One man’s tale of a week on points at a luxury resort whilst spending no money

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• Polly says:

  13 Feb13 February 04:05

  Hilarious, but what a palaver. But if you have the nerve, then go for it…they got their luxury stay tho…

• dgsupersonic says:

  13 Feb13 February 04:20

  Completely out of balance. Stay on a luxurious resort and feed on junk miserable food that you have to cook every single time. Go figure… The title of this article is misleading though. There was money spent on equipment and their canned junk food.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    13 Feb13 February 08:09

    Can contra the weeks usual food budget off that though no?

  • S**mo says:

    13 Feb13 February 09:01

    Isn’t travel about seeing new places? not the inside of a expensive resort restaurant ?

• Andrew S says:

  13 Feb13 February 04:23

  Cooking for yourself (almost) every meal defeats the purpose of a luxury getaway in my books.

• Callum says:

  13 Feb13 February 05:11

  I cook every meal for myself at home, I see no reason why I shouldn’t while abroad – especially when eating out is so absurdly expensive. If I was ever talked into visiting such a place I’d quite possibly do the same!

  I don’t think your mind would be quite so boggled if you considered that most people aren’t as wealthy as you are yet may still enjoy a luxury break in the Maldives though.

  • John says:

    13 Feb13 February 06:20

    That’s why I go to places where eating out is cheap. Isn’t the main point of going abroad to get/do things you can’t at home?

    • Andrew says:

      13 Feb13 February 08:39

      I work on a site that has a choice of two exceptionally good restaurants. A magnificent full English for £3.80, or a choice of two “specials” and vegetarian meals daily for £4.50.

      So I eat out every single working day, the food is so good, it would be stupid not to. My kitchen is rarely used for anything more than toast and cereal in the morning and maybe a sandwich or soup in the evening.

      So when it comes to holidays, I like to have a good breakfast, then I eat light for the rest of the day. Probably a boxed salad from a supermarket or similar in the evenings.

      That’s probably why I always drop about half a stone in weight on holidays…

    • Callum says:

      14 Feb14 February 09:31

      Some things… No one changes absolutely everything. For example, I wear clothes both at home and abroad.

  • Brian says:

    13 Feb13 February 07:42

    Part of the reason why my mind is (slightly) boggled is that there are so many other places than the Maldives where one could have an amazing, luxury break (in terms of location and accommodation), but still be able to get dirt-cheap food. Think of SE Asia, for instance. That’s why all this effort seems so unnecessary to me.

    • Brian says:

      13 Feb13 February 07:43

      Other than French Polynesia, even!

  • Ali says:

    13 Feb13 February 08:21

    I think its quite good x I may be able to strike a balance and eat at least 50 % of the times at the resort next time.some helpful ideas here 😉
    To be fair – we missed lunch every day as had free breakfast at Conrad – so that was 5 meals ‘saved’ but the dinner routinely costs 200 pounds so maybe in the future can do 3 nights at the suite and book a Europe mini break for that money 😉

• Tariq says:

  13 Feb13 February 05:38

  This is a legendary story, it will never get old.

• Mingus says:

  13 Feb13 February 05:51

  As a frequent adventurer, taking food is an essential component of many trips. I could happily have lived like this. Probably more comfortable than a tent on a mountain in a gale.

  • Anna says:

    13 Feb13 February 06:15

    +1. I’d rather stay somewhere nice and do some cooking than stay in a mediocre resort and eat out every day.

  • John says:

    13 Feb13 February 06:17

    Not much of an adventurer if you stay in the same room for a week and only go to the supermarket

    • Cat says:

      13 Feb13 February 06:47

      I imagine they went out for the occasional swim John!

      We go camping a lot and I’m really rather lucky that my OH is an incredible cook (even on a Trangia). We often go self-catering (especially places like The Seychelles, where the big chain hotels are mostly in less beautiful spots than small independent locally run businesses), although I will admit that I eat considerably less well when my OH isn’t there!

      I would be much more inclined towards minimising food costs at Rangali by ensuring I had Gold status for brunch, afternoon tea and manager’s drinks reception purposes, but if we were on a private island resort without easy access to restaurants outside the resort, with sky high food bills for every meal and no status freebies, I’d be tempted to do similar.

      • Alex says:

        13 Feb13 February 09:53

        How do you fly with a Trangia?? Can you take gas canisters on a flight?

      • EwanG says:

        13 Feb13 February 10:30

        @Alex – Trangia stoves run on meths (methylated spirits), should be pretty easy to pick up in most countries and it goes a long way.
        There can’t be many topics on here where mentions of Trangias pop up!!

      • Cat says:

        13 Feb13 February 22:10

        Ooh, have I achieved a HfP first do you think Ewan?
        We’ve never taken the Trangia LH, just around Europe, and we pick up meths there from a hardware store.
        LH self-catering trips are more likely to involve an Airbnb property with a proper kitchen.

    • Mingus says:

      13 Feb13 February 08:59

      @John: My point was more that if I am happy to pack and cook food when on a 7-day hike, I don’t see why I wouldn’t be happy to do the same on the food front to spend some R&R at a lux beach resort.

      • Cat says:

        13 Feb13 February 22:20

        My thoughts exactly Mingus!
        I’m doing the TMB this summer. I’m going with the HB option though, because the OH isn’t coming, and the French and the Italians (and probably the Swiss too) can cook better than I can in his absence!

• Scott says:

  13 Feb13 February 06:09

  Hilarious! The local shops on BB are actually ok in terms of affordability, considering how remote it is. For a truly special experience though I recommend one of the other Polynesian islands eg Taha’a or Raiatea.

  • John says:

    13 Feb13 February 06:22

    Well they have to at least be affordable for the person who cleans your room.

    • u07ch says:

      13 Feb13 February 07:16

      FP isn’t Fiji. The average income in the Tahitian islands is around 1500 eur / month.

• Terry S says:

  13 Feb13 February 06:26

  Ha ha that’s funny. I’ve been in CT & Franschhoek eating out & visiting wineries for 10 days so would quite like do that week with no food or drink (except water and a few tin of beans of course)!!…..might lose the stone I’ve put on……

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