we finally got to the island and we were fortunate enough that the hotel let us check in three hours early so we could spend the majority of Christmas day on the beach. Arena Beach Hotel would be our place to stay until December 31st. Very cliche to say but this hotel was small but with a lot of personality. The staff were incredibly nice and we would be seeing the same people every day for the duration of our stay. The best part of the hotel was that we were directly on a bikini beach so we could go upstairs and throw our tiny bathing suits on and go frolic immediately….which we did. I think by noon we had managed to finagle another tourist to take a picture of Sherry and I in our santa hats and red bathing suits to piss off everyone at home sitting in the cold. Merry Christmas! 

The switch from the craziness of Dubai to this quiet island was great for me. All we had to do was walk 10 feet from the beach to where we could have our breakfasts, lunches and dinners. A big PLUS in the differences was also our breakfast was now included in the price (no more $42 per person brekkie), lunch barely came to $20USD for both of us and dinners were $12USD for a whole buffet. Cheaper food and a beach to eat it on is definitely my idea of blissful living, thanks. A bit of a nuisance was that everyone else on this island also preferred our hotels food to theirs so there was a couple of times where it was a packed house with not so many servers. Perhaps THOSE people should have picked better hotels. Yes, I am that petty.

Tuesday, Dec 26, 2017

As payback for my stunting on IG for Christmas, my whole body was burnt to a crisp. I wasn’t even in the Maldives for 24 hours and my body was like ‘LOL, you thought!’ Major fail on my end and major pain in most of my pale skin turned tomato-ish coloured now. On this day I would be relaxing alone in the morning/early afternoon because Sherry had chosen one of the scuba diving excursions the hotel offered and went off to do that. Since I couldn’t really be exposed in my bathing suit that day I decided to lay in a hammock in the shade for a while and then took a stroll around Maafushi. This island was officially the smallest I have ever been on. You could see from one end of the island directly through to the other. Without stopping, if you walked the full circumference of the island it would maybe take 20 minutes. During my walk I got to enjoy seeing more locals, I found a beautiful soccer pitch, empty non-bikini beaches and a prison. Somehow, on this tiny island, there was a whole ass prison. Didn’t see that coming. 

When Sherry returned we hoped to do another excursion that I had been looking forward to – night fishing. Sadly, for the entirety of our time at the hotel there was no point where the minimum (4 people) amount had signed up for it so we never got to go. Sucks. We just ended up doing a nice night walk around the island again and went to sleep.

Wednesday, Dec 27, 2017

Today was the day we were venturing out to experience the luxurious side of the Maldives we all see on Instagram. We took a day excursion from our hotel to the private island of Olhuveli, specifically, to the fancy pants Olhuveli Beach & Spa. I think it took about a 30min in a speedboat to get to this utopia. Holy shit, I promise you, the pictures I posted don’t even do this place justice. From entry to every corner of the island, it was perfectly manicured trees, villas and beaches. We were allowed to use the whole island for the day and there was also a buffet lunch included in the entry price. I was especially elated at the sight of the famous overwaater villas. Every picture I have seen of the Maldives included these damn villas and I wanted to feel like a rich person too OK? I made sure to get plenty of pictures in front of those villas and fully take in another piece of my bucket list being crossed off. 

This ended up being a mostly lazy day for us as we sat by the infinity pool before and after our lunch, drinking some rum. This was a notable experience as bringing liquor into the Maldives is illegal and we cannot access it on the ‘local’ island we were staying on. These private islands though? Bottoms up! 

Thurs, Dec 28 + Fri, Dec 29 + Sat, Dec 30, 2017

We didn’t have as hectic of a schedule in the Maldives as we did in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. One of my biggest regrets was that perhaps we should have gone to the Maldives first and then made our way to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Our jet lag had FINALLY somewhat worn off but there really wasn’t anything to do at night in Maafushi because, let’s be serious, its CRAZY dark outside and we don’t have access to liquor. I can assume those on honeymoons get into a different variety of shenanigans in their private rooms at night, but like, that clearly wasn’t an option for us two. From Thursday to Saturday we just would eat, lay on the beach, eat again, lay on the beach some more and then go to sleep. I feel no shame in that for once in my life I actually went somewhere and did NOTHING. I should add, these three days of nothingness were necessary with what was ahead for our journey home….. 

Sunday, Dec 31, 2017

I’m just gonna tell all of you from the start – this goddamn journey home took 40 hours. 40. Goddamn. Hours. This was another reason we maybe should have reversed our schedule of going to the Maldives first and ending it in the UAE.

Alright, so, we were up at 5am on New Years eve to finish packing and get to our flight. While Sherry finished packing I did my last stroll on our bikini beach and took in the silence and warmth that would be absent from my life as soon as I got back to Toronto. We pulled some wild shit on this day, oh boy. There are scheduled speed boats from Maafushi to the airport throughout the day. You could take your own private boat, but that would be $150USD for both of you instead of the $25USD per person for the scheduled ones. Never in my life have I arrived in an airport with less than an hour until the flight departed. Not even boarding, no no, actual departure. We took a boat at 7:30am from Maafushi and arrived at the airport at about 8:15am. Boarding was set to begin at 8:45am. Take that in. We had 30 minutes to (hopefully) check in, check our luggage, make it through border control and get to our gate.

Small ting, we totally made it with time to spare!  

I wouldn’t suggest anyone else cuts it that close for their flights, but we somehow made it on time AFTER people telling us that it is ‘busy season’ and they recommended being at the airport 3hrs before departure. Guess sometimes you have to live your life on the edge, this was our morning on this edge. Sadly, customs confiscated the charcoal I had in my checked-in luggage for my bf’s newly bought shisha and they also confiscated a souvenir lighter Sherry had purchased and also stowed in her checked-in luggage. Thank god we were running so close to our departure because if not? Sherry likely would have created an international incident over that damn lighter. It was a little weird though, we came in with those items into Maldives but we were not allowed to leave with them. Whatever, onto Sri Lanka. 

We got to Sri Lanka on time and within an hour we boarded our flight continuing onto Dubai. It is now about 4:30pm and we are back at DXB airport. I had booked us a coach ride on the complimentary Etihad bus going from Etihad Travel Mall in Dubai to Abu Dhabi airport for 7pm. Let me tell you guys, this service is THEEEEE SHIT! You get to this place and you can check in for your flight from there. They took our luggage (which we didn’t see again until Toronto) and gave us our boarding passes. There was a restaurant to eat in, an exchange place and even bathrooms with showers in them at this Etihad Travel Mall. We boarded promptly at 7pm and were on our way back to Abu Dhabi, arriving at 820pm at their airport.

Without having to deal with our heavy checked-in luggage and with boarding passes in hand, we quickly went to the lockers at Abu Dhabi airport and dropped off our carry-on bags. To note, they aren’t actually lockers – there is a gentleman at a desk who will tag and store whatever luggage you have until you come back and pick it up. (They charge by size and length of time in storage) Now that we had no heavy items to carry on us we went over to the taxi area and had the driver take us to Yas Island.   

Sherry and I had read that there was a free ‘Winter Wonderland’ that night at Yas and we would see fireworks from there as well. That was a mistake, too many kids everywhere. It was literally a carnival for children and families with fake snow sprinkled everywhere. Not exactly how we wanted to spend our NYE so we decided to take a hike over to Yas Marina. Once there, we pranced by Stars n’ Bars again and took a seat at a bench overlooking the marina. The security guard told us where to face for the best view of them – he was wrong, but we still got to see them. There was some outdoor nightclub blaring forgetful hits from the 80s and 90s the entire time so we brought in the new year listening to the Macarena at a marina in Abu Dhabi. Great. 

Monday, Jan 1, 2018

Clock struck midnight. It was officially 2018 on this side of the world. Our flight was at 2:15am going from Abu Dhabi to Frankfurt so we had to find a cabbie quickly to make it back for customs screening etc. We got VERY lucky as the first cabbie man we spoke to agreed to take us. He spent the entire ride complaining about taking us since there were ‘more expensive fares‘ to be had but we thanked him and tipped him nicely for picking us up over the other New Years Eve revelers. When we arrived at the airport we went and scooped our carry-on luggage from the lockers and easily made our way in through customs and border protection. 

2:15am, we finally left for Frankfurt. We were happy that the layover in Frankfurt was only three hours going home, unfortunately, the captain decided to speed shit up and we got there an hour early. Great, another four hours at Frankfurt airport. Fast forward through the boredom there and our flight home to Toronto was finally boarding. Hallelujah. We landed in Toronto at 12:30pm on Monday, January 1st. New Years Day – absolutely exhausted. If you take in the 10hr and then 9hr and then 6hr time differences between Maldives, UAE and Frankfurt, we were spent. 

Home at last, whyyy must it be so cold?

If you’re wondering the costs associated with this entire trip, make sure to click here. Gives a breakdown of what we paid for flight + stays.

– Mirna 

Maldives Budget Breakdown (2017)

I thought long and hard about writing this piece because I realize some aspects of travel can be TMI. But if I could do a price breakdown for going to Cropover in Barbados, why shouldn’t I explain the costs associated with going to the Maldives? 

The reason I wanted to post this is because I feel like the Maldives is a dream location for many that seems exceptionally pricey and almost impossible to travel to on a budget. 

Unlike Barbados, I won’t post the costs of activities, because what I will be doing is definitely not what everyone else would be doing. (Unlike Carnivals, where usually going to fetes is kind of the standard of attendance.) Also, my trip is not ONLY to the Maldives – I will be spending 3 nights in Abu Dhabi, 2 nights in Dubai and then 6 nights in the Maldives. 

Also, I should add, myself and my travel partner for this journey (@sherrydacosta) decided to have some luxury in our lives. This trip could have been much cheaper in regards to accommodations but once we saw how discounted these 4* and 5* hotels in Abu Dhabi and Dubai were, it was a unanimous vote to enjoy some of them. Let me tell you, I can’t even get a 4* hotel in Toronto for these prices so being fortunate enough to book them in warm locations was a bonus. 

Let us begin with the flight. 

When we were initially looking for flights to the Maldives it was about $2500 per person roundtrip.

STEEP.

I realized we were going during an expensive time of year, but still, no way that was an acceptable flight price. So I did the same thing I did for Barbados, I began looking at alternative airports for departure and working out what route would be cheaper. 

We got lucky.

Air Canada + Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi roundtrip with only a 3hr layover each way in Frankfurt popped up. $1389.00 per person. Perfect.

Following that, we found a flight to the Maldives from Dubai with Sri Lankan Air. $771.00 per person. Also, perfect. 

With choosing to readjust our route, it lowered our flight cost from a possible $2500 per person to $2160 per person. What is even MORE crazy is that exact flight to Abu Dhabi we booked back in September that we paid $1389 for is now $2700!! Yikes. Lower price and we get to see Abu Dhabi and Dubai? Win. Big big win. 

Moving on to accommodations.

Now that we knew our dates for Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Maldives it was just a matter of finding cheap places to rest our heads. However, once we began looking and seen the cheap prices for some very nice hotels, we decided to splurge a little. (still, well-priced though)

For Abu Dhabi we found this beautiful hotel ‘Traders Hotel Qaryat Al Beri, by Shangri-la‘. It is a 4* hotel on a beach, the Tripadvisor reviews were great and it even has a gondola that will taxi you via their own canals throughout the hotel. Incredible.

Cost: $182.50 per person, for three nights!

We wanted something glitzy for Dubai, but I think both of us NEVER pictured we would find a gem like the ‘Five Palm Jumeirah‘. This is a 5* hotel in the Palm Jumeirah area of Dubai. It is grandiose in its structure, has three outdoor swimming pools and a private beach. The second we saw this hotel we knew it was the one. Although this one is a bit more costly, I feel for it being a 5* and how gorgeous it is, well worth the money.

Cost:  $288.00 per person, for two nights! 

Finally, for the longest stay during this vacation we had to pick somewhere good for the Maldives. Here was the dilemma; 1) The resorts that are on private islands are INSANELY expensive 2) The hotels on islands with local occupants were not as ‘open’ because you couldn’t just walk around in a bathing suit.

So what to do?

Boom. We found the incredible ‘Arena Beach Hotel‘ on the island of Maafushi. This is a 4* hotel on a local island (not private) that has a bikini beach at its front doors. Therefore, we can frolic freely in our bathing suits without being offensive to the local population. This hotel is not only beautiful, well priced and well located – it also includes a buffet breakfast. I love food-inclusive pricing. Furthermore, it is also perfect for any scuba diving, fishing or island hopping excursions. Great find for us.

Cost: $495.50 per person, for six nights!

Could this trip have been cheaper? Absolutely. I think Sherry and I could have easily done this for under $2700 even. But, when you want to be fake bougee for a period of time, this is what happens. Also, I imagine when it isn’t Christmas/NYE it may also be much cheaper to travel to these destinations.

Total cost of flights and accommodations for Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Maldives is: $3126.00 per person. 

I think we did well with the nice places we are staying and going to. I really hope this price breakdown enlightens and perhaps even inspires people to travel to these luxurious places on a non-six-figure-a-year-earning-salary. 

– Mirna