RIU Palace Maldivas

Nešo Petric

There are so many beautiful places in the world and life is too short to see them all, but it's worth coming back here. Not even for the food and service, but for the staff. *Negatives* - It was my third visit to the Maldives, and I honestly didn't expect that in this paradise on earth you could encounter with dirty water in the sea, and the impossibility of swimming during low tide. Thanks to the low tide and the nearby reefs, constantly pounded by waves, a lot of seaweed and millions of bubbles appear in the water on the beach. Of course, the hotel is not to blame for this, but it is good to be aware of it. We had a room with direct access to the beach, and it is simply impossible not to bring sand into the room with you. I don't understand why there is no small foot shower at the transition from the beach to the terrace. We had to fill a plastic trash can with water to wash our feet. I also didn't expect to fly halfway around the world, but when you fly from Male to this island, the domestic airline Manta takes all your lighters, and the first thing you have to do is visit a shop on the other island, Riu Atoll, and buy a new one. It's good to know for smokers that a pack of Marlboro light cigarettes costs 25 USD here. Thats all for negatives. *Room* The room was perfectly cleaned every day at our request (only because of the aforementioned sand from the beach and the lack of a foot shower). We turned off the air conditioning for the night, it was more than enough for us. I have to raise the beds. I always have trouble sleeping away from home, but these beds were perfect. I slept like a baby. *Beach* The beach is beautiful on the sunset side, beautiful white sand, twice a day cleaning of corals and seaweed. On the other sunrise side, it is broken by water and in places you had to jump half a meter from the sand into the water. There were also excavators that replenished the sand. On the other side, on this sunrise side of the island, much better swimming and cleaner water. *Restaurants* Reservations in restaurants that require it worked perfectly through the app. The food was very good. In the main Palm restaurant, a large selection of dishes, something for everyone, everything is very high quality, fresh, varied, but nothing will knock your socks off in terms of taste. Maybe it's because I'm a chef cuisine by profession for many years and I have a refined tongue. Restaurant perfect clean and nice. *Entertainment* Every day Bingo at the pool bar around 4:00 PM. Not interest in it. From 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM DJ. Sometimes it was even fun, because in addition to the DJ there was also a guy with a saxophone and a great guy with electric drums and they gave the music a special twist. Otherwise I didn't care whether the music was played by the DJ or just the equipment behind the bar. In the evening, sometimes DJ, sometimes band. It's not that the band played badly, but there is very little interaction with the audience. I would recommend having a karaoke party twice a week. A lot of people sang at the table with the band and I think they would even dare to go on stage if there was the opportunity. And I would definitely enjoy that much more than semi-professionally singing world hits. It's more fun at Riu Atoll, but we liked our island much better. I really appreciated the fact that you could leave your phone, sunglasses, cigarettes, whatever on the table by the beach and by the pool, and you didn't have to worry about someone stealing it. Even for few hours. I'm not entirely sure if it would be the same on the other island in Riu Atoll, as the clientele was quite different there. *Stuff* As I started, so I will end. The staff is absolutely perfect. Mr. Saleem in the restaurant, Sanju, Ashram, Mahdi, Miss Daisy in the bar, in fact, everyone (hard to remember all names) is absolutely friendly and always makes sure that you have everything you need. From the reception to the maid. They are the treasure of this hotel. If we return to this island again, it will be mainly because of the staff. So Stuff, Thank you all.

Adriane Lanier

Overall, I had an amazing experience at this resort. The 5 stars is largely due to the service and (most) of the food. Location wise - It’s pretty far away from the Malé airport. Having to take an additional flight and boat to get to the resort was annoying after such a long day of travel, but it was so worth it. The check-in process was very seamless. We had a room already assigned and they were very efficient with getting our luggage to the room. We got an over water villa on the Palace side. Aside from that randomly placed bathtub and the shower not being behind a door, we loved the room! It is also of note that the Palace side is a lot quieter and away from the resort activities so if you care about being conventionally located to the parties and resort entertainment, stay at the other one. I personally preferred peace and quiet while also having the ability to go join the fun when I wanted to. They offer shuttles to/from each side, but I wouldn’t consider it an amenity. You will be less disappointed if you just considered it an occasional perk lol. They fill up during peak times such as check in/out time, dinner time, etc. The ENTIRE staff is amazing. The restaurant staff, bar tenders, housekeeping, entertainment staff, shuttle drivers, and did I mention the bar tenders?! They are all so kind, so fun, and so so thoughtful. The food..the fooood. The Palm (buffet) was very surprisingly my favorite 😂 I usually hate resort buffets, but I loved this one. We also had a reservation at Krystal which was also delicious. I had the curry lobster and cleaned the whole plate. Sofias (the Italian one) is also really good. You don’t need a reservation, but they aren’t open every day so check the schedule before going so you don’t get disappointed like us lol. The “steak house” is the only place that completely missed the mark for me. They need to either rebrand that place as something else or revamp the menu. There was only one type of steak on the menu and it was my least favorite out of everywhere else on the resort lol. The buffet literally put out better steak. The menu isn’t very cohesive (the appetizer is a crab cake, two buffalo wings, and a joke of a Caesar salad 😂). Our veggies were cold. The staff was still amazing though so the resort didn’t lose a star here, but that needed to be addressed lol. The RIU app for this location is also awful. This is not my first Riu stay so I know it isnt the entire app. The issues are specific to this resort. I hope they can fix that. The room service menu was also a major disappointment. It is VERY limited, and it’s not even limited to general favorites. I hope they are open to expanding that. For activities- We did a massage on the beach. The massage itself was amazing, but next time I will just go to the spa lol the birds are SO loud lol. It can get disruptive. We also did snorkeling. That was fun. They require a $50 deposit for the equipment, but they refund it as soon as you turn it back in! We attended the parties and the DJ is pretty decent and versatile. He played something for everyone which was nice. The parties are all outside and in the sand though which is an interesting choice considering you have to walk through a perfectly cool bar to get outside to sweat your life out 😂. I still had fun though. The checkout process was not as smooth as the check-in process. We were told to reach out and coordinate/confirm return transportation date and time three days in advance so we sent over our departure information and got a confirmed departure date, but no time or other details. We were told we would get it the afternoon before checkout (we got it shortly after 6pm). Also, the confirmation we were provided did not align with the information they had in the system at the airport. It was resolved quickly, but that was a little frustrating. Overall, I highly recommend this resort and everything it offers except that ridiculous “steakhouse” lol.

Jennifer Casey

It was so amazing! From the staff to the food to the location!! It was on my bucket list for my 50th birthday and the staff made it such an amazing, unforgettable day that we will remember forever!!! Thank you for being the best!!

Nevzat Ogul Ozturk

You want to pay 5 star hotel rates but stay at a 3 star hotel? Then this is the place you are looking for. Edit: Service is amazing, staff is super helpful, attentive and nice. Food is great. Sea is pretty good. But the rooms are below 5 star standard. Also the gym is at the other hotel which you have to travel a fair bit of distance to get to where you will find very little equipment.

Daniel Andrews

Island was stunning, Staff by the pool were great. Management non existent even after we raised several issues. Claim to have a la cart restaurants this is a joke. A specialist steak restaurants that only offers one steak and it was the smallest piece of meat you will ever see. The Japanese asked if we had any alleges of which we told them mushrooms they replied with none of what you have ordered has Mushrooms. When the food came everything had mushrooms and the manager just smiled.