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Hi,
I am about to book a stay at Baros Maldives (SLH). Currently Hilton Gold, but heading for Diamond.
Does anybody have experience with the perx at Baros? I get the breakfast for 2, but anything else at stake?thanks
According to Google AI:
As a Hilton Honors Gold member, you can expect complimentary breakfast, in-villa VIP welcome amenities, and a complimentary selection of beverages from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm at Peacock Alley, along with a 50% special offer on selected refreshments at Peacock Alley from 10:00 pm to 11:30 pm at Baros Maldives
Looks like if you’re Diamond the main difference would be a welcome bottle of fizz and maybe other better welcome in-room amenities… not exactly compelling but better than nothing!
thanks a lot!!
@HomerSweden you’re welcome! Please do report back on your stay. I read great things about the house reef and as a keen snorkeler Baros is on my Maldives shortlist for next year (going to Conrad Rangali next month 😎)
Baros doesn’t have Peacock Alley, you shouldn’t be relying on Google AI as a source of information.
Baros doesn’t have Peacock Alley, you shouldn’t be relying on Google AI as a source of information.
Apparently not @meta ! My bad 😔 … incidentally, do you know which resort does have it ?! 🤷♂️
AI 🙈. You know it makes stuff up if it can’t find the answer, don’t you?!
Baros doesn’t have Peacock Alley, you shouldn’t be relying on Google AI as a source of information.
Apparently not @meta ! My bad 😔 … incidentally, do you know which resort does have it ?! 🤷♂️
It’s in the Waldorf Astoria Maldives
Since there’s a 100% sale on points at the minute, I’m Looking to book 10 nights somewhere next March. I initially thought about the Conrad again, but I’m just back from Milaidhoo and the savings from not paying the transfer fee and dinner have me considering my options. I know that deal isn’t available anymore… but I’m wanting to weigh my other options. If anyone’s been to Baros can you answer a few questions.
1) Is there prosecco at breakfast.
2) Is there snorkelling any good. The sea wall looks a bit odd, but reviews seem to say it’s great.
3) The deck on the basic overwater villa looks a bit cramp. How did it feel when there? how much was asked to get an upgrade to one with a pool.I’ll miss happy hour, but the menu says draught pints of Carsberg are $15. So I’d be happy with that (assuming it lasts till next year)
https://www.baros.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Beverage-Selection-Sails-Bar-2024.pdfAlso tempted to book Huvafen Fushi… bit pissed it’s jumped up to 150k, but I was considering may 5 nights there as part of the trip. Anyone ever tried transferring between hotels directly… is it hard?
These rates are B&B right? We are currently burning through about $500 a day in virtual money on an AI package (bills show prices but are always zeroed if you stay on plan). That’s about half of our total rate so do points add up for the Maldives?
So for a basic calculation, lets make the following assumptions
1) You are paying for all the hilton points yourself, and don’t get any from a work or other holidays.
2) You only buy points when they are running 100% bonus
3) We ignore max amounts you can buy per person. We’ll assume your pool is large enough to buy what’s needed
4) You have status required to get “5th night free” for you redemptions. (book 5 for points cost of 4).
5) You book the standard redemption rate. This is far smaller than the premium cost you can pay for any room, but there’s limited availability. Once they’re gone… then it’s all premium, which is massively more.a standard redemption at Baros is currently 120k points per night.
so 5 nights will actually cost 4 x 12k = 480k points (because of 5th night free)
points are usually 1$ per 100 points. When there’s a 100% bonus, then you get 200 instead.480,000 / 200 = $2400 for 5 nights
If your Hilton Gold. Then this will include breakfast (hilton gold comes with many credit cards, or even their Currensea one).So this will bring the nightly price down to £375 sterling. It’s very expensive, but not when compared to the price of this hotel via other means. It’s also cancellable up to about a month before. But always be sure to check before finalising any booking.
I’ve usually just gone B&B with previous redemptions. If your just grabbing a Main and some drinks for dinner, then it usually comes to about $200 per day for food.
Maldives hotel chain resorts have adapted their business model to charge very high costs for F&B, transfers and activities. They get peanuts from the brand for redemptions and certificates (except super peak occupancy), so they need to make up the difference with above.
Therefore redemptions are generally not very good value for Maldives. Hilton points are somewhat decent value through free breakfast for gold. Marriott and IHG are poor value unless you have top status and get free breakfast.
The cash packages that include FV / AI and transfers can sometimes be good value compared to redemptions. Unless you prefer to cook pot noodles in your overwater villa. There are plenty of such posts on flyertalk where Americans redeem their points and crib about high F&B costs.
The cash packages that include FV / AI and transfers can sometimes be good value compared to redemptions. Unless you prefer to cook pot noodles in your overwater villa. There are plenty of such posts on flyertalk where Americans redeem their points and crib about high F&B costs.
Any good cash package suggestions?
Though I’m still liking the Baros redemption. Transfer, breakfast and OWV for £375, just leaves Dinner + drinks.
There are some Hilton properties where you do get AI with points, I think I’d stick to cash in the Maldives. Though our budget would just about run to the Holiday Inn with the way prices have gone since we went there 25 years ago (2 weeks AI for under £1k each via Teletext) 😱😂
Rich Russians and Chinese have driven Maldives prices through the roof from what I can tell. Scuba conditions where I am this week though have been the best ever. We saw an aggregation of nurse sharks this morning which was spectacular.
@masaccio, remind me where you are this week!
There was a group of about 15 nurse sharks which hung around the dock in Bimini 24/7 waiting for fresh catch to be gutted on the side! They were the laziest damn fish ever 😂
The Americans were scared to death of them, lol.@masaccio, remind me where you are this week!
There was a group of about 15 nurse sharks which hung around the dock in Bimini 24/7 waiting for fresh catch to be gutted on the side! They were the laziest damn fish ever 😂
The Americans were scared to death of them, lol.Dhigali on Raa Atoll. The aggregation was on the ocean side of the Kottefaru. Dive shops feed the nurse sharks in Roatan too which makes them follow divers around.
The cash packages that include FV / AI and transfers can sometimes be good value compared to redemptions. Unless you prefer to cook pot noodles in your overwater villa. There are plenty of such posts on flyertalk where Americans redeem their points and crib about high F&B costs.
Any good cash package suggestions?
Though I’m still liking the Baros redemption. Transfer, breakfast and OWV for £375, just leaves Dinner + drinks.
Someone suggested D2 website had good cash prices, even better than direct rates. The resort will depend on what you want. A quiet one for couples? Reef? Kids club?
Btw, was just reading the Hilton amingiri may not be worth it as it’s so close to Male and lots of construction work going on nearby.
Baros seems to allow 3 in a room but when you search for 2 adults and a child, it shows zero redemption availability.
Edit: Baros is adults only. That’s a very good deal for couples!Someone suggested D2 website had good cash prices, even better than direct rates. The resort will depend on what you want. A quiet one for couples? Reef? Kids club?
A couple of people including me said that. BA’s double Avios promotion would have been better at 1p/Avios but we’d booked D2 by then.
I’d love a Maldives resort comparison tool. This time around I was looking for good restaurants fully included in AI, a pool water villa with good shade and good steps into the sea, a decent chance of mantas when diving, seaplane not boat, and a good house reef.
I ended up looking at around 50 resorts and narrowed them down to 3 and picked the best price. I expect a good travel agent could have done this for me, but of course I’d have paid for that and I am tight-fisted.
We’re going back to Lily Beach for a 3rd time in Nov. Last year we got a good price via D2 with an upgrade to an over water villa and again this time round using Bestattravel. Met some people there who recommended Dhigali too but not been able to get a comparable deal as yet.
We’re going back to Lily Beach for a 3rd time in Nov. Last year we got a good price via D2 with an upgrade to an over water villa and again this time round using Bestattravel. Met some people there who recommended Dhigali too but not been able to get a comparable deal as yet.
I noticed prices for Dhigali reached a bottom 5-6 months out so that’s when we booked. I looked later and the lagoon pool villas were all sold out so I think I did the right thing.
My recollection is Dhigali’s own booking tool has one of those lovely price calendars where you can spot pricing patterns.
I’ll look into D2 and others for 2027. For now I’ll stick with the Baros redemption. since I earn points via work, it does save me quite a bit. Just a bit annoying that the OWV won’t have a plunge pool.
Emailed them to ask how much it would cost to move from B&B to HB. $260 a night, and that means you can only eat in one restaurant. I pointed out that this made to sense, as their menus are nowhere near this price even with all taxes, but they just repeated it.
A HFP reader did a comprehensive review of the Conrad Rangali using points a few years ago, though it was a bit overshadowed at the time by his downgrading saga!
https://www.headforpoints.com/2017/04/06/review-conrad-rangali-resort-maldives-on-hilton-points/
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