Guest User
February 21, 2025
My wife and I stayed at this beautiful resort in Feb 2025 and we are so glad we selected Raffles to be our accomodation for our first time to the country. We had long wanted to come to Raffles, however when initially researching where to stay, we were met with an abundance of options that all looked beautiful online, so how did we narrow our search down? Our first criteria meant we wanted the place to be: 1) a luxurious place to treat ourselves to, 2) have both overwater villas and beach villas so we could experience both types of rooms, 3) have calm waters off the doorstep of these rooms as we enjoy water activities esp snorkelling, 4) have a smaller guest number so we could feel more disconnected from the world and our busy everyday lives, 5) have good food that foodies would appreciate, and 6) offer value for its price tag in comparison to other luxury competitors. Raffles ticked all of these boxes. We ended up selecting Raffles for the above, but furthermore, other great features we appreciated were: 1) whether you are staying at the beach or overwater villas, there is literally a top tier reef you can walk/swim out onto, and given you are provided with complimentary snorkelling gear, you are basically given unrestricted opportunity to snorkel amongst a safe reef filled with sea life. Quite often you need to book a snorkelling excursion (and pay) - here you can choose to still do this, or you can do all of your snorkelling at Raffles should you wish. 2) Service. It isn't a cheap price tag, and it is also a small guest number given the limited number of villas that exist, so common sense told me that the service would therefore be spectacular and catered to you, and this ended up being true. The price tag is invested into their service. The staff to guest ratio really emphasises the service level that Raffles is renowned for world wide. Each villa will have its own marine butler that you can go on a snorkelling trip with, but the butler is so much more than that. We had Yasru, and not only did he take us on our first snorkel here, but he really took a lot of pride in ensuring that we were looked after at all times, that he communicated with us to ensure all the experiences we wanted to have were catered for and executed without hassle, and he went above and beyond with so many meaningful touches to ensure that we weren't just staying on a beautiful luxurious island, but that we were able to interact with a Maldivian person that was more than just a staff member, but also a mate doing his best to leave us with a positive impression of both Raffles, and also the country itself. Yasru helped us coordinate activities we wanted to do, always maintained open and honest communication re the wide array of activities that are on promotion in the Raffles promotional material (eg we wanted to do a manta ray trip, but he advised against it for the time we were there given the recent lack of manta sightings, so as to ensure we weren't disappointed in a