NH Collection Maldives Reethi Resort — Hotel in South Maalhosmadulu

Located in Baa Atoll and reached by seaplane or domestic flight with a short speedboat ride, it is moments away from the UNESCO BIosphere of Hanifaru Bay where during May to September large aggregations of manta rays can be found. The dive school have this covered and there is a Whatsapp group alerting you to when manta rays have been seen in the bay, how many and when they are going to depart on a snorkeling trip. Drop everything and turn up!

Reethi Beach is the quintessential Maldives no shoes no news island. Sandy pathways meander through lush tropical vegetation, including a dedicated Reethi Garden where you will find island gardeners tending to their saplings and vegetables and a huge array of chilli plants! WiFi is available in the public areas of the main bar Moodhu bar and reception and for those who need 24 hour connectivity data devices can be rented.

I was fortunate to stay in a water villa and was provided late check out in a Garden Villa. The water villas arc around the north end of the island. Some of the villas sit above the sandbar at low tide, however, the view across the ocean to the horizon and sunrise was amazing. It's a short walk to the beach and an area of sun loungers specifically for those staying in a water villa, which offer shade if the direct sun on the decking becomes too much.

The rooms provide everything you need for a comfortable stay. An amazing view from your bed! Seating area, tea/coffee making facilities, 2 large water bottles, safety deposit box, beach towels, umbrella, mini bar, toiletries, hairdryer, TV, large bed with a very firm mattress and on the deck; loungers, table, chairs and sun parasol. The bathroom with separate shower and bath is enclosed in the water villa but it was an open bathroom in the garden villa. The rooms are serviced in the morning only but should you require anything room boys are just a phone call away.

The house reef at Reethi is one that pulls many guests back time and time again and whilst the top part of the reef has seen better days it is still teeming with marine life of all shapes, sizes and colour, an indication of a healthy resilient reef.

For those not focussed on snorkeling there is a dive centre where you can also book excursions and a watersports base offering rental equipment and trips. A swimming Pool ( perfect for families) and a sports centre including a gym, tennis, badminton and squash courts. A boutique store 'Sandy Toes' and Coconut Spa is definitely worth a visit.

The buffet restaurant The Rehendi offers breakfast until 10:30 which I always think allows for a relaxing start to your day. A good range of food, from salads to hot dishes and vegetable sides as well as a live cooking station,a Maldivain dish and accompaniments at every sitting and a selection of desserts and fruit.At the time of my visit face-masks were required when selecting from the buffet. There are also 3 a la carte restaurants that require to be booked, this includes Reethi Grill where amongst pizza and meat you can also select freshly caught fish.

The main bar is the centre of each evening's entertainment. There is also a beach sunset bar, pool bar and a bar at the entrance to the water villa jetty, these however close at 8pm, but you could always order and take yourselves off from the main bar to a quieter location around the island to listen to the waves or watch the stars.

One of the key values I love about Reethi Beach are their many green initiatives from waste disposal to glass bottles and heat exchange. They are committed to preserving the environment and it's not just words on paper, you can see it in action.

In summary, if you are looking for a traditional Maldives resort that is relaxed, unpretentious, friendly and where everyone including the guests greet each other in passing, then Reethi Beach remains in my opinion one of the best resorts in the...

Overall, it was a good stay and we've been able to relax which was my expectation. I particularly enjoyed the house reef. I frequently snorkelled and saw all kind of marine life like octopus, eagle ray, shark, etc. The access to the reef was easy - 100-150 m from the shore. Also, I was able to book the stay with a very good discount compared to overall prices (although that seems to have affected the particular room we got - we did not have the best access to the water from the villa, no sunrise/sunset view).

A number of things didn't meet my expectations or made an impression on me - those did not cause any issues for us, but I am listing them here anyway for consideration: I was asked to provide international flights information in advance (I did that with diligence) so that transfers could be organized for me, but not everything was communicated in advance and timing was not convenient - for example, on arrival we had to wait 4 hours for the seaplane, also our checked-in baggage was checked-in around 8am, but we got it in the room around 7pm (they tell you there might be delay, but with this almost 12 hours delay we pretty much wasted or first day because we lacked some of our stuff); on departure it was better, but when I tried to arrange some things in advance (e.g. time of departure), all they said was "we actually do not handle this, but the airline does" as communicated in advance, we had to receive 1 bottle of water per person (3 in total) each day as compliment, but in 2 of the first 3 days we got just 2 bottles - I had to repeatedly ask the staff about this until it was finally fixed there were yellow stains on the sheets/towels that were in the room the first day when we checked-in although room/amenities could be used without issues, some were dated and there were signs of corrosion (by salt water, wind, etc.), for example the umbrella on the sundeck had rusty parts and I had to be careful when using it, also there were splinters from the wooden parts and sometimes black stuff that left stains no welcome drinks for the group of guests when we arrived, later all other guests I saw arriving were receiving welcome drinks we booked the FB and it was unexpected that this did not include water in most of the meals (only included in breakfast), but what surprised us even more was that despite the $130 per person that we paid in addition for the Christmas gala dinner, we still didn't get any drinks included discover SCUBA was very underwhelming - they rush you into filling out paperwork, theory explanation, practicing and then even the actual experience - it was supposed to be 1 hour, but we got 20-30 minutes, saw nothing exciting that we haven't already seen when snorkelling (they didn't show anything interesting in the water, or explained what we saw); they haven't even provided us with neoprene costumes...

So, why not 5 stars? The door to the bathroom area had huge gaps between itself and murals, therefore any flying insects had literally 0 trouble getting inside, which was a bummer especially in regard to mosquitoes, unfortunatelly I had a few bites from them. The TV had only few programs with bad connection, but not a big deal for me - just informing those with a need to stay connected. The free wi-fi in the main bar and reception desk worked only if about 6 people or less were connected - so definitely purchase a prepaid travel sim card if you wish to access internet (or rent a wifi modem from the hotel - not sure which is better price tbh). No shoes policy is great, but beware when entering wooden platforms or floors in restaurants - I got a huge splinter in my foot in main restaurant, so I quickly switched back to slippers again. But I didn't see anyone else having the same trouble, so maybe it was just me. The need to sign bills even when having all inclusive is rather weird and had me wandering for first few day if I will be paying for my drinks at the end of my stay after all. It would be great if the hotel staff briefed me about this aspect immediately when I arrived - because waiters do not have enough time to explain this to you as they have loads of work to do. Food - welp.. sometimes, it was rather mediocre and left me wondering if I am truly staying at 4* hotel, but other times it was superb, above the 4* indeed. Staff - superfriendly and trying to be helpful. House reef - perfect in terms of marinelife - regular sightings of eagle rays, sharks, turtles and I was even lucky to see octopus. Definitely worth a visit just for the house reef. Ocean Fanatics dive center and watersports center - perfection. Cool guys, real professionals, doing their best to make every trip as enjoyable and memorable as possible. Real asset for the hotel. Tip regarding trips: do not, I repeat do not go at Island hopping - it is not worth it, just strolling around inhabited islands, but there is really nothing interesting there (no crafts being displayed or anything like it) - just a promenade around small islands, you spend more time on the boat than on the islands itselves. I always try to visit "urban" and "authentic" places when being abroad, but I wish I rather spent that afternoon snorkelling around the superb hotel's house reef. Overall, I would like to thank everyone from the staff of RBR for the truly memorable stay and most of the marine life (except whale shark, who showed up one day after I left) for showing up and being perfect and bearing my attempts to get them on my camera. I really hope I will be able to visit this resort again as I believe they are (and hopefully will be) trying to improve any flaws...