Don’t get me wrong, the Maldives have been one of my favorite trips, however, it’s 10 hours from Munich. If you really plan to come from the US you are most likely going to connect in the UK and it’s going to be nearly 24 hours of travel time or more.

Most of the resorts also have food included and rent rooms on a weekly basis. The islands are very contained and you’d stay in one the entire time. They may have an excursion to another island, but it’s illegal for foreigners to stay on them.

We never book things through travel agents, but this isn’t an ordinary trip, so we did. It gave us many more options. We went on several snorkeling safari’s and to a deserted island.

I’m not certain exactly how much it would cost, but I’d guess close to $10,000+ – especially with the exchange rate.

It’s been a while. Essentially we flew to London, then to Dubai (I think on Emirates.. great airlines) and then to Male in Maldives. Coming back we had an extra stop over in Sri Lanka. Plane tickets weren’t that bad at all relative to if you were to fly from NY to Bangkok or Singapore. I think Economy was a little over 2k for each person. Travel time is long but I think it’s worth it. It’s more of a relaxing vacation then “doing stuff” vacation. If you scuba dive, you’ll be in heaven. Even snorkeling will be an experience you won’t forget. First time I snorkelled I got shocked by how many fishes were around me; I saw mantas and turtles also. The place we went to was on their own island and it’s an all inclusive (food wise) package. A beach front cottage for about 500/night i think (exchange will be bad now). Do a search on Komandoo on google for the resort if you’re interested. You take a sea plane from Male to the resort. We actually booked everything ourselves because a lot of the travel agents we talked to didn’t even know where maldives was.

Some pics we took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aye/sets/1167201/show/

I’m busy planning a honeymoon to the Maldives and I think the $10k you saying is for the absolute best of everything type of holiday.

I’m going for around 5 nights and with flights from South Africa it is going to cost around $4000. And that is staying in a water bungalow as well, so its not the cheapest accommodation. (This also includes full board)

BTW, does anyone have any recommended places to stay that are not overly expensive?