We have just returned from 12 nights at this resort. The overwater villas were great, with plenty of room, amazing views and the glass porthole is a great addition. You can sit for hours watching the sea life living under your room. The villas are more rustic than modern, but the bath is a major plus, you can sit in (mostly) privacy and watch the Maldives world go by. The resort itself is wonderful with plenty of sea life, sharks, mantaray, stingray, turtles, jellyfish, lots of different shoals of fish, all at your feet. The herons were always around like stalkers, and I loved watching the fruit bats swoop over the lagoon whilst sitting in the comfort of the bath. You can snorkel meters from the beach, with an array of sea life and my husband was lucky enough to see a 10ft stingray hiding in the coral.
The staff are phenomenal and make this hotel a brilliant place. Ren in reception is a dream, and she was the perfect hostess for the duration of our stay, she booked spa days, trips and was around for any of our needs. The two other ladies in reception were not as warm and welcoming, and we found them quite rude at times. On the beach, Sattar the towel/beach operator is a hoot, we would go for a swim and find pretty towel art waiting on the sunbeds. Rafa and Moklesh at the beach bar are amazing, they made our beach days perfect. Similarly, Maheesh and the fire dancer ;) in the restaurant and swim up bar, were wonderful. Our cleaner Zahir is fabulous, he would clean twice a day, and left us some beautiful bed art for our wedding anniversary and my husband's birthday, which was a lovely touch. In the restaurant, Ruth is a brilliant hostess, Chef Khair is amazing and nothing is too much trouble, and we spent our time with waiter Aishe, who was new to the restaurant, it was nice to see him come out of his shell a little bit over our stay. The food was good, plenty of choices every day, the cocktails were great, we sampled most of the cocktail menu over our stay :).
The surfers bar and outside area is great to watch both the surfers and sunrise and/or sunset, it is no wonder people go to the hotel for the surfing, it was great to sit with a cocktail and enjoy the surf show. There are plenty of activities at the hotel, tennis, table tennis, volley ball, jet ski's, canoes, there are a heap of options to engage you. However, the evening music entertainment is quite poor. The rock band in the Surfers Bar on a Friday night were brilliant, the beach party, DJ and Bali dancing are fun, and the saxophone at dinner was wonderful. However, the Duo, who seemed to be there a lot, were very poor, the female singer is tone deaf and was off putting to listen to at dinner, and similarly, the band at the Sunset Bar were awful, you would see people leave in droves, it was painful to listen to. Being landlocked, there are no other options on the island, if the hotel improved the music entertainment, this resort would be perfect.
Overall we had a wonderful stay for our first time in the Maldives, I would definitely go back if the nightly music scene improved. As an adults only group, we would like to have sat with a cocktail and listened to some good music after dinner, maybe we are spoilt living in a big city with many options every night of the week, but there were limited options on the island.
