Status: Diamond
Property: Conrad Maldives
Nights: 5 nights
Rate: 380,000 points
Booked: King Beach Villa
Received: King Beach Villa
After landing at MLE, we were taken to the Conrad lounge at the airport and offered complementary 15 minutes head & shoulder massage, a great start to the holiday. 45 minutes later we boarded the seaplane who took us on a scenic flight above all the nice resorts and after 30 minutes we finally arrived at the Conrad.
This property is exempted from the free upgrade policy for diamonds, so I had to add US$380 per night for a King Water Villa upgrade for the last 2 nights.
The Beach Villa is very spacious, with a large outdoor bath & shower and a direct beach access.
The Water Villa is a bit smaller but still specious enough for a couple. It has an outdoor plunge pool.
The resort is spread on 2 Islands. The bigger one holds all the beach villas and some of the premium water villas. It also has a large coral reef, restaurants, bars and a pool. The small island holds only over water villas and also has restaurants, bars and an adults only "quiet zone" area with a nice over water pool. The 2 Islands are connected by a long bridge and there is a boat service which runs every 10 minutes and a buggy service on call.
Diamond benefits:
Daily breakfast with a choice of 2 restaurants: one is buffet in the main island and the other is a la carte on the second island.
Daily happy hour between 5-6pm.
In the room we got a bowl of fruits, a box of chocolates, 2 bottles of water, a bottle of Bordeaux wine and a stuffed Nemo
There was an interesting mix of guests in the resort: couples and families, Aussie, Europeans, Canadians, Chinese, Japanese. But there was one thing everyone had in common - a constant smile on their faces
This resort is on the expensive side but considering everything is imported, including the coconuts (!), the prices are reasonable, especially when compared to the quality on offer. The wine cellar is impressive and the cheese selection is the best I've seen in any hotel so far. All the seafood I ate was fresh and the meat was of the highest quality.
There are some very interesting dining options: The most famous one is Ithaa undersea restaurant (the first in the world). We had drinks there in the morning (yes, it's ok to drink champagne at 11am when you're on holiday
) and even managed to get a private tour in the evening (there are different fish swimming there at night). I recommend to go in the morning as visibility is better and the photos will be much nicer.
Another great experience is the wine cellar dinner. It's a very informative night hosted but the hotel's sommelier. He selects a variety if wines to match the special 5 course dinner. It was an intimate event for only 8 people (4 couples). We had very interesting discussions about wine and off course drank a lot of it
There are 2 spa options, one in each island. We did the couples massage in the over water spa with glass floor, It was amazing.
There are plenty of tours who will take you snorkelling, fishing, diving and plenty of water sports as well. I think we were a bit more active then most people there, who chose to stay at the resort and snorkel in the local reef, sit by the pool or just relax their villas.
In conclusion, if you have a taste for the finer things in life and enough HH points to spend, Conrad Maldives is one of the best options points can buy.
