We had kept our expectations quite low in anticipation of our visit to the Maldives on a budget. We found our travel itinerary, calling for a stay on two different islands, a bit stressful as the local ferry transfer schedule was not overly tourist friendly. The alternate and more costly scheduled speedboat was not much more convenient. Although we had researched quite extensively the snorkeling opportunities in the Maldives, we had been led to believe that snorkeling was fabulous everywhere on the islands. Unfortunately, this was not our own experience. It was quite possible that Maldives offered great snorkeling opportunities for those at a private resort island with a nearby house reef or those folks were willing to incur the expenses of a snorkeling day trip with a boat. Would we return to the Maldives? Probably not – unless we won a very large lottery prize. Although we had originally planned for our visit to the Maldives to coincide with our 20 year wedding anniversary, we ended leaving this exotic (or exclusive) destination before our actual event day.

2023.04.17 – Dhiffushi Island – Dhiffushi Island (Maldives)

Beyond our regular island routine, we tried our hand at snorkeling at the 2nd bikini beach – an isolated beach where bikini swimwear can be worn freely without offending the Muslin residents on the island – proved to be difficult because of the current.

2023.04.18 – Dhiffushi Island – Huraa Island (Maldives)

We woke up early to catch the 6:30am slow ferry to the island of Huraa. Our hotel had kindly provided us with a light take-away breakfast. Upon arriving in Huraa, we were picked up at the boat pier by our hotel-resort staff. We were very pleased when we were advised that we could check into our room – even though it was only 9am. We learned that a group of flight attendants from Italy who regularly stayed at the resort after their flights benefited from a nice occupational perk of a 4 night stay. Beyond the dozen of flight attendants and us, there were only a handful of other guests at our resort. We marveled at the view from our 2nd floor room. Although we were quite pleased with our hotel/resort room, we knew our island was sandwiched to the north and south by two private resort islands. We kept on hoping the guests checked into those over-the-water villas at $1,000USD/night were getting their money’s worth. A stone throw away in the south of our island was a Four Season luxury resort while in the north we faced an expansive Club Med resort. In the late afternoon, we had our first snorkeling outing directly off the beach. We felt the underwater experience much better than on the island of Dhiffushi. After eating buffet breakfast and dinner at our first hotel in Dhiffushi, it was refreshing to order from a table d’hôte menu. The food was nicely prepared and obviously delicious.

2023.04.19 – Huraa Island – Huraa Island (Maldives)

We enjoyed our breakfast à la carte and later walked to the town center to confirm our reservation on Friday’s 6:00pm speedboat to Malé’s airport. We continued to savor our beach and snorkeling time. And we wrapped up our evening with a nice dinner (minus any alcohol beverage).

2023.04.20 – Huraa Island – Huraa Island (Maldives)

Breakfast, beach, snorkeling and dinner at our hotel/resort. In the morning, I rented a bicycle and cycled throughout the island over 1.5 hr.

2023.04.21 – Huraa Island – Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)

We had our last breakfast in the Maldives. We were disappointed when we learned we would need to promptly check-out from our room at 12pm as the hotel was apparently fully occupied in the evening. As we waited for our 6pm speedboat to Malé’s airport, we spent our time at the beach and at the hotel’s spa building. At 5:30pm, the hotel staff brought us to the boat pier well ahead of our speedboat departure. The 20 mins boat ride was significantly more enjoyable and faster than the local ferry we had taken to date. At the airport, we were surprised to see so many folks lining up to the airport entrance. We were relieved when we finally checked-in at our discount airline counter for our 9:20pm flight. It appeared everyone who had checked in wanted to eat before their respective flights. Hence, the wait time for fast food order at Burger King and the other alternate restaurant were in the order of 20-30 minutes. Many folks opted, like us, for some very very expensive pastries and drinks. We found the departure process at the Maldives airport one of the worst we encountered on this trip in terms of complexity and slowness. When we landed in Abu Dhahi at 2:00am, we were pleasantly surprised by Wizz Air’s quality of service and seat spacing. We had read many poor reviews regarding this Budapest-based air carrier – our own experience was quite good. The UAE immigration process was very efficient. After retrieving our luggage, we took a taxi to our hotel.

2023.04.22 – Abu Dhabi – Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)

Although we had a very short night sleep, we managed to show up at our hotel’s buffet breakfast by 9am. The staff were friendly and efficient while dealing with so many guests. Later, we walked to a nearby shopping mall where we exchanged some cdn funds into local currency. We also purchased one final local sim for the United Arab Emirates. From the shopping mall, we took a taxi to visit the delightful Umm Al Emarat Park. We spent 1.5 hr strolling along the park. Before returning to our hotel, we took a taxi to the Central Bus station to inquiry about bus schedule and tickets for our upcoming day trip to Dubai. We purchased the recommended NOL transit cards. Strangely, the bus service still only accepted cash as a method of payment – unlike most other businesses in the city. We took one last taxi to our hotel. In the evening, we visited a Chinese restaurant for our dinner.

2023.04.23 – Abu Dhabi – Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)

After breakfast, we took a taxi to the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum. The exterior of the building was as much eye-catching as Le Louvre in Paris. We arrived shortly after the museum opened. We spent well over 2 hours enjoying the artifacts and information panels along the 12 exhibit halls. After our visit, we took a taxi to a bike sharing station situated along the corniche – Abu Dhabi’s waterfront walkway. We struggled quite a bit with the bike sharing app (Careem Bike App) – first with credit card registration and then later with the codes to release our bicycles. Nonetheless, we managed to cycle over 12kms along the corniche. After returning our bicycle at another station, we took a taxi back to our hotel. We were very grateful for the more comfortable temperature and gentle breeze during our cycling journey. Back in our hotel area, we purchased a few snacks and refreshments before returning to our room for well deserved rest. In the evening, we had our dinner at a Domino Pizza restaurant near our hotel.