Jeri Clausing
The Maldives is becoming a popular luxury destination for American travelers. But it's also pretty much on the opposite side of the Earth, which makes for a very, very long trip.
In fact, thanks to a strong headwind on my recent trip, the Los Angles to Hong Kong leg was 16-and-a-half hours, putting my total flying time from home at 24-and-a-half hours, excluding layovers. That set a new personal record, beating out trips to Ethiopia and Vietnam.
Going through Dubai or one of the other Middle Eastern hubs might have cut off an hour or two, but whether to go east or west is basically a matter of personal preference. And thanks to Cathay Pacific, which hosted my flights for a trip to the Four Seasons Resorts Maldives, I was able to relax and enjoy the long flight in comfort.
Business class cabins and amenities can vary greatly from airline to airline, even plane to plane. For me, the key (besides, of course, a comfortable, lie-flat seat) is privacy. After all, who wants to spend 12 to 16 hours or more staring at a stranger, let alone having to wake up to one, or having your neighbor crawling over you when you are sleeping.
Cathay Pacific's Boeing 777-300s offer nice, roomy cubicles. all of which exit to an aisle. They are set at an angle, so that even when you are sitting up for takeoff and landing, you can't see your fellow passengers unless you purposely lean forward to have a conversation. And when the seat is in the flat position, you are comfortably cocooned below the barrier separating seats in the middle row from each other, and with your head also comfortably behind a barrier to the aisle.
The food and service sets high bars for luxury. And Cathay has four lounges in Hong Kong that offer a range of options for resting, dining and cleaning up in comfort. The lounges also include noodle bars, where you can get fabulously peanut-y dan dan noodles, dim sum and a host of other Asian and Western dishes as well as cocktails, wine, beer and a variety of coffees and teas.
It might have been a few hours shorter to fly through Dubai (or not -- my trip back to LAX was just 12 hours, thanks to the jetstream), but the bonus with Cathay Pacific is being able to stop in Hong Kong, which I find much more fun an interesting than the Las Vegas of the Middle East.
The streets of Kowloon in Hong Kong. Photo Credit: Jeri Clausing
I hadn't been to Hong Kong since college, so a fellow travel writer and I stopped over for the weekend to explore the jade and street markets in Kowloon, take high tea at the Peninsula and check out the booming night life in Central.
Our stay there was hosted by the Ritz-Carlton, which is in Kowloon, just two stops from the airport on the high-speed train. You can even check in and check your bags at the train station below the hotel.
The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong is one of the tallest hotels in the world, offering sweeping views of the island of Hong Kong and its skyscraper-studded skyline. And, of course, the impeccable and highly personalized service was pure Ritz-Carlton, reminding me once again why it and Four Seasons are consistently ranked among the world's best hotel brands.