tearex

Keep in mind that the beach shifts around as well. The 'beach access' at our pool villa required climbing down a bit of a ledge and there was quite a number of ants. It was more tide pool access than anything. It was interesting to watch crabs, smaller fish, etc. We primarily used the 'main beach' and the jetties for snorkeling.

The main pool can be a little exposed if that's something you care about. Scuba training is done there and is likely where you'll find children if there are any families around. The spa pool is more secluded. We certainly enjoyed the pool villa as it was nice to soak in seclusion. That said, I think it is absolutely worth upgrading to an overwater villa and even better, an overwater pool villa if you can swing it. You won't be swimming out to the edge of the island since you're practically on top of the reef, but it offers some different sights compared to snorkeling from the jetty along the island edge or from the main beach to the inner edge of the reef.

You'll likely pay far more for the upgrades and will be dependent on the dates of your stay. We had a complimentary upgrade to pool villa as Globalist and paid over $900 (tax inclusive) per night to upgrade to an overwater pool villa. As we really wanted to stay in an overwater for the novelty of it, we saved some money by only upgrading our last two nights to an overwater pool villa. We thought it was sufficient to enjoy the villa - we watched sunsets from the pool and observed the southern cross in the middle of the night.

I don't recall if it has been mentioned before, but when we were there pre-pandemic, they offered laundry service for $40 for whatever you could stuff into their sack. We thought it was a decent deal for convenience for the next leg of our trip considering what some stateside properties charge per-item.