Sometimes you really look forward to an experience and it lets you down. The weight of expectations just can't live up to the hype.
Then you have an experience like this. I honestly wasn't expecting a whole hell of a lot from Lti Maafushivaru and instead it delivered one of my most fantastic hotel stays in recent memory...
Amex just offered me 50,000 Membership rewards points to keep my Platinum card. I’ve always been a huge advocate of the benefits of owning an Amex Platinum Card. Between the travel insurance, concierge service and special offers I always easily make my annual £585 fee back. However there’s no doubting […]
Anantara is a global hotel chain headquartered in Thailand, with the kind of deeply ingrained service ethos that you'd expect from the Land of Smiles.
We had previously dined at a couple of Anantara hotels in Thailand as well as spending three wonderful nights at the Anantara Royal Livingstone in Victoria Falls and were very excited to see how the brand would express its unique style in this most competitive of hotel markets.
Finolhu is a radically different proposition to the majority of luxury properties in the Maldives. It is not looking to be the most OTT or the most luxurious, if that's what you're looking for you'll be disappointed. There are plenty of other resorts which will happily take $25,000 from you for a bottle of Mouton Rothschild before you wander back to the rooftop deck of your duplex villa....
Nine months after our initial visit, we returned for another four night stay. This fact alone should tell you a lot.
If you're booking this hotel using points, it's a complete no brainer. The villas are utterly spectacular and no other chain hotel on earth comes close to this in terms of value when redeeming loyalty points.
A destination that is almost tailor made for social distancing, with a stable entry policy, close to Europe, a low COVID rate and its steepest ever discounts on accomodation. If you've made the decision to travel during this pandemic I think it's almost impossible to make the case for a better destination.
Whilst BA has gone down the route of creating additional plastic waste and reducing the quality of wine on board, Qatar has instead opted to give full bottles of sanitiser to passengers in addition to providing them all with face shields, gloves and face masks.
I was curious to see the new First Class cabin in the flesh and when you compare it to the 14 seat cabins that previously graced the 777 this is clearly a superior product.
The doors are actually the least exciting change in my mind. I can see the business logic for installing them but in reality they make little difference to the overall experience.
After an hour long ride through some pitch black roads (including an immensely steep final climb, once on the grounds of the property itself) we finally arrived at the lobby, of one of the crown jewels in the Hilton property portfolio.
I really liked the bathroom, particularly the outdoor shower. The storage space for clothes and luggage was more than adequate and the villa was very conveniently located, close to the dive centre, gym and numerous restaurants.
When you stay in a beach villa you have a base of operations from which to enjoy the resort, in the RWV the villa itself becomes your resort and totally comes to define your experience.