Inside The St. Regis Maldives' $21,000 (per Night) Overwater Villa

There's (almost) no way around it — a trip to the Maldives is going to cost you a pretty penny, even if you're redeeming points for your international flights and hotel.

But there's expensive, and then there's a-year-of-college-tuition expensive. The John Jacob Astor Estate at the uber-luxe St. Regis Maldives Vommuli clearly falls into that latter camp, with nightly rates that range from $21,000 to $26,000 and up, depending on when you visit.

For example, here's what you'll pay during low season:

And here's the prepaid high-season rate:

Now, I know what you're thinking... "I'll just redeem my Starpoints!" Sadly it can't be done. SPG50 discounts aren't available, either. So, considering a five-night stay wouldn't be unheard of, you can easily drop a cool $150,000 on your Maldives trip, once you factor in a $26,000+ nightly rate, flights, meals, activities, taxes and more.

Given the high price tag, it must be challenging for the hotel to fill this suite, right? Well, yeah, that does seem to be the case — with the exception of the grayed out dates below (over Christmas and New Year's), there only appear to be four other days on which the John Jacob Astor Estate is booked, all the way through November 2018.

Of course, that'll change as deep-pocketed St. Regis fans book high-roller trips to the Maldives on a whim, but for the most part, the king of overwater villas is available to book.

It also happened to be empty during my stay earlier this month, so, after a few days of asking my butler for a tour at every opportunity, I was finally escorted through the front door of this absolutely insane Maldivian estate. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect — there aren't many traveler photos to speak of, and the villa looks rather unassuming from the outside. But inside, and on the three decks out back, it's an entirely different story.

See for yourself in this 60-second Twitter tour:

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I mean holy cow! Not only is the John Jacob Astor Estate enormous, it's as luxurious as you'd expect a $21,000+ Maldives hotel suite to be.

I managed to snap a few pictures as well. Here's (a small section of) the master bedroom:

Which, like the two guest rooms, includes its very own private massage room (!):

The master bedroom has two balconies as well — here's the view out front:

And the view from the back:

Here's a guest bedroom — each one is larger than a standard overwater villa, and this room includes two beds (it's the only overwater villa in this section of the property with two beds in a room):

There's also an enormous living room:

And an incredible "backyard":

One lesser-known fact about the estate is that it also offers sleeping quarters for staff — aides and security teams that guests bring along. They're anything but posh. For example, here's one of the staff guest rooms:

And here's the shared staff bathroom (notably it's still stocked with Remède amenities):

Now as much as I would have loved to explore the estate for just one night (or even a long afternoon), it's simply out of reach — for me and (pretty much) everyone I know. I feel so privileged to have gotten a chance to visit this property at all, thanks to a once-in-a-lifetime Starpoints redemption opportunity that popped up last August.

And my St. Regis Overwater Villa certainly wasn't shabby:

If I do somehow manage to book a stay at the John Jacob Astor Estate one day, I know exactly which airline I'll be flying to get there!

What's the most you've spent on a single hotel stay?