How we scored a $1,500/night Maldives resort for free (and left the kids at home)

We booked Alila Maldives on points, and it gave us the kind of deep, quiet, soul-level relaxation you can only find in nature.

Apparently the secret to marital bliss is turquoise water, no bedtime routines, and zero snack requests.🍹😮‍💨🌊

The Maldives is one of those places you dream about: white-sand beaches, crystal-blue water, and your own little private-island resort. It’s remote, quiet, ridiculously beautiful, and famously expensive.

While we were in India visiting family, we realized how close we were to this bucket-list destination. Our parents offered to take the kids. A free babysitting offer plus one of the coolest spots on earth? No hesitation. Bags packed. 5 am flight booked.

We went in mid-November during shoulder season and lucked out with perfect weather. No rain. Ideal temps. Fewer crowds. The Maldives can be outrageously pricey, but we wanted to do it the FI way: utilize credit card points, strive for luxury, and minimize actual cash out of pocket.

Booking the Maldives on credit card points and credits

Flights: 

• Mumbai to Malé (MLE): $150 per person; total $300. We eliminated this cost by using our $300 annual Capital One VentureX travel credit.  

• Seaplane to Alila resort: $600 per person; total $1200. Once you land in Malé, the only way to reach most resorts is via seaplane. No way around it. You just pay the toll to paradise.

The Stay: 

• Alila Kothaifaru Maldives: $1,500/night, we booked our stay entirely on points.

• When we opened the Chase Sapphire Reserve, we got a 100,000-point bonus. 

• We transferred 90k points to Hyatt, then booked Alila Kothaifaru Maldives, a Category 7, true 5-star Hyatt resort.

  • Points cost: 30,000 points/night; total 90,000 points for 3 nights

  • Cash price: $1,500/night; total $4500

  • Savings: $4,500 (booked fully on points)

• Points math: even though we got the points for free via a sign up bonus, they were worth $900. So, we essentially got a $3,600 discount. This is why Hyatt is one of the best partners for Chase points transfers. Their award chart is fixed, so when cash prices spike, your points become super valuable.

• Rule of thumb: A “good” redemption is saving 50% off cash price. We were able to get 80% off. Boom!

The Resort: Alila Kothaifaru Maldives

This place is unreal. A small private island, a gorgeous house reef, lush vegetation, and a layout designed to make you feel like you have the entire Maldives to yourself. Everything is pristine: the beaches, the villas, the restaurants, even the walkways. Every detail is dialed in.

Why it’s amazing:

• A perfect house reef circling the island, accessible right from the beach.

• A mix of sunset, sunrise, and over-water villas.

• Next-level service including your own personal butler you can WhatsApp for anything.

• Modern, minimal, beautifully designed villas with private pools.

• Ultra-quiet, you genuinely feel alone on the island.

• A boutique vibe: small enough to feel personal, luxurious enough to wow you at every turn.

The not so good... food prices: Expensive, as expected. A burger is $50. We spent ~$500 over 4 days by being frugal. We brought snacks (protein bars, granola, cereal, bread, crackers), which helped keep costs down.

What we did

Soaked in the Vibes

• There’s no rush here. No noise. No chaos. No kids screaming “I want a snack.” It’s just peaceful. You feel the calm.

• The resort is designed so you rarely run into other guests, which is great if your life normally includes three kids climbing you like jungle gyms.

Diving

• $300 per person for 2 dives

• Top-tier Indian Ocean diving. Crystal-clear water, thriving reefs, and wildlife everywhere. You can easily see reef sharks, turtles, massive schools of fish, colorful coral, and rays drifting along the reef wall

• If you dive, this is a must. If you don’t dive, this is where you should learn.

Snorkeling the house reef 

• Free! They resort gives you a snorkel set too!

• One of the best parts of this resort is the reef you can access right from the beach. You can easily see turtles, blacktip reef sharks, stingrays, big schools of parrotfish, tuna, surgeons, and unicornfish, and a beautiful reef cliff with tons of activity.

• Pro tip: Go at 8 am and 4 pm when marine life is feeding.

Manta Ray snorkeling 

• $200 per person

• The highlight of the trip. We swam with a huge manta ray for like 30 minutes.

• We also got to swim with spinner dolphins and stopped at an untouched reef that felt like BBC’s Planet Earth.

• Mantas are rare in the wild. And seeing one this close was unreal.

Why we left the kids at home

We love our kids but as parents of 3 under 7, we rarely get extended time alone. Most weeks, our “date nights” are a rushed dinner followed by a 6 am wake up.

These 4 days were the longest stretch we’ve had alone in years. 

What it did for us:

• We reconnected.

• We actually talked about things other than snacks.

• We slowed down.

• We appreciated each other again.

• We slowed down.

Not once did we fight!

Huge thank you to our parents for watching the kids. The kids loved it, the grandparents loved it, and we loved it. A rare win-win-win.

There wasn’t much of a trade-off here. Thanks to FI, we didn’t have to juggle PTO, school schedules, or the usual constraints of ‘normal’ life.

We decided this is something we’re going to prioritize every year: one kid-free week to reset, reconnect, and remember why we picked each other in the first place.