Last March, I traveled to the Maldives and stayed at the Conrad Rangali Island. It was simply the best vacation I have ever had. The service was top notch, the weather was perfect, and the food was great but expensive.

The Conrad Rangali Island does not allow for upgrades for elites “due to the very special nature of the accommodations at Conrad Maldives”. This wasn’t a problem at all as their reward room was a Beach Villa which was stunning.

Back in March, as Diamonds we were offered the choice of two benefits: a free cocktail hour each day for two at Vilu bar or free breakfast buffet each day for two at either Vilu or Atoll Market. Gold members were offered free cocktail hour each day for one at Vilu bar or free breakfast buffet each for one at either Vilu or Atoll Market.

This was an incredible benefit as the buffet costs $50 per person per day. We saved at least $800 in breakfast costs alone.

Sadly, the terms and conditions have now changed.

Diamond

Due to the very special nature of the accommodations at Conrad Maldives, we are unable to offer upgraded accommodations. However, as you are a valued Diamond member, we are delighted to offer you the following benefits during your stay:

One bottle of Sparkling wine* upon arrival
Chocolate & Fruit amenities upon arrival
Daily Happy Hour at Vilu restaurant for you and sharing guest in same villa from 17.00 – 18.00 hours

HHonors™ Global Benefits:

Earn points & miles “double-dipping”
Complimentary weekday newspaper (online print)
Late checkout upon request, subject to availability
Two complimentary bottles of water per day

Gold

Due to the very special nature of the accommodations at Conrad Maldives, we are unable to offer upgraded accommodations. However, as you are a valued Gold member, we are delighted to offer you the following benefits during your stay:

One bottle of wine* upon arrival
Chocolate & Fruit amenities upon arrival
Daily Happy Hour at Vilu restaurant for you and sharing guest in same villa from 17.00 – 18.00 hours

HHonors™ Global Benefits:

Earn points & miles “double-dipping”
Complimentary weekday newspaper (online print)
Late checkout upon request, subject to availability
Two complimentary bottles of water per day

*Service of alcoholic beverages is subject to local laws.

So not only are there no upgrades, but no more breakfast benefit either. This wouldn’t prevent me from returning to this resort, but certainly would mean reconsideration.

It’s worth noting that the Waldorf Astoria Maldives still offers breakfast for you and a guest for Diamond members.

Package 1: (for HHonors Diamond Members)

Daily breakfast for member and one guest
One bottle of wine
Complimentary daily access to the Spa Hydrotherapy Facilities
Fruit basket upon arrival (regular replenishment for subsequent days)

Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 1
Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 2
Conrad Lounge in Mali and Seaplane to Rangali Island
Beach Villa at the Conrad Maldives
Euro swimsuits and Turtles
The main pool and snorkeling
Our luggage arrives, Vilu, and the Quiet Zone
The employee strike
The strike ends
Ithaa underwater restaurant, Water Villa, and sunset cruise
Sunset fishing and Superior Water Villa
The final day
The conclusion

Finally was able to board our flight a little before midnight. We flew from Male back to Kuala Lumpur with another eight hour layover. Rather than try to go back into the city, we decided we would just stay at the Kuala Lumpur airport instead.

We went through customs and headed over to the Malaysian Air bag terminal to find out about compensation for our bags being lost for three days. After waiting in line for a good while, a friendly gentleman came to help us. We had to fill out a lot of paperwork and after explaining what happened he went to consult with his boss. He said that since we were flying business class, we were eligible for $100 US per person for our lost bags.

We debated whether or not take the offer but given the complexity of even finding our bags, we decided that it would be worthwhile to accept the offer since we were talking to a live person. He handed us the Malaysian equivalent of $200 and had us sign some paperwork and we were done.

We went back through passport control and headed up to the lounge where we stayed for six hours watching TV, sleeping, and messing around on the Internet.

We boarded the plane again and flew from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei and had another two hour layover and then it was back on the plane from Taipei to Los Angeles. By this point, I didn’t want to see anymore satay. I was ready to impale myself with one of the bamboo skewers. After another brief layover, we were finally back to Salt Lake City.

My final thoughts:
It was an incredible value to fly the entire time in business class for 120,000 Skymiles per ticket. The eight hour layover in Kuala Lumpur was a bit much. Bora Bora was our favorite destination of all time before this trip to the Maldives. The Maldives is now our absolute favorite place to go. There were so many things to like: the weather, the luxury, the food, the excursions, the staff, and the remoteness of the location.

In my opinion, the Conrad Rangali Island did a fantastic job in ensuring that our stay was pleasant.

We have been holding on to the British Airways buy one get one tickets and I am seriously considering redeeming them to go back to the Maldives. We enjoyed our stay that much.

Here are some final pictures:
Rangali Bar

Other various photos

Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 1
Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 2
Conrad Lounge in Mali and Seaplane to Rangali Island
Beach Villa at the Conrad Maldives
Euro swimsuits and Turtles
The main pool and snorkeling
Our luggage arrives, Vilu, and the Quiet Zone
The employee strike
The strike ends
Ithaa underwater restaurant, Water Villa, and sunset cruise
Sunset fishing and Superior Water Villa
The final day

It was our final day in the Maldives and we were in the Superior Water Villa and didn’t want to leave the awesomeness that is this villa!

We went to eat our final breakfast at Vilu and to enjoy our breakfast smoothie. We hung out on the beach by the Quiet Zone for the rest of the morning.

Stingray anyone?

How about a baby shark?

We headed back to the room to pack up and we ordered up some room service so that we could enjoy these last few hours in this unbelievable room. The room service was set up like it was at a restaurant.

The clock hit 3 pm and the porter came to get our bags. We headed to the front desk to settle our final bill. Unfortunately, this became the only unpleasant part of our whole stay. I’ll give you the minute by minute detail.

3 PM – arrived at the front desk, tan, relaxed, and in a great mood though we’re leaving paradise. Our island hostess tells us to have a seat and she’ll get our final bill for us

3:10 PM – The person behind the front counter is typing at a fever pitch – I can’t tell if he’s creating it himself right now, posting Facebook status updates, or just trying to look busy.

3:15 PM – Our island hostess comes over with the final bill. As I inspect it, I notice that they’ve charged us $100 per person for dinner at Atoll Market the night of the strike. I explain that we were told by two different employees that night it would be $35 per person if ate from one type of cuisine on the buffet. Since it was the only option available for food in the entire resort. We asked for her to make the correction.

3:30 PM – Our island hostess comes back to us with version 2 of the bill and says that unfortunately there is nothing they can do about the dinner charge at Atoll Market. I tell her once again, we were told by two different employees (a bartender at the closed Rangali bar and our server at Atoll) that it would only cost $35 that night and to please tell the manager to make the correction.

3:40 PM – I’m getting a bit anxious at this point as our seaplane is supposed to leave at 4 PM. Our island hostess comes back again with version 3 and says that she was able to knock off %25 making it $75 per person and that’s the best she can do. At this point, it’s becoming very irritating. I tell her again that we’re not going to accept that and to please call a manager or someone with authority that we can talk to.

3:50 PM - Our island hostess returns with version 4 and it’s the exact same as version 3! I’m not sure if she thought we wouldn’t notice or what but my blood pressure began to rise now. I told her that it appeared she didn’t have the authority to do anything about this and to please call someone. Also – are we going to miss our plane?

4:05 PM – Once again, they’re both behind the desk, typing away, picking up the phone, calling people, hanging up the phone, calling more people – it’s very apparent that perhaps they don’t have any authority to do anything? Eventually, there were five desk staff looking at the computer screen as a seaplane takes off. There was another one pulling up to the dock.

4:10 PM - Who in the world are they talking on the phone to? Is the manager on duty in a dhoni riding around the island? How can it be this difficult?

4:20 PM - A full 80 minutes have gone by now and we’re still sitting at the front desk trying to settle our bill. I can see a crowd of people gathering over by the second seaplane. I’m hoping at this point that we won’t miss our plane. We’re talking about $80 now – but it’s more the principle of it at this point. This is five star resort and we were seriously inconvenienced by the staff strike and had tried to stay positive in spite of it.

4:25 PM – Our island hostess returns for the final time, saying that she got the charges taken down to what we had been told – and that our bill was finally ready. One more quick scan of the bill, everything is in order, payment by Hilton American Express Surpass, and away we go. Lightly jogging to the seaplane with our island hostess in tow, completely frazzled, blood pressure way too high, and feeling that it was a rotten ending to a fantastic vacation.

We arrive at the departure hall – to say our final goodbyes to the island hostess. It’s been kind of an odd week – I assume most other people create this really great relationship – we just didn’t click with her as we lost confidence in her abilities early on. I feel bad for her, I assume that she wants to do a good job, but perhaps just doesn’t have the experience / training needed? And I am sure if she had more then four weeks at the resort it would have been different. I think they should have a shadow training program for new island hosts. Perhaps this was her first week ‘on her own’.

We say goodbye to the Aussies that we met during our stay here as well and all pile into the very cramped and warm seaplane. Tip: Save your earplugs from the flight to the resort, they didn’t hand out another pair and they did not have any onboard.

The engine starts, the propeller starts to twirl, and we have liftoff.

Rangali Island gets smaller and smaller as we are flying back to Male.

We land in Male and are picked up by a shuttle van. We asked if we could head back to the Hilton lounge since we have hours to kill at this point. We were informed that the Hilton lounge is only available for people that are departing and if we wanted to go the lounge, it would cost $75 a person. Pass!

The shuttle took us to the main terminal of Male airport. There really is nothing to do at the Male airport and in fact, they won’t let you even enter the airport until 3 hours before your departure time.

There is an enterprising local that has set up a luggage storage business. For the price of $3 per bag, he will watch your bag for you while you walk around and tour Male. His place of business consists of a concrete floor with tape / chalk outlining the storage area and lots of luggage there. I assume that our bags will be safe as there are plenty of other bags there.

The Hilton representative asked if we want a tour of the city, and as we have about 5 hours till departure – why not? A Maldivian who speaks incredible English takes us over to the dock and we speed away on one of the speedboats. We arrive in town and he begins to explain to us all the different landmarks and some of the history of Male. He also takes us outside of some of the mosques.

We have a ton of questions for him and he patiently answers each of them. He shared a lot about his family and beliefs. The tour of the city takes about an hour and we end up back at the Male airport.

At this point, our options are to sit in a seat or go to the Movenpick ice cream shop. We chose the Movenpick ice cream shop. It was a welcome feeling to walk into an air conditioned building. There was limited seating there and we ordered our ice cream and fresh squeezed juice. There were a lot of people in there with their bags taking up space and not ordering anything. Make sure if you go in there that you’re courteous- at least order something! Another hour was killed and finally we were allowed to go into the airport at 8:45 PM.

We checked in and headed to the lounge. It was nothing to write home about – they did have some big chairs in front of a large TV with CNN on.

There was a “buffet” of food at the lounge, though one look at the and we passed – no point in being sick on a long flight due to some questionable curry.

We watched CNN, played around on the internet, and finally it was time to board our plane. Our plane left at 11:45 PM headed to Kuala Lumpur. It was sad to leave the Maldives – it really was an incredible trip and vacation destination.

Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 1
Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 2
Conrad Lounge in Mali and Seaplane to Rangali Island
Beach Villa at the Conrad Maldives
Euro swimsuits and Turtles
The main pool and snorkeling
Our luggage arrives, Vilu, and the Quiet Zone
The employee strike
The strike ends
Ithaa underwater restaurant, Water Villa, and sunset cruise
Sunset fishing and Superior Water Villa
The final day
The conclusion

We spent the whole morning in the Water Villa and went over to Atoll very late. We only had about 20 minutes to eat before they closed it all down.

We headed to the main pool again while the staff came and retrieved our luggage again to move us to the Superior Water Villa.

After a couple of hours at the pool, we went to our new Superior Water Villa.

Once again, the room was magnificent and very decadent.

Notice in the Superior Water Villa-there are two sets of robes, white quilted pair in the closet and print pair in the bathroom.

The view from bathtub looking out to the deck (The window allows guests to see out but not be seen from the outside; when you are on the deck the window is like a dull mirror.)

In the Water Villa and Superior Water Villa, the toiletries are from Bulgari.

View from the bed looking outside towards the jacuzzi on the deck

What room would be complete without a jacuzzi outside overlooking the Indian ocean?

We had a pretty tough time figuring out how to turn on the jacuzzi – it really wasn’t self explanatory.

Above are the button controls – you would think that one of these would turn it on. I tried for quite a while to push several different combinations of buttons, but nothing worked.

Eventually we had to call maintenance to come and show us how to work it.

Here are the controls that are behind a wooden door behind the jacuzzi. To start the jacuzzi, push the button on the bottom row to the right of “hand” button. You’ll thank me for giving you more jacuzzi time.

Here is some video footage I shot of the room as well.

After being sufficiently wowed, we went to do some more snorkeling around the resort.

We also hit happy hour at Rangali Island for half price virgin strawberry daiquiris. I drank two of them and therefore we were running a little late for our evening excursion. My wife and I had decided to go on a fishing excursion. We had seen one of the boats come into the dock several times during the week and it looked to be a pretty cool adventure. It was a speed boat with several fishing rods to pull in gigantic fish I assume. This is the type of activity that you normally wouldn’t do on your own and we decided it would be fun to go on a two hour fishing expedition.

We showed up a little late to the lobby area and there were other families with really small children waiting as well. It seemed a bit odd as I imagined us cruising through the ocean at 50 mph on the speed boat. Our guide showed up and all proceeded to head to the excursion.

As we approached the dock, the only boat that I saw was a long, pontoon type boat – the dhoni. It was apparent that we had signed up for the sunset fishing excursion rather than the big game fishing excursion. We boarded the boat with three other families, all with small children.

We started to head out to the sea, and the crew said that they weren’t going to go as far out to sea as they normally did because they didn’t want the small children to get seasick. They handed each one of us a hand made “fishing rod”. It consisted of a wood board with fishing line wrapped around it and a hook with weights at the end. One of the crew came over and put some bait on it for us and instructed us to drop it down into the water about 30-50 meters deep.

The last time I went fishing must have been when I was a Boy Scout. I was pretty bummed that we weren’t on the high speed fishing boat pulling out these large fish.

I dropped the hook and the sinker down in the water and let the line unwind itself very deep. It was amazing that the water was actually that deep this close to the island. As I patiently waited for a bite, I could feel some movement on the hook and quickly started to pull the line up. Nothing on the line. I preceded to continue this same routine for about 30 minutes, getting pretty discouraged that I wasn’t catching anything. One of the crew members came over and told me that the key was to pull the hook really hard as soon as you felt a nibble in order to hook the fish.

I decided to rely on his expertise and tried his method instead. Within about 20 minutes I had finally caught something. I tried to pull the fish in with my bare hands (since there was no rod) but even I wasn’t strong enough. One of the staff members asked if he could help and with amazing brute strength pulled the fishing line in.

As the fish came out the water – I had caught a beautiful red snapper!

I was pretty excited to catch something and threw my line back in to try and catch something else. About 20 minutes later I pulled up another fish – this time a surgeon.

My wife soon caught her own fish – a surgeon as well.

After the two hours were up, we wanted to stay out longer. The crew accomodated us and allowed everyone a few more minutes to fish which was generous of them. The crew really tried to help everyone catch something and have an enjoyable time. I had enjoyed the night fishing and were glad that we ended up going out on the dhoni afterall.

As we headed back in – the crew informed us that for $20 the Atoll Market would clean and prepare the fish you had caught and you could eat it for lunch the next day. Neither my wife or I enjoy eating fish which is sad given all of the destinations we have traveled to where they have fantastic seafood. We were ensured by the crew that our catch wouldn’t go to waste and that the staff on the island would eat it.

We went back to Rangali Bar for hamburgers and ice cream for a late dinner and then headed back to the water villa for some jacuzzi time while doing some star gazing at the crystal clear skies.

I feel like I can die at anytime as I’ve had a taste of heaven.

Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 1
Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 2
Conrad Lounge in Mali and Seaplane to Rangali Island
Beach Villa at the Conrad Maldives
Euro swimsuits and Turtles
The main pool and snorkeling
Our luggage arrives, Vilu, and the Quiet Zone
The employee strike
The strike ends
Ithaa underwater restaurant, Water Villa, and sunset cruise

We woke up in the morning and on our way to breakfast, there was a note in our mailbox stating the the employee strike had ended. I’m not sure what concessions were given to the employees, but I was glad it was over and that the resort could return back to normal.

We headed back to Vilu for breakfast and that delicious breakfast smoothie. After breakfast, we went to the main pool again and spent hours and hours there.

For the first time, we tried the Happy Hour at Rangali Bar which had half price drinks from 4-6 pm. We had virgin strawberry daiquiris which were really good. They also serve cashews with a little kick.

For dinner, we had reservations at the Sunset Grill. The Sunset Grill is right by the Ithaa underwater restaurant and is open from 7 – 11pm. Earlier in the day my wife had told an island host which table we preferred, she said she would note the request but could not guarantee it. We arrived a little early in order to secure a table outside on the deck that faced the sunset.

There are times when poring over all the message boards, doing all the bonus offers, traveling around the world, and staying in hotels everywhere in order to amass points finally make it worth it. Tonight was one of those nights – the ambiance was incredible. Perfect weather and just my wife and I. Many of you know that my wife is often left at home when I travel for business for weeks on end. It makes me happy when I can reward her for her patience with trips like these.

Looking at the menu, there were plenty of fish and meat dishes. They even handed us an iPad with the wine list uploaded on it. We both decided on the Rib-eye steak Australian Wagyu with Tellicherry pepper ($65 a piece).

The chef sent out a creamy mushroom soup for us to try – absolutely exquisite.

Watching the sunset from our table – it was magnificent. If there was any doubt whether the Maldives could surpass Bora Bora as my favorite destination, Bora Bora was surpassed tonight.

This was my favorite meal thus far. We headed back to the room where a stuffed shark was waiting for us on the bed. This place really is paradise.

Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 1
Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 2
Conrad Lounge in Mali and Seaplane to Rangali Island
Beach Villa at the Conrad Maldives
Euro swimsuits and Turtles
The main pool and snorkeling
Our luggage arrives, Vilu, and the Quiet Zone
The employee strike
The strike ends
Ithaa underwater restaurant, Water Villa, and sunset cruise

At this point, our luggage still hadn’t arrived and we were getting a bit frustrated. I had sent Direct message via Twitter to Delta – and all they could tell me was beginning at LAX, Malaysia Airlines had their own bag tag and they would be unable to track it.

Using Skype, we had talked to the Male airport, Delta Airlines, and Malaysia lost baggage departments without any success. We had talked to our island hostess but it didn’t appear that she had taken any action – but I think it was because she was a new employee rather than she didn’t care. The transportation director also was unable to get any information in regards to where our bags were but he seemed to want to do everything in his power to try to get to the bottom of the situation.

Several times we were told by various people at Conrad and Male Airport that it would arrive on the next seaplane but it didn’t come to pass. We would be out at the pool or out and about and we would hear a seaplane and our hopes would go up that our bags might be on that plane.

Finally we received a call from the transportation director that our bags had arrived on the island and would be delivered to our room. We were so excited that we wanted to actually go out to the seaplane arrival lounge and get them ourselves. Thirty minutes later there was a knock on the door and our bags had finally made it. The Maldivian employee was taken aback when my wife started screaming and smelling the fresh clothes. She told him that she wanted to marry him. I was finally able to shed my Euro form fitting swimsuit!

With our fresh clothes, we decided to try out the breakfast at Vilu. Vilu differs from Atoll market in that you order off the menu instead of having the full buffet. They do have a smaller buffet there as well and after having so many days of Atoll, we were ready for a change.

Vilu is located on the second island that is connected by a bridge to the main island. There is a Dhoni that goes between the two islands that will drop you off right by Vilu.

As you approach Vilu, the setting is absolutely brilliant as it is looking right out to the water.

We were seated in a beautiful location and handed the menu. Plenty to choose from including all types of eggs, waffles, pancakes, fresh fruit smoothies, orange juice. Other guests said they had the best eggs benedict they have ever had. You can order as much as you want off the menu.

I chose the over easy eggs on toast, with hash browns and sausage.

After placing our order we headed over to the mini buffet.

The Vilu breakfast felt much lighter and healthier with plenty to choose from. Vilu also had one or two varieties of champagne to choose from that are included in the breakfast, we can’t remember if this was available at Atoll. My wife liked eating breakfast at Vilu better than Atoll because she is not a big fan of buffets, and she loved the ‘Vilu smoothie’, an original smoothie only served at Vilu during breakfast. Also they had the hashbrown patties instead of french fry style hashbrowns.

After enjoying our breakfast with orange juice and fresh fruit smoothies, we headed over to the Quiet Zone pool. The Quiet Zone is on the same island as Vilu and is intended to be an adults only pool.

View of Vilu from the beach near the Quiet Zone pool

We spent several hours at the Quiet Zone pool before heading back to our room to change into our workout clothes. Eating all this wonderful food – it was time to try out the exercise room.

There was plenty of weight machines and best of all – ice cold bottled water in a refrigerator. It is small but adequate as most people run/walk around the islands for their workout. We saw sting rays swimming around in the ocean while we were on the treadmills. Employees are allowed to use the gym which bothers some guests, but it didn’t bother us and I saw them go in the gym but they were never there when we worked out.

We went back to our room, changed our clothes and went to the by invitation only manager’s reception. It was held right outside on the deck of the Rangali Bar and was actually kind of overrated. There was complimentary canapes, wine or champagne (can’t remember) and some unique non-alcoholic fruit concoctions that we didn’t care for. We did get to meet several of the staff but overall it wasn’t that exciting so we split after about 30 minutes.

For dinner, we had made reservations for cheese fondue at The Wine Bar. The dinner cost $65 per person.

The fondue was pretty good but I’ve had better. It was a nice atmosphere. We dined with Russians who are on the Sochi 2014 Olympic committee along with some Brits and Americans and enjoyed talking with them.

The desserts were divine – they included a lime sorbet, cheese in white chocolate, and some ball of heaven that we couldn’t figure out what it was. Sometimes quality is better than quantity. My wife thought they were some of the best tasting desserts she has ever had, and would go back for the okay fondue just to eat these three little bites.

Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 1
Trip to the Maldives – the flights part 2
Conrad Lounge in Mali and Seaplane to Rangali Island
Beach Villa at the Conrad Maldives
Euro swimsuits and Turtles
The main pool and snorkeling
Our luggage arrives, Vilu, and the Quiet Zone
The employee strike
The strike ends
Ithaa underwater restaurant, Water Villa, and sunset cruise

We ate breakfast at Atoll Market again and we headed out to the main pool on the main island. The pool is surrounded by lounge chairs, some of the loungers are double sized for two people, and some are on a shallow ledge in the pool water. Each lounge chair has an umbrella as well.

About every 30 minutes to an hour, the staff come around with fresh fruit, ice cold water, and cold towels. You also have access to the Rangali Bar food menu for ordering.

This pool is where we spent the majority of our time during our stay. The ambiance was calm and relaxing – so much so that I slept for a good two hours under an umbrella.

After spending several hours at the pool, we went to the dive center to pick up our complimentary snorkel gear which we checked out for the duration of our stay. We confirmed the size of the fins in advance as I wear a size 14 and wanted to be sure it would fit. They had plenty of fins in that size.

After researching online beforehand, we headed to the beach outside the Deluxe Beach Villa #228. This was supposed to be the best place to snorkel and there’s a buoy out on the edge of the house reef. The snorkeling out here was better than Thailand but not as good as Bora Bora – we didn’t scuba dive but we hear that it is amazing and considered one of the best dive destinations in the world. In fact, we met an American living in Japan who came to the Conrad for the sole purpose of diving. He had very good things to say about the dive staff at the Conrad and the overall experience.

After dinner at Rangali Bar, we walked on the bridge connecting the two islands to watch the manta rays play. They gather near the lights on the bridge and they’re huge.

When we returned to our room, a stuffed octopus or jelly fish was waiting for us on the bed along with a newsletter describing the dining and excursions available for the next day.