In the last installment I talked about the overwater suite I had at the St. Regis Maldives, while in this installment I’ll be talking about the rest of the resort. I’m going to keep it relatively brief, given how much there is to potentially cover.
St. Regis Maldives sign
Does this place look like it’s straight off a postcard, or what?
St. Regis Maldives
All the overwater villas were on one jetty, and at the end of that was the hotel’s main restaurant and pool.
St. Regis Maldives
There’s a beautiful beach around most of the island, though unfortunately there’s no way to walk around the entire island on the beach, as there are some obstructions (taking a sunrise beach walk around the entire island is one of my favorite things to do at the Park Hyatt).
St. Regis Maldives beach
St. Regis Maldives beach
The pool area is nice, though I rarely saw anyone use it. Given that the villas have private pools, and also given how beautiful the ocean is, swimming in a “public” pool isn’t as desirable as it might be elsewhere.
St. Regis Maldives pool
I was pleased to see that they had free sunscreen at the pool. Most other resorts charge for it, and it’s obscenely expensive, as you’d expect.
St. Regis Maldives free sunscreen
While it’s normal for Maldivian resorts to have lots of nice outdoor areas, what impressed me about the St. Regis was the beautiful indoor spaces as well. There was a library just next to the pool, which was a nice place to cool down and get some work done.
St. Regis Maldives library
St. Regis Maldives library
Also not far away was the Vommuli House, which served a few different purposes.
St. Regis Maldives Vommuli House
For one, it was a beautiful place to cool off.
St. Regis Maldives Vommuli House
St. Regis Maldives Vommuli House
It also housed the hotel’s gym, along with a beauty salon.
St. Regis Maldives gym
St. Regis Maldives gym
St. Regis Maldives beauty salon
St. Regis Maldives beauty salon
The resort offers yoga classes here, including anti-gravity yoga. I’ve only done yoga a couple of times before in my life, and both of those times were in the Maldives. So I figured I’d continue the tradition, and take take the next logical step of trying anti-gravity yoga (you basically hang upside down like a bat). Within about two minutes I learned it’s not for me — I’m about as flexible as a metal rod.
St. Regis Maldives anti-gravity yoga
Outside the Vommuli House was a play area for kids, as well as a foosball and ping pong table.
St. Regis Maldives play area for kids
St. Regis Maldives game center
Ford and I played our fair share of ping pong (I won 11 games straight — I only mention that bceause it’s the only sport at which I’ll ever beat him). 😉
St. Regis Maldives table tennis
The hotel also has a beautiful spa, which consists of five separate overwater buildings.
St. Regis Maldives spa
The main spa area has a lovely design, with lots of seating as well as some see-through floor panels, so you can look into the ocean.
St. Regis Maldives spa
There were a couple of types of tea, as well as a sauna and steam room.
St. Regis Maldives spa
St. Regis Maldives spa sauna
The most stunning part of the spa was the pool area.
St. Regis Maldives spa pool
How gorgeous is that?
St. Regis Maldives spa pool
St. Regis Maldives spa pool
St. Regis Maldives spa pool
Each overwater building was a separate treatment room, and they had outdoor bathtubs. I ended up getting a massage. It was pricey (I believe it was $175 for an hour), though it was excellent, and given where we were, it seemed worth it.
St. Regis Maldives spa treatment room
Then there was a dive center. The Maldives is especially popular with snorkelers and divers. Personally I think the ocean is the shark’s house, and I do everything in my power not to enter it.
St. Regis Maldives dive center
The one exception I made was to kayak. The hotel has complimentary kayaks you can use, or otherwise there’s a charge for glass bottom kayaks.
St. Regis Maldives kayak
We ended up trying the glass bottom kayak. At first I assumed it would be a gimmick, but it was actually well worth it. Given the incredible coral reefs just off the resort, the glass bottom sort of acted like a magnifying glass, and you could look straight below you. It’s like snorkeling without getting in the water, which is my ideal situation anyway.
St. Regis Maldives glass bottom kayak
Now let’s talk briefly about food. Food at the resort is really good but also really expensive. The Maldives is usually expensive, but the prices here were higher than at the Park Hyatt. That’s not all that surprising, but be ready to pay.
The hotel’s main restaurant is Alba, located next to the pool.
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant
The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating, as well as semi-outdoor seating. That’s to say that much of the seating is technically indoors (in the sense that there’s a roof), but there are floor-to-ceiling doors that they keep open.
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant
We sat in the semi-outdoor area every morning, which boasted incredible views. I brought my laptop and often sat there for an hour or two while sipping coffee — not a bad “office” view!
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant view
SPG Platinum members can choose breakfast as their Platinum welcome amenity, and it’s well worth it at this resort. The breakfast buffet was insane. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast buffet
In addition to the big buffet, you could also order food off the menu at no additional cost. The breakfast menu read as follows:
Here are pictures of some of the things we ordered:
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast
St. Regis Maldives Alba Restaurant breakfast
We had lunch one day at Crust, which is the pizza place on the beach.
St. Regis Maldives Crust Restaurant
This is a pretty unbeatable setting from which to have lunch.
St. Regis Maldives Crust Restaurant
The pizzas were excellent, among the best I’ve had outside Italy.
St. Regis Maldives Crust Restaurant pizza
St. Regis Maldives Crust Restaurant pizza
They were pricey too. Here’s the menu:
We also had drinks two nights at Whale Bar, which is the hotel’s bar that’s shaped to look like a whale (as the name suggests).
St. Regis Maldives Whale Bar
This is the ideal place from which to enjoy the sunset.
St. Regis Maldives Whale Bar
St. Regis Maldives Whale Bar
St. Regis Maldives Whale Bar sunset
St. Regis Maldives Whale Bar
The drinks were great, and they had an awesome Russian DJ six nights a week who played great music.
In addition to the above venues, the hotel has a few other dining options:
- There’s Orientale, which is open for dinner and has three open kitchens serving all kinds of Asian dishes; we ate there one night and had a great meal
- There’s Cargo, which is the hotel’s “pop-up” restaurant, serving Middle Eastern dishes; if you want to dine here make a reservation in advance, as it’s small, and we weren’t able to get a reservation here
- There’s Decanter, which serves a five course meal with wine tasting, for 12 guests at most
I was also impressed by the service at the hotel. Service in the Maldives generally isn’t amazing, though at the St. Regis it was better than I’ve experienced in the past. A vast majority of the staff weren’t just friendly, but were also attentive and polished.
St. Regis Maldives bottom line
Physically this might be the most stunning resort I’ve been to. There’s quite a bit to do here, though more than anything, most people just relax and enjoy the views. The food at this hotel was also excellent, though expect it to be very expensive, even by Maldives standards. Even if you redeem points here, you’ll still pay quite a bit between the flight transfer, food, and activities.
This might be my favorite Starwood property in the world (too bad it’s so expensive, or I’d move there). 😉
If you can afford it (either in points or cash), I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
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