The good thing about Maldives is, accomodation options are a dime too many. Infact, every other island is an option for a resort. It boils down to how far would you want to be from Male and the budget.

I poured over options for accomodations for almost a week before finally decided which resort. A tip: The Entertainer series allows for a one for one night stay at a number of resorts so that may or may not work for you. This is by no means a sponsored review, I purchased the Entertainer on my own.

A key consideration is the transfers that would usually cost a bomb, and in most occasions cost more than the resort stay if I were to stay fewer than three days. I suppose this is how honeymoons all end up being limited to just one resort since these transfers are in the region of hundreds of dollars each, before tax. The grand total of 21% will be added to your bill and it applies to accomodation, food, drinks and almost everything.

I even resorted to going to Youtube to check out the villas before deciding. 

These are those that I considered that are part of the Entertainer offers -

LUX* Maldives

Family friendly and marketed as a great place to see reefs and go snorkelling which results in losing privacy on its property.

Full board: USD 146 per person
All Inclusive: USD 203 per person
Return Domestic Flight + Speed Boat: USD 353 per person
Return Seaplane Transfers: USD 480 per person




Taj Exotica Resort and Spa Maldives

I loved the infinity pool and this was top on my list but their full board option was only applicable at 24 Degrees Restaurant. Imagine eating 6 straight meals from the same place, it was beginning to sound like a canteen.

Speedboat Transfers: USD 180++ per person
Full Board package: USD 190++ per person



Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru

I am a Banyan Tree Hotel fan and thought that this would be it but they did not have water villas which was a deal breaker for me.

Speedboat Transfers: USD 140++ per person
Full Board package: USD 125++ per person
Premium all inclusive package: USD 215++ per person



Viceroy Maldives


Under an Indian luxury group, Viceroy was very prompt in their exchanges.

Domestic Flight and Speedboat Transfers: USD 586++  per person
Full board package: USD 150 nett per person



Dusit Thani Maldives


Mention Dusit Thani and I think of elephants - the imagery of their promotional material for their Bangkok hotel is hard to forget.

Seaplane Transfers: USD 510 nett per person
Full Board package: USD 145 nett per person





Shangrila Maldives

This was the furthest resort of the list from Male which involved both a plane ride and then a boat ride totalling the journey to approximately 100 minutes. The largest property that we have seen so far and were truly blown away. Another dampener was, there was no premium all inclusive package which meant that beverages were on the bill everytime we need a drink, basic or not.

Flight + Ferry Transfers: USD385++ per person
All inclusive package: USD185++ per person

These were the others that I also considered...



COMO

Who will not love a COMO property? If I had the budget this would have been IT in a heartbeat.



Constance Hotel Haveli

The french luxury brand is one to consider for an ultimate experience and I have read a number of amazing reviews on this resort.



Conrad Maldives

The underwater restaurant won me over at first glance, it's like Cat Cora's but waaaaaay more beautiful! The rates are...well, six star hotel rates.



Kuredu Maldives

Another couple I know headed their for their honeymoon, prices are a tad lower than the rest and it looked really goooood! Argh, choices, choices!



Meeru Island Resort and Spa 

They had the cheapest all inclusive rates when I checked though online reviews seemed to indicate that it was too crowded for a quiet holiday.

Rates mentioned in this post are valid as of March 2015.

Guess which property got both our votes eventually?

All photos are taken off their official websites.