Great staff, beautiful Island and reef, but cabins in need of work. The cabins over water seem a bit dated and tired and need to be revamped, because the structure has been severely affected by the salt water beneath.
We are regular visitors to the Maldives, coming roughly once a year, and this is the 3rd time we’ve stayed at Reethi Beach, although this is the first visit under the new ownership. Our last visit to this resort was in March 2020, just before the world locked down for the covid pandemic, so we were one of the last guests to stay under the old regime. I’m really happy to report that very little has changed, and that the new owners and management seem to fully understand that this resort is a true old school gem that offers what sadly, very few resorts do now – authenticity. This is a fairly detailed review, so I’ve broken it down into subsections so you can skip ahead if you want to. GENERAL - Reethi Beach is roughly 20 years old, she’s aging well, but she is aging. There are one or two areas that could do with a spruce up and works are quietly ongoing. The deck of the main bar has recently been replaced. However the resort retains the rustic charm, laid back atmosphere and friendly vibe it always had. We were greeted by every member of staff (with the exception of one grumpy waiter, who was maybe having a bad day) with a warm hello at every passing. We stayed in Deluxe Beach Villa 110, which is situated roughly half way between the water sports centre and the sunset beach bar. At the time of our visit, there was a wide and very beautiful bit of beach here. When we last visited (room 108) the beach was very narrow and proceeded to get narrower during our stay. This is our preferred location, I had requested room 110, and was delighted to be allocated it on check-in – thank you reservations team, much appreciated! THE ROOM – the shower in our room overspilled onto the floor quite a bit. There was a drain in the corner of the bathroom, but unfortunately the floor wasn’t angled towards it so we were left with a puddle every time one of us showered. A small issue really, but it does make for a very slippery floor. It was however spotlessly clean, everything worked exactly as it should, and we were kept topped up with shower gel, clean towels etc; no real complaints. The room itself is spacious, there’s a corner sofa/daybed set up at the front behind large floor to ceiling windows, a large double bed (at a guess I’d say Queen size), two double wardrobes, a safe, kettle with tea / coffee / sugar / whitener, mini fridge & hairdryer. There’s also a couple of dressing gowns (we didn’t use them so can’t comment on size) and some life vests in case of tsunami; note, these are not snorkelling vests. The air-conditioning was very good, practically inaudible, and there are two fans in the ceiling should you need extra wafting. The bed however always leaves a bit be to desired for us. We’ve always found them far too hard at this resort, and after a day or two a stiff back is looming. The resort will pop on a mattress topper for you if you ask, we didn’t bother asking as previously we’ve found it made little to no difference. Also, at this resort there is only a sheet on the bed, no lightweight duvet as some resorts have started providing. I can see the logic in this, its warm so you don’t need it, and if you get hot you’ll just crank up the A/C and waste energy. I did get a bit cold though most nights and so ended up throwing the beach towel over the top for extra warmth – maybe I’m a chilly mortal! There’s also a tv on the wall in the room, I’m really not fussed about having a tv in the Maldives, but hubby likes to keep up with the news occasionally, however we couldn’t find one English speaking channel at all, they were all Maldivian or Indian, and since we speak neither language it was a pointless thing to have. Outside your room, on the porch, there are two steamer style chairs with seat cushions (no back cushions, but we used the ones from the sofa in the room) and a foot / leg rest, along with a traditional Maldivian style swing under the shade of the trees. There’s also two sun loungers and a shade on the beach set just at the edge of the lush vegetation. The beach loungers also have comfy pads, and beach towels are provided. I think they should be provided every day, however our room chap seemed to forget to leave fresh ones each day, perhaps because we were already using the ones previously left he assumed we were ok with them – in actual fact, we had little choice but to use them unless we were prepared to forgo them until he’d been and cleaned the room. Which leads me nicely to the room cleaning… I have no complaints whatsoever about the cleanliness of the rooms, or the resort itself; it’s always been great in this respect. However, under the previous management structure, rooms were attended twice a day as they are in most Maldivian resorts. A good clean and service usually whilst you are at breakfast, and then a quick spruce up and turn down while you’re at dinner; sometimes coming back to an artistically folded sheet or some flowers on the bed. I don’t need folded sheets, or flowers on my bed, but I did miss coming back from dinner to find the room fairies had been in straightened the sheet and put some lights on. It’s one of those special things that you seem rarely to get elsewhere in the world, and it makes the Maldives feel extra special. THE RESTAURANT – We booked the all inclusive plan, and so could only eat at the main buffet. We could of course have chosen to eat in any of the a la carte restaurants, but they would have been outside of our plan and therefore chargeable (with a small discount). Being previous visitors we knew what to expect from the buffet, and had thought that after the first week we might upgrade to premium all inclusive, thereby being able to use the other restaurants, previously the buffet food was nothing to write home about. But we quickly realised that some major changes had taken place within the F&B department the consequences of which is a much improved offering in the buffet; so much so that we stayed on the normal all inclusive and very much enjoyed it! Like many resorts, evening food is themed, although if I’m honest sometimes I failed to see the connection at times. Without exception, everything we ate was tasty and well cooked. At breakfast there is a good offering of cooked traditional ‘English’ style foods, alongside cold meats and cheeses, as well as fruits, yoghurts, porridge and cereals. Lunch and dinner had similar offerings with soups, salads, plenty of main options and a live cooking station – at lunchtime this offered toasted sandwiches which were very popular. At each sitting there is also a Maldivian curry option, and the ones I tried were delicious! As repeat guests, we were gifted a visit to The Saima Garden, which is in an intimate setting under the lush trees at the edge of the beach. There are just 5/6 tables, each under its own pergola, and they are all nicely spaced so its not really possible to hear other couples talking. There is a set menu here, which you need to choose 24 hours in advance, and there are choices of vegetarian, fish, meat, Maldivian and at an extra cost Lobster. I chose the fish, my husband chose the meat. The meal is 4 courses plus a palate cleansing sorbet midway. We’ve had this meal several times before, and whilst we’ve always enjoyed it again we were pleasantly surprised by the uplift in quality both of the food and the service. Sadly I didn’t catch our server’s name, but she very professionally delivered each dish explaining what it was with just the right amount of friendly conversation. Between mains and dessert the chef walked the tables and chatted with everyone, so we had an opportunity to thank him for our very delicious meal! Honeymooners are also gifted this experience I believe; I highly recommend it! Sadly we didn’t use the Moodhu or the Grill on this visit. THE BARS – Reethi Beach has 5 bars I think; the main bar, the sunset bar, the pool bar, what we call the jungle bar (under the trees near the water villas) and another bar by the water sports centre which during our stay was never open. The guys in the main bar, and Rahul at the sunset bar all did a very splendid job looking after guests and keeping glasses topped up. We did have one small issue requesting drinks without ice, and almost every time they would arrive with ice, and lots of it – first world problem really. My bigger critiscm of the bars though, is that with the exception of the main bar they all shut at 8pm. This was always the case with the sunset bar and pool bar, however the ‘jungle bar’ was previously open until 11pm, which meant that if you wanted a quiet evening, a drink under the stars, or simply to escape the entertainment in the main bar, you could do so. Now there is nowhere to have a drink after dinner except the main bar and that often has very loud and IMO unnecessary ‘entertainment’. In our 12 night stay, we ‘endured’ 2 karaoke nights, 2 disco nights, 2 dive centre presentations, 2 spa presentations, and 1 live music set. The most enjoyable was the spa presentation. The dive centre one, whilst interesting, was way too loud and I came away with ringing ears. I cannot even begin to describe how dire the karaoke was at times and we most certainly would have chosen a quiet drink at a beach bar instead if that had been an option. For guests not on all inclusive, then the Moodhu is I believe an option for an evening drink, but as all inclusive guests we would have had to pay our drinks. SNORKELLING – this is the main reason we love, and choose to return to this resort. Sadly the reef and corals are not in the best condition, but we saw some really encouraging signs of regrowth and improvement over our last visit in March 2020. The fish life though remains reliably ‘fishy’ with the legendary walls of fish ever present at the drop off. At the time of our visit the sea was sometimes a bit bumpy / crashy at the shore so getting in and out was a bit tricky, but once at the drop off it was much calmer with often great visibility. The nurse sharks can be found snoozing in the inner reef not far from the sunset bar, the turtle can often be found doing his/her thing there too, and all the usual fishy friends can be found in abundance. We also fairly regularly spied eagle rays both in the lagoon and at the drop off. Sadly I didn’t see any sharks on this trip, not even the baby ones in the shallows, but my husband did find a reef shark one day on his solo snorkel. NOTE - This resort still feeds the rays at around 6pm every night, something I personally wish they would stop. SPA – We both enjoy a spa visit when in the Maldives, and visited on two separate days. Both visits were really enjoyable and relaxing, but I was disappointed to find that the steam room was out of action for maintenance, and my husband reported that the shower in the gents changing room did not work. EXCURSIONS – We had thought that being in Baa Atoll and not far from Hanifaru Bay we would take advantage of the timing (full moon at the beginning of the Manta season) and join this excursion. However this presented a couple of issues for us. The dive centre, Ocean Fanatics, who run this trip have a very effective line of communication with the rangers in the bay. This means that they will update guests when manta are seen in the bay and you then need to scoot along to the dive centre sharpish and join the trip. These updates are sent via a WhatsApp group – great idea, until you realise that you need wifi for this to work, and the resorts wifi is woefully bad. Unless you happen to be in the main bar, the Moodhu or the reception area when this message is sent you will have no idea that the trip is happening – which was the case with us. After a couple of days we arranged to hire a wifi dongle from reception – we had to wait around 4 days for one to become available. We then started receiving the messages, but sadly the full moon had passed and the manta had moved on. We also found the cost for this trip a bit on the high side; $150 per person ++ so for a couple that’s around $370! Waaaay too much in my mind. WIFI – Its dire, there’s no other way to describe it I’m afraid. If you plan to visit this resort and its important to you that you are connected, then either try to pre-order the wifi dongle from the resort or pick up a tourist sim in the shop outside the arrivals hall before you make yourself known to the seaplane check-in. Once you’re identified and checked in for the seaplane you will be whisked off to that terminal and lose any opportunity to buy one. TRANSFERS – Reethi Beach now use Manta Air in place of TMA. The terminal they use is pretty basic, although its nicely air conditioned, and I found them to be pretty efficient and very friendly and helpful. We might have been lucky, we only waiting about 25 mins for our seaplane to depart. EDIT, I understand that as from 7th July 2022 both Manta and TMA will be using the new seaplane terminal. SUMMARY – all in all we once again had an extremely enjoyable visit to Reethi Beach and it remains one of our go-to resorts in the Maldives. We will absolutely return again, albeit perhaps not on the next visit. It’s a charming, old school, rustic resort that really does do everything very well. There’s only three things I’d change: - Please sort the wifi out, its unacceptably poor in the 21st century. - The beds are pretty uncomfortable for us, but maybe that’s just us. - I would love it if you stopped feeding the fish, rays and sharks. PLEASE don’t change anything else, you are just perfect as you are, see you again beloved RBR!…
Situation of bungalow was assume to my family. Staff was kind, especially Alaam in main restaurant and barmaster in sunset bar. Food was good and lot of selection. Service so nice and friendly in main restaurant. Resort was very flexible. Only domestic flight wasn't nice to get to resort and back to Male.
This was my 5. stay in 2 years, I booked directly with you and payed 900 € more as with travel agency. You told me, if I booked with you, you won't to give me discount??? I talked with Mrs. Lara about the situation, but she was sick in the follow days and Mrs. Denise was not on the island. ---- This payment - situation made me very sad !!! Thanks to Mr. Hishmat for his help.
We travelled to the island in early March. The island is a beautiful place to stay. We had booked a garden villa on the island and was pleasantly surprised how close everything was. Less than 100 metres either side we were on one of the beaches. The rooms are simply decorated and have most features you would need. The outdoor bathroom and shower is an interesting experience watching the wildlife, but great fun. The room decor is a little dated and perhaps tired but there were team quietly and unobtrusively doing updates. Wi-Fi was available in some of the communal areas, but you could also rent a Wi-Fi dongle, which we did, but it would be better if there were free Wi-Fi across the island as far as is possible. We had booked the all inclusive package and the food in the main buffet and the facilities were great. Really good variety of food each day across breakfast, lunch and dinner. We always found something interesting to try, and the quality was great. The deserts were always a must. It was a little disappointing that having gone all inclusive not all the restaurants were fully included and there were only discounts on the relevant menus. A little different to a typical Caribbean all inclusive. The island is a small paradise with nature never far away, either from the market garden in the middle of the island, to the house reefs for snorkelling or scuba diving, or just the bats, birds and lizards as you walked around the island. The scuba diving with the resident team from Ocean Fanatics was excellent as it was a key reason for travelling to the Maldives. Footwear not required, I even gave up on the flip flops in the end. The island is a little piece of paradise. It’s ability to allow you to relax and wind down was fabulous. The island is clearly fighting nature and the ocean currents as there are spots on the island where huge sandbags are being used to protect against the effects of the sea, they are done as discretely as they can be, but it does make you aware of the power of nature. We had a great stay, and would love to go back if the opportunity arises Unfortunately…
The resort is about 20 yeards old and you notice it everywhere. Cracks in the bathroom floor poorly mended, cracks in the bathtub and sink. Things not working properly and so on. There is a quite big discrepancy betwee realityu and the web page. The resort is not 4* resort but more a 3-*. Reethi Beach needs an update. The staff is very good and very helpfull. Even though certain things go very slow, for ex to get coffee in the morning. Food is excellent with a big variety. There is allways something for everyone. There is a lot of coral at the beaches so access to the ocean can be quite hard sometimes from some places. Wi-Fi is absolutely terrible on the island. You can basicaly only access internet at the main bar and at the reception, no conection from the rooms. Personally I will come back and can´t realy recommend the resort, there are better in the Maldives for that price.…
Just returned from our first visit to the Maldives, a 10 night stay at Reethi Beach resort and overall we had a fabulous time. It’s quite a long journey from the UK, 10 hours, we chose to fly direct which was the best choice after speaking to other people who did stopovers. Male airport is not very modern, and it seemed like chaos, but we were greeted by a rep from Reethi and very quickly transferred to the sea plane terminal by mini bus without any problems. At the sea plane terminal we were told our flight would be 45 mins so we waited, and waited, and waited, eventually 3 hours later we finally boarded our plane. Apparently this is very common, but no one had told us this so be prepared because it’s really frustrating and really hacked us off as the staff don’t give you any information. The seaplane itself was a great experience, the transfer was 30 mins and we landed on a raft in the middle of the ocean where a boat picked us up and took us to Reethi, which on approach was breathtaking! At reception we were given a drink while we filled in our paperwork and then shown to our deluxe sunset beach villa. We were room 106. The room was exactly as we expected, but unfortunately the outside space was not. We had our 2 sun beds in a private (screened by bushes) shaded area but unfortunately to access the beach/sea we had to climb over high sandbags and jump a small wall, also there was no way to move the subeds into the sun. We were very disappointed as this had not been shown on any of the hundreds of reviews or utube videos I had watched in the lead up to this exciting paradise location! I’ve added photos do you can see the difference. However, after expressing our concerns the reception team were very quick to offer us another room 153, which was exactly what we had been expecting, and we moved the next day. I think if you book a deluxe sunset beach villa I suggest you request rooms from about 130 - 170 these all have direct access to the amazing house reef and the glorious white sand and turquoise water! The island itself was so beautiful, it takes about 30 mins to walk around it but you will be easily side tracked by looking for shells, constant dips in the sea and everything else! The reef was amazing! So many different fish in every colour and shape, we saw turtles, sharks, dolphins, it was fantastic and that was just directly off the beach from our room. A GoPro is a must! The food in the main restaurant was great, something for everyone, but I would suggest you upgrade to premium all inclusive it’s definitely worth it. The Mohodu over the water restaurant was our favourite, we went there for lunch and dinner a lot, it was quieter than the main restaurant and the food was lovely! It also had spectacular views and a welcome breeze! Reethi Grill was another great place and the food was superb! For a lighter snack and relief from the gorgeous sun we often paid a visit to the Pool bar, again lovely and quiet, food and drinks were excellent and the service by Alex was excellent! In summary I would say Reethi is a fabulous place to stay, the staff were mostly very pleasant and if all you want to do is snorkel, eat, drink and relax this is absolutely the place to go! Ahhhh I’m still dreaming of my return! 😀…
I think this was the most beautiful resort but in need of an update. We upgraded as the restaurant were very good food was incredible. The staff definitely made our stay they were so helpful and friendly.
Reethi Beach is a very relaxing and beautiful place to stay. The staff are outstanding and cannot do enough for you. We loved our water villa, it was bigger than we imagined, the bed was so comfortable, but it does need updating, without spoiling the charm. We went premium all inclusive and enjoyed having a choice of restaurants.
After a bumpy start to our holiday in a poor garden villa, we moved to a beach villa which was amazing. Beautiful beach, sea and facilities. Lovely staff. Amazing holiday. Recommend booking all inclusive premium as it’s so expensive to buy snacks and drinks.
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