Hard to know what’s important to you so hard to know what points to draw out in terms of differences, but my perspective as follows (just focussing on what differs),


• location/view: DWV assure you of location (all 6 in the same place, with almost the same view - end one obviously the best and doesn’t have a fence round it so you really do get a spectacular view) for view and privacy. Sunset assured, nobody overlooking you, highly unlikely anyone will swim past you. SWV experience may depend on luck of the draw with villa number - almost all are good, but there’s some that look into the overwater spa and that might not be great. RWV half look out onto other island: other half look out to sea (sunrise view not sunset) - great for afternoon tea walk; about 25 mins to get to Vilu breakfast. However if you’ve not been to the Maldives before (even if you’ve been to Seychelles, Caribbean etc) then on your first trip all the room views will have you captivated.

• water: DWV you’ll need to be pretty confident in the water - I can swim like a fish but would get caught out if I didn’t have flipper on - the current is quite something around them (although I do cope without flippers when I can’t be bothered). SWV has nice water, shallow and can walk out for 100s of meters if you want to, but nowadays there’s not much more than sand outside them so snorkelling there is a bit of a waste of time. RWV - I’ve less experience of these - only stayed in 1 (on the sunset side) but water was excellent depth and clarity for bobbing around in. RWV better (massively closer) to house reef.

• comfort: they have a white chair/sofa in both the DWV and SWV that you’ll want to take home with you. They have noticeably smaller outside decks than the RWV, but I’d say a little more private (you can feel a bit like the next villa can see into yours in some of the RWV). The DWV is larger than the SWV but not really so much that you’d notice (in fact in some ways the SWV is a bit nicer in that respect - the inside sofa is closer (very close) to the French sliding door to the deck so you can be inside but still outside if that makes sense whereas the DWV has the same config but the sofa is about a meter further inside and you’d be surprised the difference that makes to feeling inside & outside. The RWV have too many choices of sofa - about 4 inside including a separate room (for a gym and/or spa treatments - the DWV and SWV are both single room plus bathroom). Outside the RWV there’s a sort of day bed that’s nice. (We often used to stay in the PWV but that’s too large and disconnects you from the ocean - when you’re inside you’re definitely inside so it more like a glorious hotel room than the feeling of a hut on stilts so we don’t choose it anymore - just saying that to give you context to our views on comfort/size).

Facilities: I don’t think there’s anything to choose between them, they all have great bathrooms and closets. All three have jacuzzi, best in RWV then DWV then SWV

Modern: the DWV and SWV have an old, been there for years feel (some think they could do with a refresh - and there are certainly bit that if you’re picky could do it a touch up but we really love that older feel). RWV are much newer feeling.

Let is know if there’s other aspects that are the important ones to you and we’ll try and give you a perspective. I am confident however than you’ll not think you’ve made the wrong choice no matter which one you end up in (as you don’t have a frame of reference yet!). And it’s likely that when you’re out there you can swap of a little extra cash if you really wanted to (depending on time of year you go as they won’t be at 100% occupancy rate except during the crazy weeks).

There’s the ‘quiet zone’ on the water island (ie the island with the DWV & SWV) - which a lot of people seem to love (cabanas, infinity pool, good wine bar etc etc and good lagoon swimming beach). Probably nicer for a splash around that on the house reef side. The house reef side is the primary snorkelling area though if you’re keen to see eels, sharks, rays, turtles, octopus etc up close while you’re in the water.


Subjective, but for me the huts on stilts are the DWV (or SWV). The extra space and layout (direction the bed faces) of the RWV inside is a little more hotel room bedroom like, but still spectacular (and does have a rather honeymoon friendly massive bath in its own little room hanging out over the ocean, that said the DWV has a gorgeous big tub in front of a floor to ceiling mirrored window that you’ll end up including in your holiday snaps!), and the DWV you can’t fail to wake up looking straight out to sea! Better honeymoon outside jacuzzi is the DWV!

Don’t be misled into thinking this is a relaxing next holiday either! The water sports available are exceptional - everything from hooning around on jet skis (to track down 100 strong schools(?) of dolphins, to jet blades, underwater jet skis (superb), to paddle board, an array of different floats to pull you along behind speed boats (all designed to kill you with varying degrees of certainty and severity)... the excursions can be pretty good to if you choose the right one for you (whale sharks is obviously an exercise and a half - I was swimming flat out with flippers in for a good minute to get from it’s tail to its mouth and it has hardly moving its tail). If you get a good year for life in the ocean then you’re snorkel until you’re knackered!

Bring bigger shorts - the resort is a complete non stop wine, cocktails and food prison.

(I haven’t mentioned the standard WV because we’ve only stayed in 1 for an hour or two. They’re a lot more modern and have some lovely touches, but you can clearly afford to upgrade or you’d not be asking about it, so do! And see if you can kick MaldivesFreak into action with a reply on here - there’s nobody on here who knows the details better - although he is a right wind up merchant so you have to ask him the right question!!!)

So the new hh/afternoon tea debuted yesterday. It’s interesting and seems so much busier I liked it before. But was happy to hear about this change. Go figure.

Tea is from 4-5

Happy Hour 4:30-5:30

today it’s seems people are lining up at the bar to get drinks even though there’s plenty of staff to help. Something new that I’ve never seen before in 5 trips here.

I haven't seen any outrage posts yet. Is this thing on?

I have to say this is, well.....bad with a capital B. Typical American, uncultured way to conduct business. You'd never, in a million years, see an English hotel chain do this kind of mishmash at a flagship property. Where's the 'Hate' button. I'm itching to click it.....

Nothing personal, rkaradi.

With a 1:00am check-in my wife and 9 year old daughter would insist on breakfast room service, delivered 1 minute before the breakfast cutoff time. ��