Dusit Thani Maldives

We loved our stay and our butler who was always available to help and not overbearing. Generally our stay was fantastic as we spent most of the time either snorkelling or at the pool in our villa. Especially considering the abundance of sea life on this UNESCO reef! We also enjoyed the presence of the GM Jean-Louis at the restaurants checking on guests. Very nice! However, it would be nice if there were more variety of entertainment for adults and kids (including activities) on the island.

It was our second stay at the Dusit Thani Hotel and it was wonderful. Everything is perfect here. But the most important thing in hospitality is the people! Thanks to the staff - our vacation will be even more wonderful! Many thanks from our family to our friend Ishaac, who did everything to make the vacation a great one. And also thanks to our beloved waiter from Sand Bar and Grill Restaurant. Supun and Prabath - the brothers. Thank you Dusit Thani - great hotel, great vacation!

We have just finished our Dusit Thani Maldives holiday and are flying home, so now seems like a good time to take stock of our views of this resort. I posted an earlier review but for reasons explained below, decided to remove and rewrite it. This was our best Maldives holiday ever and it was an abject lesson in the importance of speaking up promptly if you have an issue of concern, to give the resort the opportunity to resolve it if they are so willing. In the hope that it’s of use to others, our typical price point for a main holiday such as this is around £13k for a family of 5 (about $17,000 dollars; €15,000 euros). This trip was £16k for 4 so we rightly expected a step up from other 4 and 5 star resorts at which we have stayed in the Maldives. We had chosen their “pure indulgence” all inclusive package because despite not being big drinkers, we really dislike having to ‘top up’ constantly for things. We’d rather agree an all-encompassing fee, pay once and then not have to think about the prices. On arrival we were greeted by the Resort Manager, Sabree, and his team - including Jalaal, our ‘butler’ although in reality our one-stop shop for any queries or needs. Jalaal is a thoroughly lovely gentleman who looked after us very well. It was a really nice touch that we were whisked from the jetty, via golf buggy, around the island for a quick orientation and then straight to our room. Jalaal did the low-key check in in our room, so we didn’t need to go to reception at all. This island really is incredibly well laid out and well maintained. It has a very lush interior criss-crossed with wide and beautiful flower-lined paths, together with one continuous one which runs around the island near the perimeter. The grounds are maintained immaculately by their fantastic hard-working team of gardeners. Everyone is allocated bikes for their villas which, notwithstanding that the resort is small, are a brilliant idea. You can get anywhere in 1 or 2 minutes rather than walking back and fourth for 10 minutes which is actually a huge plus, especially when you get to the pool and realise you have forgotten something. As with all such resorts, there are a variety of different accommodations here ranging from the lower-priced beach villas to the exclusive water apartments. My advice, though, would be probably not to choose a beach pool villa unless having your own (small) pool is of particular importance to you. The beach pool villas are on the side of the island which has quite little in terms of beach area, whereas the other beach villas open onto largely-deserted picture postcard Maldivian white sand beaches. The main infinity swimming pool is the best we have come across in the Maldives - perfect for both young kids who can safely play in the area which gently slopes from nothing into the deeper part; and those who want to do proper lap swimming (it is almost 50m end to end) and about 1.6m deep. The sun sets on the pool side and the scene from the infinity pool is something to behold. In short, we didn’t need our own pool because we lived at the main one. It was almost always quiet, the staff there are truly brilliant and look after you like friends and you can enjoy your lunch there as well. I recommend trying their ‘Sweet Cocao’. As an avid diver and snorkeler, I have good experience of what the Maldives has to offer. The house reef here is exceptionally good. You can swim the whole island on the edge of the blue, so currents are generally light - it’s about 3000m in total. There is extensive and quite healthy (bearing in mind that all reefs are suffering globally) shallow reef which then drops gradually in places, and in other parts drops sheer to create a wall down to c.30-40m. The visibility when we were there (early April) was first class - 30m+ around most of the island. There were lots of very tame turtles, plenty of black tip reef and nurse sharks and regularly passing eagle rays and stingrays. Boat traffic is very light so it’s a really safe relaxed place for snorkelling. There are 4 very good restaurants which serve a variety of excellent dishes. The cuisine is consistently of a very high standard and every meal was delicious. They cater particularly well for vegetarians/vegans and despite the resort being at full occupancy when we were there, we didn’t have any difficulty booking other than the day of arrival. The staff are very friendly, very attentive and do an excellent job. There is a well equipped gym, an excellent Spq (ask for a therapist called Ding - she is a magician!), a nice kids club and the usual dive centre/water sports. One of the stand out points to note about this resort is the tranquility. Despite being ‘full’, it felt very quiet. There was never an occasion when we had difficulty finding sun-beds and no silly dawn-reservers here. After a few days, the staff would routinely offer us our favourite drinks from memory. Special thanks to Prabaht at the pool who magically appeared, even before they had opened, with a latte for me - without my asking - early one morning. The pool team were really first class. We had a couple of issues when we arrived which, in fairness to the resort and having reflected on them, could happen in any resort. I should have mentioned them immediately. I didn’t because they were more minor in nature and if I had raised them, and the resort had not responded in a manner which I considered appropriate, I would have been more irritated. In fact, I needn’t have worried. In due course I did have a conversation with the Resort Manager and he was very genuinely apologetic and keen to do whatever he could to meaningfully make amends. I was left with the sense that this is a resort which really does care about its guests and the quality of the experience they are delivering. Being super-critical, there are - as always - minor areas for improvement. The pillows are too soft and there is no alternative option save for memory foam. There is no jetty here to jump off or where the water is lit at night enabling you to sit and watch the marine life, which is something we tend to find at other resorts. This is a shame and could easily be changed. Given the quality of the reef and the area of the Maldives, such lighting would likely attract mantas in the evenings. A few areas are looking a little bit tired, although the resort is just embarking on a full refurbishment programme so that will change. And the resort doesn’t have its own large boat so whereas a lot of resorts include a dolphin sunset trip in an all/inclusive package, here it would have been a whopping $500 from the third party Ocean dive and water sports centre - which is just too much. But the reality is that after 10 wonderful days I am otherwise struggling to find much to criticise. We loved our stay and would very happily return.

Dusit Thani never let us down!! This is the second time we came back to Maldives and happy to came back to stay here as the first time Dusit Thani had given us the wonderful time on our honeymoon. All the staff and services so amazing! This time we came back with our 12 years old son. We got to stay at the same villa, same butler and most of staff were remembers us! Very touched when we saw our name on our bikes. So much activities to do here and suitable for family with kids.

I have had Avery nice experience at the hotel and hotels restaurant Our butler Riyaz is very friendly welcoming and helpful We dined at the Thai restaurant Restaurant manager Ishaq is very welcoming he served us with the best dishes Honestly I really recommend to come to the resort. Will repeat again definitely