Categorytravel
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 provide a lot of discounted Airbnb gift cards for my friends to save money on their Airbnb trips. Over the years I’ve learned a lot of nuances about these cards that I thought I’d share here. If you have anything to add, I’d love to make this a comprehensive post so please let me know and I’ll add it in!
Velocity Limit
There is a seemingly random velocity limit to adding cards to your account, and it seems that everyone’s account is different. Some that I’ve noticed are:
Aloha from the Big Island of Hawai’i, which is now easily my second favorite island (after Oahu)! I’m wrapping up a 7 night stay at the Marriott Waikoloa Resort, reviewed at the bottom of this post. But first, I wanted to share many hours of research for anyone who is planning their own trip to the Big Island. I found one particular website to be most helpful – Love Big Island. Definitely go to that site and browse like, every page. They keep it nicely updated and unbiased.
ontribute to offsetting 25 HAN-YVR round-trips here:
https://www.gofundme.com/dem-flyers-cx-mistake-fare
Let’s support this movement of encouraging more Asian-Americans in the arts! #goldopen August 15, 2018
Before heading to the restaurant, I thought: “it’d be great if someone could earn Hilton points off this lunch!” As a Hilton Diamond member, I volunteered as I would get a 100% bonus on any points earned.
I asked our host about this, and he said I could add my HHonors number to the final invoice afterwards. We proceeded to have a very nice underwater lunch. Afterwards, we were brought to the hotel reception to settle our bill. I asked about adding my HHonors number to the bill, but unfortunately was told that we needed to have been staying at the resort to earn points. But wait! With a restaurant bill of $6100 for a 15 person lunch, I would earn 61,000 base points + 100% bonus, making it 122,000 points total. I quickly checked how much it would cost to book a room for the night, and surprisingly, low level award availability was still available. The Conrad Maldives Rangali is a top category Hilton hotel, which makes the lowest standard award redemption 95,000 points. For some reason recently, the overwater villas have been available for the same price as a standard beach villa (h/t OMAAT.) There were no additional service charges or taxes since the room rate was paid in points. So I asked the reception, what if I booked a room right now? They hesitantly said yes, that would work.
So I booked a points stay for a water villa on the spot and gave the confirmation number to the reception. They had us email 2 of our passports to the hotel. However, it took around 40 minutes for them to find the reservation and make a room available for us. Initially they thought I was in a beachfront villa as they couldn’t see the confirmation. Eventually, they had me email the confirmation to them to get the check in process rolling.
We took a small dhoni over to the other island where the overwater villas were. Unfortunately, the hotel was being unusually strict about guests even just visiting the room, saying that only 1 additional person could visit the room at a time beyond the 2 registered guests even though they knew we’d only be there for a few hours.
So a few of us went to check out the villa, and swim around while the rest of us hung around the island. The villa was quite nice, with a very large bedroom and bathroom, and a back deck leading straight into a shallow part of the ocean that we could swim in. As a Diamond guest, we also received a welcome gift of sparkling wine and chocolates, along with a selection of fruits that came with the room. After they left us alone though, everyone came over to hang out and have a party! 🙂
Overall, it was a nice resort visit, though customer service was somewhat slow. Plus, we got a free overwater villa with lunch and access to the rest of the resort!
Following up on the points, I waited 2 weeks for the stay to credit to my account, but it never did. After filing a missing stay request with Hilton, after 4 days, the stay credited, but only 1000 Diamond bonus points and 2000 points from the Points Unlimited bonus offer. Something wasn’t right here. I speculate that they messed up my check in, which I why it took so long. So I called up Hilton customer service, and they were able to pull up the bill and credit the stay… by adding another stay to my account with another 1000 Diamond bonus and 2000 points bonus! So a total of 6000 bonus points on top of the base points, and 1 extra stay credit for no reason.
We booked a late lunch for 3pm, but as the Conrad is 1 hour ahead of normal Maldivian time, this was more like 2pm in our time. After two early morning dives, our yacht headed towards the Conrad, where we took a speedboat and got off on the Conrad’s jetty. We were welcomed by a host, who provided us with cool moistened towels, then another member of the staff who offered a welcome fruit drink, before we were ushered towards the restaurant. The host warned that because of the size of our party, it might get a little hot inside, so they had preemptively set up a number of fans.
The first floor of the restaurant was a nice lobby with couches, a table, restrooms, and a small prep kitchen. The main kitchen was at the outdoor restaurant back across the walkway. It was quite nice and comfortable up here, and I frequently came back to hang out to escape the heat during our meal.
We took the staircase down to the dining area, and WOW, what an amazing sight. We were seated promptly and offered a cold towel. I wish they didn’t take away our towel so quickly though!
The menu for lunch was a 4 course tasting menu, with the option to upgrade the main from a sous vide chicken to a Maldivian reef lobster. I took the lobster upgrade. We were given the wine list and wow, everything was super expensive. We ended up with 3 bottles of white, a Riesling, a Chardonnay, and a Chablis for our party of 15.
Overall, all the courses were very tasty and presented very well. Service was very attentive. It was awesome to see fish swimming right over you while eating. The only downside was that as warned, the restaurant started to get extremely hot during the meal, to the point that the butter completely melted! I can’t imagine how hot it would be during noon time! I frequently would go hang out at the upstairs lounge between courses, and people took to sitting directly on top of the air conditioning vents while not eating. Our negotiated price to book out the entire restaurant at $344 a head plus service charge, not including drinks. So while very tasting, as compared to several other fine dining options that I’ve been to, you are definitely paying for the view and less so the food.
After the meal concluded, we were lead back to the reception to pay for the bill, which will tie into my next post.
The pictures of the meal follow:
NH 8 NRT-SFO on March 16, 2018
Booking
This was the return flight for a roundtrip booking I made via Virgin Atlantic where we flew the first flight in May 2017. The points were transferred from Membership Rewards with the 30% bonus, and cost a total of 110k Virgin Atlantic miles plus $170 for the roundtrip. Divided equally between the two legs, that makes this flight 55k miles and $85. The value of the flight at time of booking was $9,920 for a cpm of 15.62. Since it is unrealistic to actually pay nearly $10k for a flight, the cheapest non-stop economy flight was $736.50 for a “real” cpm of 1.16. Prices for roundtrips are probably cheaper but let’s keep things simple for now…
I should also note that I upgraded my husband’s NRT-SFO flight because he was originally booked in business class and flew the first leg SFO-NRT in business class (it wasn’t a big deal, we were basically one row apart and the menus/experience were very similar). When I saw F space open up, I called Virgin Atlantic and upgraded for 10k miles and a change fee of $50. I am glad this worked out, as you’ll see later.
Getting to the airport
We stayed at Hyatt Centric Ginza in Tokyo, so we took the Asakusa line from Shimbashi station all the way to Terminal 1 of NRT (it turns into Sky Access at some point). The walk to the station from the hotel took about 8-10 min and the train ride took about 1 hour and cost around 1300 yen. I do wish Google Maps was a little more descriptive on how to get to the platform for the train bound for the airport, but fortunately there were signs that mentioned the airport train. The timing of this train was approximately every 30 min, and we arrived at the platform out-of-breath with about 30 seconds to spare. I would recommend checking the schedule ahead of time and giving yourself enough time to look for the platform while dragging your luggage…
A couple other options are the Keisei Skyliner or airport limousine (the 1000 yen one shown on Google Maps).
Food court tsukemen detour
Against my husband’s strong protests of cutting into our lounge time and free food stomach space, I dragged us to the Terminal 1 food court on the 4th floor between the two Departure Halls (landside) to eat tsukemen at the famous ramen shop Tomita (the original shop is #1 on RamenDB) that my friend Forrest tipped me off to as a relatively new and convenient addition to the NRT food court. I would highly recommend making a pit stop here if you are not flying premium class, or if you are but don’t care for lounge food. For us, good free lounge food such as that offered by JAL and ANA trumps the ramen, but I would not hesitate to drop by if I had been flying economy.
ANA Suite check-in
ANA first class has a private check-in suite in the airport that is large and spacious. We didn’t know about it at first, so we went to the ANA portion of the Departure Hall where an agent told us to print baggage tags from a kiosk. We did so, only to find out later it was a waste of time. Then another agent told us to go to the business class line, and when we got there, another agent directed us to the first class check-in suite. Once there, I handed over our printed baggage tags to the agent, and they gave me wet towels and offered me hard candy (cough drops). I thought that was a nice touch. The check-in suite was simple but the little extra touches did make it feel calm and nice compared to the zoo outside in the Departure Hall with long lines and having to dodge tons of tourists rolling their giant bags into you.
Security and Immigration/Customs
From the private check-in, the agent leads you to the back of the check-in suite to a private security screening. I liked this because there is nobody in front of you, nobody behind you. No need to rush and nobody getting all up in your space. Relatively minor detail for most people, but I appreciated it.
The security led us right into Immigration/Customs, for which there were no lines for the Foreigners. Sweet! We stopped by the TTP booth to ask about our status, since we applied for the e-gate program more than 3 months ago, but they said that we’re still in preliminary processing and it could take another 3 months before secondary.
Lounge
We went to the ANA Lounge, which has a business class and first class (Suite Lounge) side. We checked out both and honestly, they were fairly similar in terms of spaciousness, crowdedness, food options, noodle bar and hot entrée options, and style. The first class side had a higher quality tea and Haagen Dazs ice cream, which I did not notice on the business class side. The bathrooms have Shiseido products you can use.
The food options were pretty good, but unfortunately I was already half full from the tuskemen earlier, so all I could eat was a curry udon, which was yummy. I also had a bite of the burger that my husband ordered, which was okay, but I chastised him for ordering American food when it’s our last few hours in Japan. 😛 I am a huge fan of gyudon (the beef bowl in the menu below – thinly sliced, marinated beef brisket over rice) and would’ve also liked to order the chicken curry, ramen, and sashimi over rice (chirashi bowl). But another thing I liked about this lounge is the number of small packaged snacks, etc. You catch my drift? 😉
Last-minute shopping
I usually don’t do any airport duty-free shopping, but this is Japan and I had so many Japanese snacks I wanted! I left my things in the lounge (fyi there are no lockers) and went out to the terminal to shop at Fa-So-La and the other shops. I realized I loved shopping in Japanese airports because:
I’m leaving Vietnam today and from my initial enthusiasm from 2 days in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in November, I now have more mixed feelings that I want to flesh out here. You may or may not agree, I’m just sharing how I felt personally. A lot of this is coming from the privileged position of being an Asian-American, but I’ll try to keep it real and maybe it’ll resonate with some people.
Cleanliness
This is a third world country, so I realize that it sounds very entitled and judgmental to call Vietnam “dirty” and rundown. I mean, what do you expect? However, I think it’s worth addressing because I have many friends who are clean freaks and germophobes and even the slightest trash on the ground and rust and dirt on the walls would disgust them. Let’s not even mention the rats you see darting between stalls at the market.
I spent several years of my life in Taiwan (also many considerably “dirty” cities) and sitting on little plastic stools on the pavement eating pho out of bowls washed in questionable water doesn’t really bother me, and neither does drinking a raw egg coffee sitting on stools in a rundown, dirty hole-in-the-wall where the floor is littered with empty sunflower seed shells. But I figured I should mention this so that readers who know that such experiences would bother them will know how to manage. My thoughts? A few germs and dirt can only make you stronger. I try to look past the big picture and dirtiness and not be so judgmental.
Crossing the Street
Everyone knows Vietnam has crazy streets filled with cars, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, and trucks that often drive within 1 inch of each other, drive the wrong way on a street into oncoming traffic, and make turns into rapidly oncoming traffic. You’ll be hard-pressed to find traffic lights, and even if you do, a popular T-shirt print says it all:
So how do you cross the street? This is a common problem in Asia (pedestrians do not have the right of way), so I usually follow the same tip as I do while in China. Look for a local that is about to cross the street too, and stand right next to them and cross exactly when they cross, staying within inches of them. The drivers adjust their speed and swerve to avoid you based on their prediction of where you will be next, and they usually assume that you are going to keep walking, so try not to stop.
Another tip I learned from Deal Mommy was to just take Uber (or Grab) everywhere if you feel overwhelmed, even if it’s a totally walkable distance. Besides, if you take Uber, you can earn Ibotta cash and SYWR too (maybe triple dip with Acorns too). 😀 Uber is cheaper and safer than local taxis too.
I am usually a walker, but when we arrived in Hanoi and found an utter lack of sidewalks in Old Quarter and Westlake (interestingly, this was not a problem in the other cities we visited), we found ourselves constantly being forced into the street and getting honked at and nearly swiped by vehicles, so we took Uber the rest of the day. If you do walk where there are no sidewalks, stay to the side as much as possible, watch your step because there are a lot of obstacles, potholes, trash, and puddles of dirty washing water, and clutch your bag so that they can’t be grabbed by motorists speeding by.
Costs
I love the cheap food and shopping – if you know where to go and what to expect. It always pays to do your research in advance so you know how much things cost and not just how much you’re willing to pay for it. A common scam is that vendors will purposely give you incorrect change back and hope you don’t notice or get confused. This happened to me literally every single transaction in Hoi An…
Don’t get the 10,000 dong and 100,000 dong bills mixed up. Make sure bills aren’t sticking together; take your time to separate and count the money carefully. Clarify prices in advance, and if you’re shopping, they do expect you to bargain (I’ve heard you should start with 50%).
A good rule of thumb for quick currency conversions in your head is to remove 4 zeroes (move the decimal over 4 places) and divide the remaining number by 2.
For example: 10000 dong, remove 4 zeroes = 1, divided by 2 = approx $0.50 USD. It’s actually slightly less, but this is good for making quick estimates.
Vendors often quote prices in USD and in VND, so be sure to clarify which one they mean. “Five” could be either 5000 dong ($0.25) or $5 USD.
For budgeting purposes, I spent less than $30 USD of cash for 2 people over 9 days. My hotels, flights, scuba diving course, and cruise were pre-paid by credit card, I used Uber for rides, and credit card at one sit-down restaurant in Hoi An. The cash was mainly for small restaurants and street food, and I didn’t do any shopping. Tips are often appreciated in service-type places like the cruise. Things like the cruise and luxury hotels will often have American prices or higher at the property for food and beverage and services.
Cities Visited
I have now been to Saigon, Hoi An, Da Nang, Hanoi, and Halong Bay. Here are my thoughts on each:
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) – slightly more modern feel, great cheap shopping, relatively clean compared to the other cities. I really liked it except for the hot weather. (P.S. Le Meridien is really nice, I recommend it!)
Hoi An – small town, tailors galore, best seen at night with the lanterns and bridges, small night market, fairly pedestrian-friendly streets, very touristy. Pretty dirty streets and buildings are falling apart, but it has character. Kinda like the Kyoto of Vietnam.
Da Nang – definitely our favorite; impressive resorts (we stayed at Hyatt Regency Danang, which is now in my Top 5 favorite hotels in the world) with stunning CLEAN, powdery white sand beaches, good weather, lots of fun stuff to do between eating such as Marble Mountains (highly recommend, will try to do a separate post on this), Ba Na Hills, Hai Van Pass, Son Tra Peninsula, and day trips to nearby sights. Nice bridges, great night viewing. Relatively clean. Great for ex-pats and partiers apparently, too.
Hanoi – we did not really enjoy this city much at all. Many streets in the “interesting” parts of town lack sidewalks, making it very pedestrian-unfriendly in many parts. It wasn’t hot, but the air pollution was pretty bad. Good food options, but not many interesting things to do otherwise, and my stomach could only handle so much back-to-back-to-back food and coffee. The common touristy sights were pretty unimpressive. I particularly do not recommend Westlake, the lake is big but smelly and dirty and mosquito-infested, the streets adjacent to it have no sidewalks so you can’t just wander around and explore unless you stay right by the lakeside, and there isn’t much to do. The shopping in Hanoi (Old Quarter) is decent but I honestly enjoyed it more in Saigon. The hotels are pretty old here (we stayed at Intercontinental Hanoi Westlake and Hilton Hanoi Opera).
Halong Bay – see my post on choosing a cruise. I will write a new dedicated post to the experience, but in general I would sum it up as: your experience will greatly vary depending on how much you pay/how nice the boat is. If you’re someone that prefers a cleaner environment, I strongly suggest that you pay a little more for a nice boat like Azalea Cruises that takes the Lan Ha Bay/Bai Tu Long Bay route (significantly cleaner, clearer waters). With that said, it was a beautiful experience that I would recommend. On the other hand, my husband wouldn’t recommend it, so take my word with a grain of salt. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Another interesting thing I noticed about the tourist demographic is that it is overrun with Korean tourists. I was surprised because in other Asia cities I often see a lot of mainland Chinese tourists, but not in Vietnam. We often heard Korean more than even Vietnamese in the touristy areas and hotels. Quite a few French tourists too, and not many American tourists.
We did not go to some other popular sites like Hue, My Son, Sapa, Phu Quoc, Nha Truong, etc, but I would’ve liked to. They are on my future travel list for sure! My husband is very much over Vietnam so I’ll need a new travel buddy for the next time. 🙂
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