Which maldives resort is best

Speedboat transfers can be done at any time of day or night, however. Resort staff will bring your luggage separately. In no resort in Maldives are cash tips expected — you tip by paying the service charge included. Most resorts have several types of room, ranging from the cheapest garden villas to deluxe over-water suites. A garden villa will not have a beach frontage, while a water villa will be on stilts over the lagoon. More expensive rooms tend to be bigger, newer and better finished.

They can have a bathtub as well as a shower, a minibar instead of an empty fridge, tea- and coffee-making facilities and often an espresso machine , a sound system and maybe even a plunge pool, which are now de rigueur in newly built resorts. Rates also spike over Easter and in August.

From two to 12 years, the child supplement will be more, though usually less than a full adult rate. Be aware that most resorts in Maldives quote their prices exclusive of taxes, which are significant. We've included all taxes in our room prices. Pricing patterns vary with the resort and the demands of its main market — some are incredibly detailed and complex with a different rate every week. Early January to late March is high season, when many Europeans take a winter holiday.

Chinese holidays such as Chinese New Year and the first week of October can also see price hikes in resorts where Chinese guests make up a big share of the crowd. The weeks around Easter may attract higher rates though less so than Christmas.

From Easter to about mid-July is low season and the wettest part of the year. July and August is another high season, for the European summer holidays. Mid-September to early December is low season again. The massive expansion in the market for safari cruises has meant an increasingly sleek approach from the tour companies that run them.

A typical, modern boat is air-conditioned and spacious, and serves varied and appetising meals. The most basic boats are large dhonis with a small galley and communal dining area, two or three cramped cabins with two berths each, and a shared shower and toilet.

The bigger, better boats have air-conditioning, more spacious accommodation, and a toilet and shower for each cabin. Safari boats often change ownership, get refitted or acquire a new name. The following boats have a good reputation, but there are many others offering decent facilities and services.

The boats listed here all have a bar on board, oxygen for emergencies and some diving equipment for rent. The official Maldives tourism website www. We've ranked the resorts we cover in Maldives with scores out three for the beaches, the child-friendliness, the quality of the diving nearby, the suitability for couples, the food on offer and how much we love the rooms.

It used to be rare to find Maldivian food in tourist resorts — but now many resorts do a Maldivian night once a week, which is very enjoyable if not totally authentic. The main dishes are fresh reef fish, baked tuna, fish curries, rice and roshi unleavened bread. The regular dinner buffet might also feature Maldivian fish curry. Now almost ubiquitous is the serving of Maldivian breakfast favourite mas huni at breakfast: a healthy mixture of tuna, onion, coconut and chilli, eaten with roshi.

This is a delicious way to start the day and many visitors get hooked. Small resorts and top-end resorts are usually amenable to special requests. Otherwise, do a trip to Male or an island-hopping excursion to a fishing village and try out a local teashop. Asia Maldives Maldives in detail. Best Rooms Jumeirah Vittaveli Huge and sumptuously furnished villas with enormous outdoor bathrooms, surrounded by lap pools and enjoying direct beach access.

Best Pool Anantara Kihavah Villas Simply our favourite pool in the country, long enough for swimming lengths and fun for kids too. Best Beach Kanuhura The endless white-sand beach is unbeatable, and the resort also owns a private desert island for you to boat over to for a picnic lunch. Best Restaurant Six Senses Laamu You're spoiled for choice here, but our favourite Six Senses restaurant is Leaf, where sublime Vietnamese cuisine is served at lunch and Mediterranean fare for dinner.

Is there construction work happening on the island or nearby? Is the spa finished yet? Does it still offer kite-boarding? Also, be aware that many resort websites are not regularly updated. Check the dive-centre website. It might provide a discount if you block book your dives before your arrival. Email them for specific dive information and to check that they will definitely be visiting any site you want to dive at during your stay.

Some resorts require a wedding certificate before they do anything, though. Most boats have about 12 berths or less. Few boats have more than 20 berths, and those that do may not be conducive to the camaraderie you get with a small group. Comforts Does the boat have air-con, hot water and desalinated water available 24 hours? Companions Who else will be on the trip, what language do they speak, have they done a safari trip before?

It takes about 20 minutes to walk from one end of the island to the other, which makes it medium-sized by Maldivian standards. For bigger marine thrills, the dolphin cruise yields sightings of thousands rather than the usual handful in less remote waters, or join a fishing expedition in search of sailfish the size of schoolchildren.

The Shaviyani atoll is mega-fauna central. Skip the tightly packed overwater variety and plump for one on the sand instead, where each sits on its own spacious bougainvillaea-veiled plot, just feet from the ocean, and the duplexes, with their upstairs dens, are excellent for families. Inside, the decor strays from the traditional Maldivian teak-chic, favouring muted shades of blue textiles and amethyst-topped tables. Among the five superb restaurants, lunchtime-only treetop Kaashi is a standout for authentic Thai, and there are three bars: one by the Missoni-striped swimming pool and another serving 98 types of rum inside a treehouse overlooking the beach.

The pancakes of sand surrounding the capital were about as isolated a destination as travellers could get to. Now, Gili Lankanfushi is considered within easy reach just a minute speedboat transfer , yachts and seaplanes criss-cross the ocean and sky from morning until night and the neighbouring islands have street lights and a Coca-Cola factory.

But relax, some things never change. This hotel is still set in one of the most eye-wateringly beautiful lagoons in the country, a vision of broad white beaches, shape-shifting sandbanks and waters that dance from peacock green to sapphire blue. All the villas here are stilted over the water, keeping the island wild and the beaches on full dazzling display. When fire ravaged the resort in , it was an opportunity for renewal. Interiors were redesigned, with hand-made wooden furniture and woven lampshades sourced from sustainable suppliers in Bali; bathrooms are stocked with organic potions and reef-safe sunscreen.

For the ultimate Do Not Disturb energy, maroon yourself in one of the clapboard Robinson Crusoe villas, cast out on the edges of the lagoon reached by a little pontoon, where you can lie on your rooftop deck tracing the spine of Scorpio across the night sky. Baby coral being grown on ropes in the house reef will eventually be replanted in the sea in a bid to create reefs that are more resistant to climate-change bleaching they also work as an underwater hammock for a big green turtle that stops by most days.

Gili Lankanfushi has been working on its coral programme for seven years — it was championing sustainability long before it became a literal hot topic. Over its year history, bigger, flashier resorts have tried to upstage little Cocoa.

All-singing hotels with submerged spas, snow rooms and ice-skating rinks. The newly refreshed overwater villas 34 in total, some shaped like Maldivian dhoni boats are the epitome of less is more, with dark teak, crisp white walls and deep bathtubs. Compared to its Bali sibling, the sandy-floored COMO Shambhala spa here is less comprehensive, which feels like a bit of a missed opportunity, but the therapists are still top of their game and soothe, stroke and crush out every molecule of tension in the signature massage.

For now, extra reinvigoration comes during an hour being pummelled by a dozen jets in the free hydrotherapy pool. Plus, the same thoughtful, delicious wellness menus you find at every COMO hotel. Peaceful, pampering, smart but unpretentious: this is the essence of what a Maldives hotel should be. Design in the Maldives has been slowly dismantling its thatched- roof image, and The Ritz-Carlton continues the trend thanks to the studio of the late architect Kerry Hill.

Its contemporary circular villas are scattered above the water and up and down a stretch of beach. Each is polished, pared back and pulse-slowing, with glass doors that open onto half-moon decks, teardrop-shaped plunge pools and the high-definition blue of the ocean.

The rest of the resort, by contrast, feels a little conservative, if still beautiful. Head out snorkelling with them at night for spooky encounters with nurse sharks, unfurling feather stars and bioluminescent squid.

At the showpiece restaurant Iwau, knife-juggling chefs prepare pretty nigiri rolls and just-caught lobster, but there are six more restaurants to choose from, including one in a Bedouin tent and a food truck in the Fari marina.

Another is the timber-clad spa in the middle of the lagoon — look out for stingrays hovering below on your walk to a treatment — offering therapies by British brand Bamford. Ritz-Carlton is known for its classic, old-school luxury, but here is an exciting forward-looking update. Not all Maldivian islands are made equal; some only have natural beaches along one shore, the other eroded away by the sea.

Not here. From above, Finolhu looks like a comet shooting across the heavens, its tail formed by a 1. And the marine life is just as magnificent. Almost as exuberant is the hotel itself, which emerged in November under new management and with a fresh look. Out went the Seventies design in favour of a mood board of colour, with villas kitted out in electric blue, sherbet yellow or lime green.

What remains, however, is the Ibiza-in-the-Indian-Ocean vibe; for the full effect book a Rock Star Villa with its giant disco ball and cocktail bar and a golf buggy decked out like a mini Rolls-Royce.

And the weekly list of activities runs from the standard yoga and beach volleyball to acrobatic shows and mermaids in the swimming pool. Many hotels have tried to bring the party to the Maldives — Finolhu hits the sweet spot between indulgent fun and carefree affordability. What could be more lovely than a stay at Raffles?

How about a stay at Raffles by the beach? So far south its skimming the equator — the delicious remoteness is well worth the longer transfer time — this tiny island resort takes all the charm of its older Singapore sibling and fuses it with clotted-cream sands, raspberry sunsets and a coconut version of its famous Sling. Complimentary neck massages are doled out while you wait for breakfast French boulangerie, Sri Lankan egg hoppers, detox juices with your feet in the sand.

Lunch could be catch of the day — smoked tuna, say, grilled with lemon oil. At the smart overwater spa , Balinese therapists perform signature massages that start with the hum of a Tibetan singing bowl and end with warm coconut oil being poured onto your third eye. And the marine life is so profuse you can spot an aqua-menagerie without even getting your feet wet 20 hawksbill turtles have been recorded as living around the island.

But then, white stone villas that resemble something in Greece or Ibiza have never been done over these waters before. Isabelle Miaja, the diving-enthusiast designer who was also behind Ozen by Atmosphere on neighbouring Maadhoo, wanted it to feel like the type of place Bond Craig, not Connery would escape to post-mission, when needing a hit of punched-up sexy solitude. Bathrooms are decidedly modern and concrete, and have tubs that sink down deep in that way only hotel bathtubs ever do.

The sapphire-blue pool has pops of red and an ice-cream cart straight out of South Beach, while the Barium private dining room has aquariums for walls. And then, well, there is Inti restaurant where the eye-roll-inducingly fresh ceviche blows the typical menu of grilled fish out of these turquoise waters.

This is a place where the children of families who used to come to the Maldives every year are now choosing to return to themselves as grown-ups. Arranged around a circular wooden walkway out at sea, its 15 rooms conjure spacious Japanese ryokans — designed by New York -based architect Yuji Yamazaki from soothing wood, stone and reed-thatch, and fronted by a wide deck, plunge pool and ladder into the swirling blue sea.

Unusually, thanks to the solar panels that roof the airy living area, there is not a single generator to be heard; just a gentle lap of waves on the beach, and the occasional thud of a coconut. The retro-futuristic design at Vommuli might have been inspired by The Jetsons. It looks like a vast docking station for flying saucers — all the more wonderful for being made entirely of wood.

A Space Age vibe pervades the interiors too, with modular ceiling lamps that resemble chemistry diagrams and translucent bathroom surfaces lit from below. Though the house reef is excellent, there are enough distractions on dry land to keep you occupied for weeks. Of the half-dozen superb restaurants, the most charming is Cargo, a street-food emporium in a ship's container - as if it had simply washed up on shore and been taken over by castaway hawkers of the Michelin-starred variety.

Surely he'd approve of Vommuli. All the signature St Regis touches are here — the butlers, the grand staircase, the mural in the bar, the Champagne sabrage ceremony. There's even a riff on the classic Bloody Mary, served in a seashell and renamed the Island Mary. If fancy cocktails in novelty vessels are not your thing, consult the wine list. Among other treasures, it contains a Madeira.

Uncork it on the west-facing deck of The Whale Bar at half-past five and settle in for one of those transcendently beautiful Maldives sunsets. The tab for the nectar is 41, Yankee dollars. The sunset is on the house. Steve King. Number of villas: 77 Transfer time: a minute seaplane from Velana International Airport. Fresh from a total overhaul, this revamped island has villas, both on the beach and on two jetties one of which is adults-only , with vaulted white ceilings, grey wood-effect ceramic floors and tree-trunk furniture.

Many of the over-water villas are brand new, the spa is bigger and the interiors have been smartened up. There's a mellow beach-club vibe throughout, with bicycles to nip between the two bars at opposite ends of the three-kilometre-long island: one more chilled beside the pool, and the other, livelier, with colourful reclaimed wooden tables, a reggae soundtrack, surfboards propped against the wall, and inflatable swans standing by to drift about on the sea.

There's coffee — roasted on-site — in reception, an ice-cream parlour with 32 homemade flavours such as bubblegum and pistachio, and live DJs at Beach Rouge, one of the six restaurants, including Allegria for Italian dishes and Senses for Indian. The expanded spa offers yoga in a grove of palms, or on stand-up paddle boards great for strengthening the core , as well as a tennis coach for private lessons and a marine biologist to take guests swimming with whale sharks in a protected area.

Frequent pop-ups include a mixologist making Aperol cocktails at East Point, an open-air cinema on the beach — and the sudden appearance of a rack of Panama hats guests can borrow. It's impossible to miss home, but just in case, there's a red telephone box by reception for free old-school-style phone calls.

This hideaway, above all, is incredibly fun. The pioneering Soneva team, the first to introduce over-water villas to the Maldives as well as a strong environmental code and a determination to disconnect from the noisy outside world, brings us its third property.

Set in a part of the archipelago renowned for diving and surfing, Anantara Veli Maldives Resort is one of the few adults-only options in the Maldives, making it a natural pick for a romantic hideaway.

Relax under the stars with a private outdoor movie screening paired with drinks and dinner , or get the blood pumping with a whale shark snorkeling trip. Meanwhile, some resorts offer separate couples cocoons within their larger facilities. At the recently-opened Intercontinental Maldives Maamunagau Resort near the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, the all-club-level set-up a first for the brand means that every room comes with a butler, included breakfast, and access to the adults-only Retreat, a standalone, lagoon-side hideaway with a separate pool, restaurant, bar, and plenty of lounging areas; the spot is a particular favorite for pre-dinning cocktails and canapes, which are also included in the rates.

This first-of-its-kind undersea suite comes with its own hour butlers, who can arrange private seaplane transfers directly to the suite; a private chef, who will lead cooking classes or fishing trips; and access to exclusive activities like guided stargazing excursions and midnight snorkeling tours. Some spots, though, take things to new culinary heights. Whale Bar at St. The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort earned its foodie cred soon after opening in The series will highlight a rotation of some of the most notable and award-winning chefs from around the world, with each chef hosting a seated tasting menu dinner, followed by an intimate cooking class the next day.

Both will be led by on-site sommelier Stefanie Wiesner, who has also programmed wine-themed experiences for the resort-like meals with visiting winemakers, chefs, and chocolatiers, and wellness-themed organic wine dinner.

Wiesner is also a certified Sake Sommelier if you feel like branching out into spirits. Despite the dreamy romance of the destination, the Maldives offers plenty of spots that cater to multi-generational groups, and that offer fun for all ages of travelers.

The range of kids-only fun is also a highlight of a stay at Conrad Rangali Island. With many guests checking in for at least a week, targeted wellness programs are also big here, with multi-day programs designed to tackle things like detox, stress relief, and fitness.

Six Senses Laamu Spa treatment room.