How to Stay in an Overwater Villa in the Maldives: Top 2 Most Affordable Options

How To Stay at Luxury Resorts in an Overwater Villa in the Maldives for as Cheap as Possible

Staying in an overwater bungalow may be the epitome of a dream vacation for most people!  What if we told you that your stay at one of these bungalows in the beautiful Maldives doesn’t require splurging loads of money?  Your dream vacation may be more realistic than you think!  We are not considered “rich” by any means, and we have been able to experience this luxury using certain strategies.  We’re going to go over our top 3 recommended options to make your aspiration trip your reality!

Option #1: Using Hilton Honors Credit Card Sign-On Bonuses for Rewards Nights and Points

Overview

The first (and probably cheapest) option would be to take advantage of credit card bonuses.  Specifically the Hilton Honors co-branded credit cards issued by American Express.  These cards have some of the best sign-on bonuses to redeem reward night stays!  We will look into how to go about applying for these different Hilton Honors co-branded credit cards, using a two-person strategy, to get the maximum amount of rewards!

Method

1. First, you will want to apply for the lowest tier co-branded credit card: Hilton Honors American Express card and meet the minimum spend of $2,000 within the first 6 months of card opening to earn the new cardmember bonus (bonus as of April 2025: 70,000 Hilton Honors points & 1 free night reward).
2. Next, your travel partner will want to apply for the same card and meet an additional minimum spend to earn the same bonus.  Be sure to send over a referral bonus from the first opened Hilton Honors card to get an additional 15,000 points! At this point you and your partner should have a total of 155,000 Hilton Honors points (70,000 + 70,000 + 15,000) and 2 free night reward certificates!
3. After hitting the two bonuses, the next Hilton Honors credit card to get would be their mid-tier: Hilton Honors American Express Surpass card.  You will need to hit $3,000 in 6 months to earn a bonus of 130,000 Hilton Points with an additional one free night reward.  Again, be sure that you use your travel partner’s referral bonus from his/her Hilton Honors card.
4. Finally, your travel partner will want to open the same Hilton Surpass card and hit the same bonus, using your referral to get an additional new cardmember bonus and referral bonus!
5. It is completely optional if one or both of you want to continue to apply for the Hilton Aspire card to get an even longer and more luxurious stay with it’s Hilton Diamond status! You will also earn a free night certificate upon opening the card. However, the annual fee comes at $550, but the credits it comes with can easily offset this!

Hilton Honors Co-Branded Credit Cards (American Express)

Click to Apply! (Referral Links)

After hitting all of the bonuses, we will break down the total amount of points and rewards nights that will have to be able to finally book your Maldives trip:

Hilton Honors card bonus: 70,000 x 2 = 140,000 points & 2 free rewards nights

One referral bonus from the Hilton Honors card: 15,000 points

Hilton Surpass card bonus: 130,000 x 2 = 260,000 points & 2 free rewards nights

Two referral bonuses from the Hilton Surpass cards: 15,000 x 2 = 30,000 points

Additionally, you will earn at least a minimum of 3 points per dollar spent with the $10,000 of sign-on bonus spend: $10,000 x 3 = 30,000 points (you will likely have more points if you are spending at U.S. restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, and online retail stores since they have a greater point multiplier).

Total points: 140,000 + 15,000 + 260,000 + 30,000 + 30,000 = 475,000 pointsTotal reward night certificates: 2 + 2 = 4 free reward nights

Now we will show you how to redeem these rewards for Hilton properties with an overwater villa as a standard room!

 Resort Possibilities

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

This is actually the resort we have stayed at before, and it is a wonderful property that had one of the first overwater villas in the Maldives and has one of the first undersea restaurants (Ithaa)!

You will be booking the “Sunrise Water Villa”, which is considered a standard room.  The rates will go for 120,000 points per night.

If you were able to accumulate at least 480,000 Hilton Honors points, depending on where you utilized your minimum spend on the Hilton cards, you will actually have enough to book 5 free nights with points alone!  This is because Hilton has a fifth night free benefit when you book 4 nights with points alone.  Alternatively, you can buy additional Hilton points at points.com to be able to have at least 480,000 points to use this valuable benefit!

On top of this, you and your partner will have another 4 free night rewards!  In total, this method would allow for 9 free nights at this resort, using Hilton points and free night rewards!

Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi

If you are extremely lucky to find 5 standard rewards nights in a row, you could book one of the most luxurious and sought out Hilton properties to stay in!  You will be booking their standard room, “King Reef Villa with Pool”, which goes for only 150,000 points per night!  If you are able to accumulate at least 600,000 points with your minimum spend, you will have enough to redeem 5 free nights at this property, again using the fifth night free benefit when booking four nights with points!  You have the option to purchase Hilton points if you need anything additional to accumulate 600,000 points.

With your 4 free night certificates, you can earn yourself a 9 free night stay!

Keep in mind, this is one of the most difficult resorts to book with points due to the high demand and limited standard room availability.  You will most likely have to hunt down availability for a 5-night-in-a-row standard room.  However, we have heard that this is an amazing property to stay at, so if you do find an opportunity, we highly recommend booking it sooner than later!

Huvafen Fushi Maldives, an SLH Hotel

This is another amazing Hilton resort in the Maldives to book with points!  You will be booking a “Lagoon Bungalow with Pool”, which is the standard room for this property.  Standard room rates go for 150,000 points per night, similar to that of the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi.  Again, you will want to accumulate at least 600,000 Hilton points to get the maximum amount of value for your points, using the fifth night free benefit!  You have the option to use points.com to purchase the additional amount of points that you may need to get to 600,000 Hilton points.

With 600,000 Hilton points and 4 free night rewards, you will have a total of 9 free nights at this property!

The wonderful thing about this property is that it is much easier to find standard room night availability versus the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi, so it is definitely a property to look into if you do not want to hunt down rewards night availability!

Total Costs

• Annual fees of the Hilton Surpass card: $150 x 2 = $300
• Possibility of purchasing additional Hilton points: (varies)
• An additional aspect to factor in is the spending requirement to hit the sign-on bonuses of the Hilton credit cards.  We always recommend going for one sign-on bonus at a time (unless you can organically meet all of the spend at once).  Do not open the next credit card until you have hit your minimum spend on your current opened credit card!

You are effectively earning around 90% – 98% off the resort booking if you are able to use this Amex Hilton Honors co-branded credit card multi-welcome bonus method!

Other disclaimers to note when talking about credit cards:

• NEVER carry a balance on any credit card!  We do not (and never will) advise you to go into credit card debt for this strategy!
• Keep in mind your financial situation when going for a card member bonus.  Please only spend on purchases that you would have otherwise made already!  We would recommend saving this strategy for an already planned big future purchase that you are able to put on a credit card (wedding costs, tuition, furniture, etc.).
• Always follow the terms and conditions of American Express.  Keep your cards open for at least one year before making any decision to cancel.  Attempting to “game” the system will blacklist you from American Express.
• Keep in mind of American Express “pop-up jail” (American Express may inform you that you will not qualify for another sign-up bonus when applying past your first Amex credit card).  This is Amex’s way of suppressing the amount of rewards offered to you, and usually time will resolve it.  You may have to adjust this strategy for the longer-term if you run into this issue.

FAQ Section

• How to Combine Hilton Points Between Two Accounts?: You will need to gift points between you and your travel partner to stack the total amount of points to use the fifth night free benefit!  Gifting points is completely free but will take 1 to 5 business days.
• How to Earn “Fifth Night Free” Benefit?: The fifth night free benefit is available to Hilton Honors Silver, Gold, or Platinum status.  The Hilton Honors American Express card will give you automatic Silver status while the Hilton Honors Surpass American Express card will give you automatic Gold status! Additional ways of earning the required Hilton Honors status is through:
  • Holding the American Express Platinum card (complimentary Gold status)
  • Having T-Mobile Magenta status (complimentary Silver status)
  • Requesting a status match with Hilton Honors (for Gold status) if you have a similar status tier with another loyalty program (good for 90 days).
• Why is the Point Redemption Much More Expensive?: This method will only work with standard rewards nights.  If you see dates costing more than the specified point redemption amount, this means that a standard rewards night is not available at the property on the specified date.  Having four people on the reservation will probably be much more difficult to find standard rates versus only having two people on the reservation.
• Unable to Purchase Hilton Points?: You will be able to purchase Hilton points after 90 days of opening a Hilton Honors account (free to sign up) or 30 days with qualifying account activity (booking hotel stays, earning Hilton Honors points, or redeeming Hilton Honors points)
• Do Hilton Points Expire?: Hilton Honors points do expire after 24 months of inactivity (be sure to either reserve nights, earn points through Hilton spend or Hilton Honors credit card spend, or redeem your points to keep your points from expiring)
• Do Hilton Free Night Certificates Expire?: Hilton reward night certificates will only be good for one year.  You may have the option to extend the rewards night for up to two weeks past the expiration date via customer service chat.  Additional extensions may be granted if you directly call customer service, but these are not the standard.  Keep this in mind when having to hit your minimum spend for the credit card sign-on bonuses because you will need to take account of time with the expiration dates of your rewards nights.
• How to Redeem Hilton Free Night Certificates?: You will need to call Hilton Customer service to redeem your rewards nights, and they will be able to merge any separate reservations that you booked with points.
• Why Do I Have a Different Amex Hilton Honors Welcome Bonus?: The current American Express Hilton Honors sign-on bonuses are for a limited time as of April 2025.  That being said, there are usually promotions like this that have been occurring pretty frequently lately, so be sure to keep updated with the current offers!  American Express welcome bonuses are also usually targeted, so your welcome bonus offers may be different. It may take some time to be able to implement this strategy.
• Should I Also Get the Hilton Honors Aspire?: You have the option to additionally get the Hilton Aspire card (highest tier of the Hilton Honors co-branded cards) using the same referral method to earn even more points and accumulate an additional free night.  You would also get complimentary Diamond status by holding this card!  We would recommend this if you can hit the minimum spends within the time frame of the expiration dates of your accumulated rewards nights, as you can easily get an additional 4 nights at a property!
• Why Don’t I Qualify For a Second Hilton Honors Welcome Bonus?: To qualify for an additional sign-on bonus, be sure to apply for the lowest tier Hilton card first, then apply for the mid-tier (Surpass) second, and finally the high-tier (Aspire) last.  American Express has a family card sign-up bonus restriction, meaning that if you have received a higher sign-on bonus from one of the cards in that “family” (Hilton Honors co-branded credit cards) you no longer qualify for a sign-on bonus from a lower-tier card. Additionally, see the disclaimers above regarding Amex “pop-up jail”.

Option #2: Buying Hilton Honors Points to Redeem Rewards Nights

Overview

Your second most affordable option (and probably a much quicker method) would be to purchase Hilton Honors points and use the fifth night free benefit to earn an additional night free!  This method can give you 5 nights at a significantly discounted rate (upwards of 85% off) versus booking it directly with cash.

Method

The very first step is to login to your Hilton Honors account.  Hover over your profile icon and click “points”.  Scroll down until you see “Buy Points”.  Click on this link to open up the points.com menu for Hilton Honors points.

Hilton points typically cost 1 cent per point.  You will be able to buy up to 240,000 points per calendar year.  Additionally, you will get a 100% bonus if you purchase at least 5,000 points, effectively doubling the amount of points, making it only cost only 0.5 cent per point!  It should be noted that the 240,000 limit and the 100% bonus is a targeted promotion, and you may not see it right away.  It can take some time to be able to see the offer, so be sure to keep checking every now and then!  We will show you the amount of points you need to purchase to book the same Hilton resorts that we went over for the first option!

Resort Possibilities:

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

This is, hands down, the easiest resort to book using this method.  This is because standard rewards nights only cost 120,000 points per night.  Since you are capped at purchasing 240,000 points (earning you 480,000 with the 100% bonus promotion), it makes for a perfect redemption for four nights.  As we mentioned above, you can take advantage of the fifth night free benefit when you have at least Silver, Gold, or Platinum status with Hilton Honors using any of the methods previously mentioned.  The standard room to book for an overwater bungalow would be the “Sunrise Water Villa”.  You will need to purchase 240,000 points (plus the 240,000 point bonus) to get 480,000 points for a total of $2,400 to book this resort for 5 nights!

We will now show you what you would have to pay if you were to book the same room type in this resort during peak season for 5 nights using cash alone:

As you can see, purchasing points will essentially give you over a 80% discount ($2,400 versus $13,750.49) if purchasing with cash is your only option!

Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi

This resort is trickier to pull off, not just because it will require some additional steps, but also due to the demand of standard nights being booked.  You may get lucky to find availability for a standard room for 5 nights to be able to reserve it but they go very quickly!  Nonetheless, this will be one of the most luxurious resorts you could reserve using this method, and you will find yourself getting quite a nice discount from the cash rates.

Since a standard room is 150,000 points per night, this will require you to not only purchase the maximum amount of points (240,000 + 240,000 bonus), but also have a second person’s Hilton account to purchase the additional 120,000 (60,000 + 60,000 bonus) that will be required.  You will need to go into the Hilton Honors points menu and find the “gift points” link.  From here, you will be able to gift points to the first account to combine all of your points (this will take up 1 to 5 business days).  An alternative method is to wait until the end of the year on December 31 to purchase the maximum amount of points for the calendar year, and then make another points purchase at the beginning of the year to accumulate the required amount of points!

600,000 points will allow you to redeem a standard room (“King Reef Villa with Pool”) for four nights, and effectively earn the fifth night with the “fifth night free” benefit.  This method will get you 5 nights at this resort for the cost of $3,000 to purchase a total of 600,000 Hilton Honors points. 

We will show you the same cash rate you would have to pay for the same room type for 1 night during peak season (I was not able to find a 5 night in-a-row Standard Room rate):

We are still amazed how this stay can be purchased at nearly 80% off ($3,000 versus $13,313.85) using the “buying points” method!

Huvafen Fushi Maldives, an SLH Hotel

Similarly to the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi, this resort will require the same method of purchasing the maximum amount of points for the calendar year, then having second person’s Hilton Honors account to purchase the remaining amount of points necessary and gifting the points to one account to combine the total amount (or use the alternative method as instructed above by taking advantage of the calendar year rule).  You will be booking a standard room (“Lagoon Bungalow with Pool”) for 150,000 points per night.  This means you will also need a total of 600,000 Hilton points to redeem four nights on points (and getting the fifth night free with the benefit) for 5 nights, costing a total of $3,000.

This are the cash rates when booking the same room type for 5 nights during peak season:

This means purchasing Hilton points to book this resort would give you around a 65% discount ($3,000 versus $8,725.95) if you were to book it at the cash rate!

Total Costs

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island for 5 nights:

• $2,400 to buy the required number of points (480,000) and using the fifth night free benefit!

Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi or Huvafen Fushi Maldives, an SLH Hotel for 5 nights:

• $3,000 to purchase 600,000 Hilton points to be able to redeem 5 nights (using the fifth night free benefit).

You will be able to effectively get anywhere from 65% – 80% off of your booking, depending on where you decide to stay, using the “Buy Hilton Points” method! This is pretty impressive, knowing that most of the resorts in the Maldives will easily cost upwards of $10,000 or more if you plan on staying around a week!  As a disclaimer, please be aware that this is the total cost to book the resort alone, and it does not take into account any of the other expenses that will be required to plan your trip (airfare, transfers, food, activities, incidentals, etc.).

FAQ Section

• Unable to Purchase Hilton Points?: As mentioned, being able to buy Hilton points requires a Hilton Honors account (free to sign up) that has been active for 90 days or active for 30 days with account activity (booking a reservation, earning points, or redeeming points).
• Why is the Point Redemption Much More Expensive?: This method will only work for standard room types.  You will not be able to do this with a premium room type or suite, as the point redemptions are significantly more expensive for this method to make sense.
• How to Earn “Fifth Night Free” Benefit?: The fifth night free benefit is earned when the Hilton Honors member holds Silver, Gold, or Platinum status.  Some simple ways to earn this status automatically include:
  • Holding the Hilton Honors card (complimentary Silver status), Hilton Honors Surpass card (complimentary Gold status), or Hilton Honors Aspire card (complimentary Platinum status)
  • Holding the American Express Platinum card (complimentary Gold status)
  • Having T-Mobile Magenta status (complimentary Silver status)
  • Requesting a status match with Hilton Honors (for Gold status) if you have a similar status tier with another loyalty program (good for 90 days)
• Why Can’t I Purchase up to 480,000 Points?: Again, the 240,000 points purchase limit per calendar year, along with the 100% points bonus is a promotional offer.  If you have points limits of 80,000 points per calendar year or 160,000 points per calendar year, it is possible that you are either:
  • Outside the United States
  • Not targeted for the promo (continue to check your limit as you can sometimes receive the promo at a different time)
• Do Hilton Points Expire?: Hilton Honors points do expire after 24 months of inactivity (be sure to either reserve nights, earn points through Hilton spend or Hilton Honors credit card spend, or redeem your points to keep your points from expiring)

Important Information to Take Into Consideration

These are some things to keep in mind before planning your vacation to the Maldives:

• The Maldives is VERY expensive!  Even with these hacks to book the resorts at a fraction of the cost, you will most likely be spending a few thousands, if not more, on incidentals (food, activities, transfers to and from the airport) if you are traveling with a second person or more.  Please budget accordingly before making any reservation to the Maldives.
• Take account of the hidden costs of the resort, especially if you are booking around specific times.  There are mandatory dinners that are charged to your room, notably during Christmas Eve and New Years Eve at these resorts.  They are NOT cheap!  We would avoid booking around these dates to save yourself the big dinner cost.
• It is rare to be complimentary upgraded from your standard room with Hilton Honors status (most resorts don’t even offer this).  Most of everyone staying at the resort will be at the very least Gold status (if not Platinum).  You can, however, “upgrade” your room type by paying an additional fee per night.  You can email the resort to receive quotes or they will email you the offer as you get closer to your reservation.
• Getting to these resorts from Male Airport will require you to either take a seaplane or take a boat transfer.  These are the costs associated with the three resorts that we mentioned for either option (as of 2025):
  • Conrad Maldives Rangali Island Seaplane Cost (Roundtrip):
    • $675 per adult
    • $337.50 per child (ages 2 – 12)
    • Complimentary for infants under 2
  • Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi Resort’s Yacht Cost (Roundtrip):
    • $900 per adult
    • $450 per child (ages 6 – 12)
    • Complimentary for children under 6
  • Huvafen Fushi, an SLH Hotel Shared Speedboat (Roundtrip):
    • $340 per adult
    • $170 per child (ages 2 – 11)
    • Complimentary for infants under 2

Important: if you are reserving Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, it is worth mentioning that the seaplane does not operate during night hours (it only operates between 6:00am to 3:30pm), so be sure to match your airport arrival and departure times accordingly so that you don’t have to stay overnight in the Male airport!

Conclusion

Whichever option you choose, both will significantly reduce what it may cost you to reserve nights at these luxury properties!  As we mentioned before, the Maldives is notorious for being absurdly expensive due to resort prices, the taxes, and being an island where most of everything has to be imported.  Of course, always take your financial situation into consideration before planning your next trip to the Maldives!  We would not recommend traveling here if you are financially struggling as there may be much better options that suit you for a whole lot cheaper (depending on where you live).

We hope that this brought a sense of reality of what is actually possible!  Most people we know will tell you that they can only dream of vacationing in the Maldives in an overwater villa and think they may never ever get the chance due to the expensive costs of the resorts.  While we don’t deny the expensive costs associated with the Maldives, we want to bring light onto the possibility of being able to get your dream honeymoon or vacation using these simple strategies to save a large amount of money on the resort!

Other General Guides:

• Maximizing Hotel Points: A Beginner’s Guide to Free Stays and Upgrades
• Best Hotel Loyalty Programs for Free Luxury Stays: Ultimate Guide [2025]
• The Ultimate Guide to the Best Credit Cards for Luxury Hotel Benefits