Originally Posted by
cruisingmickey
So if you had to do it over, would you still split time between the two or only do one? I'm thinking about doing the same (a few days at PH and Conrad).
If you're only thinking of staying for a total of 7 nights, I wouldn't split it. Again, we did 4/5 and felt we could've done a night more on each. Unless you're big on diving, 6 nights is the most I would recommend at the PH. We crammed in a long excursion and a long spa treatment along with a private beach dinner. We could've used a day or two just to relax.
http://joeprotravel.com/2017/04/25/d...adahaa-review/
http://joeprotravel.com/2017/05/10/d...dives-hadahaa/
I'll repost this as well to give you an idea of what there is to do at the PH: (Video not visible here if using a mobile device)
OTOH at the Conrad you could probably do just fine with 7, MAYBE even 8 nights. The property is much larger (two islands) and there is more to do. The atmosphere is quite different (PH was pretty intimate) given how large the property is. And keep in mind the standard Beach Villas share walls and are not detached like at the PH. But they have on-site watersports like Jet-Blade and Jet-Skis, there are plenty more places to dine (did someone say "Underwater Restaurant"), and if you go in the right time of year you can do manta-spotting from the main jetty connecting the islands and take a whale-shark snorkeling excursion.
http://joeprotravel.com/2017/06/10/d...island-review/
My post on "what to do at the Conrad" should be up in the next few weeks.
And here's a video on some of the things we did at the Conrad (Video not visible here if using a mobile device)
Originally Posted by
canyonleo
And I'll bet you're not a serious diver. Not that it's anything negative, but it makes the point that a diver would really be impacted by an itinerary that jumps island, given the 24 hour wait required before air travel after diving, and that some/most properties don't allow a "real" first day dive (and in place of one require a check-out dive to judge the divers' skill).
Any avid diver will want a minimum stay of 4-5 nights, and the serious diver will likely find a few more nights even better (I did 9 nights with eight days of two tank AM boat diving, and it was not close to too many).
Well, we did 4 nights PH/5 Conrad, and while I'm not a diver at all, my Fiancee is. I don't know what the line is between Avid/Serious, but she did the orientation, night dive, and 2 daytime trips (2x 2 tank dives) Tuesday/Wednesday at PH- all while fitting in the activities I listed above. She was out of the water by noon on Wednesday and our flight to Male for the transfer was 1 P.M Thursday. She didn't fall under normal property restrictions for diving at the Conrad given that she completed her required orientation dive at the PH (it was the first time our host had fielded the question "will I need to do another orientation dive since I'm doing one at PH?"). I think it's a Country-based restriction, not a property-based.
At the Conrad she went on 5 dives over our five night stay, including 3 morning dive trips (3x 2 tank dives), a dive at the Ithaa restaurant, and a night dive at the house reef. Our seaplane flight wasn't until 5 P.M on departure day, and our main flight wasn't until 11 P.M- so that didn't affect her dives the previous day.
Both at the PH and the Conrad we wanted to do a few things together, so she didn't devote as much time to diving as she might have on her own.
She does say that in general she likes PH more than Conrad, and as far as diving/snorkeling goes she was much happier at the PH. I don't think we would have gone to Conrad at all if it was up to her :-)