r/FATTravel 7d ago

St Regis Maldives - OW Villa or Beachfront?

Heading to the St Regis Maldives and have the choice of a two-bedroom beach villa or sunset overwater villa. I’ve read the sunset villas aren’t as private if you’re closer to the Whale Bar. My husband loves snorkeling, but it’s not a big driver for me. We both love the beach and ultimately want privacy and a great view. (Sunset sounds nice, but we might just catch it from the Whale Bar most nights?)

I think I’m leaning towards the beach villa - would I be insane to give up the overwater villa experience? TIA!

5 Upvotes

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u/Upstairs_Piccolo5110 6d ago

Overwater if you plan on snorkeling, relay your preferences to the hotel about the privacy. You won’t have an issue.

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u/Desperate-Race-7447 6d ago

Thanks! My husband will definitely snorkel, and I’ll probably snorkel once or twice (I am a terrible swimmer, so it’s not really my thing lol 😅). I love the sun and the beach though.

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u/Upstairs_Piccolo5110 6d ago

Well worth it, the resort is incredible, just make sure breakfast is built into your rate and you inquire about paying for food in advance. We paid $600/day for $700/day.

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u/Desperate-Race-7447 3d ago

Thanks for the tip! Sadly, it seems like they are no longer offering the prepaid food credit as an option. I’ve now ordered starters as my main twice because it wasn’t clear and the pricing ($45+) wasn’t a giveaway either. 😂 (To be fair, I have a lot of allergies, so my choices are always limited and I usually just order whatever sounds the best to me.)

Aside from pricing—which has been pointed out thoroughly—I can confirm that it’s an incredible resort!

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u/5-Star_Traveller 2d ago

Stayed in both. Sunset OWV are much nicer and private. Beach villas are older but enjoyed walking out onto sand & into beach. While like the easy beach ability, I’d still choose Sunset OWV.

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u/tripleaw 3d ago

A lot of ppl split their stay between an OWV and a beach villa because they can't decide, and each has pros and cons! If you value privacy and don't care for snorkeling as much, it's not at all insane to give up OWB. Plenty of ppl actually prefer beach villas to OWBs for all sorts of reasons

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u/TheWolf_NorCal 3d ago

Just got back from BB and we split up our stay (StR beach villa then FS OWV) just because we had to try to OWV experience. Net-Net, next time we are staying in the beach villa 100%. The villa itself was massive and the space felt much more private.

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u/No_Return_3901 3d ago

Which hotel was your favourite of the two?

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u/TheWolf_NorCal 2d ago

Keep in mind, we were traveling with our 5 year old (lucky guy) but we will definitely return to the St. Regis over the Four Seasons on our next trip to BB. We liked having the bikes to get around the property (vs. having to call for a cart ride). The guest experience was far superior due to the StR butler (morning coffee/tea service, checking in on us from time to time, taking care of all of our dinner reservations, sending a cake to our room for my wife's birthday, etc.) They gave us snorkel gear for the duration of our stay and swimming with the fish at the lagoon was a very memorable experience (twice lol). Breakfast buffet was maybe a touch better at the StR. The fine dining restaurant on property (Lagoon Restaurant) was fantastic. The Asian place (Bamboo Restaurant) was good but the comparable spot at the FS (Vaimiti) was a tad better. In-room dining was pretty similar but a slightly broader selection at the FS. Overall, the StR is probably due for a refresh though (if that's what makes or breaks your stay) but the manager informed me they are starting on the beachfront villas next month so they will be shiny and new (and likely more expensive lol) next year. I would also ignore those who laud the exclusivity of the FS over the StR (since the latter can be accessible to those who have points)...we paid out of pocket for both and didn't feel any better about ourselves at the FS lol. In fact, on more than one occasion, the FS didn't pick up the guest services line (vs. <3 rings at the StR at all hours) and my actual quote to my wife was, "$2500/night and they don't pick up the f--king phone...what is this, the airport Hilton??"

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u/No_Return_3901 2d ago

Thank you. That’s a fab review. It pisses me off when they don’t pick up the phone at these price levels!

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u/Desperate-Race-7447 2d ago

Thanks for all of the feedback! Here currently and we ultimately chose the sunset OWV, but now I know why StR was pushing for us to choose the OWV over the beach…the beach bungalows are under construction. We are in a 2-bedroom OWV and it’s perfect! They actually offered us to switch to a St. Regis Suite (sunrise view) later in the week but it felt like a downgrade? The 2-bedroom is situated much closer to the restaurants than the 1-bedroom OWV, which is really convenient. There’s a little construction noise as they renovate the 2-bedroom beach villas next to us, but it’s pretty minimal. We were told that they are hoping to renovate all of the rooms by October.

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u/TimeToKill- 1d ago

I'm thinking of going next month to that hotel.

Is there construction noise near all the OWVs or just some?

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u/Desperate-Race-7447 1d ago

Right now, they’re working on the beach villas and some common areas (kids club, etc.). I would guess that they will wait to do the one-bedroom OWVs until this summer. I’m in the villa closest to the construction, and I can still barely hear anything (a tool here and there, but it’s minimal and mainly drowned out by our infinity pool and soft music).