Introduction: India And Maldives In Etihad First Class

Welcome to my next trip report, this one a classic.

I’m going back in time to 2016 to publish a report that I have never published before. If you’re a regular reader, you know that over the last year and a half I churn out reports within 1-2 weeks of flying. This represents quite an evolution over my past practice. Over the last few years, I have cleared out a backlog of pre-2017 trip reports that I felt were still relevant.

As my wife and I look to a return to the Maldives, this trip report will at (at the very least) provide a benchmark of then versus now. That said, I’ve argued for why “old” trip reports are still relevant here and frankly even my Etihad segments will provide a very good idea of what to expect onboard.

I’ll be reviewing three Park Hyatt properties in India (Goa, unfortunately, is no longer a Park Hyatt) as well as the Park Hyatt Maldives. I hope you’ll find it a very enjoyable read.

OUTBOUND

INBOUND

• British Airways A319 Business class Basel to London
• Etihad Lounge London Heathrow (LHR)
• Etihad Airways A380 First Class Apartments London to Abu Dhabi
• Etihad Premium Lounge Abu Dhabi (AUH)
• Etihad Airways A320 Business Class Abu Dhabi to Hyderabad
• Park Hyatt Hyderabad
• My Wife Is A Celebrity In India
• SpiceJet Bombardier Q400 Hyderabad to Goa
• Park Hyatt Goa (ITC Grand Goa Resort and Spa)
• Indigo A320 Goa to Chennai
• Park Hyatt Chennai
• Sri Lankan A330 Economy Class Chennai to Male via Colombo
• Male Sea Charter + Boat to Park Hyatt
• Park Hyatt Maldives
• What Surprised Me Most About Park Hyatt Maldives
• Etihad Airways A330 Business Class Male to Abu Dhabi
• Etihad Airways 777 First Class Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles

How I Originally Wrote This Trip Report Introduction

Here’s how I wrote this trip report introduction three years ago:

When my wife and I married, neither of us had much time for a proper honeymoon. We spent a few nights at the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris and then returned to Germany…there would be another time for a honeymoon. A year and half went by until that time finally came, a long-anticipated trip to India and the Maldives.

We would be in Germany for Christmas, so my objective was to find award tickets from Basel to India and then from the Maldives back to Los Angeles. I booked 11 months in advance and had no trouble securing first class space on Etihad Airways using American miles. More on the flights in subsequent posts, but we really enjoyed Etihad and the A380 First Apartments really set a high standard for in-flight comfort.

Both of us had been to India before, but neither of had been to the south. We had 10 days in India so we figured that spacing it out between three cities would be a goldilocks situation — not too little, not too long in any one city. As it turned out, Hyatt has three Park properties in India: Hyderabad, Goa, and Chennai. Done deal, though it turned out I paid more than I have ever paid for a hotel (by a long shot) in Goa. Forget about “Indian” prices at a luxury resort over New Years.

After India, we continued on to the Maldives for five nights at the Park Hyatt. That hotel has become a bit of a “cliché” hotel in terms of aspirational award redemptions amongst travel bloggers, but despite the great lengths ($525 domestic flight and boat ride from Male International Airport) required to get there and pricey nature of the resort, my goal was to relax and switch off for a few days for the first time since I visited Fiji in 2009. Did it work? The trip report begins tomorrow.

CONCLUSION

The good news is that I wrote much of this trip report shortly after the flights when my memory was fresh. I’ll be editing it and the thousands of photos will take time to parse, but I hope to post at least one installment per day.

Stay tuned!