The Ritz Carlton Maldives is the pinnacle of our hotel stays to date. Coming in with a hefty price tag, this resort has an unparalleled hard product, and top notch service. The experience starts as soon as we landed in Male. The Ritz is one of a few luxury resorts in the Maldives that doesn't have its own dedicated arrival lounge in the airport, so they took us to a restaurant that we were able to order anything off the menu with them taking care of the bill. However, it took us a while before we were greeted onto the vessel as they had some issues with their standard high speed boat. So as a trade for our inconvenience, we were greeted by a beautiful yacht that took 85 minutes instead of the standard 45 minutes to reach the resort. I have heard a lot of other reviews regarding the high speed boat not being the most comfortable vessel and some guests got sea sick. This yacht was nicely appointed and had onboard wifi. We also headed to the upper deck and enjoyed the view. Generally it was a very comfortable ride and we definitely travelled in style to the resort. Onboard the yacht, the staff provided a beautiful snack box and would be refilled on demand, not that we could eat anymore given we just had multiple meals in the airport lounge, on the plane, and now on the yacht. Our Aris Meeha (personal butler) Shuhu, greeted us at the arrival jetty, along with the guest experience manager. Shuhu drove us with a buggy, while leaving all of our luggage behind for the bell service to take care of. Each and every one of our luggage was given a beautiful Ritz-Carlton Maldives luggage tag, with our room number and details written on there. As we arrive to our villa, we see our personalized bicycles with wooden name plates, and a beautiful sand art made on the bridge to our Villa that welcomes us "home". We opted for the overwater, 2 bedroom villa. This is by far the best hotel room I have ever had the blessing to stay in. The villa had the best of both worlds in terms of its location. It is located on the main island, with its own lush vegetated private road for added privacy, then a bridge that connects from the end of the island towards the villa itself, which completely sits above the water. With just under 4,000 sqft of total liveable space, the living room and both bedrooms have floor to ceiling windows that can fully open to the deck, which features a full length private pool. To the side of the pool there is a outdoor dining table, 2 full size circular sofa beds, and the ladder access directly into the lagoon. As a toss up between the Ritz and St. Regis Maldives, I picked the Ritz for its newer villa in exchange for a lack of established coral reef. To my pleasant surprise, because of the way this particular villa is situated off the island, there are quite a bit of established reef to the side of the island, meaning I had some of the best snorkeling just outside of my own villa. It was also quite a delight to snorkel under the villa and its connecting bridge to the island while chasing fishes, adding some terrain variety. The villa itself is well appointed with technology. In addition to the 3 very large screen smart TVs, a Bang & Olufson bluetooth headphone was provided, which I enjoyed using during my stay. The master bedroom's bathroom had a dual interior/exterior shower, which we used multiple times a day. Our housekeeper, Arif, also provided us an exquisitely laid out bubble bath for our arrival and a couple days in. It is absolutely heavenly, to have the ability to go snorkeling right outside of our villa, come up and swim in the private pool, walk over for a nice shower, than jump into a bubble bath, every single day during our stay. Speaking of Arif, he was perhaps the most detail orientated housekeeper we have ever encountered. I had some pollen allergy when I arrived on the island. Arif came by the second day with extra tissue boxes for my comfort. He also noticed we like our water cold, so he cleared the mini bar fridge (which was all included except for alcohol), and placed all of the supplied water in the fridge for us. As a part of the stay, many snacks are provided in the villa, which he would refill twice a day if consumed. We were invited to a couple elite member appreciation reception. There were quite a bit of drinks and fancy appetizers served, including caviar on smoke salmon. During this event a few restaurants and food selections were recommended to us, which we tried later. Some of the highlights included the In-Villa-Dining's Veal Cheek Soup, and the waffle during breakfast. The former had some of the most tender beef I've ever had in a Taiwanese style beef noodle soup, while the latter was literally the best waffle I've ever had, it was soft and fluffy on the inside, while featuring an extremely thin, and not overly crispy outer shell. The breakfast buffet had a healthy amount of selection, although not the most elaborate I've ever seen, but has a Chinese noodle soup station, and an Indian masala dosa station, with made to order western eggs and desserts varieties. Some of the highlights for me included the lobster chilli omelette, the really authentic chicken noodle soup, the waffles, and the Shakshuka (a middle eastern dish that has spices, bell peppers and sunny side up eggs). There are quite a number of premium restaurants on site. We tried the tum tum food truck which featured Taiwanese style gua bao with fancy fillings such as lobsters or softshell crabs, and Arabesque which featured indian and middle eastern style cuisines. At Arabesque, we had a lightly battered, spice blended, Egyptian seafood platter, which featured freshly caught local fish, and the largest prawn I've ever seen in my life. The minced lamb wrap was also very delicious. These 2 restaurants are located in a nearby island with another resort, which has regularly scheduled ferries servicing between it and the Ritz island. The highlight of our culinary delight on the resort however, had to go to Summer Pavilion. This restaurant's food is at a Michelin Star level. Our server, Eliza, took great care of me. I went to the restaurant alone, while my wife stayed in the Villa, a bit under the weather. Shuhu passed on this information to Eliza, and I planned to pack half of my food back for my wife. Eliza added a chicken noodle soup to the order considering my wife's wellness. I've never seen such care in a Michelin stars restaurant, let alone a regular restaurant. I had the privilege to try out 3 dishes, the Lobster Rice Soup, the Crab Fried Rice, and the Chilli Oil Prim Rib. The first dish was creative yet not pretentious, while the 2 latter dishes are the best variation I've ever had. After the meal, instead of me carrying the takeout back to the villa, the restaurant prepared dedicated room service and delivered the food to us. I tried out the Signature Spa package at the resort, a 180 minute experience that did not come cheap. It was an amazing massage with a full steam sauna, coconut bath, dry sauna, and coconut scrub treatment. Very relaxing, but had 3 showers as a part of the experience, which I thought could probably do with one less, and I thought the value proposition isn't as good as a few other spa I have visited around the world. As we depart the resort, we were treated to a completely different yacht, leaving yet again in style. Once we arrived at the airport, the Ritz staff took care of our luggage all the way till the flight check-in, without us needing to lift a finger. He even came with us through the primary security screening to further help us with our luggage. In the end, I look back to this particular resort with fond memories, and the legendary services provided by the staff like Shuhu, Arif, and Eliza. However, as we are not so used to such an attentive service in our travel, it was a bit overwhelming at first. I think Shuhu quickly noticed our style and was able to adapt. I think it may be worthwhile for the Aris Meeha to ask the guests initially what their service interval/intensity preferences are, to further tailor to their liking. We also felt there was a bit of sale pressure from the staff regarding restaurant bookings, spa product offerings, excursion bookings and such. Maybe they were just trying to be helpful as those things would be what fill an itinenary in a Maldives resort island. Finally, I think it would not be a fair review without talking about the value proposition at this resort. This is the best hotel property we have ever stayed at in our entire life. The service, the villa, and the facilities are all world class, and I've had some of the best meals of my life at this resort. Considering it is literally in the middle of the Indian ocean, thousands of miles from major culture centres, it is nothing short of a feat to have such high quality, international cuisines all available at this resort. But other than the meal at the Summer Pavilion, I still have a bit of internal challenge justifying spending $50 USD on a personal sized pizza, $480 USD on a spa treatment, or $2,000 USD on the yacht rides to and from the airport. Bottomline is, the Ritz-Carlton Maldives is the best hotel I have ever stayed in my life. Although a bit overpriced in some regards, the service and attention to details of the staff, the design and appointments of the villa, and the world class facilities and location together made memories that we will never forget.

Ritz-Carlton Maldives was our bucket list trip for our 15th anniversary. Everything exceeded our expectations. When we arrived at the dock we were met by Ammadey - our Ritz-Carlton Aris Meeha. Ammadey had planned events and dinners for us prior to our arrival. We could change any of these we wanted to, but Ammadey created such a perfect itinerary that we did not make a single change. Our villa was one of the over water private villas. We chose the sunrise side as we were told this side offered the most privacy. The villa was spectacular. The villa was immaculately cleaned two times each day by. Kiraam. At the end of each day, after we returned from dinner, we were treated to a hand crafted good night wish from Kiraam. We stayed long enough to have a chance to sample each of the restaurants for dinner. Each dinner was a wonderful event with food that was outstanding. In my 40 plus years as a pilot I have had the opportunity to travel extensively and stay at some of the finest hotels and resorts in the world. The Ritz-Carlton Maldives is the best experience I have ever had. The facilities are beautiful. The staff is incredible. We checked this trip off of our bucket list...and then we unchecked it because we want to go again.

At beginning of May I was staying for 5 nights together with my wife & 12yo daughter at Ritz Carlton Maldives Fari Islands. What a fantastic stay! I booked a sunset overwater villa and it was a great choice. Everything is minimalistic but luxurious with all that you need for having a dreamlike holiday. But what's truly unique is the resort staff, very professional but discreet. They made us feel spoiled with each occasion. A big thank to our aris meeha (butler) Ford, we had an instant bonding with him, he was like the genie from the bottle, appearing always at the right time and doing all his duties without feeling it. Our appreciation goes to chef Leonardo Valls who manages all restaurants on the island, we tried them all and we had amazing dinner experiences each evening. Our favorite is Arabesque, where chef Khaled created incredible dishes from such simple ingredients... although very young, he put a lot of passion in his work and we had exciting chats about Indian & Egyptian food. For sure, he will become a great chef and we promised him that wherever his career takes him, we will come and eat from his food. Last but not least, a special mention for the crew from La Locanda: Max, Ahnat, Ferhwaz, Ismaeel, Jessica and all their colleagues spoiled us in every morning with fantastic Indian & Maldivian specialties! Long story short: we had 5 incredible days at this property and for sure that we'll plan another trip in the next future! And another thing: we witnessed one on the most beautiful sunsets ever! Highly recommended!

One word: PERFECT. From the moment we arrived to the very last moment we left, we were taken care of nicely by our butler, Ammadey. He has been so attentive, kind, and accommodating. Ammadey made our stay so convenient, for anything we needed and wanted, he was either one step ahead of us or provided us with what we needed at the right time. They provide a complimentary beach bag, and slippers, for your usage. And we use bicycles quite often and it was fun! Room: PERFECT. View: PERFECT. Food: PERFECT. Service: PERFECT. Thank you Ammadey and to all the ladies and gentlemen at The Ritz-Carlton Maldives. It was a memorable experience.

We had an amazing unforgettable stay at the Ritz. The staff was incredible and big special shout out to Ford and Mango who made our experience that much more incredible. We'll definitely be visiting again!