Hello everyone! I’m probably 3 years behind on reviewing things but I really wanted to get this one done asap before I forget any details since there are probably people out there who are trying to decide between W Maldives and St. Regis Maldives and I hope this post will help. Prior to my stay, I couldn’t find very many thorough reviews on the W Maldives, which made it very difficult to choose between them for my stay during the small window of opportunity in August 2018 when overwater villas at both properties were booking at 340k points for 5 nights. Due to booking a ton of travel packages, I was just shy of being able to book both to decide later. I booked W Maldives first and unfortunately the opportunity passed before I had enough points to book St. Regis also. I wish I had booked both back to back and stayed at both. 😉

I guess many people also chose W Maldives over St. Regis for some reason — since then, the Flyertalk thread for W Maldives has exploded with many helpful and thoroughly detailed reviews and photos.

Dave from MilesTalk also did a nice blog review from his recent stay, so check that out as well. His experience was similar to mine except in reverse: I had an overwater villa first and then a beach villa for the last 4 hours of my stay.

Without further ado, here goes my brain (and photo) dump!

Planning

As mentioned, back in August 2018, I booked 5 nights for mid-April 2019. I picked W Maldives over St. Regis at this point solely based on the fact that it was in a better area of the Maldives for sea life. I think I saw one datapoint at that time from someone on Tripadvisor who had stayed at both and said that the house reef at W Maldives was far superior (can’t find the post now but here’s a similar thread). I also read some of the same points on FT (this post and a few after). As a scuba diver and someone who loves animals, I felt that even though St. Regis had unrivaled (and newer) architectural design, fancy food, and a higher-class feel, I wanted to meet the sealife of the Maldives this time.

I signed up for updates to the Flyertalk thread and pretty much read through every post. I found these to be the most helpful:

I emailed the dive shop ahead of time to ask about and book 3 dives (you can just do this upon arrival). The resort also emailed me a few weeks in advance to send me the April newsletter and ask if I wanted to make any reservations or had any other questions (I didn’t).

Arrival

I flew Etihad J from AUH-MLE and arrived around 6 am. All J passengers were given fast track passes, but it ended up being useless since the fast track lane was the only one lane open at that hour, so it had to take all passengers. I still have those passes if anyone is flying economy and wants them…lol.

When we came out of the baggage claim, the representative from the W wasn’t there yet. There were rows and rows of booths, each with a different resort name, and I found the booth for the W (#28). There was nobody there either, but it had a sign on it saying they were receiving guests at the baggage claim exit. Circled around for about 5 min and then finally found a lady representing the W. She helped us with our bags and took us to the Transmaldivian Airways counter to get the roller bags checked in and give us our boarding passes. Then she took us in a van to the W Maldives waiting lounge, which was offsite, about 15 min away. She took a photo of us in front of the W sign at the lounge, which was later printed and placed in our room.

Arriving at the W Maldives lounge

The lounge had drinks, snack packs, cereal, fruit, cookies, chocolate, handmade granola bars, and some pastries. We waited there for a few hours (there was WiFi) and snuck a few snacks/drinks (pro tip: don’t bother taking the drinks, all the non-alcoholic drinks in your room minibar are free and refillable) into our bags as the lounge slowly started filling up with other guests. There were a couple iPads with resort info and April newsletters floating around too. I took a picture of the free activity schedule to keep on my phone, and added their Whatsapp number to my phone (came in handy several times).

Seaplane

Transmaldivian Airways terminal at MLE

After all the passengers had arrived at the lounge, they took us to Transmaldivian Airway’s outdoor terminal/dock. There was a small waiting area there that we didn’t use, as we were escorted directly to the seaplane. They took our backpacks and put them on the plane as well, and handed everyone earplugs if needed.

The General Manager of the W Maldives, Anuj Sharma, came on our flight. We joked about what a rough commute he had.

After a beautiful 20 minute flight (it was really not bad at all), we landed on a tiny wooden plank in the middle of the ocean.

As they unloaded our luggage onto the little plank, I commented: “This is a pretty nice resort.” The GM laughed and said, “Welcome to the W Maldives!”

We had landed on the little plank because it was still early morning, so they didn’t want guests to be awoken if the loud seaplane landed at the usual jetty. So they loaded us and our luggage onto a boat and we were on the island in about 5 minutes.

Unloading our luggage on the little plank.
Boat coming to pick us up (W Maldives in the distance)
Approaching the beautiful island.

Welcome/Arrival

Welcome reception (GM Anuj standing on the left)

The staff was lined up and waving to us as we arrived. We were welcomed onto the jetty with a wet towel and a drink of our choice. The GM gave a quick introduction of some of his key staff members, and then everyone got into super cute golf carts for private tours of the island before getting dropped off at our rooms.

Super cute buggies! Personally, we never used them again until the last day to transport our luggage…
Different colored buggies, aren’t they cute?!

Overwater Villa Room

Even though we arrived around 10 am, our room was already prepared and we didn’t have to wait. I thought that was really nice — it was like almost getting an extra day in the room.

The room had a bit of a Balinese feel with some modern/hipster touches like the rocking chair and lamps. We had his & hers closets (the large panels on the right), which was nice. I loved the viewport to the ocean, but our side of the villas didn’t have much of a reef, so we only saw a few fish and an eagle ray there.
We never used that ceiling fan.
Pretty sweet to wake up to this view every day.
Bose speaker system – connect via Bluetooth, 5 speakers mounted in the room and another set outdoors on the deck.
Desk with a welcome card from the GM and some resort information.
Welcome spread with another handwritten card from the GM, a card detailing the Platinum+ discounts/benefits, two large coconuts, bowl of fruit, coconut mochi, macaron, selection of chocolates, and a bottle of champagne.
Platinum/Titanium benefits.
Cards from the GM – one on the left was the handwritten welcome card, one on the right was the invitation to the Elite party that night (more on that later).
Welcome party invitation for Elites – wasn’t obvious from the invitation, but that party included free food!
“W”-style naming of random things, like “Met Your Match” for the matchboxes. I took that pen home, it writes smoothly and has a little stylus on one end.
Do Not Disturb sign, W style.
In case you don’t use pens, they have a pencil too. And information about their social media.
Alarm clock and universal outlet plus two USB ports, and the ceiling fan controls.
Sodas and juices are free and replenished daily, alcohol and evian water are not free.
This water is free and there are 4 bottles in the room. You can get more at the gym/pool.
Coffee and tea selection. There’s a Nespresso machine and a hot water boiler.
Snacks and alcohol in a glass case to tempt you at all times. Didn’t work on us!
In case you actually fall for the minibar.
Bathroom (also a glimpse of the outdoor shower and private infinity pool).
I liked the ladder for hanging the towels.
Simple little details like putting the beach towels right by the door to the deck so you can grab it when you come in without getting everything wet.
Toilet. Too bad it’s not Japanese.
Indoor shower – lemon and sage bath amenities, note they are all 4 oz so can’t be taken in your carryon. Hey, these are important details! 😉
More “W” style naming – “When It Gets Rough,” “Fresh Mouth,” “Only Skin Deep,” “Quick Fix,” “Whether You’re Kinky or Straight,” and my personal favorite “Scrub-A-W-Dub.”
And lol they called the extra roll of toilet paper “Backup Plan.” (and that’s an optional makeup mirror next to it)
Outdoor deck – private infinity pool (really can’t see any neighbors) with water jets and outdoor shower. Loved this outdoor shower!
It was too hot to ever use those outdoor lawn chairs and furniture.
Pretty cool that it glowed at night though (you could turn it on and off from your nightstand).
That clothes drying rack was CLUTCH.
View from our deck.
Our ladder down into the ocean.

Bath Amenities Review

Amenities were provided by Bliss Spa and were mostly lemon + sage scented.

  • Foaming face wash: product is alright, it’s free of sodium lauryl sulfate but is not my favorite face wash (my skin prefers Korean/Japanese products). It also has some light exfoliating beads in it. It’s the only product that has a different scent (very floral). However, it was a nice touch since I actually didn’t bring enough for our 3 weeks of traveling. Most hotels don’t provide face wash!
  • Bar soap: meh, it “melted” easily and looked unsightly after a few uses. Especially since it was green.
  • Mouthwash: standard, nothing special.
  • Body butter: this was a great lotion, very creamy and moisturizing unlike many hotel lotions that are too thin.
  • Shampoo: didn’t particularly like the scent of this one even though they’re supposedly all the same, but it worked fine.
  • Conditioner: excellent, creamy conditioner. The scent of this one was actually ok.
  • Body wash/bubble bath: pretty sudsy and worked well, but not a huge fan of the scent.

Exploring the Property

The property was beautiful. The modern Balinese theme was consistent, and the W statues could be found everywhere (fun photo opps). It was especially beautiful at night with the ambient lighting and the colors. I also enjoyed how they played house music everywhere. Speakers were hidden in the walkways. It felt like you were walking around one giant gorgeous outdoor trendy bar/club/lounge.

Welcome Jetty at sunset.
Welcome Jetty at night.
Loved the ambient lighting.
They call the building with the welcome reception the “Living Room.”
Comfy hammocks to hang with your friends.
Yes, they changed this mat 3 times a day. Entrance to the Living Room.
Where the seaplanes usually land at the Welcome Jetty.
Walkway to the overwater villas
Pristine beaches (well, they clean it everyday since random stuff does wash up).
This was a beautiful walk every time.
The lighting at night looked so nice. I can still hear the music in my head as I view these photos.
The clouds often made for some pretty cool sunsets, even if it wasn’t colorful.
Blindingly white, clean beaches and turquoise crystal clear waters… (the Wave water sports hut can be seen in the distance, next to the beach volleyball court)
The Living Room – Lobby/Reception with games and fruit-infused water
We never really hung out here except to wait for our plane on the last day, but it was popular with others.
Communal infinity pool with swim-up bar, lounge/game area (several games provided), air-conditioned gym, pool table, and library on the second floor.
Building in the background is the Kitchen, where breakfast is held.
WET – This is where we would pick up our daily free ice pop and magnum ice cream bar. You can also order food/snacks here.
Free sunblock. Stay protected!
Communal hot tub. Never used it since we had our own water jets in our overwater villa.
I think people rarely hung out here because 1) it was so hot during the day, 2) everyone has their own pool in their villas, 3) the ocean is all around!
Swim-up bar.
Stairs to the library/gym.
Second floor, pool table in the right corner, gym entrance on the left, library behind you.
Gym.
Punching bags.
Little touches of W everywhere, even the magazine holder in the gym.
Get free water or apples anytime in the gym.
Library – contains movies, books, printer/scanner, phone chargers, and iMac computers.
View down at the Kitchen.
I think this was FISH? I did not really photograph the restaurants since I never went to them, and when they were closed during the day there wasn’t much to photograph.
These W’s everywhere were fun to climb on (carefully).
This beautiful stork visited us often.
Walkway through beach villas. Beach villas are on the left facing the ocean, the right side was where staff lived behind a tall fence.
Presidential Villas. There were three of these at the end of the overwater villas walkway. There was also one super-duper-presidential villa between them.
Away Spa – oh that reminds me, you see that blue jar in the foreground? Those are foot washing stations with fresh water and ladles for you to get the sand off your feet. They’re scattered throughout the resort wherever there’s a beach entrance. Thoughtful touch.
The sunrise yoga classes were held here on the spa patio, and you can just hang out here without having a spa appointment. Great place to start snorkeling as well.
We got a tour of the spa by a very friendly staff member. If you do decide to have a treatment, you get a private room and outdoor deck with bed.
Couples treatment room.
Stretches of the beach belonging to the beach villas near the spa. Great place to start snorkeling or to watch the sunrise!
“Ouch Clinic” – on-site doctor. Someone on FT said that the medication is free (probably to a certain extent, I think they had gotten hydrocortisone).
Sunrise as seen from Away Spa. In the middle you can even see the private island where you can book a dinner for just the two of you ($$$$).
I thoroughly enjoyed this resort!

Elite Reception

The first night we arrived (Friday night), the GM Anuj threw a party with a live DJ and free drinks and appetizers for all Elites. He encouraged mixing and mingling and making new friends, and he was right there doing the same. I gotta say, Anuj was really good at that. He has that charisma and charm to immediately make you feel like a part of the W Maldives family, and you feel at ease around him. He was always out and about and I saw him frequently. I ran into him once with my face covered in magnum ice cream bar and he laughed and handed me a napkin and said he was glad I was enjoying myself. 😅

Anyways, it was a gorgeous night and I met quite a few people at this reception. It seemed like everyone had booked that 340k points deal, and met a few travel hackers (or beneficiaries of travel hackers). Some of them were leaving the next day and said this was the only party they were invited to, so I think the GM throws this party every Friday night. Pro tip: make sure your trip spans a Friday night! The food was good and we didn’t need more food that night.

Delicious poke on rice chips. Also, love this guy’s scale-y shirt! He’s a fish serving fish. Lol.
Chicken skewers on lemongrass sticks. I particularly liked this portable grill thing!
Dessert on a stick.

Making New Friends

I just had to write a separate section for this although I alluded to it in the previous section. I don’t think I’ve ever been to another resort where I felt so comfortable and encouraged to mix and mingle with other guests. Usually, at most resorts, you go with your SO and it’s your private time together, you’re not there to meet anyone new. I expected that at the W too, so it was a pleasant surprise that I felt that the opposite was possible. Sure, you can be anti-social if you want, no problem. But if you don’t mind meeting new people, the W Maldives is the perfect resort for you. I think it goes with the young, hip, trendy vibe that the W brand promotes. The general demographic seemed to be around early 30s-40s. The small island meant a more intimate environment where you were bound to run into everybody at least twice.

  1. As I mentioned above, I met a lot of people at the elite mixer. In particular, I met one group of 8 friends in one shot. Yes, they were 4 couples, but they weren’t even hanging out together or joined at the hip constantly. I didn’t even meet one of the guys since he was mingling with so many others. They were leaving the next day but we saw them one last time when picking up our ice pops.
  2. On our boat dives, we became friends with and exchanged contact info with the other couple on our dive. We chatted whenever we saw each other around.
  3. During our fitness classes, we were friendly with the other attendees and chatted whenever we saw each other around the resort later.
  4. Randomly walking down the walkway back to our room one day, we met a really awesome dude, a neurologist from the UK. He had brought his parents but did most of the activities like diving by himself (making new friends, presumably). He introduced us to his parents later, and they were so nice. We all had breakfast near each other the next day and always stopped to chat whenever we saw each other.

Activities

I mentioned earlier that I was afraid we would be bored out of our minds in the Maldives. On the contrary, we were crazy busy! Here are the things you can do:

  • Free:
    • Fitness classes – yoga, boxing, pilates, aqua aerobics, core fitness, beach volleyball, running
    • Snorkeling – Pick up your gear from the dive shop when you arrive, you can keep it until your last day. Lifejackets are in every room, I personally prefer to use them while snorkeling.
    • Kayaking
    • Standup paddleboarding
    • 45-minute photography session with 6×8 printed photo (any other photos will have to be paid for)
  • Paid:
    • Diving
    • Other watersports like jetskiing, kitesurfing, seabobbing, parasailing, catamaran sailing, glass bottom kayaking, etc
    • Spa
    • Excursions like snorkeling with whale sharks
    • Private dinner on the private island

We participated in nearly all of the complimentary fitness classes which were led by one of 2 instructors, Raj and Tutu (there’s also a third but I think he was on vacation). Raj taught the majority of our classes and he always gave it to you straight: “You need to work out more.” 😂I miss him already. I think most guests preferred to sit around and do nothing, or do the paid activities, because very few people attended these free classes. Yoga probably had the most with around 5-7 people. Pilates and boxing only had 4 people including us, and we were the only idiots who showed up for the core workout (that was rough!) and running. It was almost like having a personal trainer.

Sadly, we never had time to do the free kayaking or SUP since the only day we had time to do it (too busy the other days!), it was too windy so they wouldn’t allow it. 😥

We did the free photography session in hopes that the photos would be posted online such as with Andaz Maui (we are fine with watermarks), but they are not. You get one free printed photo delivered to your room, and the rest will be deleted if you don’t purchase them. If you do purchase them, they will be given to you on a USB stick. I think it was around $220 for 20 photos.

We were actually so busy that certain people like the GM and our divemaster started commenting on how busy we were when they would run into us. The GM was like, “Most people come here to sit around on the beach, but you guys are so busy!” Jay, our divemaster on our shore dive, would see me at sunrise yoga and then see my husband coming in at the end of yoga with all our snorkel gear, and then see us at boxing later. She said watching us made her tired, LOL. But we were just loving how many free activities we could do. Plus, we would commute to the WET bar every day at 1 pm and 4 pm (the heat of the day) to pick up our daily ice pops and magnum ice cream bars. YUM!

April workout schedule
Sunrise run with Tutu
Sunset yoga with Tutu
Sunset yoga with Raj
Sunrise yoga with Raj
Boxing with Raj

Scuba Diving

The Maldives is one of the most famous places in the world for scuba diving,. As such, I naturally had high expectations. My friend Michelle who went in January saw a bunch of manta rays, and I had just seen and fallen in love with them at the Big Island in January, so I was really hoping to see them again or other big animals. Unfortunately, manta ray “season” is December to March, and our trip was mid-April, so we didn’t get lucky.

We did our mandatory shore dive (apparently this “mandatory by Maldivian law” dive isn’t required at the St. Regis according to my friends…) on our second day. The 85F ocean water was really nice…it was my first time not needing a wetsuit and I loved it!! We saw quite a lot of animal life during that dive – hawksbill turtles, eagle rays, reef sharks, and even an octopus. And of course a myriad of fish and less animated life.

The next day, we did a two-tank boat dive in the morning. They took us to Fesdu Maaha and Kandulodhoo Thila, and quite honestly, we were not impressed. We didn’t really see any larger animals, and the coral wasn’t very colorful. We did see millions of fish, but we’re much more into the bigger animals. Even worse, visibility was not very good, and our divemaster said it was due to the full moon the night before. 😥If I had known, I would’ve cancelled these dives and saved that money. We could have been the first people ever to check out of the W Maldives with absolutely no charges on our bill except the seaplane. 😂

On the bright side, the dives were easy (good for us as newbie divers) and our divemaster was really nice and the couple who we dove with were awesome. One of them is really into underwater photography and it was neat checking out her DSLR equipment and housing, and she showed us photos she’d taken from previous dives.

Anyways, here is the information on dives and watersports from the director of the dive shop. Check the FT link from earlier for price lists.

We always do our first dive from the shore in our uncomparable and fabulous house reef. Our house reef is a very interesting one and offers good coral life and rare fish species like frogfish, ribbon eel, ghost pipe fish, rare gobies, nudibranches as well as bigger stuff like turtles, stingrays and sharks. We can do this at 9 a.m. or at 2 p.m. After this first dive, mandatory following Maldivian law, you are welcome to join our boat.

We normally do three boat dives a day, in the morning at 8:30 and in the afternoon at 2:30. All our dives are guided by one of our dive instructors.

The boat ride to most dive sites varies from 5 to 30 minutes and some of the top spots are:
* Maalhos Thila — excellent soft (among the best in the Maldives) and hard corals, abundant fish life
* Donkalo Thila — excellent soft and hard corals, abundant fish life, many manta rays in the manta ray season*
* Himendhoo Thila — good soft and hard corals, abundant fish life, many manta rays in the manta ray season*
* Manta point.- we need a minimum of 6 guest, and a especial boat fee of U$ 70++ is charged for this unforgettable experience in the cleaning station.
* Maaya Thila — abundant fish life, sharks (white tip and grey reef), schooling barracuda
* Fish Head — abundant fish life, eagle rays, white tip and grey reef sharks and a very large and friendly napoleon wrasse
* Bathalaa Thila — healthy reef, resident school of batfish and bannerfish, sharks as well.
* Ship wrecks (fesdu wreck, halaveli wreck)
*: the manta ray season runs from December to March, although this is quite variable from year to year.

Other options are:
* A 2 tank boat dive in the morning — you’ll be leaving at 08.30, make a dive, have a minimum of 1 hour surface interval followed by a second dive. You’ll be back at around 12.30 and still have the afternoon to do something else. our regular dive boat has a toilet, shower, refrigerators, espresso machine, tea, fruit plates, living area etc. and any food or beverages from the resort can be requested.
* Night dives, any night, just let us know
* Private charter Escape — dive world-famous hammerhead shark point or Whale Shark Haven or any other top spot in our atoll aboard our stunning luxury two cabin sailing yacht Escape.
* House reef dives – Diving courses — for both beginner and advanced divers
* Camera rental — we’ll burn your memories on a USB
* Underwater photography
* Nitrox diving and nitrox courses
* Marine biologist — we have a resident marine biologist who will be happy to accompany you on any of your dives or snorkeling tours.

Just let us know if you wish to pre-book the orientation dive, and remember to bring your diving license. Please note that we need to leave 24 hours between your last dive and your flight including the seaplane, and that all our prices are subject to 10% Service Charge and 12% GST.

Besides diving we offer a wide range of activities and watersports:
In regards to watersports, you can be agent 007 by trying the legendary Seabob, a submersible motorized torpedo, go jet skiing on our Yamaha Wave Runner, go parasailing and have a bird-eye view of the island and surrounding reefs, or catamaran sailing: you can enjoy our especial topcat sunset sailing, from 17:00 to 18:00 for U$ 80++/person, in which you will enjoy the sunset while one of our watersports instructors helps you sail, or you can also enjoy our Dreamscape Experience: Every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, from 17:30 to 19:00, we take you on our unique two mast motorized sailing yacht “Escape”, to enjoy the glass of champagne and the nibbles included, while relishing with our amazing sunsets. This vessel is perfect also for private romantic dinners, or our amazing Bio Marine Adventure, in which we combine a marine biology presentation, with a snorkel session and a debriefing in the company of our W Marine Insider. I have attached some pictures for your perusal. Some guest even use it for full day/overnight trips to the Whale Shark area, in South Ari atoll.

We also offer a range of activities where you do not get wet at all, like the Glass Bottom boat, which enables to discover the underwater world from the comfort of its roofed seats, or Snorkel Hopping by Speedboat.

We have speedboats you can charter by the hour, go Big Game Fishing on “Cast Away”, our luxury fishing limousine.

Warm regards, and we are looking forward to welcome you in our little paradise,

Anything else, just ask!

Karen Owens, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DOWN UNDER & WAVE / W MALDIVES 

Snorkeling

I never thought I’d say this, but I thought the snorkeling at the W Maldives was significantly better (and free!) than the diving. I think we just got unlucky with the timing and season of the diving, so please don’t let that deter you from booking dives. My friend Michelle had some great dives, and she went diving every day during her trip!

The map above shows the best parts of the house reef. There are orange buoys that mark the manmade entrances to the snorkel channels, so look out for those. We only snorkeled twice – once around the overwater villas, and once from the Away Spa to the Fish restaurant. The part close to the villas was not as great, and I realized afterwards that we should have gone further out. However, we were really impressed and happy with the area around the Spa to the Fish restaurant. We saw two hawksbill turtles (watched one eating coral for breakfast for about 20 minutes — we LOVE sea turtles), several black-tipped reef sharks, a larger white-tipped shark, eagle rays, a stingray, and a myriad of fish.

Similar to scuba diving, visibility was good but not amazing. I was able to get better GoPro footage from snorkeling than from diving, though.

Our new dive friends said they did a crazy expensive whale shark snorkel tour through the resort and saw 4 whale sharks. Neurologist friend said save your money and see whale sharks in the Philippines instead.

Dense schools of fish and little reef sharks swimming among them were seen at all times of day along this walkway and other parts of the island.
An eagle ray! My friend Michelle who stayed at W Maldives in January saw a dozen of these every morning jumping outside her villa. She even got a video of it here!
The coral around the spa was insane! I thought it was the best place to snorkel around the resort. Yup, that’s a black-tipped reef shark in the bottom left corner!
Gorgeous hawksbill sea turtle looking for yummy coral.

Breakfast

Breakfast was great (included for Platinum or higher). It was up to par with many Asian hotel breakfast buffets, and reminded me of the Andaz Maui buffet. I would give the variety and quality about 8/10.

The first day we were given a thorough tour of all the food stations. We always had more than enough to eat and thanks to the myriad of sauces and jams, I felt like I could be creative and make things differently every day. They generally had the same things every day, with a slight twist, like pork bacon instead of turkey bacon, or passion fruit french toast one day and then strawberry french toast the next, or chicken noodles one day and beef noodles the next.

There was also an a la carte menu to choose from, and I read on FT that you could even request custom dishes. I tried that the second day by asking for garlic fried rice, and it was so delicious that I asked for it every day, with a different meat each day. Also, if they have turkey bacon one day and you want pork bacon, they’ll have no problem frying that up for you specifically.

As for drinks, they had a variety of fruit juices, smoothies, some special elixir, and also champagne, Bloody Marys, and occasionally fresh coconut.

Outdoor dining, we never used it because it was too hot.
Pretty Balinese style dining.
Self-service buffet and an eggs station.
A la carte menu. I tried the Healthy Bowl, which was pretty good. My husband really loved that banana pancake and got it every day.
My personal favorite – the noodle bar! Switched between chicken and beef.
Housemade breads, donuts, pastries. I usually don’t eat from this station at any hotel when there is so much other good food.
Honeycomb, other syrups, french toast, waffles, pancakes, crepes (flavors changed daily).
Mmmm fresh honeycomb.
I usually don’t get french toast, but passion fruit is my favorite fruit of all time, so I had to get it when I saw this one day.
Hot food selection – sauteed mushrooms (one of my favorites), veggies, beans, fried noodles, fried rice, curry (changed daily), bacon (pork or turkey depending on the day), sausage, and potatoes (or hashed browns depending on the day).
The carved meat changed daily too. It was usually just ok, since it’s been sitting out, so not very tender anymore.
Oh yeah, they had parathas too (the thin tortilla peeking out of the photo on the left) for the curry.
Dim sum selection and congee with toppings. Hot chili sauce is clutch.
Fresh fruits (cut and uncut), 4 types of milk, cereals, and yogurts.
Salad station.
Chocolate fondue station, which switched off with…
…cheese fondue every other day.
Cold cuts and cheeses. Not usually my thing either.
Variety of fruit juices. This resort is plastic-free so paper straws only!
Fresh fruits, smoothies, and some special elixir.
Closeup of that elixir.
Champagne, juices, Bloody Mary station.
Fresh coconut station.
Custom-ordered secret menu garlic fried rice with meat. It was so good — way better than the fried rice they had in the buffet. It also went really well with the curry.
My husband’s favorite banana pancake with coconut sorbet and mango.
Since you can customize stuff, we asked for it on a crepe one day. YUM!!!
I love noodles so much.

Keeping Food Expenses Down (or $0)

This is the most common question I get when people ask how my Maldives trip went. “How did you not spend an arm and a leg on food? Wait, you didn’t spend ANY money on food at all?? Did you feel deprived?!”

To be honest, we were never hungry. We definitely never felt deprived. After that aforementioned grand breakfast every day, and the heat (it was often over 90-95F with direct sun and humidity!), and the free food, it was hard to really have an appetite after that. Check out all the snacks I brought. I honestly had thought about bringing ramen too, but glad I didn’t.

I brought all these snacks on this trip…and didn’t eat most of them.

I took those snack packs from the lounge earlier, but I actually never ended up eating them! I only ate two things that I brought (the walnuts and Cheez-Its) and ended up giving away the rest to housekeeping at the end of our stay (hopefully they enjoyed them).

Like I mentioned before, the first night we had a welcome party that served free food and drinks, and that was enough for us. Over the next few days, we also ate our welcome amenity (the coconut mochi, coconuts, fruit plate, etc). We actually couldn’t even finish our fruit plate and some of it started to mold by the last day.

I felt like there was a lot of free food (snack-type). Besides the welcome amenity platter, we got a happy anniversary chocolate cake on our second night, and it was so rich that taking 2 bites made me full. I ended up only eating half of the cake during the stay and had to throw the second half away on the last day since there was no way I could eat it.

Anniversary decorations – they also had a soundtrack playing on our TV with a digital sign saying “Happy Anniversary” and our names.

Our trip encompassed Easter, and we were surprised when housekeeping knocked on our door and presented us with a platter with a giant chocolate easter egg posing as a scuba diver. He said, “Complimentary” and then explained the special Maldivian palm tree sap drink accompanying the egg. Unfortunately, I was completely chocolate’d out from the welcome amenity and the chocolate cake, so I didn’t touch the egg. I saw housekeeping take it away the next morning as I returned from yoga. It was lying facedown on the platter as if it had melted, fallen over, and died. 😓P.S. that palm sap drink was very good.

On our last day, housekeeping knocked on our door again with 2 giant fresh coconuts and two pastries and said, “Complimentary” and left. Once again, we were fed with the yummy pastries and the nutritious juice and flesh of those coconuts. Coconuts are fatty, so they’re very filling.

I didn’t avail of these as much as I expected to (I knew about them in advance since I had read about them on FT), but there are these drink/snack stations throughout the resort, maybe every 50 feet or so. They had a non-alcoholic lemon gin and tonic drink, apples, and granola bars. Occasionally I saw that they had some lemongrass yogurt too, which I tried once and it wasn’t very good. I also mentioned earlier that the gym has apples and water, and the Living Room has fruit-infused water. The spa also has cold tea and oranges. The fruit juices and sodas in your room are free too. Between all of these and the frequent coconuts, staying hydrated was never an issue. We also had that bottle of champagne from the welcome amenity.

Drink/snack stations were never far away, but we actually didn’t use them much.

Another thing I knew about thanks to FT was the 1 pm and 4 pm freebies. Every day at 1 pm, they would serve coconut or strawberry ice pops at the WET bar. We would be sure to go over there every day to pick one up. It was the heat of the day, so it was a welcome respite. At 4 pm, they would switch to homemade magnum ice cream bars. These were also delicious, though a bit messy given how fast they melted. We made sure to get these every day as well.

I didn’t investigate this, but on certain dates, SIP bar has a free drink for ladies from 8-11 pm.

Coconut and strawberry ice pops
Daily delivery of homemade magnum ice cream bars!
Quick, eat me before I melt!
Yum…

I do realize that not everyone will be like us and that you MIGHT actually get hungry for reals. In case that happened to us, I was also prepared for that. I knew that Platinum and above get 35% off food and beverage (20% for gold), and also BOGO at SIP & WET after 7pm.

I would recommend perusing the menus posted on FT for an idea of prices (the 35% off will be taken off your bill at the time of signing the check, so you’ll know your final price immediately at the end of the meal) and also making sure to get a restaurant schedule while you’re waiting in the lounge at the airport. Net amount after 10% service charge and 12% tax (applied to post-discount amount) actually comes out a little bit below listed menu prices.

A few suggestions I learned from FT were to get the sushi platter at SIP for around $46, or the seafood pizza at lunch for $32. They said it easily served two, and they also pack and bring leftovers directly to your room (so it can also be your dinner). People on FT also said that the local buffet dinners seemed pretty reasonable and had great menus too.

From FT I also learned that you might want to bring your own water to dinner, but hide it. They otherwise charge for water.

By the way, you cannot bring your own alcohol to the Maldives – it is illegal to import it.

Whatever, Whenever and Whatsapp

I didn’t test them too much on this philosophy other than asking for custom dishes at breakfast (mentioned above), but I did use their Whatsapp several times. I used it at least 3 times due to locking myself out of the room or the key suddenly not working anymore (probably was using the wrong key since they remade the key each time and we never got rid of the old keys).

I also asked them for their help on my Bonvoyed issue (more to come on that at the end of this post) and they were actually able to help with that even though they don’t have access to points on their end.

And lastly, I asked them for late checkout, and they honored it, not by keeping us in the same room, which they needed to prep for the next batch of new arrivals, but in the afternoon on the last day, they gave us 4-5 hours in a beach villa. It was like starting a whole new stay!

Last Day – Beach Villa

I was actually quite impressed with the beach villa. The design was similar in some ways but different in others – such as the hammock inside the room and the rope lights. The bathroom was separate with the toilet indoors and the rest of the bathroom outdoors. It felt like showering in a garden. The villa has a second floor with a large swinging sofa and a second fridge. The outdoor ground-level patio has a private pool, lounge chairs/bed, a feet cleaning station, and private pathway to the beach. Our beach villa was located right next to the spa, so the reef was excellent there.

There was a bottle of organic insect repellent (using essential oils) in the room, but I didn’t notice any mosquitoes anywhere on the island the entire trip, and my friend Michelle who stayed in a beach villa in January said she did not see any mosquitoes either.

Although I think the overwater villa was well worth the 100k points upgrade, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend these beach villas to anyone. The only downside is it doesn’t have any great views, probably due to privacy reasons. The views are all obstructed by trees/shrubbery.

Gorgeous!
Those rope lights were pretty cool.
Outdoor patio and private beach access.
Foot washing station and a view of the entire villa with the second floor.
Second floor with large couch swing.
Small indoor bathroom with toilet and sink only.
Nice outdoor bathroom.

Departure

Alas, it was time to leave. We were pretty happy about getting nearly an extra day from our stay from our early arrival to our late departure, but I think we were also ready to go, since we had started running out of new free things to do. Our seaplane was scheduled for 5:30 pm, but we came out of our beach villa at 5 pm and no buggy came to pick us up. We ran into Raj, our fitness instructor, who kindly called the front desk for us, and they sent a buggy. But when we got to the Living Room, we were told that our flight was delayed till 6:30 pm. Since we had already left our room, I took that time to do one last lap around the property for some final sunset pictures (which I already inserted in various places above).

Gorgeous way to leave the Maldives.
As we flew off, some of the staff waved goodbye at us. After spending 6 days with them, it felt like we were being seen off by family.

Male Airport was a jarring way to come back to reality after leaving paradise. It was crowded, incredibly hot and humid, and we could not enter the air-conditioned part of the airport until 3 hours before our flight. Our flight was at 11:30 pm, and we were at the airport at 7 pm, so we had 1.5 hours to sweat it out in the outdoor part of the airport. There was a Priority Pass lounge called Wellness, but it was tiny. Literally the entire lounge can be seen in this photo. The man with his hand over his mouth is the back of the lounge. It’s supposedly a Plaza Premium Lounge but is probably the smallest one I’ve ever seen.

Since the lounge is so small, it was full when we arrived and we were told to wait in line until spaces opened up. So we stood outside in the sweltering heat for about 30 min before we were allowed in. There was no free wifi, so I spent the time going through my trip photos instead (and feeling sorry for myself lol 🤣). When we finally got in, we were able to order some drinks and ramen and felt a lot better in the A/C. At 8:30 pm we were able to check-in and go inside the air-conditioned airport to the other lounge, which was much more spacious and had more food (forgot to take photos).

W Maldives, in summary:

  • Incredible hospitality – friendly, warm, and genuine, truly felt like family
  • Amazing GM and staff
  • Trendy, modern, casual, down-to-earth vibe, never pretentious
  • Whatever, Whenever mentality
  • Making friends with other guests is encouraged and facilitated
  • LOTS of free drinks, snacks, and treats – was never hungry
  • LOTS of free activities to stay busy – if desired
  • Stunning house reef – they are VERY proud of this
  • Being able to Whatsapp them and get immediate responses
  • Good breakfast selection
  • Beautiful ambient lighting at night
  • House vibe music playing along all the walkways
  • Outdoor showers are clutch
  • Little details everywhere added up for a great experience overall
  • $475 seaplane per person

Areas of Improvement:

  • Not a dealbreaker, but I wished they would change the drink in those drink/snack stations every couple days or so. It was the same lemon gin and tonic all 6 days! I also wished they would change the flavors of the ice pops every once in a while, haha. It was always coconut or strawberry.
  • The bathroom sinks were a perfect size for handwashing laundry, but terrible overall because they kept splashing water outside the sink. They also never fully plugged up so I couldn’t soak things in the sink, it would slowly drain away within a few minutes.
  • The deck was definitely showing wear and tear, but it didn’t bother us at all since we were rarely out on it anyways, just being nitpicky.
  • No free laundry like at the Andaz Maui. 😉 This is becoming an important thing for us at resort properties!!
  • All the walkways were fairly narrow – whenever a buggy had to drive past you (and they’re so quiet they seem to come out of nowhere!), you would usually have to make yourself smaller to let them pass.
  • No bicycles – only the staff had bicycles. But the island was small enough such that it wasn’t needed anyways.
  • My side of the overwater villas (Spectacular Lagoon Oasis) didn’t have much of a reef unless you swam further out. If you want lots of fish swimming under your viewport, get one of the Ocean side villas. But then you might hear the seaplane noise more. Compromises.

Bonvoyed

On the second day of my stay, Awardwallet notified me that my Marriott points balance had dropped from around 400k to 2k.

I logged in to Marriott and checked, and sure enough, the activity history showed something like:
4/19 Rewards adjustment +100,000
4/19 W Maldives -340,000
4/19 Room upgrade -500,000

Since I booked back in August, my room upgrade charge should have only been 100k, and the base room 240k. I was charged all 340k points back then already (have proof of that in email). So it looked like I was being charged AGAIN for the 340k plus got charged an additional 500k, and they had to deposit an extra 100k into my account to cover it since I didn’t have enough.

After calling (quite annoying to have to do this while on vacation…) and getting the W Maldives reservations desk to help me get Marriott’s attention, they refunded the 500k. The points charge was updated to the date of my checkout. Pretty shoddy activity history for audit purposes, honestly.

Final Thoughts

Would I recommend W Maldives to others? Definitely! Would I stay there again myself? I’m honestly not too sure I’d go back to the Maldives anytime soon. Although it was an amazing, beautiful, and fun experience, it was quite a trek to get out there, and we didn’t have good dives so felt like it was a waste of money. I guess I’d be willing to try dives there again, but I feel like there are many other places I could dive that would rival it. If I did dive in the Maldives again, I think I would consider doing a liveaboard. And maybe when I get a little more advanced.

Finally, in regards to St. Regis Maldives, it is hard to compare the two since I haven’t stayed at St. Regis, so I can only guess based on my experience comparing with many of my friends who have stayed at St. Regis (Michelle and her husband are the only people I personally know that have done the W, but I know dozens who have done the St. Regis).

I think if you want ultimate luxury (though one friend called it “sterile”), fancy food, and don’t mind sitting around doing nothing (or paying $$$ for activities), and don’t care about the house reef, go with St. Regis. For a down-to-earth, warmer vibe, an extraordinary house reef, tons of free activities, and generally to just save a lot more money (no F&B discounts at St. Regis, no free activities), go with the W. Do you want the staff to act like your servants or your friends?

Since my return, I’ve heard that St. Regis’s reef isn’t as bad as people have made it out to be and the boat rides to the dive sites are maybe only 15-20 min longer (I thought I had read before that their dive sites were at least 45-60 min away, whereas at the W they start at 5 min away), which isn’t too bad…but it also seemed like I saved a lot more money at the W, since everyone I know that has stayed at the St. Regis went home with at least a $3-5k+ bill (I left the W with just seaplane and diving charges, which I regretted, but less than <$2k total). We greatly appreciated all the free activities at the W, since we are not lie-around-doing-nothing types of people, and everything at St. Regis costs money…apparently they don’t do a bunch of free food and snacks either, so I’m not sure I would’ve been able to stick to a $0 F&B budget as easily either.

You’re giving up award-winning architecture, caviar, lobster, and a private butler, but the W still has a trendy design with great food, and a much more “fun” vibe and more genuine service. If you look at the reviews comparing the two, everyone talks about the W’s friendlier/warmer service and superior house reef, plus all the freebies, so I think these are probably the main differences with St. Regis. The W seems like a more genuinely tropical island vacation. It’s just up to you to decide what you want your particular trip to be like. I could be happy with either, as long as I knew what to expect. I would definitely like to experience the luxury and breakfast spread at St. Regis someday, though I do worry more about being bored and hungry at St. Regis if I stayed there for 5 nights. If it wasn’t so difficult to get to, I’d love to just spend 2 nights there for the experience. In the meantime, 4K Youtube videos will have to suffice. 😉