Marriott Maldives hotels – best options?

[Tom2]

I have 600k points to use on a booking before the inevitable devaluation. The OH is set on The Maldives.

There appears to be a few front runners – St Regis, Ritz Carlton and the W, has anyone been to any of those?

[Rob]

Le Meridien is brand new and very cheap on points, may be worth adding in.

Key issues are transfer costs (can be $1,000 per person if a seaplane is required) and F&B when you’re there, with meals for a family potentially running to £500 at the top resorts. If you don’t want to pay this you need to factor it into your searching.

After that, it’s really down to what you want – some resorts have better reefs if diving is your thing, others have better kids facilities etc. I’d normally suggest you visit two resorts but the ‘5-4-4’ redemption offer makes it unattractive.

Be wary of being seduced by the idea of overwater bungalows – some people find that they hate them once in one. Only time we went to the Maldives we had a beachfront villa at Reethi Rah (didn’t pay, won it!) and I think we both agreed that private beachfront villa worked better for us than an overwater villa – for a start, you don’t have a beach 5 seconds from your front door. Get to the beach and you’ve forgotten your sunglasses? That’s a l-o-n-g walk back.