Back in August, Shae and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. For many, many years, we’d discussed celebrating our 20th in the Maldives and thanks to points and miles we were able to do that in style.
We stayed all eight nights at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island which is a beautiful resort. We picked it for a couple of reasons:
- It’s one of the few hotels in the Maldives where you can book straight into an overwater villa with points or free night certificates (rather than having to book a beach villa and paying cash for an upgrade)
- It’s home to the world’s first undersea restaurant – Ithaa
We had a wonderful, fun and relaxing time there, with our stay being made even more special by the excellent service. Here’s a review of our stay at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island.
How To Get To The Conrad Maldives
In case you’re not familiar with the Maldives, it’s an island nation in the Indian Ocean. And by island nation I really mean islands nation because it’s made up of close to 1,200 islands, about 200 of which are inhabited.
Its capital city is Malé and that’s the airport that you’ll fly into when visiting from overseas. Seeing as all the resorts are on different islands, you then have to take additional transportation to get to them. Depending on the hotel and its distance from Malé, you might be able to take a speedboat or yacht, while in many other cases you’ll have to take a seaplane. For the Conrad Maldives, you have to take a seaplane which is arranged through the hotel – you can’t just arrange your own transport.
Both when arriving and departing from the Maldives, you have to complete an Imuga form online. You can either complete it ahead of time or once you land; the airport has complimentary Wi-Fi you can connect to if you’d rather complete it upon arrival. It’ll give you a QR code upon completion; it’s worth taking a screenshot of that just in case, but it should automatically get linked to your passport records.
Something important to be aware of ahead of time is that you’re not allowed to bring alcohol with you to the Maldives due to its religious customs. Your resort is likely allowed to serve alcohol, but you have to sign a form when entering the country that you’re not bringing any with you. They seem to be particularly sensitive to glass bottles; we had some in our suitcase (they didn’t contain alcohol) and the suitcase had red labels plastered on it stating we had to go through the red zone for customs. They rescanned our bags and had us open them to show them the bottles. It was fine once they verified they didn’t contain alcohol, but it would suck to bring alcohol with you in glass bottles and have it taken away the moment you land.
After getting through immigration and customs, look for someone holding a sign for the Conrad Maldives who’ll be there to greet you (you provide the hotel with your flight details ahead of time). If for some reason they’re not there, they’ll hopefully be at the specific booth for the Conrad Maldives once you’ve exited customs and immigration.
After meeting up with the hotel rep, they’ll take you over to the Trans Maldivian Airways counter to get your seaplane tickets and weigh your bags. Be aware that due to the nature of seaplanes, there’s a luggage limit per passenger of one checked bag weighing up to 25 kg (~55 lbs) and one carry-on item weighing up to 5 kg (~11 lbs). If you have items weighing more than that, it costs ~$5.80 per kg extra. Our bags were a little overweight, so we had to pay $35.96.
After getting our seaplane tickets, the hotel rep and her colleague drove us over from the main terminal to the seaplane terminal.
She led us inside to a waiting room while we waited for our flight to start boarding. We didn’t have to wait much more than 10 minutes before she advised us that they were ready to board.
As you might expect, the seaplane was fairly cozy. It also gets quite warm in there (although there are a couple of fans), so make sure you’re not wearing a lot of layers.
Neither Shae nor I had ever been on a seaplane before. We were initially a little nervous, especially Shae seeing as she doesn’t like flying. However, it ended up being perfectly fine. In fact, if you’re going to be flying overwater, a seaplane is the one type of plane you’d want to be flying in the event of an emergency as it’s better equipped for landing on the ocean!
Here’s a video of us taking off from Malé:
If possible, grab yourself a window seat so that you can get better views of all the islands you’ll pass over along the journey.
As the plane took off and landed, there was what sounded like emergency beeping. Don’t worry about that when flying on a seaplane – I think it’s simply letting the pilots know they’re very close to the water which, when taking off and landing, is to be expected.
Our flight stopped off at another resort first to drop off a few passengers. They refueled quickly, then it was just a short flight on to the Conrad – here’s a video of us landing:
If you’re planning a trip to the Conrad, be aware that the seaplane transfers don’t come cheap. It cost $675 per person (including tax) for our roundtrip seaplane transfers when we visited in August 2024, so $1,350 total for the two of us. Our flights to the Maldives were booked with miles and our stay at the Conrad was booked with Hilton free night certificates (more about that in the Cost section of this review), so splashing out $1,350 wasn’t quite as painful as it would’ve been if we’d paid cash for both the hotel and other flights.
Check-In
The Conrad Maldives Rangali Island is spread out over two islands that are connected by a walkway. At the center of that walkway is the seaplane landing dock.
There’s a small building next to the dock where you’ll take a seat while you get checked in.
We were given a cold towel upon arrival to help us freshen up, as well as a coconut to drink from.
We then met Hussain who was our concierge/contact point for our stay. He was lovely and took us by golf cart to our villa. The easiest way to contact him during our stay was through WhatsApp, so if you don’t have WhatsApp on your phone already, it’s worth downloading that in order to communicate easily with your concierge.
What Time Zone Is The Conrad Maldives In?
When checking in we learned that the Conrad Maldives has its own time zone. It’s at GMT +6 which is one hour ahead of Malé and the rest of the Maldives. For those in the US, that means it’s 11 hours ahead of the east coast. You’ll therefore need to manually change the time on your phone during your stay because it’ll default to the regular Maldives time based on your location. This is also worth bearing in mind when considering your flight times in and out of Malé, but the hotel will also assist with that when arranging the seaplane transfers.
Sunrise Water Villa
When you think of the Maldives, one of the most iconic images is of a villa sitting over the Indian Ocean. Being able to book one of these Sunrise Water Villas with our Hilton free night certificates was one of the main reasons we booked a stay at the Conrad.
When entering our Sunrise Water Villa the bathroom was on the left, the walk-in closet behind us to the left and the bedroom straight ahead.
Bedroom
The bedroom area was a decent size with a king bed, couch, armchair and desk.
The king bed was very comfortable and had flowers and a message saying “Maruhabaa” (which means “Welcome”) made of leaves. There were four long pillows that were nice and soft.
Both sides of the bed had lights switches that were clearly labeled, as well as power outlets and USB ports. One of those power outlets was for UK plugs, while the other was an international outlet that should fit most plug types. There were also a couple of USB ports to charge phones easily.
Be aware that the Maldives uses 230V voltage. That’s almost twice the voltage used in the US, so if you bring some electronic devices like hair straighteners with you from the US, those will get blown by the high voltage. If you want to bring items like that with you, you’ll also want to bring a voltage converter rather than just a plug adapter. For laptops, that’s not an issue as your cable should feature a power converter automatically.
At the end of the bed there was a couch that looked out over the ocean, with a coffee table in front and a TV in the corner.
Along one side of the villa there was a desk and chair with a partial glass floor beneath.
That glass floor was a fun touch, but it did have a downside – it let in a lot of light in the morning, especially seeing as this was a Sunrise Water Villa. We therefore used a couple of the long pillows to cover it up which helped a lot. The housekeeper during our stay noticed this and subsequently placed some towels down there instead which worked just as well.
In addition to the outlets by the side of the bed, the desk had several power outlets including more international outlets.
On the opposite side of the room there was an armchair and a side table.
On the coffee table there were some welcome amenities waiting for us – a bottle of prosecco, a bowl of fruit, some macarons and some other kind of sweets. I’m not sure if all guests have this kind of welcome gift awaiting them or if we received them due to having Diamond status with Hilton. Either way, they were greatly appreciated!
Back behind the bed there was a mini bar area.
There was both an electric kettle and a coffee maker, along with several bottles of water. These bottles of water are complimentary and are replenished every day. I think our housekeeper was attentive and noticed that we got through our water quite quickly as he tended to leave 6-8 bottles for us after our first day.
The mini bar area had items you have to pay for both on the counter and in the mini fridge below.
There were a couple of drawers with complimentary tea and coffee, as well as coffee cups and drinking glasses. The mini fridge had some cartons of milk too; although most of the beverages in the mini fridge were charged for, the milk was complimentary which was nice as I have that in my tea.
In case you’re curious about the cost of the items in the mini bar, you should be able to scan this QR code to see the latest pricing.
Seeing as resorts in the Maldives are on their own individual islands, they have a captive audience and so you can only dine at their restaurants which are expensive. We got complimentary breakfast due to our Hilton status (more about that later), so Shae and I figured that we’d have a large, late breakfast each day which would hopefully see us through to dinner.
We figured that there’d be days we’d get peckish in the afternoon though, so we also brought along quite a few snacks with us. We brought several cups of ramen noodles, wraps and tuna packets, nuts, chips, cookies, turkey sticks (make sure you don’t bring any pork products due to Maldives religious reasons which you get asked about on the immigration form), granola bars, candy, etc. This was useful, but we overestimated how snacky we’d feel and so we ended up leaving with quite a bit of it!
Behind the mini bar area was a walk-in closet which contained an iron and ironing board, a safe, lots of hangers and more.
There was a good quality beach bag you can use during your stay, but it’s sadly not complimentary for taking with you when you leave unlike the beach bag we received at the Hilton Mauritius Resort & Spa.
There were also flip-flops and slippers.
Between the villa’s front door and the walk-in closet were controls for the air conditioning and ceiling fan, as well as light switches and a couple of other switches to indicate whether you’d like housekeeping or to not be disturbed.
Bathroom
The bathroom was nice and spacious with two sinks and a long countertop.
A bathtub was next to the window, giving you a view of the ocean. There were a couple of tealights and some matches if you want to make things more romantic.
In addition to the bathtub there was a walk-in shower. This had both a rainfall shower head and a handheld showerhead, with the water pressure being good. It sometimes took a little while for the water to heat up though, so we tended to have to leave it running for a minute or two before getting in.
There were large bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash in the shower.
The toilet was in its own section with a door that closed. There was a window looking out, but we left the blinds pulled down in there throughout our stay. While the villa has a lot of privacy, that window looked out on the walkway that people use to get to other villas.
The sink area had a hairdryer and other toiletries and amenities that you might need during your stay.
Deck
The best part of an overwater villa isn’t what’s inside – it’s what’s outside. In these Sunrise Water Villas there’s a good-sized deck with sun loungers and chairs. Off to the left were some stairs leading down into the ocean.
Inside the villa there’s a light switch turning on lights by those stairs. A friend recommended turning them on at night because fish and small sharks (not ones that’ll attack you) are attracted to the light. We tried that one evening and didn’t have any luck, but it’s worth a try if you’d like to see sealife from your deck.
There was also a small plunge pool looking out over the ocean. The water was chilly on the day we arrived, but it warmed up during the rest of our stay.
These overwater villas have a good amount of privacy. There were other overwater villas in the distance, but they were far enough away that no one over there would be able to see anything unless there’s a creeper with binoculars.
There are also fences running along both sides of your villa which provide privacy from the villas on either side of you.
After getting settled in we popped open the prosecco…
…and enjoyed a glass out on the deck.
Front Of The Villa
To get to the overwater villas there’s a raised walkway. At the start of the walkway there was a large ceramic jug of water with a ladle to rinse sand off your feet.
At the entrance of our villa there were a couple of umbrellas. There are other umbrellas available at the front desk in case you need them while out and about.
On the front of the villa there was an adornment letting you select whether you wanted housekeeping or if you’d like to not be disturbed. We didn’t make use of this because there were the switches inside the villa that light up outside to let housekeeping know if we wanted service or not.
Video Walkthrough
Here’s a video I took of our Sunrise Water Villa to give you a better idea of the layout:
Getting Around The Conrad Maldives
The Conrad Maldives is spread over two islands. The larger of the two islands is Rangali-Finolhu Island and is what would be regarded as the “family” island. That’s where there are some overwater villas, as well as beach villas. Several restaurants are there, as well as clubs for children and teens, family swimming pools, a spa, the hotel’s reef, the dive center, watersports rentals and more.
The other island is Rangali Island and is an adults-only island. There are overwater villas on this side too, as well as a few other restaurants, another spa, fitness room, beaches, an adults-only pool and more.
To get between the two islands there’s a long walkway crossing over the ocean.
Other than this walkway and a couple of others, you get everywhere else by walking along sandy paths. The main paths/roads are packed sand, so it’s easy enough walking along them rather than the trudge that it can be when walking through beach sand.
It doesn’t take too long to get from one island to the other, although the length of time will vary based on where you are on one island and where you need to get to on the other. To get from our overwater villa on Rangali Island (the adults-only one) to the main island it was generally a 15 minute walk or so.
We usually walked from one island to the other, but the resort has lots of golf carts with drivers available to take you wherever you want. If you’re on the main “family” island, head to reception and they’ll arrange for you to get where you need. If you’re on the adults-only island in your villa, just call reception and they’ll send you a cart. If you’re elsewhere on the island (such as at one of the restaurants), they should be able to call to get you a cart.
This was handy for occasions when we didn’t want to walk for one reason or another. For example, for our anniversary dinner at Ithaa, we didn’t want to get hot and sweaty walking there, so we took a golf cart. Other times when it was raining heavily, we took a cart; when it’s wet, they have covers to keep you dry.
Conrad Maldives Dress Code
Some of the restaurants at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island have a dress code, but it’s generally smart/casual when there is a dress code.
That dress code only applies to what’s above your feet though. Seeing as nearly all the paths are sandy, you can walk everywhere barefoot or in flip-flops. Restaurants don’t have any footwear requirements in terms of smartness. In fact, they emphasize that you can dine barefoot or in flip-flops/sandals. Even the fancy Ithaa underwater restaurant insists on barefoot dining as you head down into the restaurant. This was heaven for me as my day-to-day life in the US is spent barefoot or in flip-flops when possible, so having that as the official dress code was awesome!
Celebrating Special Occasions At The Conrad Maldives
Many people who travel to the Maldives are celebrating some kind of special event, whether that’s a honeymoon, anniversary, birthday, babymoon or something else. After booking your stay, the hotel will reach out via email to provide information about your stay, plus they’ll ask if there’s anything you’re celebrating.
We were there because we were celebrating our 20th anniversary. Shae’s birthday is the week after our anniversary, so we were able to time our stay so that we celebrated both in the Maldives.
Our Anniversary Celebration
When getting back to our villa after breakfast on our anniversary, we were greeted by the following message on our bed:
The night before that we’d gone to dinner at Vilu restaurant. Although it wasn’t our anniversary yet, they decorated our table in a special way compared to everyone else. We were also given a table on the corner of the walkway to give us the best view of the ocean.
On our anniversary night we had dinner at Ithaa Undersea Restaurant – more about that in a moment.
Shae’s Birthday
I’d let the hotel know ahead of our stay that we were celebrating both our anniversary and Shae’s birthday during our stay. We went to Vilu for breakfast on her birthday and we asked for glasses of sparkling wine to celebrate. This was served in a fun way with whipped cream and a cherry on top.
Trying to drink sparkling wine with whipped cream on it has consequences:
When getting back to our room after breakfast, this beautiful display was on the bed. Seriously, how cute is this?!
I’d reached out to our concierge/host Hussain the day before her birthday to ask if they’d also be able to provide a cake. They came through with a very tasty chocolate cake (her favorite):
That wasn’t the end of it though. We went back to Vilu for dinner that night and planned to go on to Rangali Bar for dessert. After finishing our meal, the staff at Vilu brought out a little cupcake with a candle and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her.
If you’re celebrating something during your stay at the Conrad Maldives, it’s therefore worth letting them know ahead of your stay and also asking if there’s anything specific that you’d like.
Gold & Diamond Status Complimentary Happy Hour
From 4pm-5pm, the Conrad Maldives offers a complimentary happy hour for those with Gold or Diamond status in the Hilton Honors loyalty program. This is held at Ari Lounge on the adults-only Rangali Island next to Vilu restaurant.
The staff at this happy hour do a good job keeping your drinks refilled, so you can get several free drinks if you arrive at 4pm or thereabouts. Wine (red, white and sparkling) and beer is available, as is their cocktail-of-the-day.
In addition to the complimentary drinks, small plates of canapes are provided. These aren’t substantial enough to take the place of dinner, but it can help tide you over until a later evening meal.
If you don’t already have Gold or Diamond status with Hilton before your stay, it’s worth trying to get it before a stay at this property, both for this complimentary happy hour and complimentary breakfast if that’s not included in your room rate.
There are several ways you can get status outside of staying at a lot of Hilton properties ahead of your stay. If you have status with another hotel chain, you can request a status match here. That feature is both a status match and status challenge. You get status for 90 days, then it’s extended if you stay enough nights within that 90 day period. If you don’t anticipate having enough stays to extend the status beyond the 90 days, you’ll want to ensure you don’t submit the status match request more than 90 days before the end of your stay to ensure you have Gold or Diamond status while you’re at the Conrad.
If you’re based in the US, you can also get Hilton Gold or Diamond status through certain credit cards. If you have an American Express Platinum or American Express Business Platinum card, that comes with complimentary Hilton Gold status for as long as you have the card.
Similarly, the Hilton Surpass and Business credit cards (also issued by American Express) come with Gold status, while the Hilton Aspire card comes with Diamond status. Although all these cards have annual fees of some variety (some higher than others), their benefits can potentially make the fee worthwhile.
Dining Options – Restaurant Menus & Times
The next couple of sections will feature all of the different dining options at the Conrad Maldives – one listing the breakfast locations and the other featuring where you can have lunch, dinner and drinks.
Some of the restaurants are only open on certain days, so if you’re only staying for a few days and there’s a particular restaurant you want to eat at, you’ll want to check which days it’s open and make a reservation.
There’s also this site that contains the menus, pricing and opening days/times for all of the restaurants at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island. This link was extremely helpful to have to check out our options, particularly with regards to pricing.
Breakfast
There are two restaurants at the resort that serve breakfast – Vilu and Atoll Market. Both restaurants offer breakfast from 7am-10:30am. Being able to have a later breakfast is nice if you want to fill up then to try and see yourself through to dinner to save money on lunch.
From what I could tell, people on a paid rate always (or nearly always) have breakfast included in their room rate. For those staying on points or free night certificates, you have to pay for breakfast unless you have Gold or Diamond status.
Breakfast at Vilu Restaurant
Seeing as it was only a short walk from our villa, we went to breakfast at Vilu more frequently than at Atoll Market.
Vilu is, for the most part, a made-to-order restaurant at breakfast. When being seated, we were given tablets with menus on them:
I always started off with a power salad because otherwise we weren’t getting too many veggies during our stay. I then got another menu item with it and tried several options during our stay, as did Shae. One of our favorites was the Maldivian breakfast; the fish curry and mas huni tuna were absolutely delicious. The eggs benedict and noodles were both good (although the latter needed some seasoning), the Maldivian-style omelet was very good and the Nutella pizza which also came with fruit topping was surprisingly tasty.
I mentioned above that Vilu is mostly a made-to-order restaurant at breakfast. Although there’s the menu items, they do have a selection of self-serve buffet items including pastries, donuts, breads, cereals, yogurt and fruit.
All these options meant there was always plenty to dine on in the morning. I don’t think there’s a limit on how many dishes you can request either.
If it’s hot out then you might prefer to sit inside in the shade. On cooler mornings though, it can be nice to sit out on the deck for better views of the ocean.
Breakfast at Atoll Market
The other breakfast location is on the main island and is called Atoll Market. This is a massive breakfast buffet with all kinds of options. There’s your traditional western hot options like sausage, bacon, hash browns, scrambled eggs, baked beans, etc., as well as items from other countries (Maldives, India and Sri Lanka), breads, pastries, fruit, cheese, salad, breads, juices, an egg station and much, much more.
I’d recommend going to both Vilu and Atoll Market at least once, ideally to one on your first morning and the other on your second morning. If you’re staying longer, you’ll then have a better idea as to which restaurant best suits your needs/tastes for the rest of your stay.
Lunch, Dinner & Drinks
There are many locations at which you can dine when staying at the Conrad Maldives. Many of these require advance bookings, especially if you’ll be visiting during peak season. It’s therefore worth making at least a few reservations ahead of your stay if there’s somewhere in particular you want to eat at.
If you’re booking a paid stay (rather than using points or free night certificates), you’ll have the option to book half-board. That means you get free breakfast and free dinner – to an extent. For dinner, certain menu items at certain restaurants are included. You can choose other non-included items, but there’ll be an upcharge to some extent.
Be aware that although water is complimentary at breakfast, most of the restaurants charge you for bottled water at lunch and dinner.
Ithaa
The thing that the Conrad Maldives is perhaps best known for is having the world’s first underwater restaurant. It’s called Ithaa and we dined there to celebrate our anniversary.
There are three times that you can visit Ithaa:
- Visiting Hour – This is from 11am-12pm where you can have a glass of champagne or a mocktail and light canapes. If you’d like to experience Ithaa on a budget, this is the best way to do it. There’s even a way to book this visiting hour with points – more about that in the Hilton Experiences section later in the review.
- Lunch – This is at 12:30pm and gives you the best chance to see fish and sharks throughout your meal as it’ll be daylight the entire time.
- Dinner – Dinner at Ithaa is at 6:30pm. Depending on what time of year you visit, you’ll see fish and sharks while it’s still light outside. As it gets darker they swim elsewhere on the island, but then some return once the lights are turned on outside the restaurant.
You can find the Ithaa lunch and dinner menus here.
I published a separate review of our dinner at Ithaa – you can find that here.
Vilu
In addition to being one of the two breakfast restaurants, Vilu is also available for dinner from 7pm-10pm; here are the menus. We ate there in the evening a couple of times as they had good food and excellent service.
For our first dinner there we started off with bread with an olive tapenade:
For my entrée I ordered the grilled baby squid Milanese with a side of warm potato salad with artichokes; both the dishes were nice.
Shae meanwhile ordered the lobster & shrimp linguini which she liked too.
For our second dinner there we started off with the octopus salad:
For my main I ordered their Frutti di mare pizza minus cheese (I don’t like cheese). This came piled with seafood toppings and was very filling and tasty.
Shae’s entrée that night was the spaghetti alle vongole – spaghetti with garlic, red pepper flakes, white wine, clams and parsley.
Rangali Bar – Lunch & Dinner
Rangali Bar is open for lunch from 12pm-6pm and dinner from 6pm-10pm; here are the menus. It’s perhaps the most budget-friendly dinner option at the Conrad Maldives, with many entrées in the $30-$40 range. Despite being on the “cheaper” end of things (for this resort), the food was delicious and so we returned for dinner there several times.
There’s seating outside if you prefer al fresco dining, as well as indoor seating if you want to be out of the sun and/or want to watch sports on the large screens inside.
On the first evening that we had dinner there I ordered their Nasi Goreng – chicken and prawn fried rice with fried egg, garlic, chili, prawn crackers and chicken satay with peanut sauce. This was so delicious that I ordered it both other times we ate there. The restaurant had other dishes that looked tasty, but the Nasi Goreng was so good that I couldn’t bring myself to order anything different lest I be disappointed.
Shae was a little more diverse in what she ordered. One time she ordered the Maldivian fish curry – the dish we’d had at Vilu restaurant at breakfast. At breakfast it was a smaller serving, but at dinner you get a much larger bowl.
It comes with chapati, but Shae also got some naan bread to go with it.
Another night she ordered their margarita pizza which she also liked.
After having dinner at Vilu on our final evening, we headed over to Rangali Bar for dessert to share their choco lovers dessert which contains Swiss chocolate ice cream, chunky Snickers bar, chocolate topping and chocolate shavings.
Another benefit of Rangali Bar is that reservations aren’t needed for dinner – you can just rock up and order dinner.
In addition to being open for lunch and dinner, Rangali Bar runs happy hours where some drinks are half price.
Their happy hours are from 5pm-6pm and from 10pm-11pm. We went for a late drink a few times during the 10pm-11pm happy hour before retiring for the night.
Ufaa
Another restaurant we ate at was Ufaa where you dine on the beach; here are the menus.
The meal started off with four types of steamed buns and an amuse bouche of reef fish in soy sauce with pineapple.
We then ordered with some kind of appetizer. Unfortunately I can’t remember what it was and it looks like the menu might’ve changed since our stay; I think it was some kind of crispy shrimp dish though.
For my entrée I got the stir-fried chicken in black bean sauce which was very flavorful.
Shae ordered tiger prawns in some kind of sauce. While the flavor was good, she hadn’t realized that they were served shell-on. She therefore took a big bite of one of the prawns, only to end up with a lot of shell in her mouth. Due to all the sauce on them, it was also an extremely messy meal to try to eat after that in order to remove the shells; the restaurant would do better to remove the shells themselves even if it means it’s not quite as flavorful.
Shae and I shared a side of shrimp and scallop fried rice which was very good.
Koko Grill & Lounge Bar
On the adults-only island you can find Koko Grill & Lounge Bar. This is on the beach, although we didn’t eat there and so I can’t comment on the quality of the food. You can find the menus here.
Mandhoo Spa Restaurant
Mandhoo Spa Restaurant is an overwater restaurant on the main island; here are its menus. This is another restaurant we didn’t try during our stay.
Sunset Grill
Mandhoo isn’t the only overwater restaurant – Sunset Grill provides that dining experience too. Here are its menus.
The Wine Cellar
If you’d like to eat underwater, Ithaa is your place. If you’d like to eat underground, the Conrad Maldives has you covered too with The Wine Cellar. Although we didn’t eat there ourselves, during the complimentary happy hour we were given a quick tour.
It’s a beautiful setting if you’d like a more special dinner that isn’t quite as pricey as Ithaa; here’s its menu and pricing.
One of the most interesting things we saw during our quick tour was a 6 liter bottle of Cristal; imagine being baller enough to order this! It looks like this normally costs $10,000 if buying it from a specialty wine store, so I can only imagine how much it would cost to have it at the Conrad Maldives.
In-Room Dining
If you’d rather chill in your villa for dinner, you can have food brought to you – here are your options.
The Quiet Zone
If you’d like something to eat and/or drink while hanging out at The Quiet Zone (the adults-only pool), you can order from their menu.
Cheese & Wine Bar
I don’t like cheese and so we didn’t try this option. I recognize that I’m a freak in that way though, so for normal people who do like cheese and wine, here are the menus.
Amenities
Before our stay I was a little concerned that I’d get a little bored stuck on a couple of small islands with not much to do, but I needn’t have been concerned. Our eight days passed by much faster than I expected and it felt like there was plenty to keep us entertained if we’d needed it.
Swimming Pools
On the main island there’s an infinity swimming pool for families with quite a few loungers, both on the side of the pool and in it.
Next to that family pool is a pool for much smaller children as it’s only 20 inches deep.
On the other island there’s an adults-only infinity pool in the Quiet Zone.
Fitness Room
Also on the adults-only island there’s a fitness room. While it wasn’t the most extensive hotel fitness room that I’ve ever seen, it didn’t get busy.
For refreshment there’s a good supply of water in a mini fridge, as well as some apples.
I think there might be a fitness room on the main island too, but we didn’t see it when walking around.
Water Sports
Some water sport activities like kayaking and paddle boarding are complimentary.
There’s also a dive center where you can get snorkels and fins to use throughout your stay for free. They give you a bag to store them in which makes it much easier to transport them around.
There are other water-based activities you can pay for such as scuba diving, a turtle safari, a whale shark excursion and more. Scan the QR code below for more details about those trips and how much they cost.
Tennis Court
Somewhat hidden away on the main family island is a tennis court; I didn’t manage to get a photo of it on the couple of occasions we drove by in a golf cart.
Clinic
Back near the tennis court there’s a clinic in case you need any non-emergency medical attention during your stay.
Other Sports & Games
There’s beach volleyball available if you have enough people to play…
…as well as a table tennis table. It can sometimes get windy on the beach where the table is, so it was funny watching people try to play one evening when it was particularly gusty.
Yoga & Meditation Pavilions
If you’d like some less strenuous activities, the adults-only island has both a yoga pavilion and a meditation pavilion so that you can participate in these activities in peaceful, beachfront surroundings.
Beaches
Needless to say, there are beaches all around the two islands. If you’re staying in a beach villa, you presumably have a beach accessible right outside your room. For those in overwater villas, there are beaches close by, as well as other beaches around the main island.
Children’s Activities
For younger children there’s a kid’s club; I’m not sure if there’s a charge for this service or if it’s complimentary.
There also seemed to be a club for older children, but it didn’t appear to be in use when we walked by.
Spas
There are two spas at the Conrad Maldives – one on each island. The Over-water Spa is on the adults-only island, while Spa Retreat is on the main island.
Business Center
There’s a business center hidden away above the reception area.
In addition to there being a couple of computers for guests to use, there are lots of books you can borrow, as well as some board games.
Swings
If you’re someone interested in getting some Insta-worthy photos, there are some swings – both on land and in the water – which can be good for photo ops.
Stores
There were a couple of stores in a building next to the reception area, but we didn’t do any shopping at those.
Snorkeling
I mentioned earlier that you can get complimentary snorkels and fins from the dive center to use throughout your stay. Although you can go snorkeling anywhere (other than one marked off area where the current is too strong), the main snorkeling area is the house reef on the main island. To get to it you walk down the beach…
…until you get to the lifeguard station.
Opposite the lifeguard station is a sandbar you go through up to a red buoy, then you head to the right where you’ll find the reef. Here’s a map of where it’s located:
Shae went snorkeling more than I did, so here’s her account:
You need to monitor the conditions so that it’s not too shallow where you’re swimming over the reef. The first day I went it was cloudier in parts of the reef. The second day I went, parts of it were clearer than others. I saw a lot more of the reef that day, but the weather was changing and so I had to head in when the waves kept sweeping over my snorkel.
I saw a ton of really cool fish on both days, but the second day was more successful for prettier parts of the reef and a wider variety of fish. As you can see in the videos the reef is pretty damaged/bleached, but there were still big, diverse and plentiful fish to be seen if you were patient.
Here’s a video Shae recorded while snorkeling:
Massage
To celebrate Shae’s birthday we got a couples two hour massage at Spa Retreat – the spa on the main/family island.
The experience started with a drink (lemon chia seed and lemon cucumber) and cold towels.
After getting changed…
…it was time for our massages. Before it started, we got to use a restroom which was super-unusual as it was outside on the side of the overwater spa room. It had full privacy and so no one can see you, but it was a little strange-feeling being outside and on the edge of the deck over the water!
The massage itself was glorious and the two hours passed incredibly quickly. After finishing, we were brought into another room where we were served some tea and sweets.
Hilton Experiences
Hilton Honors has a program called Hilton Experiences where you can redeem points for experiences. Some of these are auction-style where you bid on an activity, but other Hilton Experiences have a fixed points price.
There are several Hilton Experiences you can book at the Conrad Maldives which you can find here. One of the options is paying for the seaplane transfers; at the time of publishing this the cost is 269,500 Hilton Honors points per person which is poor value.
There are other options that provide better value though. That includes a Chinese cooking class at Ufaa, various spa treatments (including the two hour couples massage that we booked), as well as cocktails under the sea in Ithaa Undersea Restaurant. That latter experience costs 25,000 points per person for the one hour experience from 11am-12pm which includes a glass of champagne or mocktail and light canapes.
These experiences can therefore be a great way to have some fun experiences without incurring additional costs if you already have a stash of Hilton points.
Whale Shark Excursion
One of the water-based excursions the Conrad Maldives offers is a whale shark excursion. This sounded exciting, so we decided to sign up. They did mention when signing up that they can’t guarantee that you’ll see a whale shark, but the experience overall ended up being disappointing. That wasn’t the fault of the guide though – she was fantastic.
The experience started with a session where we learned more about whale sharks.
We then headed out on the ~4 hour excursion.
We went around searching for whale sharks for several hours. What we hadn’t been advised of ahead of time was that they hadn’t found any whale sharks for several days in a row. All they’d said beforehand was that there’s no guarantee of seeing them; if we’d known that it had been almost a week since one had been spotted, we wouldn’t have splashed out the $600+ for the two of us.
After several hours of not finding any whale sharks, they took us to a reef that was less bleached than the hotel’s house reef where we got to snorkel for a little while.
On the way back to the hotel they finally spotted a whale shark. Unfortunately as soon as they spotted it, the whale shark dived down. Our guide wanted to hang around in case it surfaced again, but the other staff needed to get back. It was a Friday afternoon and they had religious commitments that afternoon/evening that they didn’t want to be late for. While we respect that, it also would’ve been nice to have been given a heads up that Friday is the worst day to try to find whale sharks because there’s no flexibility with staying out a bit longer if needed.
We ended up giving some feedback regarding the lack of communication about potential issues with the experience to our concierge/host and the hotel gave us a refund of 20% of the activity’s cost which we appreciated.
Wildlife At The Conrad Maldives
Crabs are plentiful when staying at the Conrad and you’ll see lots of different types of them as you walk around.
Other than snorkeling and eating at Ithaa Undersea Restaurant, your best chance of seeing fish, sharks and more is at night. The long walkway over the ocean between the two islands is lit up at night which attracts marine life.
8pm-10pm is apparently the best time to hang out on that long bridge as that’s when you’re most likely to see a manta ray that hangs out there. We saw it a couple of nights during our stay and enjoyed watching it swim back and forth close to the surface. Here’s a video of it in action:
You’ll likely see a heron or two hanging out as well.
To try to help reduce the prevalence of bugs and other insects, the resort conducts some fogging once a week.
Checking Out
After eight wonderful, relaxing days, it was sadly time to check out.
One of the nice things about the Conrad Maldives is that you can add staff tips to your folio before checking out. While we tipped servers when eating at restaurants there, we didn’t have enough cash to be able to tip our concierge/host, golf cart drivers, our housekeeper, breakfast staff at Vilu (seeing as our breakfast was complimentary, there was no way to tip) and Gold/Diamond complimentary happy hour staff. At checkout they were able to add amounts of our choosing to our folio and have them designated for specific staff members/groups.
You can also split the cost of your stay across one or more credit cards. That’s particularly helpful if you have more than one Hilton Aspire credit card. That card comes with a twice-annual $200 resort credit which can be redeemed at the Conrad Maldives. Before our stay Shae and I upgraded a few of our Hilton Surpass and no annual fees cards to Aspire cards. While the Aspire card has a high annual fee, being able to redeem that $200 credit as well as getting airline fee credits, free night certificates redeemable at any Hilton property worldwide, etc. made the annual fees worth it.
Once we’d settled up, it was time to catch a seaplane back to Malé airport. Except there was a problem. The weather wasn’t great that day and so Malé airport was closed to flights at the time. That meant we had to hang out at the hotel for a little longer. Our flight out of Malé wasn’t until late at night, so we had plenty of time to kill.
Malé airport finally opened, so we boarded the seaplane and headed to another resort to pick up a couple more passengers before continuing on. Here’s a video of that take-off and landing:
Unfortunately Malé airport closed its airspace again by the time we landed at the other resort, so we had to hang out there too and wait for the weather to clear up.
After about an hour or so we got the all clear, so we headed back to the seaplane and continued on to the airport.
Service
Service at the Conrad Maldives was excellent across the board. Staff members were always very friendly, helpful and welcoming. A few staff that were particularly fantastic were:
- Hussain – our concierge/host
- Lai and Inttey at Vilu restaurant
- Terrence at Rangali Bar
- Philippa – our whale shark guide
- Rimah at Ithaa
We got chatting to a number of different staff members during our stay and it seemed like they all genuinely enjoyed their job. The resort has a staff island where they stay and it sounds like they have a lot of great amenities on their island. They also seem to get treated well by the hotel and it didn’t seem like they were saying that in a “blink twice if you’re in trouble” kind of way 😉
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi service at the hotel was pretty good, with decent speeds considering we were out in the Indian Ocean. Be aware that some websites block Maldivian internet traffic, so if you’ll need to get online during your stay it could be prudent to download a VPN before your stay if you don’t have that service already set up. It would be a shame to need to access something like a banking website and not be able to access your account(s) due to being blocked.
For what it’s worth, we were on T-Mobile phone service at the time. When the weather was good we had 4G LTE service, but when it was cloudy and/or stormy, we only had Edge coverage.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
Check-in at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island is from 2pm, while checkout is at 12pm. There seems to be some element of flexibility with those times depending on when your flights to and from the Maldives are due to arrive and depart.
We arrived at about 11am and were able to go to our villa straight away. Another couple who we got chatting to said that the hotel had extended a late checkout to them as their flight to Malé wasn’t until later in the afternoon.
Cost
As you might expect, staying at the Conrad Maldives doesn’t come cheap. We stocked up on Hilton free night certificates and used eight of those to cover the accommodation portion of our entire stay. These were earned from a mix of Aspire credit cards (those come with a free night cert every year), while others were earned from spending $15,000 in a calendar year on Hilton Surpass and Business credit cards.
If we’d redeemed points it would’ve cost 120,000 Hilton Honors points per night. If you have Silver status or higher with Hilton, you get every 5th night free and so that can save you a good chunk of points on stays of 5+ nights.
If we’d paid for our stay, the cash rate for a Sunrise Water Villa for our dates would’ve been $1,107.66. Our eight night stay therefore would cost almost $9,000, so being able to redeem the free night certificates was an excellent redemption option.
For our additional costs that got charged to our room – meals, activities, tips, etc. – we spread the cost across several different credit cards. Not because of credit limits, but to take advantage of some different saving/earning opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, Shae and I had 2-3 Hilton Aspire credit cards each and those have a $200 Hilton resort credit you can earn once from January-June and again from July-December. We therefore put at least $200 on each of those cards.
We also had a separate Hilton Amex Offer giving $180 back when spending something like $750. We each had that on one of our cards, so we put at least $750 on each of those cards in order to save a total of $360 back in the form of statement credits from American Express.
Paying for our stay on Hilton Aspire credit cards also meant that we earned 14 points per dollar on that spend which helped us rack up a decent number of points too.
Final Thoughts
Shae and I had a wonderful stay at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island. It’s a beautiful resort with lovely staff and some great amenities. Despite visiting in the off-season, we had very good weather overall despite some poor weather forecasts. The resort was the perfect place to celebrate both our 20th anniversary and Shae’s birthday. Getting to eat at Ithaa Undersea Restaurant was a special experience too.
Our Rating
Room = 4.8 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.8 / 5
Food = 4.7 / 5
Location = 4.8 / 5
Service = 4.8 / 5
Overall Value = 3.9 / 5 (this is tricky because there’s no way we’d ever spend more than $1,000 per night for a stay. It’s a superb use of free night certificates though. The value score takes into account the cost of the seaplane transfer, meals, etc. too, hence why it’s lower than it perhaps seems like it should be.)
Total = 4.63 / 5
This is a great, detailed review. Thank you.
Thanks!
Love the detailed review! Do you know if the hotel accepts Hilton gift cards?
I’m assuming they do, but I don’t know for sure. I sent an email to them earlier to ask about this, so I’ll let you know once I hear back.
I’ve heard back from them – they don’t accept Hilton gift cards I’m afraid
Ah ok. Thanks for checking. Hilton gift cards seem harder to use than expected.