This post was contributed by a reader from our WeChat group and was originally published on Flyert. I also added a bit of information at the end about booking the St. Regis Maldives with points.

I. Overview | Overview

Originally, our winter break trip was only supposed to be Europe. But then I realized Egypt wasn’t far from Europe, and my girlfriend has always been very interested in Egyptian history, so I figured that if she liked it that much, we should go see it in person. So Egypt got added to the itinerary. Then, while staring at Google Maps and wondering what other part of the world we could visit, I noticed that the Middle East isn’t too far from the Maldives. I casually checked airfare and found that Cairo to the Maldives via Abu Dhabi in economy was only $300 one-way on Etihad. That was very tempting. On top of that, January is one of the best times to visit the Maldives because there’s very little rain—in fact, during our stay, it didn’t rain a single drop. I did some research on award stays and found availability too: an overwater villa for 480,000 points. Suddenly, the dream of going to the Maldives felt so close, so we decided to go for it. Maldives, we finally make it happen!!!

First, let me take everyone around the resort by bike!

I shot a 4,000 video while biking with a GoPro 11 mounted on my head, so everyone can get a real feel for the St. Regis Maldives. You probably can’t feel the temperature or the breeze through the video, but it was honestly incredibly comfortable. Especially riding around at 5 or 6 in the evening—it felt like nowhere else on earth could be more pleasant. The temperature, humidity, sunshine, and ocean breeze were all just perfect.

II. Timeline | Timeline

I was too lazy to carefully sort and arrange photos, so this review is organized directly as a timeline. I tried every restaurant on the property except for things like Decanter private beach dining, which is more for the truly wealthy. Oh, and there’s also a newly opened Japanese teppanyaki spot called T-Pan, but it’s pretty expensive. Even the cheapest set menu is $300 plus tax, so it would probably come close to $400 per person. I didn’t think it was worth it, so I skipped it. If money is no object, though, it might be worth trying—I’d guess the food is pretty good.

We also did a lot of water activities, basically one per day. I skipped the spa, though, since I’m just not that interested in wellness-focused treatments. At the end of the post, I’ll include a link to the detailed menus, so make sure to read through the whole review and don’t miss that part.

III. 2023/01/08

We boarded a little after 5 pm Cairo time on Etihad. Since Etihad doesn’t seem to belong to any alliance, there weren’t really any elite benefits, but that didn’t matter much since the lines weren’t long anyway. CAI-AUH was a little over 3 hours, AUH-MLE was a little over 4 hours, and the layover was 2 hours, which was pretty manageable overall. For a $300 one-way economy ticket, you really can’t ask for much more.

IV. 2023/01/09

We landed at MLE a little after 6 am Maldives time, and instantly it felt like we were back in summer—that warm, humid air! As soon as we cleared immigration, we saw a St. Regis staff member holding a sign waiting for us at arrivals. Somehow, we had even been upgraded to complimentary Bentley transportation. I think it may have been because I had emailed in advance asking whether they offered Bentley transfers. They replied that Bentley service was only for guests staying in 2-bedroom villas or above, so I assumed my standard overwater villa wouldn’t qualify. I definitely didn’t expect them to arrange it for me, so of course I had to take plenty of photos and enjoy the moment, haha. The last time I rode in a Bentley was when I used my Marriott status to book a room for a college classmate, and he happened to pick me up in a Bentley so I could help him check in at the hotel. The whole process here was very hands-on and seamless—no need to find your own way or drag your luggage around.

After getting out of the car, we went to wait for the seaplane. The seaplane terminal is new, so the dedicated St. Regis lounge was still under renovation. We had to use a shared business lounge instead, where we just grabbed a few snacks and drinks.

We boarded the plane and sat in the first row, but the seat wasn’t very comfortable.

I also shot a video from the seaplane overlooking the entire resort:

【St. Regis Maldives seaplane view of the entire resort】 https://www.bilibili.com/video/B ... a4120204add7965cf89

After we arrived, it was time for the welcome from manager Vincent. We had some fresh coconut water first (honestly, packaged coconut drinks taste better—this fresh one was actually a bit sour), and then our Chinese butler Nicole drove us to the room in a golf cart. We completed check-in in the villa and were charged a $2500 deposit, apparently calculated at about $500 per night.

One more important note: the hotel operates one hour ahead of standard Maldives time, so you have to adjust your clock manually. Automatic time zone settings will be wrong, and the hotel’s operating hours all follow the resort time. Don’t forget, or you might miss reservations or breakfast. The butler will remind you about this right away. Our room was upgraded from sunrise to sunset. Plenty of people online have already posted room photos, so I won’t dwell too much on that, but our villa number was 532. It had a completely unobstructed ocean view, no reef blocking the water, and very good privacy. Whatever you do out on the deck, other guests generally can’t see you—though occasionally you might spot someone snorkeling past your villa, which is the exception.

The room was very high-tech. You could use an iPad to control the lights, air conditioning, and TV, and also place food orders, which was very convenient. Usually, someone would call almost immediately after you submitted an order to confirm it. Room-service pizza was the cheapest option; one pizza came to about $60 total. I had wanted to try it but never actually did, so I can’t say how big it was or whether it was good. But people generally say the most budget-friendly dining strategy is to eat a huge breakfast, skip lunch, and have pizza for dinner.

As soon as we got to the room, we were ready to get in the water. But right after we went into the ocean, we somehow lost our swim ring. It floated pretty far away, and since neither of us is much of a swimmer, there was no way we could reach it. So we immediately contacted our butler, who sent someone out by boat to retrieve it for us. Super prompt service... For lunch we ate at Alba. Around noon, most of the restaurants were basically empty; I’m guessing everyone had such a big breakfast that they skipped lunch. Only two restaurants were open at lunchtime, Alba and Crust & Craft. This meal was just okay, honestly. The fish was a bit overcooked, but the pasta was fine.

After eating, we felt sleepy and took a nap first, since we had flown overnight and hadn’t slept at all. We had snorkeling booked for 2 p.m. Since I can’t really swim, and also hadn’t fully put my head underwater in more than two years, I swallowed quite a bit of seawater at first and kept clinging to the instructor like crazy. It was honestly rough. But after the instructor gave me some pointers, things got a lot better. Mostly I was just terrible at it. While we were snorkeling, the butler had already pressed our clothes and hung them up, and the walk-in closet instantly looked like a Boutique store. Love that! For dinner we ate at Whale Bar. The seafood grill was genuinely very good, and we specifically asked them to make it spicy, which made it even better. The beef wasn’t tough at all, and the shrimp and octopus were both really flavorful. As for the price, you know how it goes: each item was under 100, but once all the extra charges were added, each one basically came out to 100. Take a look at the bill.

That night we saw blue Plankton, and it was really bright and vivid blue.

V. 2023/01/10

We got up in the morning and went straight to breakfast. We ordered duck leg, a Maldivian lobster omelet, and crepes à la carte, and found that the crepes were still the best. My girlfriend kept ordering them over the next few days. The lobster omelet was just average and didn’t have much flavor. A lot of the buffet items were pretty good, though. We usually got up a little after 9 and started eating around 10. After eating for a bit more than half an hour, we didn’t need lunch.

In the afternoon, I went by myself to Crust & Craft, lounged around, and had a Coke. It looked hot, but under the shade with the sea breeze, it really didn’t feel that hot at all. Very comfortable. Around 4 or 5 p.m., we went out by boat to look for dolphins. This was probably the cheapest boat excursion here, I think around 120 USD per person. It wasn’t a private boat; it was the shared kind with other people.

At night it was time for the once-a-week Beach BBQ! This BBQ is held on the beach and is a buffet. The seafood and meats are grilled fresh on the spot, but alcohol and other drinks cost extra. It’s 250 USD per person before tax, though Marriott members seem to get a small discount. Anyway, for two people it came out to a little over 500 total. The setting and atmosphere were really great, and lobster was unlimited. I probably ate six or seven by myself. I skipped the other meats and focused on lobster, because normally a lobster costs 120$ each.

I filmed a short video so everyone can get a feel for it. It’s straight out of camera with no cropping or editing, partly because I’m lazy and partly because I don’t know how to edit video anyway, but it gives you the most realistic sense of the setting.

【4,000 UHD】St. Regis Maldives Beach BBQ】 https://www.bilibili.com/video/B ... a4120204add7965cf89

VI. 2023/01/11

Breakfast was Alba again. Yep, breakfast was always Alba. For à la carte, we also tried the Japanese bento box, and that was pretty average too, haha. The chicken from the buffet was still better.

In the afternoon, I took a lot of beach photos of my girlfriend. While shooting under the sun, I got too hot and took off my shirt, which resulted in me getting sunburned right away...

After that, we went jet skiing, which was one of the pricier activities of the whole stay. One jet ski was about 250$ for half an hour before tax, so with one each for two people, the total was a bit over 500. More expensive than New York, honestly. In New York, one hour is only 160. But riding a jet ski on the ocean did feel pretty different. My girlfriend was going insanely fast, lost her grip, and got thrown off. Luckily, the guide pulled her out of the water.

At night we went to Orientale. I had previously heard there was a Chinese head chef there, and wanted to ask if he was around so we could chat for a bit. Only after asking did I find out that the Chinese chef had left just a few days earlier. I’m not sure whether he transferred to another hotel or went back to China. He had been replaced by a Malaysian chef, but the food was genuinely very good. The seafood Sichuan dandan noodles were delicious, and the steamed fish and Hainan chicken were also excellent! This was probably the most expensive bowl of noodles I’ve ever had in my life, around 70 to 80 dollars total for one bowl, haha.

VII. 2023/01/12

We got up a little after 8 in the morning and went to breakfast, because we had to make the morning Turtle Quest Snorkeling Trip. We took a boat out for snorkeling. It didn’t feel like much while we were in the water, but once it was over, we were completely exhausted, and I ended up sleeping the whole afternoon. We only saw one small sea turtle, haha, but it was still pretty fun.

When we got back to the hotel, we found that the butler had already prepared a bubble bath for us. So thoughtful, and such a nice surprise.

We got up at 5 again and headed back out on the water. This time it was sunset fishing, and it was genuinely a lot of fun. It was also a group trip, priced at a little over $100 per person. The fish you catch can be prepared and served as food the next day for an extra preparation fee, although honestly I didn’t think it tasted that great. I assumed we’d be doing ocean fishing with lure rods, but in reality you just drop a hooked fishing line directly into the water, using raw fish slices as bait. The crew was very responsible and taught everything step by step. If you don’t know how to bait the hook, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about—they help you the whole time, and when you catch a fish they’ll also remove it from the line for you. So I’d definitely recommend trying it, because it was really fun, and you also get to watch the sunset. As for eating the fish, it works better as a side dish. We were trying to save money and treated it as both lunch and dinner, but the taste turned out to be pretty average, so I wouldn’t recommend relying on it as your entire meal. The preparation fee was $50 per person per meal before tax; for two people, the total was probably around $130.

That night we had dinner at the Middle Eastern restaurant Cargo, an open-air spot right on the beach. It felt relatively affordable by resort standards. The $160 platter before tax was plenty filling for two people, and it tasted very good too. We had just been to Egypt a few days earlier, and the flavors here actually felt quite authentic. The head chef also looked like he was from the Middle East.

Before going to sleep, I noticed the sky didn’t have many clouds, so I got up to do a little astrophotography. You can photograph the famous Orion Nebula, but without a telescope or a long telephoto lens, I could only capture a rough version of it. Online, it looks like this:

What I captured looked like this:

The main issue was not having a telescope or a telephoto lens. With those, the stacked image would probably have looked much better. A few other shots:

The Maldives really has very little light pollution. Every night, if there weren’t many clouds, you could just look up and see so many stars.

8. 2023/01/13

We didn’t do much on the last full day. In the morning, we went to Alba again.

We also checked out the shopping area. The second floor sold swimwear, and the styles were pretty nice, but they were all high-end brands, with most swimsuits costing over $300 each.

At lunch at Alba, we ate the fish we had caught the day before. It tasted average. In the afternoon, we found a photographer to help take some photos. They said it was free, but after asking more carefully, we found out that only the first hour of shooting was free—if you wanted to take the photos with you, you had to pay extra, haha. In the end, we still did it and chose 20 digital photos plus two printed ones. It ended up being a nice keepsake. That night, we had them deliver the fish we caught the day before to our room for dinner. It also tasted average. Restaurant food was still much better. In hindsight, we should’ve just spent the extra money and gone out to eat.

But for the first time during those few days, we finally got to see the sunset from our room, because the previous evenings had all been cloudy. I made a time-lapse video:

【4,000 UHD】Maldives Sunset Time-Lapse】 https://www.bilibili.com/video/B ... a4120204add7965cf89

Since our seaplane was scheduled to depart at 8 the next morning, we asked the butler to come by that evening so we could settle the bill.

9. 2023/01/14

The next morning, our flight was at 10, so we got up at 6:30, packed up a bit, and went to breakfast. We really loved this place and honestly didn’t want to leave at all.

Another seaplane ride:

After arriving at the seaplane airport, we got into a business van. No Bentley this time, haha. The person who had met us at the airport when we first arrived came again, helped with our luggage, and stayed with us the whole way until we passed through immigration. It really was full-service hand-holding from start to finish, and we didn’t have to worry about anything.

We flew Flydubai (not Emirats, Emirates' low-cost subsidiary), had a 7-hour layover in Dubai, and then connected onward to Istanbul. As expected from a Dubai airline, even the connecting business class seats could lie flat, haha. The aircraft was a 737max, but the meals on both flight segments were exactly the same...

10. Final Thoughts, Plus Restaurant and Water Center Info and Menus

Overall, I thought this trip was excellent. Nothing unpleasant happened at all, and everything was enjoyable. The room was cleaned twice a day, once around midday and once in the evening. Basically, whenever we went out and came back, the room would be spotless again. That feeling really is different. It’s especially great for anyone who likes taking photos, checking in, and writing hotel reviews, because you can always photograph a perfectly tidy room every day. The room was also very modern and smart. The old-style buttons were basically unnecessary, since everything was controlled with an iPad.

For dining, I’d recommend these: the barbecue at Whale Bar, Cargo, and Orientale. All of them were very good. Breakfast at Alba was also nice, although we basically didn’t go to Alba at other times of day. I don’t recommend treating the fish you catch yourself as a full meal. We did that twice in a row and kind of regretted it. In hindsight, we should’ve just spent a little more and ordered something tastier.

For water activities, you can refer to the link I posted at the end. Of the ones I tried, aside from the jet ski, most weren’t very expensive—more like a little over $100 per person.

We didn’t try the Spa at all. We never even went there.

The two most expensive items, aside from the seaplane, were the speedboat and the Beach BBQ. I didn’t really go out of my way to save on much else, but I also didn’t do any ultra-luxury experiences. I don’t drink alcohol either, and for water activities I did about one per day. Since the room rate was covered, it still worked out to be a pretty good deal overall. For two people, about $100 total per meal is enough to eat your fill, and $300 total gets you a very good meal. If you really want to splurge, of course, the sky’s the limit—there are all kinds of drinks, private beach BBQs, and more. You can check the link at the very bottom for details. All in all, per day you’re looking at roughly $300 for food plus another $200–600 for extra activities, so about $800 per day in total. Since the room itself was free, that felt like an acceptable price.

Lastly, I’m including the email the hotel sent before departure, which contains menus for all the restaurants as well as menus for various watersports and high-end activities. If you like studying menus, it’s worth taking a close look. Before leaving, I went through all of these menus several times. I think the information here is very useful. At the very least, after looking at the T-pan menu, I knew right away that I couldn’t afford it, haha. It’s also a good way to see what you want to eat and do, and estimate your spending.

Restaurants

Alba - Pristine beachfront and shimmering pool set the scene at Alba, where freshly prepared modern International fare is on offer throughout the day.View menu here | Dress code: casual | Open for breakfast from 7 am to 10:30 am | Lunch from 12 pm to 4 pm | Dinner from 7 pm until 10:30 pm

Orientale - With an enticing Asian à la carte menu, Orientale is the second beachfront restaurant at The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort. Open kitchens meet open-air at Orientale where diverse flavors of Chinese and Japanese cuisine are crafted each night, complemented by unfettered views of Indian Ocean sunsets.View menu here | Dress code: casual | Open for dinner from 7 pm until 10:30 pm

Cargo View menu here | Dress code: casual | Open for dinner from 7 pm until 10:30 pm

Crust & Craft View menu here | Dress code: casual | Open for lunch from 12 pm until 5 pm

Whale Bar Open daily from 6 pm until 12 am

Whale Bar & Grill View menu here | Open for dinner from 7:30 pm until 10:30 pm

In Villa Dining 

T-Pan

We are pleased to introduce T-Pan, the newest addition to our cast of impressive restaurants at the finest address in the Maldives. Experience the Teppanyaki style of Japanese cuisine at this culinary hideaway, while enjoying its architectural design and breathtaking views of the Indian Ocean. Omakase lunch and dinner menus with the finest ingredients from the Maldives, Japan and around the globe are prepared over two Teppan counters for 12 guests at a time. Exquisite gins, beers, curated tasting flights, Japanese teas and bespoke Sakes from the world-famous Sake house Dassai pair perfectly with these flavorful bites. Come and indulge with us!View Menu here | Dress code is smart casual | Open for dinner from 7:00 pm until 10:30 pm

Should you wish you have pre dinner reservations confirmed, please advise us your preferred timings as to arrange accordingly. Furthermore, should you require any dietary requirements, please advise us as to arrange accordingly. Please be advised that prices are subject to 23.2% service charge and goods and services tax. The prices, items, details and restaurant opening dates are subject to change without notice.

St. Regis Activities

For an overview of the experiences offered, you may click here. Should there be any experience or activity, be it an elegant dinner, an exhilarating watersports activity or a soothing and rejuvenating spa treatment that you do not wish to forgo during your stay with us, advance reservations are highly recommended. To make advance reservations for experiences and activities you may write back to us and we will be more than pleased to assist you further.

Editor’s Note (by ymlulu)

Here’s an additional note on booking the St. Regis Maldives with Marriott points. Marriott point bookings come with the built-in Stay 5, Pay for 4 benefit, so ideally you should book five nights at once. Right now, five nights cost about 460,000 points total, averaging 90,000 points per night.

It looks like the overwater villa and the beach villa require the same number of points.

Based on the points required, for the dates I searched the standard rate was 120,000 points per night, while the later nights were probably in the off-season and required fewer points—96,000 and 94,000, respectively. With points this high, an 85,000 FN can only just barely be used. As for taxes and fees, the $800 seaplane charge is unavoidable, but the other charges are only $30. In a moment, we can compare that with the scary taxes and fees on a cash booking.

After switching to a cash booking, let’s look at the charge summary page. The cash rate is still $1519 per night, so there’s no real change there. If you ignore taxes and fees, the Marriott points redemption value is 1.2 cents per point (1519/120k). Now let’s look at those scary taxes and fees: after excluding the 808 seaplane charge, there is still 2130 in taxes and fees. Spread out, that’s an extra $420 per night. Recalculating the redemption value, ($1519+$420) /120k = 1.6 cents per point, which is still very good. So if you’re booking resort properties, make sure to compare the situation after taxes and fees as well.