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Our Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands review, photos, and video are from our site inspection stay, which also included the St. Regis Vommuli Maldives and The Nautilus Maldives. Our post covers the speedboat ride to the resort, an Ocean Pool Villa, and resort amenities such as tennis, the game room, and water sports.
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Getting to the Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands
The resort is most commonly reached with a 45 minute shared speedboat ride from Male Airport (MLE), which is served by a number of international flights. Most of our U.S. based clients fly one of four routes: Qatar via DOH; Emirates via DXB; Etihad via AUH; or Singapore Airlines via SIN. Because the speedboat ride is typically arranged to minimize the wait at MLE, there's no Ritz-Carlton Maldives lounge at MLE, unlike the lounges offered by the resorts that must be reached by seaplane.
The advantage of a speedboat transfer is especially apparent on departure day, since so many international flights depart late evening. Since the speedboat can operate at night (unlike seaplanes, which are limited to daylight hours), guests can enjoy a full day at the resort before departure. On the other hand, we found the arrival speedboat transfer incredibly uncomfortable when sitting inside the boat by the front. For the smoothest ride, sit as far back as possible.
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Ocean Pool Villa
The resort's entry level Ocean Pool Villa is a generous 1620 square feet (150 sq. m.), and means that all guests at the resort have ocean views. Each is circular in design, and located on either one of the two main islands or on an oval pontoon over the lagoon that surrounds the Spa. The last are the 300 series, and we recommend avoiding them because the pontoon is so narrow that only one buggy can pass at a time, and the buggy traffic can make it inconvenient when bicycling to and from the villa. We requested one of the 200 series villas, but on arrival our request was ignored and we were put in a 300 series villa until we reminded the team of our pre-arrival request.
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Inside the villa, there's a king bed made up in Frette linen, and as with most Ritz-Carltons, it was comfortably plush; we didn't have to request an additional mattress pad, as we always have to do at Park Hyatt and other Hyatt hotels.
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The soaking tub is part of the bedroom, so that it also has a view of the ocean:
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There was also a sofa, next to which the extra bed for our teen was placed.
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The bathroom features double sinks, a separate toilet chamber, and a glass enclosed rain shower. There's a door from the rain shower to the deck, where there's an outdoor shower. We were happy to see Bamford bath products; these are some of our favorite organic toiletries.
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The walk-in closet is also part of the bathroom, with ample space for suitcases and clothes.
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There were even complimentary sun hats for us, as well as indoor and outdoor slippers.
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The welcome amenities included fresh fruit and different sweet snacks, along with champagne. The chocolate florentine cookies were especially delicious.
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We also appreciated the complimentary non-alcoholic mini bar, as well as packaged snacks (chips, popcorn, mixed nuts) and complimentary cookies, all of which were replenished daily.
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While the outdoor deck was pleasant, we never used the private pool. Not only was it in the shade much of the day and too cold, it wasn't hygienic as it attracted birds, which perched on the rim and left deposits in the water.
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Here's our Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands video review:
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Ritz-Carlton Maldives Breakfast and Dining
See our Ritz-Carlton Maldives Dining and Restaurants post.
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The Verdict
Highlights of our stay at the Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands were the modern and comfortable Ocean Pool Villa (particularly the comfortable bed and complimentary mini bar and snacks that were replenished daily) and very good breakfast and excellent dinner at Arabesque. The resort also offers many activities and one of the nicer kids' clubs, with creative indoor and outdoor spaces. And while the speedboat ride was rather bumpy and uncomfortable, it does enable a later departure time from the resort than resorts that are only serviced by seaplane, since seaplanes only operate during daytime hours. Detractors of the resort were no house reef and poor snorkeling (which we were aware before the stay); the small, cold, and unsanitary (due to bird droppings) villa pool; and inconsistent service, such as not taking into account our pre-arrival requests or our request to swap out our son's too small bike for a larger one.
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