TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Other links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card welcome offers, earning rates and benefits and some credit card benefits will require enrollment. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
IHG has confirmed that an existing Maldivian resort will be coming under the wing of one of its brands by the end of the year and if the images and online reviews are to be believed, this could be a very nice addition to IHG Rewards.
Noku Maldives, Vignette Collection
Noku Maldives is a resort in one of the more northern atolls of the Maldives – Noonu Atoll.
The resort sits on the island of Kudafunafaru between the 101 Retreat on Kudafari and the Mövenpick Resort Kuredhivaru …
… and can be reached by sea plane from Male (a 45 minute flight with Trans Maldivian Airways) or by taking a regular aircraft from Male to Maafaru (a 40 minute flight on Maldivian Airlines) followed by a 15 minute speedboat ride to the resort.
The property boasts 50 private villas (30 overwater villas and 20 beachfront villas) across 7 different categories:
- Beach Villa – 175 sqm
- Beach Pool Villa – 220 sqm
- Beach Sunset Pool Villa – 220 sqm
- Beach 2-Bedroom Pool Villa – 400 sqm
- Water Villa – 186 sqm
- Water Pool Villa – 190 sqm
- Water Sunset Pool Villa – 190 sqm
The room areas have been taken from the property’s website and assuming they’re correct, it means that the smallest villa at the resort offers over 1,800 sq ft of space. That’s incredible.
Here’s a floor plan for a Water Pool Villa:
We’re told that the property will join IHG’s Vignette Collection brand in December 2024 ‘after refurbishment’, but given that the property appears to be selling rooms on most dates between now and the end of the year, it doesn’t look like the refurbishment will be extensive.
Amenities at the resort include two restaurants with bars (Palms and Thari), an outdoor swimming pool, a fitness centre, NOKU spa, a yoga pavilion, a gift shop, an arrivals lounge, and a diving and watersports centre.
At the time of writing, the property has yet to be added to the IHG website, so we don’t know what the cost of award nights will look like, but a quick look at the property’s website shows room-only rates starting from ~$660/night (including taxes and fees) during some of the peak travel months (January, February, and March).
The following dining options can be added to the room rates (all include relevant taxes):
- Half board: $90/adult & $45/child (cost per night)
- Full board: $150/adult & $75/child (cost per night)
- All inclusive: $210/adult & $105/child (cost per night)
A sea plane roundtrip transfer currently costs $500/adult and $300/child while a domestic roundtrip (to Maafaru) followed by a speedboat transfer currently costs $445/adult and $267/child.
Those numbers soon add up and it will be interesting to see if the prices stay like this once the property comes under the Vignette Collection umbrella or if they’ll head higher.
Interestingly, this property seems to have a near perfect set of reviews on TripAdvisor (676 reviews at the time of writing) …
… which seems a little improbable to me (or am I being too cynical).
Still … even if only half of those reviews are genuine, that’s impressive, and it suggests that this could be a very nice addition to IHG Rewards.
Bottom line
The Noku Maldives (a 50 villa resort) is expected to join IHG’s Vignette Collection in December 2024 giving IHG Rewards members a 5th location in the Maldives at which they can redeem their points and (hopefully) enjoy their elite benefits.
We will update the article when the property appears on IHG.com and when the cost of reward nights becomes clear.
Featured image: Water Sunset Pool Villa courtesy of Noku Maldives
