Thanks for the report.
When did you go? As in what season? I'm thinking of doing my homework now for a trip
We went in the first week of March. Had absolutely perfect weather, only rain we had was a storm on our last night that only went for a couple of hours. Of course, the weather can be a bit of a guessing game in a place like the Maldives, so you can never be exactly sure what you'll get!
Conrad does have a good range of pricing, I'd always wanted to stay in an overwater villa and we really liked the look of the Superior ones (especially the spa pool on the deck!). If you stay in the Superior or a higher grade (or I think the Deluxe Beach Villas as well), you get an "Island Host" to look after you, they arrange any excursion or restaurant bookings that you want, and will handle any queries or problems that you have. Our Island Host was able to arrange a late checkout for us on our last day as our seaplane didn't leave until about 5pm.
Housekeeping by the way was brilliant - your housekeeper comes in each morning and cleans the villa, makes the bed, refills toiletries etc and then again in the evening (usually when you're out at dinner) and you come back to the bed made (and often decorated, as well as a little fluffy sea creature toy on the bed!), subdued lighting turned on, the lighting under the water villa turned on as well so you can see all the coral, fish etc underneath and around the villa. Our guy kept the room absolutely spotless, and I had no problem at all with leaving an extra tip for him each day (as it's an American-run resort, everything has a 10% service charge added so some people don't tip any extra) - he certainly earned every cent of it.
We were there for my birthday, and a complimentary cake was delivered to our villa during the day, then we arrived at the Sunset Grill for dinner to find the table decorated with birthday wishes and the chef made me a special (and complimentary) dessert. We got back to the villa to find the whole bed specially decorated with flower petals, it really made my day!
It's certainly not a cheap place to stay (the rate we had included breakfast by the way), but it's been just over 3 years since we went and we still talk about it often and would go back at the first opportunity.
Edited to add: we booked through a travel agent (independent), which I would NEVER do again. Being inexperienced travellers, I thought it was the best way to go. When I became a bit more savvy with researching accommodation, flights etc on the Internet, I realised that when I added up what I'd found (including all flights, accommodation, sea plane flight etc), I couldn't get anywhere near what the travel agent had charged us, and it seems she ripped us off to the tune of around several thousand dollars. Still, we live and learn ...
