Riu Atoll

Having stayed in Riu properties before, we thought we knew what to expect but the hotel was so much better! The trip was for our anniversary and this was marked with a welcome bottle of sparkling wine. Room: We stayed in a over the water villa (which I would like 100% recommend). Huge comfy bed, in house drinks dispenser, sitting area, large shower. Beautiful views and access out to the ocean. Beach: Stunning water, fishies of all sorts to be seen at the house reef. The house reef is small though, so if your interested in a lot of diving you might be disappointed. It was perfect for us. Paddle boards, kayaks, pedolos are free from the scuba centre. This is padi rated. We did the dolphin quest boat ride and the team went out of their way (and over the time) to ensure we saw dolphins. Pool: Lovely space, with swim up bar. A couple of small tiles are missing so it’s worth watching your step at time. You can get a range of alcoholic and non alcoholic cocktails from the swim up bar from the menu. Off menu drinks are available if you speak to the team. Restaurant: The main restaurant is a buffet style, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Plenty of fresh fruit (try the bananas), salads, a full curry station, Italian etc. The food changes frequently and we found the curry section to be amazing. The head chef was lovely and after speaking to us, made our very own curries. Lovely personal touch. The other bookable restaurants are Sofia the Italian (buffet for starters and deserts, four choices for main) and the steak house. The food was good in both but the steak came served with gravy and roast vegetables which was a little different, as it felt more like a roast dinner rather than the steak experience we expected. The steak was cooked beautifully though. Great wine choices available, but talk to your server as you may just get given the ‘house plonk’. Entertainment There’s three main areas. The chill out bar next to the pool. Plays the same cd over and over which gets a little frustrating, however it does have a fabulous DJ who plays during the sunset. Definitely worth seeing. The large bar/entrainment area has indoor and outdoor seating. The in house band are ok, if somewhat repetitive. Thursdays are the party night, which were really fun (pack some white clothes). The bar was really good, the off menu drinks especially. The sports bar is exactly what it says on the tin, has games/pool tables etc. You can also get snacks there, although we found the food available to be limited and disappointing (bad sandwiches, slightly old fruit). Sports fans will love the sports shown on the many TVs. The entertainment team were great during the day, lots of energy. However the evening it gets a little dated. We didn’t even sit through the karaoke night. Transfer: There is no getting around it, the journey is incredibly long. From male airport we we taken by Rui staff across the road to a restaurant to wait for the internal flight. Free food was provided. Waited an hour until we could check in. Then an hour in the domestic terminal until we could board the flight. 30minute plane ride. Then a bus to the boat. The boat is around 20 minutes. It’s worth it once you arrive. Staff: Every member of the team was lovely and it felt as though they would do anything to ensure you were having a wonderful time. Whilst there, the head office appeared to be conducting a review which meant we had a lot of input from management i.e. invited to Managment cocktails and canapes on the beach (not sure if this is a regular thing). There were a few standout staff that we wanted to thank for making our trip so amazing: Irushad, our housekeeper was fantastic. An amazingly talented artist with leaves, who made the most wonderful and personalised art for us. He looked after our villa with such care and was so nice, always taking the time to talk to us and made us feel so welcomed. He is a credit to Riu! Pashindu & Jeremy at the pool bar where so great. Always smiling and made some of the best cocktails. Pash was certainly the life of the party!! Kumara was an amazing cocktail specialist. He really listened to what we liked and went out of his way to make off menu drinks fit us. His expresso martinis were fantastic. The restaurant team were all so lovely and welcoming. The hosts especially Amaila (I hope this is spelt right) always went the extra mile for us with lots of little touches, like flowers on our table. Patrick, Suresh, Shimaau and Zel were great. Sam was a star and spent the time talking with us about life In the Maldives. The one thing we think the hotel could benefit from is more ‘Maldivian’ culture to come through. Maybe a Maldives night, with only Maldivian food/music etc. Often it could feel like you were in a European hotel. Plus trips/tours to local inhabited islands would be wonderful.

We have visited the hotel in October for 2 weeks .Hotel is new and the environment is clean.Rooms are cleaned nicely every day.The beach is beautiful and when you go to the right spot you see different fish .We have already traveled a lot, was this the best, absolute not, but the staff of the hotel provided an absolute highlight during our vacation.