Originally Posted by
Land-of-Miles
I would absolutely concur, for me it would be the worst $400 per night ever spent and that will buy you a lot of in resort drinks or a dinner for one. To be fair though much as I liked the resort it would have to be quite a bit better for me to feel that the room rate of even the basic overwater villa represented good value. At the 27k SPG points per night or thereabouts I paid it was a no brainer but cold hard cash in high season maybe not. I might be tempted by an Ocean retreat at the W instead.
I think that’s what I’ll do. I’ve actually come to like the W too, even though I previously didn’t “get” the idea of their retreat concept in the Maldives. But, the more I look at it, it seems fantastic. It’s in the North Ari atoll with an amazing house reef, and I noticed that they have Thomas Vaucouleur de Ville d’Avray on board as GM. I remember him from Peninsula hotels and he also was previously at One & Only Reethi Rah. So, I have no doubt based on my past experience dealing with him that the W must be extremely well run. Just like the St.Regis seems to be as well. Starwood really has a great presence in the Maldives now. Both W and StR Vommuli are high on my list of places to go.
The larger overwaters at W look amazing at the end of the jetty, but the standard ones with private pools (like St.R) are already perfect for double occupancy.