(This is part of a trip report, using United miles to fly business class for five flights, costing $86 and 160,000 miles, and the value of this trip was $11,758. I flew from the USA to Istanbul to Africa to Seychelles to Greece!)

Maldives are a dream destination, even though it’s not always easy to get to. We flew there from Seychelles and landed by 7:30 pm, but waited until 11:15 pm for a flight and then a thirty minute boat ride to the resort, so we got in after 1:00 am, but it was SO worth it!

What can I say about the award winning Conrad Maldives Rangali Island?! This Hilton property is simply beautiful! The resort employs about 600 people, 74% are Maldivian, and they excel at customer service. There are two islands, connected with a footbridge, or you can ride a boat from one to the other. You can even order a buggy to take you from place to place. All of our time there was booked with points, and because we are Hilton Gold, we got free breakfast and afternoon tea.

Here is our beach villa room, our first two nights…

What do you do on an island? Walk the perimeter of the island, paddle boat, ride the dhoni to the other island for sunset views, shop, snorkel, watch seaplanes take off, watch watersports – we were not bored!

Due to the kindness of Ahmed Nashid, the front office manager, we got upgraded to the retreat water villa, an over the water villa! This room was fantastic and had its’ OWN massage room and deck with a whirlpool! A M A Z I N G! Take a look…

It was hard to choose where to eat because they have twelve restaurants! One day we had a mid morning snack at the undersea restaurant, Ithaa, which means “mother of pearl” in Maldivian.

All good things must come to an end, but we are already planning a return trip! We left via seaplane and since I’m a pilot, Ahmed made sure I got a front row seat to watch these barefoot pilots! We were escorted to the Conrad lounge, then to our plane later.

Next up, Santorini…