Destination Spotlight: The Maldives

~ Chris Wada

When you travel to the Maldives, you’re in for a lengthy day or two of travel, but part of the appeal is just how difficult it is to get there.

Spokane Falls is always running

This is a bit different of a Destination Spotlight than the others. That’s because when you come to the Maldives, most likely you’ll be confined to your individual hotel. Generally speaking, you’re not going to spend much time with the locals unless there is a need for an overnight due to the timing of your flight and the seaplane.

While we’ve been to the Maldives three times, we’ve been to only two resorts up to this point. That’s because we ended up returning to the Conrad Maldives (back in the day, it was the only way to secure an overwater bungalow on points).

How long to stay in the Maldives?

This is ultimately an important question to ask because a lot of it is going to depend on different factors:

  • How long you’re comfortable staying on a beach or island before getting bored
  • If you’re willing to pay to do activities
  • The length of time you want to spend somewhere relative to the total travel time to get here
  • How many resorts you want to visit

We’ve never stayed in the Maldives longer than five nights. Why five? Because the fifth night is free with Marriott or Hilton when redeeming free nights. But that actually feels like a great amount of time to spend on any one island. It gives us a chance to do a few activities and leave before we get the feeling of wanting to go home (and our wallets get too light).

Remember that the Maldives is an expensive place. Using points for your hotel doesn’t make the trip cheap (psst—points aren’t free). You’ll still be on the hook for transportation from the airport to the hotel. It’s possible to save some food expense with elite status (free breakfast and potentially free happy hour). But you’ll end up paying for dinner. And all your activities or spa treatments. So don’t stay longer than your budget allows.

Where we stayed in the Maldives, plus what we did and ate

The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands

We loved our visit to the Ritz, which opened on June 1, 2021. Our visit was in June 2022, just missing the one-year celebration. We originally didn’t plan on visiting the Ritz as we booked the St. Regis, but it needed to close for repairs. The St. Regis attempted to move us to the W, but we pushed back. While the W is nice enough for young adults, there’s not much to do there for kids. I instead asked for the Ritz and the St. Regis acquiesced. They also covered our breakfast, which would have been free with my Marriott status but isn’t normally free at the Ritz.

I bring this up as a reminder to be polite but firm when negotiating when a hotel cancels on you. If you disagree with the proposed resolution, you need to provide an alternative that’s acceptable. And if they didn’t agree on my proposal, I had a backup secured at the Park Hyatt Maldives just in case.

Basic facts

  • Hotel email: maldives.reservations@ritzcarlton.com
  • Transit type to hotel: speedboat
  • Overwater villas bookable on points: yes, including the base room
  • Land villas bookable on points: yes, but it will require an upgrade (cash or extra points)
  • Occupancy in base room: 3 (contact the hotel to determine options if you have two adults, two children)
  • Benefits for elite members (Platinum and up):
    • Welcome amenity (food + alcohol in room)
    • Bonus points on hotel spend
    • Free add-on services available at the spa with purchased treatment
    • A discount on breakfast

The room

Anyways, the room is absolutely fantastic. We stayed in an upgraded room on the property, which had a massive wall that could open up. We would have been happy to be in a base room as well. Having a pool available at the room, plus the ability to just jump into the ocean, is splendid. The hardware is functional and tasteful and we had no problems during our stay.

What we ate

Each morning we dined at La Locanda, which is where breakfast is hosted. Even if we didn’t have breakfast covered on this trip, we wouldn’t have hesitated starting our day here. Both in quality and variety, this was one of the best buffets we’ve been to in our lives. Lofty words, but maybe it means we need to travel more to see how it stacks up?

Other meals we had were great as well. Restaurants have a good variety of different cuisines to keep things fresh during your stay. And the thing that made the meals special was the service, both from restaurant staff and our butler. There were times when our butler would stop by just to say hi and ask how things are doing. The service culture at the Ritz is extremely polished and an asset.

Other items

There is a great rec room available with plenty of games and even a full tennis court. If you end up feeling a little bored in your room, come here and meet some new friends.

The thing the kids have talked about in the years since going is the kids club. There is an inside and outside portion of the club. There are plenty of activities inside to keep our kids entertained for hours. It almost felt like the kids club is the centerpiece of the island, which is weird to say at a resort that doesn’t otherwise seem to attract a lot of kids. Still, our kids made friends with other children. If you have kids, this is perhaps the best reason to come to the Ritz with them.

Overall, we would recommend the Ritz-Carlton Maldives to anyone looking for an ultra-premium stay. If you’re coming all the way to the Maldives and want to make the stay worth the journey, this is it. I can’t say this is the best hotel in the country–we haven’t been to them all–but we’re perfectly content with our decision to come. Yes, elites don’t get as many benefits as other Marriott hotels, but is the breakfast charge going to turn you away given the cost of everything else?

Read more about our adventure here:

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

We’ve been to the Conrad Maldives twice. On our second visit, the hotel welcomed us back with a complimentary upgrade to a larger overwater villa. Who said free upgrades were dead in the Maldives? On top of that, we felt that the elite benefits at the hotel are quite strong. That’s especially true these days when it feels like Hilton doesn’t care about its elites. Diamonds could get away with a late breakfast (free), then eat a snack at afternoon tea (free), and follow it up with some drinks (free). Toss in a light meal, and it’s possible to get away with a smaller food budget.

Basic facts

  • Hotel email: mlehi.maldives@conradhotels.com
  • Transit type to hotel: seaplane
  • Overwater villas bookable on points: yes, including the base room
  • Land villas bookable on points: yes, including the base room
  • Occupancy in base room: 4 (for the land villa) or 2 (for the overwater villa)
  • Benefits for elite members (Gold and Diamond):
    • Welcome amenity (food and bottle of wine in room)
    • Free breakfast for two
    • Free happy hour for two from 5PM to 6PM
    • Free afternoon tea from 4PM to 5PM (Diamonds only)

The room

In our view, the overwater villas at the Conrad Maldives are a little dated but still nothing to complain about. At the time when it was one of the first to allow points to book into an overwater villa, it was great. However, I think it’s fair to say that other newer hotels have passed this by. Still, we wouldn’t completely rule out a return to the property (if not for blogging and wanting to try different things).

What we ate

If you come all the way out to the Conrad Maldives, you’re going to have to make a call on visiting their famous underwater restaurant. As you might expect, it’s expensive. You can’t just go down and visit the room without a reservation. Fortunately, there are cheaper options available if you don’t want a full meal, such as the visiting hour (not free). Menus can be found here.

We thought of it as a gimmick. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a tourist trap, but they clearly entice the fish to come over. It’s a novelty to dine and see fish in every direction. But we came away feeling the visiting hour was enough. Plus, we thought it would be too dark to see much at dinner. It’s still an impressive facility, but we did it once and wouldn’t consider it again.

Otherwise, we found the food to be sort of hit or miss. Some dishes were great, including the options at the casual Rangali Bar. We also thought the hot pot at the Chinese restaurant Ufaa to be fine though a bit overpriced. However, there were other experiences like the cheese and wine dinner that just didn’t hit the spot at all between the flavors and the immersion. If we come back, we’d probably stick to the simple options at Rangali Bar.

Other items

The Conrad Maldives is actually two islands. While you could walk between them on the lengthy bridge, that might not always be the preferred choice. Though if you do it, be on the lookout for a random manta ray who might say hi.

The nicer way to travel is to take the dhoni between the islands. You’re not going to get much of an aquatic tour from the ride but it’s free. Just note that children aren’t allowed to most of the other island. But they were fine with kids going to the happy hour located over there, accessible via dhoni. So it was a good excuse for us to take the boat ride daily.

There is a kids club at the Conrad Maldives. It’s probably better than the average kids club at a typical resort, but it doesn’t line up well with the Ritz. Still, Alex spent a lot of time here during our visit when he was a wee lad. In fact, he liked it so much that he didn’t want to leave. Unlike the Ritz kids club, which has entertainment options for kids of all ages, the Conrad’s seemed more focused to younger children.

As you might expect, there is an outdoor section to the kids club. We didn’t use the outdoor section much (it’s cooler inside), but it’s nice to have the option.

Read more about our adventure here:

Where do you like to stay in the Maldives?

Suggested reading:

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