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How does one even begin to describe what heaven felt like?
That’s exactly what our honeymoon felt like. We had our honeymoon a year after we had our wedding due to covid and other factors, but let me just say that it was well-worth the wait. I can’t wait to share all the details and recommendations so that you too can enjoy a little piece of paradise. It’s not that far out of reach either! You’ll be surprised to know and I’m happy to share that we ended up booking the most luxurious hotel and flights using credit card points! You read that right. Below I’ll list which credit card we used in order to maximize the most point usage.
HOW TO PAY WITH POINTS
Now, you’re probably asking yourself how much this trip cost and if you can afford something so lavish and extravagent. Well, I have a secret to share. We paid for most of the trip using credit card points. Specifically, we used the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Now, I don’t know exactly how many points we used, because honestly it depends on the date (points vary), so I recommend applying asap so you can start racking up those points and start planning your Maldives trip. Also, if you apply now, you’ll get a wopping 80,000 bonus points! That’s $1,200 towards travel!You can click here to apply. We were able to have enough points to cover airfare on Qatar Airways and our 5 day stay at the St Regis Vommuli resort.
HOW WE GOT TO THE MALDIVES
Luckily, thanks to our Chase Sapphire Reserve card, we were able to book flights from LAX to Doha to Male on Qatar Airways. My sweet husband even paid a little extra so we can have the emergency exit seats and got us these inflatable foot rests that ensured we slept on this lengthy 15 hour flight.
I think if we would’ve booked our flights in advance, we could’ve had their business class, but we planned this only a month beforehand. Note to self: book flights months in advance. Regardless, flying on Qatar was an amazing experience and I can truly see why they win as the best airline in the world. From complimentary amenity kits, to slippers and non stop delicious foods, they made our time fly by. No pun intended. Once we arrived in Doha, we had a 6 hour layover and ended up booking a day pass for the 5 star Qatar airpot lounge.
Here we enjoyed some yummy foods, like a sushi bar in the restaurant and an endless amount of wine and dessert. This lounge also had recliners and blankets to take a nap, as well as showers for usage. I highly recommend everyone to stop by and experience this firsthand. Once we got to Male, we had to take a seaplane to our resort, which we booked through our resort for $750/pp. I found this to be a little on the pricier side, so I recommend doing some research in advance when it comes to booking this.
WHERE WE STAYED
I feel like I need to start this blog with the most exciting parts. Now that you know which credit card you need to be using, I will share which place we booked for our stay. Luckily, the St Regis Vommuli resort is part of that Marriott program, so we were able to redeem enough points to cover our stay for 5 days. The best part is that we were able to book an overwater villa with a private plunge pool. I could go on and on about how breathtaking the views were, but instead I’ll just post some pics and videos below.
I will say that this resort made our honeymoon experience memorable with the little details they provided. We had chocolates, fruits and champagne upon arrival. They even went as far to decorate our bed and bath tub with flowers on our actual celebration day. For our anniversary day, we decided to have dinner at our favorite restaurant, Orientale, and the sweet chefs there gifted us a whole king lobster for dinner. We also had an amazing butler who we could text at any time of day through Whatsapp. This came in handy when I had a little too much fun in the sun and ended up with one of the worst sun burns I’ve ever experienced. Our butler, shout out Amy, brought over a soothing lotion to help ease the burning pain. While I’m remembering this horrid burning experience, I’ll just go ahead and mention that you should be applying and reapplying sunblock all day. The Maldives are slightly closer to the equator so it is very easy to get comfortable and end up with a gnarly second degree burn.
WHAT TO BRING
Since you’ll be on a small island, you’ll probably be spending most of your time on the beach or snorkeling behind your bungalow so the attire I used the most were my bathing suits. I packed 4 sets for 5 days. I was lucky enough to find some of my items on Amazon so I’ll be sure to link my favs. This was my favorite bikini for laying out and tanning. And for those who are celebrating a honeymoon or anniversary and need a sexy little pajama, THIS was mine.
It felt super silky and luxurious and just perfect, not only for vacation, but for at home too. For dinners I packed 2-3 slip dresses and everything else was very light and casual: shorts, tops, slides, sun hat. This visor was my go-to. Also, since you’ll be limited on what you can eat (and the resort food can be pretty pricey) I recommend brining snacks with you. We loaded our checked bag with Trader Joe’s nuts and these delicious protein-packed chips. Another very important item to bring and probably the most important is sunscreen! Especially since resorts mark up their sunscreen prices like crazy! This exact sun screen was being sold at the resort for $60 a bottle! Here you can get two for only $16.86 and it’s reef friendly. đŸ˜‰
WHAT WE ATE
The St Regis resort has 5 different restaurants on site to choose from. Alba was the one we went to every morning for breakfast. I HIGHLY recommend trying the Indian Dosa breakfast. It was our favorite dish and we pretty much ordered it every day. We also went to Alba once for dinner and it was okay. Our favorite restaurant for dinner was Orientale. It was asian cuisine based so of course it was my favorite. đŸ˜‰ The other restaurants were good too, but the most memorable was Orientale. Now, because you are on an island, snacks and comfort foods are limited so brining our own snacks came in handy. We also may or may not have snuck in a bottle of white wine and tequila, depending on who is reading this. We may or may not have saved some money on alcohol. I can’t confirm or deny this last statement.
WHAT WE DID
LOTS of people asked us if we were bored at any point. The truth is, we weren’t. This trip was truly about relaxing and enjoying each others company and thats exactly what we did. My husband and I each brought a good book to read as well as a Scrabble board game. Depending on who you ask, he may have gotten lucky and beat me a few times. We also had a private plunge pool as well as an entire ocean to dive into from our deck. We took advantage and snorkeled as much as we could and luckily caught glimpse of some nice reef and fish. We also enjoyed the beautiful Iridium Spa and indulged in a lava shell couples massage. Because we were celebrating our anniversary, the St Regis let us enjoy their whirlpool with thermal waters free of charge. There were many excursions offered at the resort and we chose the turtle snorkel one. A boat picked us up and took us to two different reef spots and we saw the most beautiful reef here. We even got lucky and saw two turtles swim by us. It truly was an unforgettable experience. https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18005010160501118/
I hope this blog inspires you to take a trip to the Maldives and if you’ve read this far, thank you for allowing me to share my travels with you,
Stu
Stew Travels 