aleksandar99

Hi all!

I just came back from a 15 day trip to the Maldives and visited One&Only Reethi Rah and Cheval Blanc Randhelli.
Before the Maldives, I visited Dubai and will post that review at my first opportunity.

Going back to the Maldives for the 3rd time and choosing these two best resorts in the Maldives.

ARRIVAL

At the airport I was met by a O&O represantative and transfered to the luxury yacht for the 1 hour transfer to the resort. When I arrived I was greeted in the most amazing way by the whole staff.
Where as, at CBR when I arrived I wasn't greeted as near as nicely as I was at O&O. I was really disappointed.

ROOM

I stayed at the Beach Villa with Pool and the Water Villa with Pool. Both villas were absolutely amazing but I would suggest the Beach Villa much better positioned and more private and overall it is designed better than the Water Villa. All the little details in the Villas are amazing and the attention to detail is wonderful.
At CBR I stayed at the Garden Water Villa. The Villa is absolutely amazing and the pool just to much to take in but overall the O&O is just much more sophisticated and appeals much more to me than CBR. That is just my opinion.
I just think that CBR and it's design just doesn't fit in that well into what the Maldives are and on the other hand O&O fits in so naturally even though it's a man-made island.

SERVICE

The butler service at CBR is extremely weirdly concepted and the scheme how it works is very strange. Only they (the butlers who serve you) know your name all the other people don't know who don't have contact with you.
At O&O every single person who saw me regarded me by my name or Sir or Mr...
at the restaurants and bar the service was impecable and not even close to service at for example a Four Seasons and maybe even better than Aman.

ACTIVITIES

Both resorts don't have a house reef because O&O is man made and CBR is half man made and half natural. It is absolutely ridicolous to say that O&O doesn't have diving. The resort is already 10+ years old and the reef over that time has regenerated and species have made a new biodiversity at Reethi Rah, but the boat always has excursions and taking you to absolutely other amazing diving sites in the vicinity. I saw mantas, dolphins, sharks, and many tropical and fish you can't describe how wonderful they are and it is complete nonsense what some say on the forum, the reef has completly regenerated.
At CBR you can see they are much less experienced divers and I was quite disappointed with the diving. And the other activities both resorts have the best available options in the whole Maldives I can confirm and garuntee that.

DAY TO DAY

The pools at both resorts are amazing - all of them. The outdoor one, the private pools. The beach at CBR disappointed me with not being cleaned. The beaches at One&Only is something you can only find at Amanpulo and North Islad and nowhere else. There is no feel that it is not natural. The hammocks, egg-chairs, kids club, excursions, everything is just amazing. The spa at O&O is not chosen as the best one with no reason. I really haven't experienced anything more amazing including the high end and luxury gym. Just amazing. At CBR the spa is on another island and it's just not good. It's just not.
O&O is clearly the King resort of the Maldives. The jog and bike trail through the "forest" in O&O is great and the little bridge in the middle of the island is something you can only see in animation films. Truely magnificent!

DINING

Let me start by saying that O&O has food which I haven't tasted something like the food ANYWHERE in the world. You can tell that everythig is organic and fresh procuce and the prices are not that expensive. The breakfast is amazing, you can litteraly ask for anything at any time. The dining at the beach club all day. I really liked it because it's very relaxed and nothing over the top and them you go fancy for dinner to Botanica or the Japanese restaurant. The cocktails and drinks are amazing.
Once again I was dissapointed by the food at CBR and really expected much, much and not to talk about the prices and the prices are not worth the resort let alone the food.

VERDICT

As you probably reliased I blessed and praised One and Only much , much more than CBR but it really is still the best and the best luxury and the go to resort in the Maldives whether it's for first time travellers or for the returning travellers.
I recommend One&Only and can with confidence say that it IS the best resort in the world.

I hope you enjoyed the review and please don't hesitate to ask any questions or queries you are intrested about here or just PM me

All the best to all
Alex
Regards from London, UK