jsteinberg

We are flying next Feb on an Etihad award ticket....5 nights tues-sunday. Flying EY278 doesn't land until 2pm on arrival and the only flight option that day. Departure on Sunday is at 635pm on EY261. Etihad also has a 7:55pm departure from MLE, however there wasn't enough business seats (we have 4 travelling together). My plan was to switch to the later flight if the space opens, although I don't know that it will make much of a difference to our time at the Conrad...this would only push our departure back 80 minutes.

seacarl

That is what we did - swimming, snorkeling, sunning, drinking at Rangali. Shower at the fitness center. Shortening our time in MLE. And the speedboat ride was pretty romantic and cool, it was at dusk. It was as much as a paid activity. I would highly recommend this route when you have a late flight out.

ukinny2000

I second the fact that you rock! We have the almost-midnight CX flight out of MLE to HKG, so this is definitely something I will be putting us down for!

alp67

+1

MaldivesFreak

That's cheap! Even though we'd have to fly 2hrs to Shanghai (or maybe Guangzhou if they fly from there) which would bring the cost up by another $200 or thereabouts, it's still a good deal. If you add them up, total flight times to and from MLE would be the same for us. Problem is the extra flight time to and from Shanghai and waiting time to connect in Shanghai (and which means another stopover) and the 15hrs layover in CMB on the return journey. Then we'd have to overnight in Shanghai to catch an early morning flight the next day. With roughly four and a half hour flight times on each leg and only one stopover we've got it pretty easy with our current arrangement. Thanks very much for the suggestion, though!

Maamigili / Villa International Airport, not far south south east of Rangali.

MaldivesFreak

I don't mean to spoil the party but taking a shower at Rangali is not a good use of time. For us guys 10min is enough. I don't know about the rest of you but my g/f takes a good hour or an hour and a quarter to shower, dry her hair and put on basic makeup. Admittedly she has long hair which is quite thick but even if she doesn't wash it it still takes her 40mins absolute minimum. If you're swimming on the final day then it's a must for the ladies. A quick rinse over at the Water Sports Centre and a change of clothes and you're ready to go. I'd much rather waste that hour at the lounge for $50++ and have snacks, drinks, A/C, WiFi etc to boot until 75min before departure. We usually opt for the full package as we like a proper dinner at around 7 or 8 anyway. We do all that at the lounge and we're never in a rush, something we hate when having to leave a resort in a place like the Maldives. As for departure times, the 6:30PM speedboat departure is great however in our 5 trips to Rangali we've only once not been on the last seaplane and that has left at the same time as the speedboat.


Hard to say whether the 80min would make a difference or not. Pretty much the toss of a coin. What I would recommend doing is flying in on the day before and overnighting in Male if you can, as with a 2PM arrival you'll be looking at a 4:30 or 5PM check-in at the earliest. You will almost certainly regret not spending 7 or 8 more hours in paradise.


The only preferential treatment you'll get is if you are overnighting in Male and the size of your group is close to, or exceeds, the number of seats on the seaplane (which is 15 most of the time). Let's say you have 20pax in your group. You can ask for 15 pax to fly first and then the other 5 pax to be put on any flight after that. You have to give pax names to Rangali and specify who is flying when. TMA don't consider anything else except for disabled or sick pax when arranging their schedule and the Conrad have no influence in the matter.

IvanCU

Great info here; thank you all for your posts!

We will be spending seven nights at the Conrad Maldives starting April 23. Home is a bit north of Seattle, WA, USA so we're literally coming from the other side of the world. Luckily we're breaking up the trip from here to Male with a few days in Paris. After the Maldives we have a week in Thailand, and then fly back through Hong Kong, spending a day there on the way home. But most of all looking forward to our first trip the Maldives!

jsteinberg

Question: I spend a ton of my time snorkeling, as I don't dive....but will swim around for hours (only past trip was @ Park Hyatt in the Maldives) ...

I have read the wiki and reviews, and know the best option from shore is off the beach villas out to the drop off.

I also see there is an excursion called "Island Hopping" for 3 hours...but cannot find much additional info on it. I haven't been able to find anything in this thread, I am trying to see if anyone has done it...and how it compares to just swimming out from shore to the house reef.

The excursion pdf from the wiki doesn't go into much detail about the actual trip either...any info on snorkeling options beyond the house reef are appreciated!

gnomey

yeah interested in the same information as well.

all i know so far, from reading some blogs online, is that, the snorkeling excursions organized by conrad - (1) snorkeling hopping and (2) snorkel safari, respectively, only bring you out to the reef near the conrad hotel. so it's essentially the same reef as the one you would have swam from the shore - the only advantage is that the boat brings you there, so you are less exhausted from swimming, and you get to go a bit further out.

but i have never heard of these trips bringing you to a snorkeling site beyond the conrad vicinity. to have this opportunity, i think one would need to participate in the whale shark tour. i would like to be mistaken on this piece of information tho.

MaldivesFreak

Due to the situation with the coral (most of it dead throughout the Maldives and elsewhere), you should email the resort and ask for specifics like whether the coral at the places visited is in better shape than at the house reef. Emailing will give you the best and most up-to-date info to make your decision. I have heard that there are islands where more of the coral has survived so it could well be a worthwhile excursion. They may have even changed their excursion to include such islands.

THECLIPPERS

See you there. We check in on April 24th.

IvanCU

Wonder how many guests they usually have from the USA.

IvanCU

You have to do some digging around the website to find all the details. This page was helpful:

Conrad Maldives Honors Benefits

I've heard others mention an Afternoon Tea; not sure if that is the same as the Happy Hour at Vilu.

lhrhappy

We are relatively rare.

passionforhotels

Probably too late for you, but usually hotels use a music service which delivers a pre-programmed set of music to the hotel online. If you can remember the exact time and day of the song(s) you liked, they can send an email to the service and let you know the playlist.