20/09/2026
I’ve been hesitating posting about this one because I just can’t believe how lucky I am and it makes me feel guilty, but I found out a couple of weeks ago that I had been given a place on a familiarisation trip to visit 3 islands in the Maldives with a group of 9 other Travel Counsellors!
Being a water baby, it’s been one of my absolute dream destinations my whole life - top of the bucket list, I don’t even have the words to express how grateful I am that work trips like this one come up. Truly a dream come true and the fact that it’s during the off peak monsoon season in the Maldives didn’t put me off one bit. All my favourite things to do here are in water anyway so some tropical rain isn’t going to hold me back!
Having said all that, I had to actually get here first! I’m not fond of planes really, but as long as I want to go somewhere enough, I’ll do what’s necessary to get there…
In this case, the journey began with an overnight flight with Qatar Airlines from Manchester, and I was lucky enough to get an upgrade to business class! 🙌 This very much took the edge of the long sleepless journey… My designated cabin crew member helped me with the weird 3 point seat belt (never knew people in business had these!) and ran around bringing me all sorts of drinks and treats before and after take off, and then I had what seemed like a fifteen course meal on my own gigantic dining table. After this she brought me a little mattress topper thing to put on my seat and lay it flat for me and then I shut the door to my little Q Suite, put my complimentary pyjamas on, and had a short night to myself mostly lying flat and trying to convince myself I wasn’t freaked out by how your feet kind of poke between the ‘mattress’ and the tv console bit 🫣 Anyway, I only really had time to watch a movie and then it was apparently time for breakfast before landing in Doha!
Flight number 2 to Male was only 4 and a half hours and the amount of coffee I’d had by this stage meant I was wide awake and just keen to crack on and get there!
Got through Male airport pretty quickly which was good because I didn’t have to dwell on the seaplane part of the journey for too long! It was only a 40 minute flight but think we had all 4 seasons during the seaplane journey! 🌧️☀️🌫️⚡️
I stopped filming by the time the black clouds and thunder and lightning hit and was just relieved when we landed by a nearby island and then did the rest of the journey on a little wooden boat. I fancy my chances more in the sea than the air! 🤓
We arrived at our first home, the gorgeous and homely 4 star Adaaran Select Meedhapparu resort in torrential rain just as it was getting dark, relieved to have arrived but basically wet, hangry and tired - More than ready for a rest and some sunshine!
Lesley Woodall
