The St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort would represent the pinnacle of a Marriott Bonvoy reward redemption. There are few such aspirational luxury properties in the world that can be had almost entirely on hotel points from staying at a Marriott Fairfield Inn or a Four Points by Sheraton. Our trip to the famed St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort was one of the better points redemptions we’ve had throughout our lifetime with the Marriott Bonvoy program. This review is how we redeemed and explored every aspect of the St Regis Maldives experience.

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This post is one chapter on my trip to the Republic of the Maldives. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Air Canada’s Aeroplan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.

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Review: The St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, Maldives

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“The St Regis Maldives represents the ultimate Marriott Bonvoy points redemption in terms of value per point. While there is every possible food and beverage option on the resort, the resort is hyper expensive and is set up a much larger format than you might expect for a private island luxury get away”

Booking The St Regis Maldives:

As I had reported earlier, we had previously stayed twice in the Republic of the Maldives at the excellent Park Hyatt Maldives. However, these days my World of Hyatt balance isn’t anywhere near where it should be for a redemption in the Maldives. As a result, we ended up researching the Marriott Bonvoy properties for a new redemption opportunity.

In addition to being drawn to the W Maldives as a result of its reputation of a world class house reef, we were also drawn to the most aspirational Marriott Bonvoy redemption in the global system; the St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort. The St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort would end up being the most sumptuous redemption out there. We would end up staying at the St Regis Maldives Vommuli for the latter half of our trip.

This is a detailed review of all aspects of the stay experience, combined all together in one post.

Marriott Bonvoy Opportunities:

We booked the St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort using Marriott Bonvoy points. Marriott Bonvoy points have moved to variable pricing, so my strategy was to book the property as far in advance as possible, then watch for potential price reductions.

The basic reward redemption room is either the Garden Villa with Pool, 1 Bedroom Villa, 1 King, Sofa bed or the next category up and more exciting Overwater Villa with Pool, 1 Bedroom Villa, 1 King, Sofa bed. The Garden Villa with Pool are situated inland inside the island’s sandy ring road with no view. In contrast, the Over Water Villas are mostly oriented over the water, but are mostly inward facing towards the Vommuli Island.

The next category up is the Sunset Overwater Villa, 1 Bedroom Villa, 1 King, Sofa bed, which is the same as the same configuration as the 1 King Bed Overwater Villa with an ocean facing orientation. It’s usually available at a $250 USD premium or 50,000 additional Marriott Bonvoy points on a points redemption.

Booking about a year in advance, I was able to locate a rate of 491,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for a five night stay, with the fifth night free in the base 1 King Bed Overwater Villa. This worked out to about 98,500 Marriott Bonvoy points per night. Initially, I had a separate booking for the sixth night as I was’t able to get a stand alone booking.

About six weeks before our stay, I noticed that the price point for the resort dropped to 484,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for the same 6 night stay. This worked out to be a more reasonable 80,666 Marriott Bonvoy points per night, based on a six night average, with the fifth night free. As a result, I was able to cancel and re-book to get 24,500 Marriott Bonvoy points back, for a simple few clicks of the mouse.

For comparison, the paid cash rates were approximately $2,254 USD average per night. By using points, we were able to get $13,524 USD in room charges on a complimentary basis as a result of an excellent use of Marriott Bonvoy points.

If you value Marriott Bonvoy Points at 0.008 cents each, you’ll come out ahead by redeeming points against a room at the property if your room rate is above $645 USD. In the Maldives, you’re almost always better to redeem points as a result of the over the top costs of the hotels in the Maldives. I can’t ever imagine a scenario where the cash rate at the St Regis Maldives will be less than the price point of a points redemption. This makes Marriott Bonvoy points your highest value route to stay at this property.

It’s worth noting that there is a Trans Maldivian Airways Sea Plane Transfer charge of $808 USD per person, and a service charge of 10%. This is a pretty steep transportation “add on” for a forty five minute journey consisting of a single Twin Otter flight. At least, the pricing includes a generous 50 lbs of baggage allowance and we did not get charged any over weight baggage fees. Our longer transfer at the Park Hyatt Maldives that includes a Maldivian Air Dash 8 flight and a 35 minute boat journey is priced at a much more reasonable $575 USD. If you’re only coming for a few days, make sure you factor in the additional costs as a result of the sea plane. It may be worth it for a longer stay.

Although I had them, I wasn’t able to apply any Suite Night Awards at the St Regis Maldives, since all rooms are considered Suites. While I understand their policy, it would have been nice to try and get a further confirmed upgrade with your elite status.

Getting to the St Regis Maldives:

We arrived into the Maldives via Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class San Francisco – Doha and Qatar Airways Business Class Doha – Malé. We stayed at the W Maldives for a five day stay, prior to transferring over to the St Regis Maldives.

After arriving at Malé Noovuli Sea Plane Terminal, our bags were transferred and we were checked into Trans Maldivian Airways. We were introduced to the dedicated St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort Lounge at the Malé Noovuli Seaplane Terminal, and boarded a Trans Maldivian Flight. If you want to see more about this part of the journey, I encourage you to read that separate review.

The check in activities for St Regis Maldives occurred within the St Regis Lounge at the Malé Noovuli Sea Plane terminal. Our Marriott Bonvoy Elite level was Platinum for this particular stay, which entitles a guest to the best available room at check in, including Select Suites.

While we’ve seen reports of travellers being upgraded to an ocean facing over water villa, we didn’t get any further upgrade on this visit. Not withstanding the lack of upgrade, we were fairly happy with the assigned and booked Overwater Villa with Pool, 1 Bedroom Villa. The only disadvantage was that this particular Overwater villa overlooked the main island and their buildings, which didn’t completely bring that serene and isolated Maldives experience. Whether you are bothered by seeing other structures during your Maldivian holiday will help your process whether the upgrade to the horizon skylines are worth it.

We were staying as Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Level Elite members during our stay. We also confirmed selecting Breakfast as a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite Welcome Gift, which would entitle us to a full breakfast buffet at Alba Restaurant on a complimentary basis.

The St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort is located in the Dhaalu Atoll in a south south westerly location from the airport city of Malé.

It was about forty five minutes flight away from the Malé Noovuli Sea Plane Terminal, making it a mostly convenient daytime hop from any international flight. The resort runs on “resort” time to take advantage of the local seasonal weather patterns, meaning that the clocks go back one hour from Malé time, when it comes to resort operations.

Checking into the St Regis Maldives:

On arrival to the St Regis Maldives, we deplaned at the sea plane arrival jetty. We were introduced to our butler and were provided a refreshing coconut. We also had a few welcome photographs, which was a nice personal touch.

We were among the last off the arrival jetty. This was perhaps well played on the part of the resort as our room was just coming ready after housekeeping service. We were loaded into a golf cart and given a brief tour of the island.

The Room: Overwater Villa with Pool, 1 Bedroom Villa, 1 King, Sofa Bed

I had requested a villa as far out on the pontoon as possible. This request was honoured. We were positioned about eleven villas out on the pontoon out of about sixteen in length.

Our butler drove us out to the overwater villa pontoons. We were led to our assigned Overwater Villa #511. The St Regis Maldives overwater villas have a modern wooden monolithic look to them. I don’t find them particularly attractive as far as over water villas go.

Each villa is stocked with a personal men and woman’s bicycle marked with the villa number. This was a nice touch and we actually used the bikes a few times while I was on the property.

The Overwater Villa with Pool, 1 Bedroom Villa, 1 King, Sofa Bed is a large 182 sqm / 1958 sq feet newly constructed over water villa. With the resort opening in November 2016, the build is new. The villa features every modern amenity. These included automated blinds and integrated room control through a bedside iPad.

Immediately upon entering into the room, you’ll find yourself in a small foyer containing a desk area and mini bar.

A few more steps will take you into the bedroom and living room area. It’s an immediately spectacular view overlooking green lagoon waters through giant oversized windows.

The living room and the bedroom form one giant oversized space. Ultra high ceilings makes the environment bright, spacious and airy.

The King Size Bed was wonderfully comfortable. It featured high quality linen sheets, comfortable pillows and a mattress that was even marked underneath as Starwood Preferred Guest. We had no complaints with the bedding or the bed comfort and the quality of the products and sleepwear were exceptional.

We certainly didn’t have any issues waking up to a view like this every morning.

The Bathroom:

The St Regis Maldives overwater villa bathroom is located just off the bedroom. It featured a large double vanity sink, along with a lit embedded lighting system in the countertop.

For the ultimate indulgences, there was also a massive soaker tub for bathing overlooking the lagoon at the St Regis Maldives.

Being a St Regis property, the bathroom featured every possible amenity. These included environmentally friendly refillable water, hockey puck soaps, refillable face wash and other complimentary sundries.

Towards the back of the bathroom, the area space narrowed a bit and featured a large stand up rain shower, along with water closet.

The space behind the bathroom featured a large walk in closet and dressing desk area that ran the length of the room. I really appreciate St Regis for incorporating these features into their rooms. We’ve seen a similar set up at the St Regis Mauritius.

This space featured a large closet and luggage rack with ample space to hang up clothes. There were two life jackets located in the dressing room, for those that wanted to use them for snorkeling.

The dressing room also featured complimentary his and hers sun hats and St Regis Maldives flip flops. These made the perfect souvenirs. I happen to love that the St Regis Maldives provides items like this that can be taken home with you as a free hard product memory of your trip.

Room Amenities:

Back in the foyer area of the room, there was a second small desk with charging ports. The desk housed many of the schedules and features of the island.

In addition to a small drink cart of spirits available for purchase, the room featured a large number of glassware, snacks and other comforts designed to make your stay efficient and pleasant.

The room also featured a full wine fridge and mini bar for in room beverages. MrsWT73 grabbed a bottle of properly chilled Sauvignon Blanc out of the fridge before I knew what was happening.

We were provided with a complimentary bottle of Gruet NV Champagne, which was sitting on ice waiting for us on arrival. This is about a perfect a method to arrive at any property after a long journey and a great way to mark a celebratory occasion.

The Outside Deck:

The St Regis Maldives outdoor deck featured a very large and spacious deck space. It consisted of a table and chairs for two, and two comfortable day loungers with attached tables.

The view from the loungers was pretty special, and I’d enjoy a good five days of lounging out here overlooking the lagoon waters of the St Regis Maldives.

The deck space itself was large and spacious. The deck featured a relaxing net that over hung the waters of the lagoon that ran the length of the villa deck. The space would become a favourite of MrsWT73 who spent a lot of time in the net itself.

The opposite end of the deck featured a relaxing lounge chair for two. Without any sun covering, we didn’t end up using this lounger that often in the villa. I did find that with an eastern facing orientation, we’d typically loose the sun exposure on the sunrise deck by about 3 PM in the afternoon. This meant an earlier rise for sun exposure for these units.

Amazingly, there was hardly any internet wi-fi strength out on the sun deck. While you can make a point that it’s great to be off your smart phone devices, it’s almost in-excusable not to have any wi – fi connectivity outside in a villa costing $2,500 USD a night.

The overwater villa also featured a medium sized infiniti private plunge pool. This was perfect for cooling off. Dependent on the direction you were facing, you had a view of the Vommuli Island itself, other villas, or a peek a boo view to the ocean lagoon.

The view from the Over Water Villa room happened to be my least favourite part of the room itself. There is something about looking out over the endless ocean in the Maldives towards the horizon. Unfortunately, with the basic level overwater villa, you’ll likely find yourself looking into the island which contains the two bedroom buildings. It’s a nice view, but since you’re looking at other buildings and structures, it’s not and endless one.

The overwater villa also featured private lagoon access down to the waters. While the access was really convenient, there weren’t a lot of corals to be seen or experienced in this particular part of the island.

The spacing between the villas is exceptionally generous. Unlike some of the more entry level overwater villa hotels that pack over water villas really tightly together, there is quite a bit of space between each villa. You’ll be unlikely to hear your neighbours, unless you find yourselves next to some loud ones.

Overall, the St Regis Maldives Overwater Villa was an exceptionally comfortable room. The amount of space is simply over the top for an awards redemption and you’ll have a really comfortable and spacious stay. About the only thing that wasn’t perfect was the view from the villa, which was inwards towards the island. While some might not be bothered by this, or not interested in paying the price premium for this, it would mark the first time I’d stayed in the Maldives in an overwater villa without an endless water view.

Around the Hotel Property:

Getting away to the Maldives often represents being stranded on a private island in the middle of nowhere. This has always represented a serene environment with few people.

The St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort Island is pretty large in terms of both amenties and size. I found the island to be almost a little too large and resort like in it’s configuration; having a preference for a smaller island resort.

Overwater Pontoons:

Walking from the overwater pontoons to the resort was an exercise in dreamy architectural landscapes.

After coming off the overwater pontoons, we had a view of the St Regis Maldives Resort Beach located immediately in front of the Alba Restaurant.

The Vommuli Island is protected by some shore stone guards. These rocky outcrops are either cleverly photo-shopped out of the resort marketing, or they’ve been added since the resort has been opened to protect from beach erosion. Either way, they are a little unsightly and unnatural, in my humble opinion.

The resort beach itself isn’t immune to these shore guards and we’d find one located immediately off the primary resort beach. The primary resort beach is located next to the popular Whale Bar, which occupies an appropriately shaped Whale building right next to the resort beach.

The St Regis Maldives Vommuli Beach:

The St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort Beach offers a general resort beach for those whom aren’t enjoying the privacy of their villas. We found ourselves here on the occasional day where the sun exposure on our villa deck disappeared after 3 PM, and also on check out day when we were evicted from our villa.

The resort beach is located immediately in front of Alba Restaurant. The beach itself is a shore protected one that does not see a lot of waves. The beach is almost artificial in appearance, as it has a whole lot of packed sand shaped into a crescent.

We didn’t have any issues locating chairs at any time during our stay. The beach was attended to by very attentive staff, who removed towels, brought ice water and occasionally, small fruit snacks.

It has a gradual smooth entry into the water, where you’ll find a little bit of tropical fish. For snorkeling, you’ll have to head out quite a ways; about a ten minute swim in order to get to any type of corals. The coral formations that we saw were pretty primitive, and the resort has a lot of years before they’ll have a mature and thriving reef.

The Resort Beach is also located next to the resort pool. As a very large plunge pool, I didn’t see many people using the larger pool. During my visits, I only ended up cooling off in the resort pool for shorter periods of time.

House Reef:

The Maldives is known for it’s world class snorkeling and some excellent house reefs. We’ve had terrific experiences at the Park Hyatt Maldives and The W Maldives when it comes to world class snorkeling right from shore.

Based on advice from our butler, we set out to snorkel in between the John Jacob Astor villa and the Whale Bar. This was about a 10 minute swim from the steps of Overwater Villa #51.

Sadly, the St Regis Maldives Vommuli House Reef isn’t anywhere near the same category as these wonderful world class reefs. While you might imagine an underwater world set on top of vibrant coral formations, the St Regis House Reef is remarkably different.

St Regis Maldives Vommuli House Reef forms a number of rocks with tropical fish, but with very little coral growth or formations on top of these rocks. Given the absence of any growth, there seem to be a number of years before the reef will be anywhere near the quality of some of the other resorts.

Despite this, with some persistence, we did get to spot several unique tropical fish exclusive to the Maldives. They just happened to exist in a seemly low rent neighbourhood that was absent of all the coral extravagances found at some other resorts in the Maldives.

The St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort also participates in a coral reconstruction exercise. Guests can donate towards coral trees and re-growth starting at about $300 USD up to about $1,000 USD. The St Regis Maldives will forward you a photograph of your coral trees at the 3, 6, and 12 month mark, which is a nice way to have a memory of your holiday.

Ultimately, if you’re hoping to see a beautiful underwater reef in the Maldives, this isn’t the resort to experience this. For those that are insistent on seeing some tropical fish, you’ll likely get that opportunity; albeit in a less grand setting.

The Iridium Spa:

Iridium Blue Hole Experience.

The St Regis Maldives offers an Iridium Spa similar to its other St Regis counterparts. When we mentioned we were celebrating our ten year wedding anniversary, our butler arranged for us a complimentary “Blue Hole Experience” at the Iridium Spa.

We lucked out as we received this scheduled on the one day that was not particularly sunny in the Maldives. After riding our bikes over to the Iridium Spa, we checked in at reception. We were escorted into the back toward the Blue Hole.

The Iridium Spa offers six treatment rooms that are located in separate buildings over the water. With the water theme of the Maldives, the Iridium Spa makes the most of the ocean’s environment.

The Iridium Blue Hole Experience is marketed as “Unwind in our Blue Hole hydrotherapy pool, with a spectacular view of the Indian Ocean, that incorporates
gentle and more powerful jets of water massages. This delivers exceptional therapeutic properties for the body with cleansing of the skin. The warm salt water helps relieve pain and induces muscle relaxation. It also increases buoyancy which in turn gives a greater range of movement.“

We were led in to the Iridium Spa and invited into the Blue Hole. It’s a massive over water pool with an almost endless view of the Indian Ocean.

The tub has an odd shape with some underwater seating arrangements partially hidden under the water. After they fired up the jets, we had the tub to ourselves.

The Blue Hole was an interesting add on to the holiday. While it’s regularly marketed at $75 USD for a shared experience, or $180 USD for a private experience at 45 minuets, it’s more like something to do after a spa appointment. It was nice to get a few photographs, but it wasn’t some thing that I would absolutely feel the need to do on my next visit.

Food and Beverage:

The kinds of restaurants that are accessible when visiting a private island are an important part of any longer stay. Being on a private island, you can’t scoot off to another island to locate another restaurant. Fortunately, there are enough eating options at The St Regis Maldives to satisfy you for any length of stay.

The St Regis Maldives offers a wide variety of international restaurants and features. In offering something for it’s well heeled international clientele, it almost offers too many options. With five separate restaurants spread around the island, the property felt more like a larger resort than any other private island property that I’ve previously visited in the Maldives. With the larger format, I though that the resort lost a little bit any intimate charm that normally goes along with the private island experience.

Discount Marriott Bonvoy Food and Beverage Promotions:

On the date of check in, we were offered the resort’s promotional program that offers the equivalent of a 15% discount on all food and beverage. The St Regis Maldives offered the opportunity to purchase $350 USD of food for $300 USD a day; a 15% discount.

The St Regis Maldives required you to purchase the pre-paid program for every day of your stay. Once we agreed to complete the purchase (on the day of arrival at about 6 PM), our credit card was immediately processed for the amount outside of the deposits taken for our regular stay.

While the terms didn’t specifically state as such, the value of the credit was applied to the total food and beverage amount at the end of the stay. This meant that if you spent $400 one evening, you could spend $300 the next and still be within budget; as opposed to spending a flat $350 each night.

In terms of trying to decide whether to take the resort up on the promotion, I generally found that the on food property was “hyper expensive”. With all meals being subject to 10% service charge and 16% Maldives tax, we churned through the resort credit really quickly. This was simply on ordering a daily sunset drink each at Whale Bar, a single entrée each at dinner, and a cheap bottle of wine. With breakfast included on a complimentary basis under the Marriott Bonvoy program, it would be a no-brainer to take advantage of the promotion if you didn’t have any form of status. With the promotion, we were able to enjoy ourselves without worrying as much about costs. We certainly didn’t have any regrets participating in the promotion.

Reservation Reservations:

The food and beverage options at the St Regis Maldives are typically booked through your St Regis Maldives butler. Without booking several days in advance, it was a little challenging getting an early dining time before 8 PM. There were several days where we were dining at 8:30 PM when we couldn’t get seated earlier.

Even more challenging is that all restaurants are not open on every night. All to say, I encourage early planning where possible along with early bookings. Planning a free style dining experience like we did often resulted in late dining.

With that background, let’s get onto what restaurants are available.

Alba Restaurant:

Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Breakfast

The St Regis Maldives serves both breakfast and dinner at the Alba Restaurant. During our visit, breakfast was served between 7:00 AM and 10:30 AM. Since the resort runs on “island time”, breakfast ending at 10:30 AM actually translated into last call for breakfast at 9:30 AM. This was a bit earlier than I would have liked.

For those with Marriott Bonvoy Platinum or higher elite status, you’ll have complimentary access to quite possibly one of the best buffet breakfast offerings out there (if you selected the breakfast benefit). It even surpassed the Westin Regina Europa Venice Breakfast, which was our past worldwide favourite.

The seating is a combination of outdoors on the sand, inside a covered and fanned area, or wholly inside for air conditioned comfort.

Most days, we ended up in the covered fanned area, which was the right balance of heat versus cool air.

In terms of the breakfast buffet, we were invited to order egg dishes, coffee and champagne off our server. We were then given free access to the buffet, which was valued at $65 USD++ ($81.90 USD service charge and taxes in) per person.

There is free flow prosecco and Bloody Mary’s available at the bar. The prosecco can be enjoyed on it’s own, or as a mimosa with orange juice.

The breakfast buffet offered absolutely every kind of food on offer. Between western hot items, to Indian cooking, to fresh pastries, to freshly cut fruit, to European meats and cheeses, to Asian dumplings and dim sum steamers, to Buerre D’Isigny Demi Sel Butter flown in from France, there was something for everyone and every taste.

Despite the excellent buffet, we also enjoyed some terrific a – la – carte breakfast items.

One of my favourite breakfasts was the Maldivian Style Eggs Benedict, served with English Muffin, Two Egg Poached, Maldivian Yellowfin, Tuna, Soft Shell Crab Tempura, Curry Infused, Coconut-Hollandaise Sauce. I couldn’t get enough of this soft shell crab tempura. It was tasty with a great regional Maldivian crisp taste and something special to look forward to everyday.

In other over the top items, i also enjoyed a Maldivian Lobster and Crab Omelette, served with Butternut Pumpkin Pure, Avruga Caviar, Fennel Cress.

Over the course of several breakfasts, I also enjoyed Avocado on Toast. The St Regis Maldives version of this included a Poached egg, Slice Avocado, Sun Dried Tomato & Feta Cheese, and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds. It was great to experience an upscale dish that was a break from the usual hotel breakfast fare.

I also enjoyed the star of the breakfast menu; the Waffle and Duck Leg Confit served wth One Fried Egg, Golden Mustard, Maple Syrup, and Fresh Strawberry. This was an excellent dish but unfortunately it wasn’t on the menu every day. Make sure you order it when you get the chance; it may not be around everyday of your stay.

The breakfast at Alba was among my favourite parts of the food and beverage program at the hotel. We enjoyed great breakfasts at the property and would look forward to leisurely breakfasts in great surroundings.

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During our stay, we also dined at Alba Restaurant for dinner. The restaurant transforms into a glamorous Italian Fine Dining establishment.

I enjoyed lobster pasta. MrsWT73 enjoyed a corn risotto with burrata cheese. Despite the vibrant colours, the corn and truffle oil flavouring was over the top. This happened to be the least favourite meal of the trip for MrsWT73..

While I enjoyed the dinner at Alba Restaurant, the breakfast was really the star of the visit. The setting, food quality and service were excellent.

Orientale:

Given the upscale brand of the St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, it would make sense that the resort has a proper Asian restaurant. Orientale was open during our visit between 7:00 PM – 10:30 PM.

The Orientale restaurant is described as “redefines Eastern haute cuisine, boasting a sushi bar and a selection of seasonal pan-Asian dishes.”  With that description, it gets it mostly right with a combination of Asian cuisines from across the Pacific Rim.

The restaurant setting is in an open air restaurant with some select views towards the ocean. Like many others on the island, the restaurant has an urban and contemporary feel to it.

During our visit, I went old school and enjoyed a Hainanese Chicken Rice (Half portion – $70 USD++) which was presented as Hainanese Style Steamed Half Chicken in Superior Soya Sauce, Served with Ginger Paste and Chicken Lard Rice.

The Hainan Chicken Rice was delicious and enjoyable. It was served with chili oil and black ginger sauces. It was well paired with a German Riesling white wine.

While a popular restaurant for many of the Asian St Regis Maldives visitors, we’d only end up visiting once during our trip.

Cargo:

Another restaurant offering was the middle eastern themed Cargo Restaurant. Cargo was described as a “restaurant pops up each night for dinner amidst our tropical gardens and offers an alternative to beachfront dining“. Cargo was open between 7:00 PM to 10:30 PM on select evenings.

We had some challenges getting a seat at Cargo restaurant. This was a a result of it only being open on good weather evenings, and that they only had a limited number of tables available.

Cargo is located in the middle of the island in a forested enclave that is found walking down a deserted path. Once you get to the restaurant, you’ll find yourself in a clearing with about ten tables in an intimate forest environment.

Dining at Cargo offers a sandy bottomed dining environment. Unlike all the other restaurants on the island, Cargo was the only one that was located off the water. As a result, it had the tendency to be extremely hot in the jungle forest environment dining in humid 29 degree weather at 8:30 PM. While I don’t usually indulge in over the top expenses, the heat was so warm that I even downed a $14 USD ++ Bottle of Voss water at dinner without a second thought.

During my visit, i enjoyed a Riyash Laham ($80 USD ++), which was a Lamb Chop, Cumin, Coriander, Paprika, Onion, Tomato, Sumac, Garlic, Yoghurt, Dijon Mustard. It was exceptionally tasty with an upscale flavour profile. It was probably among the best lamb dishes I’ve had in my life.

I enjoyed Cargo Restaurant. The food was exquisite but the hot temperatures made the dining experience a warm one. The cheque at Cargo came to $273 USD with two entrées, a bottle of water and a bottle of wine.

Whale Bar:

The flagship bar at the St Regis Maldives is the showy Whale Bar. Visiting the Whale Bar became a comfortable sunset cocktail tradition to “…soak in panoramic views as the sun sets over a majestic coral reef”. The Whale Bar was open between 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM.

The Whale Bar was an absolutely spectacular setting with an open air setting on pontoons over the water.

The Whale Bar also offered dining service after 7:30 PM, with tables and chairs set up near the bar. There were also cocktail loungers on the pontoons for sunset viewing.

The Whale Bar was also the home of the champagne sabrage event. This was a display of the St Regis saberage of champagne. While we’ve had the opportunity to go “hands on” at some St Regis resorts, this version of sabarage was strictly a display version accompanied by the butlers of the property.

Despite it not being a hands on saberage, the views couldn’t be more spectacular. We had the opportunity to see some dolphins from the Whale Bar, in addition to several wonderful days of sunsets.

For a particularly adult evening, we did enjoy dinner twice at the Whale Bar. One evening, I enjoyed a grilled steak with charred vegetables.

MrsWT73 enjoyed a crisp green salad; something that is pretty rare in the Maldives given the lack of produce. It was given exceptionally high marks.

Another evening, I enjoyed the catch of the day; jackfish with similar charred vegetables. The fish was cooked a little more than I would have liked it; a little less juicy than in my Pacific Northwest home in North America.

Finishing off my credit, I even indulged in house made vanilla ice cream in the Maldives. It was special treat enjoyed outside in temperatures in the high twenties.

The Whale Bar was probably our favourite food and beverage outlet on the whole island. The combination of the nice setting, and the adult environment of the dining experience against the sound of the lapping waves made this location an easy favourite.

Checking Out of the St Regis Maldives:

Our departure plans had us departing very late from the Malé International Airport on Qatar Airways Q Suites Malé – Doha, staying overnight at the Westin Doha Hotel and Spa – Qatar, and then travelling onwards on Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class Doha – San Francisco.

I had requested a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium late check out. While most city hotels will easily accomodate up to 4 PM, the latest that we could get was a 12 PM check out.

We ended up on the St Regis Maldives Resort beach for the balance of the day. Our departing flight left the island at 3 PM. We were collected by our butler by golf cart and taken to the departure lounge at 2:20 PM. The St Regis Maldives offers a purpose built departure facility complete with showers, relaxing zones and the only fully complimentary food on the island.

The free food consisted of sandwiches, finger foods and enough to keep you covered for your short flight back to Malé.

We were eventually collected by our butler and taken to the departure dock. Our Trans Maldivian Airways Vommuli – Malé flight was waiting for us. As always, it’s difficult to leave the luxury resorts of the Maldives. However, our onwards journey awaited.

With a final look at the St Regis Maldvies Vommuli Resort sign, we headed off from the best Marriott Bonvoy point redemption ever. After our Trans Maldivian Airways flight from Vommuli – Malé, we were returned to the St Regis Maldives Lounge Malé for fifty minutes prior to being transferred over to the Malé International Airport for check in to our international departure flight.

Bottom Line: The St Regis Maldives

The St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort was almost everything you could ask for in a luxury resort.

The Over Water Villas are among the best redemptions available in the Marriott Bonvoy network today. The Over Water Villas are large, luxurious and have every possible amenity. In this case, you get terrific value for your point redemptions. The Marriott Bonvoy Elite Breakfast at Alba Restaurant is excellent value. We really enjoyed the Whale Bar sundowner cocktails, and the food and beverage quality was excellent at almost every meal we enjoyed.

On the down side, the resort was a bit large for my tastes, and didn’t feel like your usual small format private island Maldivian holiday given it’s sprawling feel to the place. The food and beverage options were hyper expensive, which lessened the free wheeling nature of the resort. Lastly, the coral gardens at the resorts house reef was practically non existent. If you’re looking for great snorkeling, it won’t be here.

Despite this, it was an unusually fun stay in the Maldives. I enjoyed the chance to check out this property and will probably be back again someday; assuming the price is right.

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If you have stayed at the St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, did it live up to your expectations ?

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