Passportinonehand

Thanks for these beautiful pictures! Didn't know JM Gathy also did Joali!

Lambi

What's your short review? Never even heard of Joali before, but it looks amazing from the pictures!

MacMyDay

I have done a write-up on my blog, but in very short summary: Kudadoo is good, Joali is great, The Nautilus is greater. I suspect the biggest appeal will be Joali, as side-by-side it is a solid competitor to Cheval Blanc and Velaa, although I don't think it's quite as good....yet. They are already doing construction work based on customer feedback, having only been open a year, so I think within 12-24 months it will definitely be seen in the same light. Entry level rooms aren't great, but their higher room categories are still a lot cheaper than Cheval Blanc, and seeing that they're a complete rip-off of Gathy's design it means everyone wins. Except maybe Cheval Blanc.

gchap17

Beautiful, thank you for these - and so happy to find someone apparently as preoccupied with vertical verticals as me!

bigmerv

Might I slightly hijack this thread to ask for recommendations for family resorts in the Maldives. I'd be open for general recommendations, but my current top three are Como Maalifushi, Constance Halaveli and Constance Moofushi. Our kids are 10 and under.

I think I prefer Moofushi of the three, but it appears the least well set up for kids. If there are any other suggestions, do please let me know!

BESVISOR

I've always had good feedback on both COMOs so I'd suggest that. Not much experience with the Constance properties.

Alternatively (sorry, oversharing):
My clients with children also love One & Only. Even though, I'm not a fan of the property, at all.
Of course the Four Seasons are great for families...Just isn't the most spectacular looking hard product in the Maldives. lol.

attractionsinSrilanka

From HK get a flight to Sri lanka Stay over night in Negambo and go to Maldives. Nothing much to see in Male

Passportinonehand

Been to both Moofushi and Halaveli last year. Personally preferred Moofushi over Halaveli but didn't notice a lot of kids at either properties. We're a couple in their twenties without children, so didn't really check out the facilities for the little ones.
I would personally also check out One&Only Reethi Rah as BESVISOR mentioned. We really liked the property and the (many) kids there seemed to have the time of their lives!

Michael82

I have stayed at Velaa and Cheval Blanc in December again. I think Cheval Blanc pretty much beats Velaa at everything except maybe the Over Water Restaurant which is just very beautiful at Velaa.
Food Options are better at Cheval Blanc tho with Velaa really only having 3 Restaurants. One of which is the Tower which is absolutely bad to sit at because the lighting and ambience is horrid (Food was great though).

But in terms of improvements: Cheval Blanc added a little Mini Golf Course near Villa 30, enlarged the Gym and they will completely redo the Kids Club this summer as well as further Improvements/Rennovations.

Still my Favorite hotel in the maldives if not the world aside from Singita.


RE: Soneva: Avoid those like the plague since our stay at Soneva Kiri: Worst Resort Experience we ever had.

RE: Kids: Reethi Rah has a great Kids club and lots of buffet nights which is great with Kids - Also very large Island so lots of space and plenty of other Kids. Best "Big" hotel in the Maldives Imho.

Passportinonehand

Just came back from our Maldives trip and must say we were incredibly impressed by newly reopened Gili Lankanfushi. It was the last resort we stayed at during our 3-week trip and it hit the sweet spot for us. Left the island with a tear in my eye!

Also stayed at the InterContinental, Raffles, Waldorf Astoria and Soneva Fushi should anyone have any questions.

Martellus

How was the Intercontinental? I'm sure there's some interest given the prevalence of IHG elites on Flyertalk. Whereabouts do you feel it fits in the Maldives hierarchy?

Passportinonehand

There are many better hotels than the InterContinental in the Maldives, but we quite liked it!
It's not on the same level as the St Regis, the Waldorf Astoria or Raffles, but then again, it's half the price (or even a third of the price) of those properties. In the price range of the IC, I've only been to Constance Moofushi, Constance Halaveli and Shangri-La Villingili and I would pick the InterContinental over all 3 of those resorts.

The food was good but not great. The villas were very comfortable and had everything you might need, but weren't spectacular. We didn't encounter any problems with the service, which was nice for a newly opened resort. Our curator (butler) did a really good job when we saw him, but getting a hold of him was sometimes difficult (we weren't given a mobile phone to contact him like in WA and he didn't give us his Whatsapp number, so we could only contact him when we were in our villa or had to ask staff to call him).

Anywhere else in the world, this would be a great resort, but when in the Maldives, you just expect more :-).

HaleiwaFlyer

I would highly recommend Niyama as it’s kid friendly. I went there for a solo surf trip, and lots of happy parents.

RichardInSF

Given that 2019 is over, I'm going to close this thread and suggest that subsequent discussion be moved to another undated Maldives thread

Maldives hotel recommendations

RichardInSF, moderator, luxury hotels and travel