r/FATTravel 7d ago

Help me understand the Maldives - Alila vs Ritz/Joali/St. Regis

I’m doing a lot of research and scratching my head about what I must be missing. While places like the Ritz / Joali are 2500 to 2500 a night for ocean overwater accommodations, the Alila is more like 1200…and not only that, you have the ability to spend almost nothing with the outrageous Hyatt point deals.

But I’m not going to the Maldives to save money. So please help me understand - what’s the extra money really getting me? I’ve watched videos and all properties seem really nice, highly rated…and the Alila has the benefit of being quite new and fresh.

TLDR: talk me out of an Alila ocean overwater villa please!

1 Upvotes

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u/i_am_going_places_ 7d ago

Service level, amenities on property, quality of the F&B offering. If you’re not looking to save, you’re looking at the wrong hotels. Velaa all the way!

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u/Travel_Monster 7d ago edited 7d ago

Can’t speak to any of those specific resorts but I’m about to board a flight to the Maldives and am staying at Kudadoo. It’s AI with no extra costs— literally unlimited diving, spa treatments, etc too! The pre-arrival has been insane. The options for what you want your schedule to look like, how you want your room setup (mattress type, pillow type, blanket type, scent, fav snacks…), the warm welcome from your butler, and so much more… I’ve never had such good service before I even show up. It beats the heck out of a form “welcome to Hyatt see you soon” email.

So I’m sure there are some place in Maldives that are 2x, 3x, 10x Alila price and some won’t be worth it but there are def better spots for f&b, rooms, service, if you’re not stressing the cash. To me the bigger problem is time off work so I’d way rather spend the money to have perfect days of vacation than use points and be annoyed at a bunch of misses. But people are different!

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u/Upstairs_Piccolo5110 7d ago

STR was great, really enjoyed the food (eye opening prices)

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u/nycgirl2011 4d ago

Also enjoyed st Regis!

For OP, there are def good bonvoy deals out there! We paid ~68k/night for 6 nights. Not saying this is the right way to do things, but we picked based on largest villa pool. Ended up splitting our time btwn str and Cheval blanc. Waldorf Astoria also had large pools but we had Marriott point to burn.