Maldives stay - 9 nights in January

 So you'll have maybe read my other Blogs on getting to our Maldives holiday which was from 12th January, so here's an honest opinion of the hotel, staff food and amenities.

We were staying at Riu Atoll, which we booked through BA holidays. Riu Atoll

The hotel (s) as there's two sides to the Atoll , guests at the smaller Palace side can go to either side, but guests at the Atoll side can only stay in their side - the Palace side is a lot more expensive but in my view doesn't give you that much extra, apart from private pools and a couple more restaurants, but as the food was a good quality anyway, not sure it 's worth the extra (opinion).

The clientele was mostly older and couples, with the occasional young family, but there appeared to be a lot of angst with the families of young children as the activities were very limited for them ( there is a kids club area but it was very stark from what I saw) and basically the pool is the main feature for kids and you are straight in, with no paddling type area, and most of the shallower area is taken up by the swim up bar ( no children allowed ).

One thing that you will notice unlike the Caribbean  is the absence of loud American tourists - I'm guessing due to the travel distance,  (not all the Americans are in this category of course), but previous experiences of all inclusive elsewhere (Caribbean islands) this has been the case, maybe I'm getting old but being subjected to other peoples loud conversations, telephone calls and moans about food/ drinks, grates on me.

We stayed in a beach front room (1805 ) the rooms arranged in blocks of 10 , 5 on the ground floor with direct access onto the beach, and 5 on the first floor. 

There are 29 blocks with block 24 being at the far end of the atoll, which is about at 12 minute walk to the pool /restaurant area main area, down a tree covered walkway area. There are the occasional electric golf buggies that make this journey, but most guests just enjoy the walk.

There also a number of above water villas ( extra ££) but to be honest you don't get direct access to the beach for these, and the water is so shallow ( ladder down to water ) in my view not as good .

The staff really make this place, everyone smiling and saying hello, and even remembering your names in the bars and restaurants, you won't ever have an empty glass in the restaurants

Nico at the bar who always remembered our names

The rooms are cleaned daily (observation - all male staff, not sure why) and the fridge is filled up daily with the staff doing some impressive towel art.

There is a main buffet style restaurant, with various themed nights , this has plenty of hot and cold choices/ fruit , puddings etc, we found this very good and ate there most of the time. Lots of fish dishes as you would imagine. The main buffet restaurant is open air and looks out directly onto the ocean.

There were also 2 a la carte restaurants on a first come first served basis, we tried the steak restaurant which was nice but nothing out of the ordinary, presented very nicely, and felt a bit posher, in fact most things served apart from the actual steak was available in the buffet restaurant ( you can't wear shorts at this restaurant) We decide against the Italian as the menu wasn't particularly Italian strangely !!

The beach areas as you would expect are immaculate and picture book, with crystal clear waters and thankfully no rubbish or plastics, you can paddle around, never above your knees around tropical fish , small black finned sharks and the occasional Ray.

Evening entertainment is available ( generally a singer or band ) and an outside bar / seating area -it's ok but not really our scene,

There is also sports bar open nearly all hours ( air conditioned )

You can do various activities some of which are free ( paddle boards etc ) There are loads of dive packages at cost and you could go on a jet ski for $150 for 30 mins which seemed a bit steep to be honest.

As this is not Americanised there is very little $1 tipping every time someone gets you a drink or you've eaten, there is no expectation to tip, but there are boxes placed in bar and restaurant should you wish, when ever anyone did tip, the staff put the money in these boxes so I guess it's shared out.

So all in all, I enjoyed the Maldives and this hotel, and the relaxed atmosphere ( and another bonus No mosquitos !! ) - I probably wouldn't do it again . It's an expensive destination, ( aren't they all ) I've done it now and there's a big wide world out there.

Thanks for reading