Our epic journey from Baltimore to NYC, Milan, Dubai, and the Maldives

We have been dreaming of traveling to the Maldives for several years because it’s one of the most beautiful and relaxing places in the world with crystal clear turquoise water and colorful coral reefs teaming with life. The hefty price tag was keeping us away, though, until now. We found a way to do it, and do it BIG, for far less than you’d ever imagine. We will divulge those secrets later on in another article, but for now want to give you a little taste of what we’ve experienced in the last 2 days on our epic journey from Baltimore to the Maldives.

The first leg of our journey was from Baltimore to New York City. Bertaut had done some research about Emirates airlines and learned that their Airbus A380, which is a double decker plane with a first class suite beyond anyone’s dreams flies out of NYC. We made it to NYC’s JFK airport several hours early to take advantage of the Emirates Lounge, which is available for those traveling in Business or First Class. We enjoyed some Veuve Cliquot champagne and delicious food before boarding our flight to experience luxury like never before on the Emirates Airbus A380 in First Class!

We were already feeling like VIP’s at this point, but I had no idea what was in store for us next! Bertaut knew, but he was keeping it a surprise. We were escorted to our First Class seats, which were actually little private rooms, and greeted with champagne and an assortment of snacks and treats. With glasses of Dom Perignon in our hands, we set off to explore the plane, giddy as schoolgirls. We discovered a private bar at the front of the First Class cabin with a selection of fresh fruit, sandwiches, chocolates, and liquor. There was a larger bar and lounge at the back of the Business Class cabin where we enjoyed mingling with other travelers over drinks. What really blew us away though were the bathrooms in the First Class Cabin. Not only were they huge and luxurious, they had showers! We were so excited enjoying all the amenities of the flight that we barely slept 2 hours, Thank goodness for the spa shower experience to refresh us for our big day ahead.

Our flight landed in Milan, Italy and we were ready for adventure. Instead of stepping off the plane for an hour while the crew cleaned it, we opted for an 9 hour layover to give us the chance to explore the city. This was Bertaut’s first time in Italy so he was very excited and eager to get a small taste of this lovely country. We rented a car and off we went to discover the sights of Milan. We visited Santa Maria delle Grazie to see Leonardo DaVinci’s The Last Supper. Thank goodness Bertaut made a reservation in well in advance, since it was sold out and they turned many people away. Next we visited Piazza Duomo, where we spent the majority of our day exploring the magnificent cathedral Duomo di Milano. We took the elevator to the top of the cathedral and then climbed many more steps for an unbeatable view of the city at sunset. We had so much fun taking photos of the incredible architecture and the intricate details on every level. All that exploring worked up our appetite, and we wanted a quick meal to give us more time to explore, so we decided on pizza. We asked an Italian man for a suggestion for a good pizzeria, and even though he spoke no English, we got the gist of what he was saying – that every pizzeria is good in Milan. Our brief stop in Milan would not have been complete without gelato, which was out of this world good! What I would do for another scoop of that Nutella gelato right now…

We made it back to the airport with enough time for a quick visit to the Emirates Lounge at Malpensa airport, where we enjoyed a glass of fine Chianti and some delicious limoncello. We weren’t really hungry but had a few bites of a lobster shrimp salad and orange ginger soup, which were both fantastic. The lovely part of flying first class with Emirates is that you get to board the airplane directly from the lounge, which makes the process so much smoother.

We took off for Dubai, this time in Emirate’s Boeing 777, which doesn’t have the lounge or amazing bathrooms, but offers the same luxurious setup with the seats in the first class cabin. On this flight we were determined to get some sleep since we were running on fumes at this point. So after we enjoyed a delicious 3 course dinner with wine and champagne, we got a solid 4 hours of sleep.

On this flight, we realized that we would not be able to access the Emirates Lounge in Dubai since the business class seats had been completely booked. However, a nice gentleman who happened to sit next to us on both flights was able to get us in to the lounge as his guests, since he is an Emirates Platinum member. So once again, we refueled with some fabulous food and champagne before setting off on our next flight.

 

This flight was much shorter- only 4 hours from Dubai to Male, the capital of the Maldives. We were expecting to feel very disappointed in the food and service after being spoiled in first class on the previous two flights, but we were pleasantly surprised. We still received warm towels to clean our hands at takeoff and enjoyed a quality lunch with a glass of Syrah. The flight attendants even surprised us with a beautiful little cake since they somehow knew that this trip was part of an early wedding anniversary celebration. We chatted about our children and they even gave us some stuffed monkeys and coloring books to take home as souvenirs for our kids, which was very thoughtful. On the flight, we were pulling our camera out every few minutes to snap photos of the landscape below, which was stunning. We moved from the Dubai skyline to mountains, desert, and ocean. And then we saw it, the famous turquoise waters of the Maldives, and knew we’d finally made it to our dream destination.

However, we still had one more flight after landing in Male since our resort is located 400 km away from the international airport. We were greeted by staff from our resort and taken to the lounge to relax while he checked us in for our local flight to Koodhoo. From there, we had one last segment of this incredible journey- a 30 minute speedboat ride to our resort Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa, which is located on its own private island, like all the luxury resorts in the Maldives. Now we are in paradise and are ready to let the ultimate relaxation begin after a very long but amazing journey to get here. If you enjoyed this little taste of our adventure, come back later for more juicy details and photos. We will be writing a series of articles about our experience at the resort, reviews of the lounges and flight experiences with a lot more information and photos that document every last detail. We will also be sharing how we are doing all this- traveling like millionaires- on the budget of a regular middle class family. Have you had an epic adventure that you would like to share with us? What’s the best use of a layover you’ve ever had? If you liked this post, please sign up for our RSS feed to be updated each time we publish a new post, and our email newsletter to get tips to travel like a millionaire.