In a bit of a weird situation, I know this is award travel and normally discussion focuses on points usage for award trips. However I am now in a strange place.

Thanks to everyone and the wealth of knowledge in this sub, I have managed to book all the flights in J for a HoneyMoon in June/July(20 day Trip) using practically all points(paid cash for in and out of MLE from DXB) as well as some phenomenal hotel deals for the Santorini/Dubai/Abu Dhabi legs.

This now means I have a lot more cash to book the MLE leg of the trip than I thought I would need (not that I have to spend money). Being that I have missed the yearly pilgrimage to pick up award nights inb4, we are now looking at all the Hilton/Marriott properties (Diamond & Platinum status included) to figure out how/where best to throw cash on a 5-7 night stay either the last week of June or first week of July (boredom and PTO are constraints to not making this leg longer).

For Context, SWMBO and I had agreed not to spend more than $30K cash for the entire honey moon. We have spent about $4K of the cash so leaving another 6-8K for food and transportation(sea plane) in MLE. The question is where best do you spend $12-15k for 5-7 nights in the Maldives.

I had done some preliminary research at each of the main properties that Hilton/Marriott have and most of them had stays all under 10k for even the nicest of single occupancy rooms (No, I don't need the John Jacob Astor Estate for 2 people and I'll pass on the Muraka).

These are the properties we had looked at

• Conrad - Maldives Rangali
• Waldorf Astoria - Maldives Ithaafushi
• W
• St. Regis
• JW
• Westin

I have read (over here and at FT) that WA has the best Hard product, but then StR has the best service (to the point of maybe being overpowering). However, the Conrad seems to have a lot of credibility being that its been around for a bit and has just completed renovations. I can't really differentiate between the JW/W/Westin products, none of them wowed me. Maybe others can provide context.

Welcoming all thoughts and questions. (including if there is a better place to post this - Plan to post to FT too)

EDIT

For anyone who is curious or finds this later, we ended up going with Joali Maldives, which was in fact our 3rd choice. The first two were Cheval Blanc (closed for renovations June& July), and Velaa Private Island (Fully Booked) were unavailable.

I also spoke to a couple travel agencies and the general consensus on best (modern) luxury properties seemed to be 1. Cheval Blanc 2. Velaa Private Island 3. Joali Maldives 4. Waldorf Astoria 5. St. Regis

Joali just so happened to be doing an incredible summer promotion that offered half board in a luxury over water villa (top tier single occupancy room) for $1200 a night(tax included). This paired with virtuoso benefits had us effectively was paying $9K for 6 night stay(no discount on sea planes) with breakfast and dinner included.

Thankfully to all the input and advice people offered here.