Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

I’d like to start by saying that we’ve traveled extensively across the Maldives – currently visited 50 resorts - you can check out my Instagram @anezka_travel 👍🏼🌴 So, it’s safe to say we have a solid basis for comparison. I was quite excited about Conrad, but in the end, it turned out to be the biggest disappointment of all, which is why I ranked it second to last in my review. And why? Mainly due to poor service and incompetent management – you have little chance of speaking to anyone responsible, such as a resort manager or general manager (which isn’t an issue at other resorts). The most you’ll get is a duty manager, who solves absolutely nothing because he doesn’t care and isn’t accountable for anything. At resorts like Conrad, nobody cares because “we are Hilton” – and people will come for the brand name anyway. 😒 Service was bad from the start – they welcomed us with warm coconut water, handed us a form listing our nationality as Russian, even though we’re from the Czech Republic and didn’t even bother with a resort tour – they just drove us straight to the villa. Restaurant service – especially in the main buffet and at the bar – was slow. At breakfast, no one asks if you want coffee or tea, there aren’t enough salt and pepper shakers, so they take them from other guests. The orange-infused water tasted terrible, like they hadn’t changed the fruit for days and just kept refilling the water. Plates were dirty. Honestly, in such an expensive 5-star resort, this is a total disaster. The water villas have undergone some refurbishment, but they still stand on wooden stilts from 1997, meaning they will always look old and worn. We had a higher-category water villa – Grand Water Villa with Pool on the main island, but the pool was ridiculously tiny. What was even the point of building such a small pool? 🤔 We (unfortunately) brought friends along and they stayed in a beach villa, which looked much better. 🙏🏼 However, even they were unhappy with the service – there was always a long wait for everything and the staff wouldn’t even bring a menu, despite clearly seeing guests sitting there. One evening, there was supposed to be a “special” Easter buffet for an additional $65++ per person. We checked it out first – the buffet wasn’t any different (apart from some decorations) from the usual one, so we chose to eat elsewhere. Water at dinner is chargeable, even if you have half board. Instead of offering house water, which you get for free in the villa, they push imported bottled water like Voss or Evian, shipped from halfway across the world. (Yes, it makes perfect sense to “save the environment” by producing their own water, only to force guests to buy bottled water for every meal at $20 per bottle – absurd!). After complaining and two days of arguing, they offered a 25% discount on water! Absolutely laughable. Staying at Conrad isn’t cheap, yet they still look for every opportunity to charge their guests extra.😡 For such a huge resort, they don’t provide bicycles, supposedly for “safety reasons”. Oh! Funny how many other resorts (Waldorf Astoria, Vakkaru, Gili Lankanfushi, Ayada…) offer bikes with no issues. 😅 Buggy service is completely useless – always late, even if you pre-book it. The main issue behind all of this could be the Hilton points – yes, anyone who collects a certain amount can basically stay at this resort for free. That’s why the hotel then tries to make money on everything – charging for water, inflating prices across the board and naturally, the service will never be as good as in resorts where all the guests are paying full price. Visiting the underwater restaurant Ithaa was at least a nice experience – the food wasn’t top-notch, but it’s beautiful to watch sharks swimming by, just like in an aquarium. 🩵 That said, other resorts offer similar restaurants too – like Hurawalhi, You&Me, Anantara Kihavah, Niyama and others. Snorkeling is only possible on one side of the island. It’s not bad, but limiting, so too many people gather in the same spot. However, for beginners, it’s fine. 🐠 And finally, the sour faces at checkout were just the cherry on top. I honestly had to laugh – no one properly said goodbye, just the butler and a random housekeeper passing by. What a level of service! You can find all my stories in the “Conrad” highlight on my Instagram – enjoy!😅😂

We visited in 2010 for our honeymoon and brought the kids along this time. It’s still a wonderful resort but sadly the standards have slipped somewhat. The welcome at the airport and seaplane lounge were lacklustre. The lady at the lounge even gave us a scoff and side eye when we enquired about the deposit at the lounge. Service at the restaurants was warm but slightly lacklustre. Thankfully the guides on all the excursions were knowledgeable and warm.

Our stay was perfect in every detail. The treatment and kindness of the staff stood out. And standing out in paradise is always harder. Our host Caterina was perfect, polite, kind, always ready to help us. This was very important to us since Qatar delayed our luggage by 3 days. She knew how to read our distress, gave us an upgrade and made us feel a little better. It really makes a difference to have someone on the island who helps you with everything (reservations, food, bureaucracy, finance, menus, etc.). An exemplary employee! In addition, the breakfast was wonderful, the food was very good, and the room service was impeccable.

We thoroughly enjoyed our 8-day stay at the Conrad Rangali Island! We've stayed at several other resorts in the Maldives, including the St. Regis and the Waldorf Astoria. What makes the Conrad special are three things: 1. The staff are exceptionally friendly and thoughtful. We've been to luxury resorts where the staff are polite but reserved and you never make a true connection with any of the people. We were pleasantly surprised to find many staff members at the Conrad wanted to take the time to strike up a genuine conversation with us and learn about us while sharing their own stories. This also creates a more friendly culture among the guests, and lots of guests talk to each other too. The manager's reception for Diamond members helps to facilitate that too. When I think back about my stay, I reflect on the people I met. Our host Yaeesh was wonderful. We've been to dozens of luxury resorts with butlers and hosts, and Yaeesh was by far the best one we've met. He was incredibly proactive and anticipated our every need, and he has such a friendly yet sophisticated way of communicating with guests. I remember Puri, Moochi, and Lathan at Ufaa and how they welcomed us each afternoon for tea and remembered our preferences. I also remember Kosi at the Atoll Buffet / Rangali Bar and how he went out of his way to talk to us each morning. 2. There is a lot of wildlife at this resort. Some of the new resorts like the Ritz Carlton and Waldorf have very little wildlife - very limited fish, maybe a small reef shark here or there. At the Conrad, the reef is amazing with an incredible amount of variety in the fish. Manta rays can be spotted at night off of the bridge between the two islands. It's common to see sting rays, eagle rays, and reef sharks in the water. Whale sharks and manta rays are commonly seen on trips right outside the resort. 3. There's a lot to do here. At the St. Regis, I found myself bored after the second day (and I spend a lot of time at luxury beach resorts!). The Conrad has lots of restaurants, activities, and space to explore. The water sports activities are abundant, there are lots of wildlife tours nearby, the reef is great, the undersea restaurant is a fun visit, there are different types of pools and swimming spots, and of course there are lots of places to see the marine animals. Diamond members are treated well and have fun activities like the afternoon teas, evening happy hours, and the manager's reception. That being said, this resort is not perfect. The rooms are clean and comfortable but aren't flashy like the other luxury resorts, the internet is slow and spotty, the water filtration systems are older which causes the water to be not as filtered or clean-tasting, Vilu is known to have spotty service, the quality of the food is good but not great at most restaurants, and they don't really upgrade Diamond members to nicer rooms. However, I look back at my stay with fondness because of the people and marine animals I met, and I hope to one day return for a vacation. Many of the people I met at the resort were repeat visitors who have gone over five times and stay for 2-3 weeks at a time - I can understand why they like it so much! Final tip - we found the food to be the very best at Ufaa and looking back would have made more reservations there.

This is our third time to the Maldives, and definitely Conrad is the best experience for accommodation, food, house reef and sandy white beaches. Well done to the team for running this relatively large resort so well with excellent service throughout. Spread over 2 islands: one for families with kids and one for adults only, with 150 villas and over 10 dining outlets, the exploration of the resort itself was very enjoyable, not to mention the amazing house reef. The staff are all very nice. Our island host Mr. Mahmoud is a super star, he dealt with our all requests so quickly and efficiently. Accommodation: We split our stay between beach villa and overwater villa. The beach villa is spacious even after they put in 2 beds for our kids. It’s very close to the main action of the resort, so we love it for the convenience. Request a villa on the side of the island with the house reef if you like snorkelling, but note that it can be a bit more windy than the side facing the lagoon. The grand water villa (for families with kids) is a good 10-15min walk away from the reception. It can take a while to wait for the buggy especially around breakfast and dinner time, so you need to be more organised or would waste time getting back and forth. For this reason we would not stay the whole time in the water villa if we come back in the future. It is definitely a worthwhile experience however. The villa is very spacious even for the 1-bedroom type (150sqm), beautifully designed with a bonus of a jacuzzi on your deck. Having a jacuzzi while gazing into the blueness of the Indian Oceans is divine. This feels much better than being in a pool. Dining: We were spoilt with choice when it comes to food with over 10 outlets to choose from, we didn’t have a chance to try all but for the ones we did they were all excellent. Great job by Mr. Amit, the head of F&B who we had a chance to have a quick chat with just before we left. The highlight was lobster & champagne dinner on the beach, which happens only once a week. The setting is beautiful and romantic. The food was excellent with lots of seafood other than lobsters. Mandhoo restaurant by the spa is our family’s favourite for both lunch and dinner. The food is light and fresh, and lots of seafood which we love (e.g. lobster gazpacho, yellowfin tuna poke bowl, seared scallops, sous vide octopus tentacle for lunch; crab meat avocado salad, yellowfin seared tuna in Korean dressing for dinner). Come early to grab a table on the deck. Uffa, the Chinese restaurant, is excellent with a lot of dishes to choose from. We were impressed to find such authentic Chinese food in the Maldives. Sunset Grill is in a lovely setting and great food too, the steak tartar is superb. Come early to get a table on the sunset side. For the dinner buffet at Atoll Market which goes by theme every night, we chose the seafood day. The seafood they provided is high quality, including fresh oysters and lobster ceviche. Other theme days do not sound particularly interesting to us. Buffet breakfast at Atoll Market on the main island gives a great choice of Western and Asian (sushi, dim sum, noodle soup etc… with authentic flavours). Breakfast at Vilu restaurant on the adult-only island is a la carte (but you can order as much as you want). The choice is thus more limited vs the buffet, but still a very nice breakfast. We find more exotic fruits on offer here, and better view than the main breakfast area. Quiet zone in the adult-only island: We love our afternoon drinks here without kids, calm and relaxing on the best beach of the island with powdery sand. Rangali Bar is a great place to hang out with live music almost every night, but the food is geared a bit on fast food style so we only had pizza there.