ZACHARY DAVIDSON

Conrad Maldives Part 1: Arrival in Male and Seaplane Transfer to Conrad Maldives

There’s a lot to say about my recent trip to the Maldives, so I will break the review into several parts. Hopefully this will give you all a sense of what it’s like to travel there, how much it will cost, and is it worth the hefty price tag?

Arriving at Male International Airport

There are now many airlines flying to Male (MLE) airport, and you can score cheap economy tickets from many cities all over the world. There are tons of options using points as well which is what I did by redeeming my United points for Turkish Airlines business class for my girlfriend and I.

Turkish Airlines Business Class

Turkish Airlines Business Class

Be sure to get a window seat on the flight to Male if you’re arriving in the daytime for some incredible views!

Male City

We chose to spend the first day in Male and fly to the Conrad Maldives the following morning to be able to maximize our time at the resort. That way we would arrive at the Conrad in the morning and have a full day there.

Seaplane Check In and Flight

Once your reach the international arrivals hall, you’ll find that each resort has a reception desk where you’ll need to go before being able to check in for your seaplane flight.

Conrad Desk at Male Airport

After checking in with the resort representative at the Conrad desk, we were escorted about 25 feet away to the Maldivian Airways check in counter where our passports were checked, bags weighed, and given our boarding passes for the seaplane.

Once everyone on our flight was checked in, we were driven about five minutes to the Conrad lounge which had a decent breakfast spread, plenty of comfortable seating, and wifi.

Conrad Lounge

Conrad Lounge

Conrad Lounge

We spent about 20 minutes in the lounge before being brought to another waiting room and finally onto the plane. One of the pilots was from the US, how strange??

While I was very excited to be in a seaplane for the first time, the plane was very hot and the seats were not so comfortable.

In terms of amenities, the Conrad gave each of us a bottle of cold water before boarding which was much needed, there is an in-flight magazine which I did look through, and of course the view which kept me busy most of the flight. Despite this being the least comfortable airplane I’ve been on, I truly enjoyed the experience from takeoff to landing with the best airplane views I’ve seen in my life.