Hotel Riu Palace Maldivas — Hotel in South Nilandhe Atoll

We attended the RIU Palace Maldives as the second part of our holiday, twinning up our visit with Singapore.||TRANSFERS are typical Maldives, regional jet from Malé into Dhaalu, bus for 2 minutes to the port and then a 15 minute boat trip over to the RIU - all of this was superbly organized, with RIU staff at each point from Malé, to Dhaalu and the resort itself pointing you in the right direction.||CHECK IN was quick and easy, all done and dusted in under 10 minutes with a welcome drink and then the buggy to our room.||THE ROOM was perfect - we had a water bungalow, Room 15 -- a huge, comfy bed, spotlessly clean, well stocked mini bar, hugely spacious bathroom (although the 'open' type with no door which personally I'm not a huge fan of), fantastic air con, small sofa area - then the headline - the view - wow - clear water, theraputic silence and just pure beauty. The decking had a bath (not a hot tub which was slightly weird), two sunbeds and a Bali Bed where we spent most afternoons. We had steps and went down into the sea most days, whilst the current is pretty strong, we still enjoyed it and we seen a couple of Rays and many other tropical fish.||THE GROUNDS are immaculate and superbly kept other than a few loose paving stones on the 'bridge'. It takes around 20 minutes to walk from the tip of one island to the other, which we did daily. The beauty is just mind blowing, pure white sand, crystal clear water and luscious palms.||FOOD was top notch. The buffet had plenty of selection, all of it fresh, plentiful and full of flavor. I particularly like the curry section with a differing selection each night with naans and rice, I have not seen this at an AI buffet before except on themed nights. We tried both on site restaurants, and really enjoyed Krystal, where I had tomato soup, Sri Lankan lobster curry and chocolate cake to finish - all of which were very nice. We also tried the Japanese, but, weren't as impressed.||THE MAIN BAR was good, and we need to have a special shout out to Sandhu, who made a point of asking our names on night one, and calling us by them each night which was a nice touch. He is an absolute credit to the hotel and never stopped working, it was obvious he was very popular with other people there too. The bar is table service and they never let your glass run dry, whilst being very, very friendly. We attended the sports bar most nights as the Palace side bar shut down between 23.00-00.00, and was good with two pool tables, games such as dominoes and quizzes, plenty of TVs and music. However, again, the same 5 tracks played over and over, they need to get some variety in there. They also had fridges stocked with burgers which you can microwave, tuna sandwiches and a lot more when you need a late night snack.||ENTERTAINMENT was of a decent standard, however by the last nights (we stayed 6 nights) it was becoming a bit repetitive and is the only criticism I have of the resort - the same 5/6 staff played each night but in different guises, whether it be a DJ on his own (who played the same set twice whilst we were there...), a lady singer who was superb, or the lady singer joining up with the rest to form a band playing a pretty much standard track list - whilst still of good standard, it was all a bit "the same". This was a little disappointing as being such a small island with not a great deal to do other than walk to and from either side, it started to feel like every evening was the same along with the days towards the end.||We done the snorkeling and pedalos which were free on AI, and both enjoyable to pass an hour or so.||THE GYM was very well equipped with free weights with fantastic views too!||WEATHER IN MAY - thought this would be worth adding in as we had some anxiety wondering what the weather maybe like after rigorous Googling and couldn't see anything on here. We had a good percentage of sunshine every day, there was always the odd cloud hanging around but nothing too major apart from one day out of the six. The heat without the wind was intense. The downpours when they come, last around 15/20 minutes and are pretty brutal, but mainly come at night. The storms passed over as quick as they arrived. Don't be put off with all of the write ups on the weather in May, it was perfectly fine.||OVERALL I'd highly recommend this hotel, especially as a starting point if it is your first time to the Maldives, but possibly anything more than a week you may end up clamoring for some variety, that said, this is the Maldives, and if you are here to relax and chill out then this...

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,...

This hotel calls itself 5-star, however it should be 2-star. From the arrival to the departure, the whole stay was a complete mess in terms of service and organisation.

Positive things: location is gorgeous. The island is beautiful and the biodiversity under water is really nice. Saw lots of fishes, stingrays, shards, turtles and more during our snorkling tours. +diving center offers good service with moderate prices. We booked one snorkeling trip and enjoyed it.

Negative things: whole communication is non-existent. You need to ask all you need to know since nobody cares to tell you something. Let it be information about restaurants, tours, island or whatever. food: The food is below average. You need to book in advance if you want to eat in one of the restaurants, besides the two buffet restaurants. Dont expect anyone to tell you in advance and therefore restaurants might be booked out. Doesnt matter in the end because the restaurants arent as fine dining as they want to be. The "japanese" restaurant was the worst restaurant I have ever been to. Far from being japanese (have been to japan a few times) and with a lousy service as well. The fact that other guests left after the first or second dish needs no more words. All restaurants serve the same, two wines, both bad in taste. Overall when it comes to drinks the choice was below average, with water, a few juices that tasted like water wine and one selection of beer. -bar: The bar was a big joke. The servers obviously did not get trained, otherwise I wonder how they managed to bring us wrong drinks 5/10. The same drink tasted totally different every single time and you usually had to repeat your order around 3-4 times because they just didnt listen to you, didnt manage to remember the order or just didnt care. Never ever experienced such a mess before. It was just annoying to order drinks at the bar, because you felt how they didnt care about the customer. Drinks to add here were below average, with low quality ingredients. -service: overall the service was non-existent. We were told at the beginning to download the app to order services. Using the app and tried to order drinks or the roomservice because they did not do it themselves (do I need to mention that it is an ALL-INCLUSIVE hotel) and even had to order a minibar refill every SINGLE DAY since it wasnt done, not even once!!! Out of 10 times, the order was completed 2 times, marked as solved in the app 6 times without any happening, and solved in the app the remaining times, with maybe 50% solved. Thats not only disappointing but also not all-inclusive. We had days were our minibar was empty due to that and we had to go to the bar and guess how the service was there. -reception: here as well no service. If you called them because of the other issues that appeared they didnt care, saying that its a different departure. Fingerpointing was a big part of the whole Riu Palace Service. Besides not getting any help or information, we asked for our departure flight and also here did not get any feedback, even though promised. Here as well fingerpointing instead of looking for a solution. OVERALL we can not recommend RIU Palace Maldives. The service is below average and should be ranked 2-stars, the food is not good as well and we wouldnt call ourselfs gourmets. The all-inclusive is no all-inclusive sind they do their best to keep the service more than low, so you might even end with an empty minibar, therefore without water to drink.Keep in mind that this places costs a lot of money and therefore you expect some service, you wont get it here. A big disappoinment and we will not come back and will not recommend to anybody.

UPDATE: Considering the 0815 copy-paste answer the resort gave a little note to add. During our stay we overheard many, and I mean many people complaining about several things, everday several times. Its easy to buy reviews these days, especially those without a single explanation about the stay....