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Review: the Conrad Maldives Rangali resort – getting there and overview

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This is a review of the luxurious Conrad Rangali resort on the Alifu Dhaalu atoll in The Maldives.

The Conrad Rangali is a popular choice amongst HfP readers, in part because it has historically offered exceptional redemption value, and it remains an excellent use of Hilton Honors points. Remember that elite members of Hilton Honors get ‘5 nights for 4’ when redeeming which really helps on resort stays.

Long-time reader Cat recently stayed at the resort and offered to review it for us. As this is such a beautiful location, and because it is such a great redemption, we were happy to accept.

The Conrad Maldives Rangali website is here.

Conrad Maldives Rangali

It’s not every month that we publish a three-part review of one resort – in fact, the last time was probably in 2017, for this exact hotel before it was refurbished. We hope it is useful for anyone who has already booked a stay at the Conrad Rangali or who is seriously considering it. I’m pretty sure Cat has covered all the bases!

Over to Cat:

“I am aware that the Conrad Maldives can be a contentious topic on HfP, and that the mere mention of Rangali Island can incur a degree of comment-thread polarization normally reserved for the Trump Turnberry, marmite and £220 recycled plastic swimming shorts.

However, the resort has just re-opened following an extensive refurbishment of all 50 over-water villas and the rooms look all sparkly and new again, so here we are.

I’m not here to convince you that this is the holiday to end all holidays, or that you’re missing out, but it is an undeniable bargain as redemptions go. To me and many others, the Conrad Rangali is paradise.

I have been saving my Hilton Honors points with the intention of redeeming them in the Maldives for the best part of a decade now, and I finally had enough for a 10-night trip. When the April 2022 dates were made available, I pounced. Even better that it doubled up as some much-needed post-pandemic pampering!

Conrad Rangali website

Booking Conrad Rangali with Hilton points

If you book the Conrad Rangali as a redemption – and frankly you’d be crazy not to, as it’s far cheaper to buy Hilton points in a points promotion and book a redemption than to pay cash – you have the choice of a Beach Villa or a Sunrise Water Villa.

Both of these options are available as Standard Room Reward redemptions for 120,000 points per night (or 96,000 if you have Hilton Honors Silver status or above, and book 5 nights for the price of 4). We were lucky enough to book before the redemption rates went up, and managed to book for 76,000 points per night (95,000 points per night, with 5 nights for the price of 4). 

It is worth noting that redemptions tend to become available 11 months in advance, usually in the first 6 days of the month. While there is generally good availability for the Beach Villas at any given time, the Sunrise Water Villas are often snapped up pretty quickly – in peak season they can to go almost as fast as HfP party tickets. I checked to see if redemptions were available 3-4 times a day for the first few days of May 2021 to ensure I got them. 

Once you’ve secured the booking, you can email the Rangali directly to get a quote for an upgrade (don’t expect a complimentary upgrade – even Diamond Honors members are unlikely to receive one.)

You will receive a custom quote that seems to vary wildly from one person to the next. I’m assured that this is a function of time of year and relative occupancy levels of the different room categories, but the quotes I received were far more steep than I was expecting.

If you do plan to upgrade, try to book the Sunrise Water Villa, as this is a higher value room than the beach villa, and the upgrade prices are generally significantly lower from the base level water villas than from the base level beach villas.

Conrad Maldives Rangali 1200

Getting to the Conrad Maldives Rangali

The journey to the Conrad Rangali is pretty arduous at the best of times – once you land in Male you have to get a connecting sea plane – but throw in the Easter holiday airport chaos, pandemic restrictions (including one or two details that Qatar Airways neglected to tell me), and luggage that we were convinced had been rerouted to Mongolia, and frankly I think it’s a miracle that we made it at all!

We arrived at Male, desperate to grab our bags and make our way to the Conrad lounge before our sea plane to the Alifu Dhaalu atoll, but it was not to be. Em’s luggage stubbornly refused to appear on the carousel and after waiting a good 90 minutes we decided it was a lost cause and headed through customs.

We were met at arrivals by a Conrad rep who was looking rather stressed, as they had been holding the seaplane and were wondering where we were. The rep took us to the seaplane check in desk, which resembled a scrum, and pushed through with our luggage to get it weighed.

There is a 27kg checked luggage allowance and 3kg hand luggage limit. If you’re over (like I was on my hand luggage – oops) then you are charged at $5 + 23.2% tax per kg.

We then waited in the seaplane waiting room for about five minutes before being taken out to board the seaplane which was alarmingly small: 

Conrad Maldives Rangali sea plane

Not the start to our holiday we wanted, but the excitement finally started to bubble up again through my befuddled jet-lagged state, as we flew past blindingly white coral atolls speckled with palm trees in the midst of azure blue seas that made me repeatedly rub my eyes – surely the sea can’t really be that colour?

Conrad Maldives Rangali sea plane view

We arrived, with the seaplane taxiing/floating to the seaplane dock on the walkway between the islands, where we were greeted by our host, Bema, who came bearing the most refreshing coconuts ever.

The Conrad Maldives Rangali resort

Conrad Rangali actually comprises of two islands, connected a walkway and seaplane dock. It’s more obvious on the map:

Conrad Maldives Rangali map

The skinny island on the left is the adults-only Rangali island whilst on the right is the family-friendly Rangalifinolhu island which is also the main island. The main island has two pools, including a kids’ pool, whilst Rangali island features only a ‘quiet zone’ pool above the water.

We were whizzed across to the main island in a buggy to complete check-in. I took the opportunity to grab us both snorkelling gear, available to borrow free of charge for the duration of your stay from the scuba centre.

We were then shown to Rangali island, the quieter, adults only half of the resort and our over-water villa, which I will tell you all about in a future instalment.

Note that the Rangali has its own resort time zone. Male is GMT + 5hrs, but Rangali (a 30min seaplane west) is GMT + 6hrs. This may sound strange initially, but once you’re there it actually this makes sense – it means sunrise is approx 7am and sunset approx 7:30pm.”

This is end of Part 1. Click here for Part 2 of our Conrad Maldives Rangali review, where we look at the different villa types available and here for Part 3 where we look at the best restaurants at Conrad Maldives Rangali – and at how to keep food costs down.

The Conrad Maldives Rangali website is here.


How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (December 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit and debit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

There are two dedicated Hilton Honors debit cards. These are especially attractive when spending abroad due to the 0% or 0.5% FX fee, depending on card.

You also receive FREE Hilton Honors status for as long as you hold the debit cards – Gold status with the Plus card and Silver status with the basic card. This is a great reason to apply even if you rarely use it.

We reviewed the Hilton Honors Plus Debit Card here and the Hilton Honors Debit Card here.

You can apply for either card here.

NEW: Hilton Honors Plus Debit

10,000 bonus points, Hilton Gold status and NO FX fees Read our full review

NEW: Hilton Honors Debit

2,500 bonus points, Hilton Silver status and 0.5% FX fees Read our full review

There is another way of getting Hilton Honors status, and earning Hilton Honors points, from a payment card.

Holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card.  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.

We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Comments (84)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Ikaz says:

    Nice review, looking forward to the next parts.
    You talk about “including one or two details that Qatar Airways neglected to tell me”, anything that others need to be concerned about? I am flying qatar to the Maldives later this month, staying in the Waldorf Astoria for 8 nights

    • Cat says:

      When we transited in Qatar, we were told we wouldn’t need any documentation – I did check several times (nor did the Maldives require anything other than their own form). When we got to Qatar, they sent us to a transit desk, where they asked for proof of vaccination, proof of insurance and proof of accommodation. The insurance was the big problem, as my Churchill policy had been posted to me, not emailed, and it hadn’t arrived yet… I eventually managed to find a payment to “Churchill travel insurance” on my AMEX app, but the whole thing took 20 minutes, and people at the back of the queue missed their flights!

      • Ikaz says:

        Thanks for the update, I will make sure I have printed copies of everything 🙂

        • Anouj says:

          We we transiting with qatar and had no documentation asked of us at any point not at Heathrow, Doha or at Male. Our flight was on the 30th so either Cat was unlucky, we were lucky, or it’s a more recent change.

          • Cat says:

            Mine was 4th – 5th April, and they said that no documentation was needed, but then appeared to change their minds!

  • Louise says:

    We visited in 2016. Amazing trip, we upgraded to a water villa for 3 nights. I think our total expenditure when checking out was around $4k for the 8 nights. We made the most of the afternoon tea or drinks hours but outside of this the costs soon added up.
    Would love to go back but with two young kids now it’s probably not feasible for a while

    • Cat says:

      Once they are both 3 they can join the kids club on days when you want peace and quiet, so they can go and have adventures, while you have a lovely relaxing time! It’s quite well set up for kids.

  • Andrew says:

    Not knocking the article at all but I think all bets are off when it comes to predicting future hotel reward scheme performance/value/availability. Saving/buying a ton of hotel points for a redemption like this is very risky business.

    • Rob says:

      Buying the last few is fine, buying over a number of years can get risky I agree.

    • Cat says:

      Yes, it’s frustrating when you have a redemption and a certain number that you’re aiming for, and a devaluation happens, and that number goes up by a third.

  • Manya says:

    What would be the cost of points per room per night with or without any promos?

    • Cat says:

      I *think* it’s 1 US cent per point normally, so $960 per night, but Hilton often have promotions to buy points for half price, so then it’s $480 per night.
      I’m away from my laptop and searching on my phone, can anyone confirm?

      • Rob says:

        Yes, 0.5 cents when a 100% bonus is running. Factor in ‘5-4-4’ and it is substantially cheaper than paying cash.

        • Cat says:

          Yes, I was assuming silver status or above, and staying an integer multiple of 5 nights. Otherwise its more expensive.

  • Rich says:

    Looks great. Can you get bikes with each villa to get around? We have a points stay booked next year and we got 2 bikes when we did a stay at the Radisson Blu Maldives and it was much better than waiting for buggies! Thanks.

    • Cat says:

      I think the bikes are for staff only. We never had to wait more than 10 minutes for a buggy, so it wasn’t a problem!

      • mkcol says:

        Gosh we walked everywhere, only taking the buggy for check in/out & switching between beach villa & (free upgrade to) sunset water villa thingy.
        It was lovely going barefoot (except the linking bridge – too hot!) as my feet were beautifully exfoliated by the end.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      Just walk, it really isn’t that big and you are on holiday so what’s the rush?

      • Cat says:

        We did when it was a bit cooler in the morning or evening, but we were there just before the monsoon broke (and the last few days was the start of the monsoon), so it was absolute sweltering from 10am. We walked if we were staying on one island, but usually got the buggy or the dhoni from one island to the other during the day, because the bridge is long, exposed and gets very hot underfoot!

  • roberto says:

    Stayed for 10 days last year for 760,000 HH points in beach villa flying Lufthansa for a song mid covid. We spent $6000 inc the seaplane whilst there, breakfast was free and we skipped lunch most days. So it’s not a cheap option, you could go all inclusive else where for less money I would think.

    But we have burnt another 960,000 hilton points booking again for next March flying Turkish Airlines this time (for 3 times the price we paid on LH last year). Again we chose a beach villa as the entry level OWV at 120k per night was not to our liking.

    As for upgrades, we was offered one last time but another $300 per night meant I was starting to feel uncomfortable about the total cost of the trip so declined. TBH the beach villa was sufficient for my needs.

    • Cat says:

      It’s possible to keep it cheaper, but you have to be careful – the costs can spiral out of control if you don’t keep an eye on what you’re spending!

  • Simon says:

    Ineresting, thanks Cat.

  • SH says:

    What does the seaplane transfer cost pp?

    • roberto says:

      It was $600pp return.
      It’s added to you bill
      You don’t get Hilton base points for this cost unless you’re very fortunate

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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