Trip to Maldives with Skyscanner

Deep blue seas, white sandy beaches, palm trees, where the sunrays embrace you in their arms and you can relish your old memories and get in love with each other again and again.Yes, ofcourse its Maldives.

Images taken from mymaldives.com

From the last 3 years my husband planned all the trips. But this time, I decided to give him a surprise, by planning a trip to Maldives for our anniversary. Our anniversary is in Dec, the time when all the hotels would be full and air travel would be expensive, if done at the last hour, hence, I decided to do all the arrangements in advance.

I geared up myself and send my requirements to the various sites that offer best prices for travel and hotel accommodation. Within minutes I got calls from them asking my budget and other specific travel details. I was happy, as it seems that soon I will get a great deal for my dream tour from them. But with each passing day, discussions with the travel agents seems to be endless….sometimes they asked to increase the budget (my budget is 1lakh INR), the other day they changed the hotel to fit the itinerary in the budget. I don’t want to compromise on any details, neither on hotel nor in travel plan, so in the last I decided to plan the entire trip and do all bookings myself. But, how?

I called up one of my friend, who is an avid traveler for help. To my disappointment, instead of helping me out, he sends me a link www.Skyscanner.co.in  and insists to visit the website once.

The next day, although I was very angry at him, I decided to check the website. To my surprise, it seems to be more helpful than my friend (just kidding). From flight to local travel to hotel accommodation, you can find the best options out here and booked them at one go.

Starting with the Flights Option, I searched for the flights from Hyderabad to Maldives (MALE) Skyscanner wizard searched in all major travel agents & airlines websites like cleartrip,makemytrip,Goair,SpiceJet  and many more and by comparing the prices, list out  all the  options on my screen. I filtered the results on“Price”and got an option that suited my travel plan and expense.

Selecting the lowest fair took me to the webpage of that particular travel agents page from where I booked my tickets. Hurray….everything seems so easy; I can’t believe that within minutes I booked the tickets for Maldives.

Flight booking expense: 37360 (Base Fair) + 5,282 (Fee & Surcharge) = 42,642 INR

Now is the time for booking Hotel accommodation.  I found a great deal of hotels in Skyscanner website and finally booked one, which is in my budget and seems to be quite good based on the customer’s review.

Hotel booking expense: 1 Room X 4 Nights = 17,276 INR  (including breakfast)

“Skyscanner – the travel wizard – will make seem all the bookings and planning an itinerary a breez”

Ferry is the main mode of transport in Maldives. So, we have to take ferry for To and Fro from Airport and hotel to other places. When I researched more about the prices ,it seems to be a quite reasonable mode of travel.

I reserved 12,000 INR for Internal Maldives travel expenses.

So, in total out of my 1Lakh budget, I left out with 1, 00,000-(42,642 + 17,276 + 12,000) = 28,082 INR.

Now, this is pretty much a good amount, remained to be spent for food and Maldives excursion. We can do diving,sailing,fishing, snorkeling and lot more water based activities there.

I planned my whole itinerary, and here it is:

On 6^th Dec 2014, we will take our flight from Hyderabad to Maldives and will reach the destination at 14:10pm. Maldives, a country comprised of 1,190 coral islands, most of them are still uninhabited. As we exit from the airport, the sparkling sun kissed beaches and palm trees seems to welcome us on this beautiful island.

Image taken from visitmaldives.com

We would take a ferry from Airport Island to capital (Male), which is the cheapest mode of transport. There would be people all around playing beach volleyball, sauna and board games. In the evening , we just relax, take a walk on the beach and look at the sunset colouring the water with unforgettable colours, drink a nice cocktail and enjoy the magnificent view of the moon and the stars in the Maldivian sky.

Image taken from google images

The next day we will go for a day tour of island-hopping, to visit various other inhabited and uninhabited islands. Also, we would do snorkeling in the clear waters of a deserted island.

For 8th Dec , our anniversary day ,I have a special plan. We would go for sea plane tour of Maldives .It would really be mesmerizing when our seaplane flight over the turquoise seascapes of the Maldives-a perfect picture taking moment.

Image taken from google images

After that we will take lunch in Ithaa Undersea Restaurant, where we will enjoy the European cuisine five meters below the sea level. It would be a treat to dine in a restaurant which offers 180-degree panoramic views of the beautiful coral gardens and the possibility of seeing a passing shark, with each swallowed bite.

Image taken from google images

For the night, I would plan for a romantic dinner at the beach. A table right at the beach surrounded by candles, flowers and torches would really be a memorable moment.

Image taken from google images

The next day we will visit National Museum to take a sneak peak of the history and culture of Maldives. After that we will go for surfing and other water sports activity as per my husband choice.Afterall, there should be something of his choice also ;).

On 10^th we will take flight back from Male to Hyderabad. Just planning seems to be so exciting, I am sure I wouldn’t want to come back from there so soon. Thanks Skyscanner for making my travel and hotel bookings so easy and fast.

This post is a part of Skyscanner travel wizard activity at BlogAdda.com