Review: Beach Palace Hotel / Ui Inn Maldives

Finally! None of this Aman or Park Hyatt nonsense, this is really what I'm after in life. Thanks for showing me the light. I'll book a 6 week stay immediately.

P.S. "(at least in the case of the Maldives)" I think you meant "Park Hyatt" there

I've always wanted to go to the Maldives. I am keeping my fingers crossed that your review of the Park Hyatt makes up for the process of actually getting there.

I have to admit a guilty pleasure of reading your reviews when you have to stay in a (relatively) dive hotel. It reminds me of Eva Gabor on Green Acres. 🙂 I wish I could have been one of the flies on the wall.

Your comment about bugs reminded me of what a friend told me when he spent a month in a small town in Puerto Rico. The home he stayed in was nice but bugs were everywhere, including in the bed. I've never stayed in a tropical area. Do all of the hotels, even the fancy resorts, have bugs in the rooms ?

@ tara -- There's always going to be some wildlife/some number of bugs, though the nicer resorts do manage to keep them out a bit better, in my experience.

Did you find out if the Beach Palace was actually nicer than the Ui Inn? The same? Worse?

Nice way to proverbially poke a finger in the eye of those who say you only review fancy honkin' aspirational products. I think you missed taking pictures of the pool.

Did you file a chargeback for getting walked?

Lucky sez:

"there’s no denying that getting to the Maldives is a struggle. First you have to fly to a major hub airport, then you have to connect to Male, then you have to take a flight within the Maldives, and then you have to take a boat transfer to the resort (at least in the case of the Maldives)."

I am denying.

Our last visit consisted of a direct flight ZRH-MLE with Edelweiss (a subsidiary of LX with the same business class seats as LX on their A333, bookable with LX miles) and a direct flight by seaplane to the resort. This was the Conrad, but many others can be reached by direct seaplane, too.

OS has direct flights VIE-MLE as well, LH soon will have directs flights FRA-MLE, too.

@David - That will certainly depend where you're flying from. For example, that's like me saying Hawaii is a total pain to get to, yet as someone in England that would be hard to dispute vs someone who lives in LA. In my case, we stayed at Huvafen Fushi and it was a direct BA flight LHR->MLE and then a 30 minute boat ride from the airport, which is a lot easier than many places in far-east Asia I've been to before.

@ Tom C: exactly my point 😉

Just a reminder that not all of Ben's readers live in (or travel from) the US of A.

I simply cannot stop laughing!

@ David -- I dunno, flying Edelweiss seems kind of painful to me. :p

There are plenty of nice resorts that are not the Park Hyatt and aren't so hard to get to! One and Only Reethi Rah is gorgeous and a direct short boat ride from Mahe.