As a budget-conscious traveler and a parent, I know how overwhelming it can be to find that sweet spot between dreamy island vibes, wallet-friendly options, and kid-friendly alternatives. So many resorts in the Maldives cater to the ultra-luxury crowd—but what about the rest of us who crave turquoise water, white sand, and a touch of indulgence without the five-star price tag? And when I add the kids part, hell, I’m surprised I even found one resort that caters to all of our needs as a family.
Yes, it’s true guys, there might be affiliate links in this awesome, free post. This means that if you decide to buy something that you find here, and you use one of my links to do so, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I plan to use the money to buy ice cream and to travel more so I can write these useful guides for you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
I’ve been there—scrolling through endless listings, wondering if there’s really such a thing as a value-for-money resort in this part of the world, hoping to find a place that caters to all of our needs (no, kids friendly does not only mean having a kids club, at least not for me!).
After our initial trip as a child-free couple a few years back, our focus changed this time. While we still looked for a place with incredible snorkeling opportunities and within our decent budget, some other aspects needed our attention as well, like our 4-year-old’s safety and our peace of mind.
In order for you not to spend a similar amount of time and energy looking for what feels like a needle in the haystack, I wanted to write this honest Royal Island Resort & Spa review.. I’ll break down everything from transfer costs and meal plans to snorkel spots and room quality—so you know exactly what to expect before you book, and, more importantly, if this is the best resort for your needs.
To disclose everything fully, this is not a sponsored post. I paid for the accommodation myself with my own money (if you listen carefully, you can hear my bank account crying in a corner), and I have not disclosed to anyone at the resort that I am going to write this review. You will see that I mention all of my opinions, no matter if they put the resort in a good or bad light. I will, though, contact the property after I publish this and see if they would be interested in a partnership, and I will disclose if this would happen.
Table of Contents
Who’s this resort for?
OK, so if you want to know if this resort is for you, I suggest you read this first, as you might not want to spend your whole afternoon discovering this is not, in fact, right for you. And hey, nothing in this world is for everyone, so we had better find out sooner rather than later. Am I right?
In my opinion, after visiting the resort with my 4-year-old, I can say I find it great for families traveling with kids. It’s not perfect, though, and I will address the limitations as well, so you can decide if they’re must-haves for you or not.
The first thing that matters to me as an anxious parent is that I have a medical center on the island. Since the Maldives is spread over a large surface, getting access to medical care can be challenging and/or take a long time. Since my kid might require immediate medical care, I didn’t want to risk this, so I looked for an island with a medical care center.
Next, because we needed a break as well, we wanted an island where our little one could enjoy a kids’ club while his overtired and underslept parents could enjoy some adult time. The kids’ club is not even marketed on their website or Booking. We found out about it by reading the reviews, so this might be a nice surprise for you. Now, in all honesty, the kids’ club is not some amazing thing, but the people are extremely nice, and my kid loved it.
The next item on my list is water safety, as my kid is just a bit over 4 years old at the time of writing this article. The ocean water is very shallow at the shore, and the entrance is very gradual, so he couldn’t get to deep water with a few steps. This made me feel at ease when he was playing in shallow water or just getting water in his sand bucket.
The island is also surrounded by a wave breaker, which makes the water very calm at the shore, with almost no waves. This is super nice for little people with not the best walking balance. And last in this sub-section, the resort has a shallow end of the pool where kids can play, and it’s very well separated from the main pool, thus making it very safe for them.
My favorite thing to mention about this resort is the people. They are nice not only in the length of their job description, but also go way beyond that. On top of what their job required them to do, people went the extra mile for my kid. For example, while we were watching the fish from the dock, a speedboat approached the dock. And since they had some downtime, they just took my kid on the boat to show him around, made him Captain, and tried to attract some fish to show to him without throwing food in the water (a very bad activity that still happens on some islands, unfortunately).
And last, kids don’t pay for accommodation and meals on this resort, or just a small price if you require an additional bed, and they only pay half the price for the transfer (and this is NOT cheap). Of course, this is not necessarily the top reason to choose a resort or the other, but it does make a difference if you can buy something else with that money (hint: a massage after a long flight will feel like you reached heaven without having to die before).
Who’s it not for
Because let’s be honest, nothing in life is for everyone. Again, just my personal opinion here, but the nightlife at this resort is not great. They have activities every night like live music, cocktail tastings, or boduberu dance performance, but you won’t experience clubbing nights or rave parties here. If this is what matters to you, maybe check out some party resorts, or these things to do in the Maldives at night for alternative ideas.
Getting in and out
Transportation between islands in the Maldives is a topic in itself. Between speedboats, waterplanes, and public ferries, there is a big array of options for people visiting. But this island is special indeed, as we were bound to find out upon visiting.
When you book your stay, you will know that the transfer to the island is done by domestic flight and speedboat. Everything is very transparent and clear: the price, the setup, how to manage everything, etc. You provide your flight information so that they know if your flight is delayed, and you know the counter you need to use to contact the people responsible for your transfer.
What happened to us, and I’m not saying this in a bad way because we actually loved this, was that we were transferred with a seaplane. I know, I know, “domestic flight” can mean any type of airplane, but we really expected a usual plane and not a water one. So imagine our surprise when they told us this!
Now, again, we’re very happy about this, and our little one was, of course, the happiest. He even has a waterplane toy he showed to the pilots, the cutest little thing. I won’t go into all the details about waterplane transfer, as this requires a separate post, but I’ll mention what drew our attention about it.
The thing is, the water plane takes multiple passengers and takes them to various islands. Some of these islands have a waterplane “airport” (seaport? What word works better here, I wonder…), but some don’t, so the seaplane will leave you and your bags on a wooden platform in the middle of nowhere. Of course, people from the resort will wait for you there; you’ll never be alone in the middle of the sea, but be prepared to feel a bit stranded nonetheless.
Also, since there are multiple “stations”, you have to be sure and communicate clearly where you need to be dropped off. We also were left on the wrong island, as we didn’t manage to communicate as good as we should with the flight personnel. Be sure to have the information ready, and even have it written if possible, as it makes things easier to manage for everyone.
Now, on the way back, we did take the domestic flight, and it was as we expected. We had 3 options to choose from on the day of departure (morning, noon, and evening), but the final confirmation for the flight comes just 24 hours before the departure. This feels a bit uncomfortable if you have a scheduled flight the next day, so I would suggest booking a night in Male before the international flight, just to avoid this additional stress.
The domestic flight transfer takes a lot of time as well, as you first take a boat to a nearby local island. Here, you actually do the same process as for a normal flight, including security checks and passport control. The whole process takes a lot of time, so in the end, you leave the resort around 4 AM (you can take an early breakfast) and arrive in Male at 9. After this, you have your (probably very long) flight, so the day will be quite tiring. One more reason to split this into two days: one day you transfer back to Male, and the next day you have the long flight back home.
Room options
I’m going to be frank, this resort is not the most luxurious one. It has more of a cozy feeling to it rather than a luxury vibe. It doesn’t have the most modern furnishings or a progressive architecture for the buildings.
But one very nice thing I noticed is that it only has individual villas, so there are no “basic rooms” available, which is absolutely great for the amount of privacy this offers. On the other hand, it doesn’t have water villas, something rather rare to encounter in the Maldives. So if you’d like to stay, for at least a night in a water villa, you’d better check my other post about affordable water villas.
The available types of villas at the Royal Island Resort & Spa are:
- Beach Villa
- Sunset Beach Villa
- Beach Pool Villa
- Two Bedroom Family Beach Villa
- Family Suite with Pool
Luckily for us, since we are Genius users for Booking, we had a free room upgrade from Beach Villa to Sunset Beach Villa. This was highly appreciated, as we had more space to fill with my kid’s toys, and seeing the sunset is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience in the Maldives.
The furniture is a bit old, and the room is full of wood that might be expected more in a mountain area than at a beach, but it’s very well kept, and everything is perfectly functional, and the cleanliness is absolutely stellar. I honestly prefer furniture that’s a bit older, but very sturdy, compared to the new and finicky one you can see nowadays everywhere.
The bathroom is open air, and I know some people love it, but I just don’t. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade here, but I don’t like it because of mosquitoes and the heat. You go out for a few minutes to use the toilet, and bam, 5 new mosquito bites, and you come back sweaty like you’ve been in a sauna.
The electricity stops when you leave the room, but the air conditioning continues to run. This might be a bit problematic if you want to let things charge while you’re at the beach, for example, but I understand the safety concerns in a building made almost entirely out of wood.
There are power sockets on each side of the bed, but they recommend not using the one under the air conditioning as sometimes water might drip from the aircon, and this might damage our electronics. As you know, you might need a power plug adapter, depending on where you’re coming from, so look into this before you start packing.
The room has two entries, one from the main road on the island and one from the beach. On the beach side, there’s a tap you can use to wash your feet of sand before entering, and I can’t express enough how much of a help this was. You can not only wash your feet, but also your snorkeling gear, beach toys, and whatever else crosses your mind.
Amenities
In terms of amenities, we didn’t feel that we missed anything we needed, but we’re quite low-maintenance people, so maybe we’re not the best to answer this. If there was anything we didn’t have that we thought we needed, we asked our concierge about it, and within a few hours, it would be solved.
Mini bar
As we didn’t have the All Inclusive meal plan (I’ll explain in more detail below), the mini bar was not included in the room price. We didn’t use anything from it anyway, there’s a lot of food to enjoy on the island without some peanuts and chips, and we don’t care much for alcohol either (and alcohol in the Maldives is a separate topic altogether).
We did receive 2-3 big bottles of water daily, and they mentioned that each additional bottle would be charged, but honestly, no one ever charged us for water. I don’t know if they did this for us because they were nice or what the reasoning was behind it, but I truly find it unusual to be charged for water in such a hot climate. Any other type of drink I understand, but filtered water is truly like the minimum thing they should offer.
Cosmetics
I look into this very carefully when I choose a hotel, as I absolutely hate having to carry half my toiletries with me for any trip. This time, I found everything I needed and more. For example, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and body lotion were all in big containers (I hate tiny containers; who are these people who only require 100 ml of conditioner?), so I never needed to ask for more.
And don’t get me started about places that don’t offer conditioner, especially at the beach! Tell me you don’t promote women to management positions without telling me you don’t promote women to management positions. OK, rant over. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Apart from these, in the room there was also a basket containing sanitary bags, a comb, a shower cap, and a shaving kit. I asked for the sanitary bags to be replenished daily (yes, my period comes with me on vacation every time, thank you for asking), and it was taken care of without issues.
Cleaning
Room cleaning happens two times a day, once usually during breakfast, and the second time in the afternoon at around 4 PM. We never felt the need for both cleanings, so we usually talked to the nice people providing the service and asked to only have the water bottles replenished.
One thing that I absolutely loved is that bed linens and towels are changed every 3 days by default, or on demand. This approach, compared to the default “change everything every day”, is such a good thing for the environment, and with minimal impact on the customer experience. You still have the option to require this service more often if you need to, but not having it done automatically every day is the absolute best.
The terrace
As our room was right on the beach, we basically had our sunbeds assigned right in front. We initially had two of them, but we were brought one more when we asked for it, so that my kid will unglue himself from my sunbed, so I don’t get tan marks in the shape of tiny hands.
The sunbeds themselves are made of wood, very sturdy and not flimsy at all. They have a comfortable mattress that some nice people take care to put away during the night, so it doesn’t get wet if it rains.
On the patio, two similarly sturdy chairs also recline, and we used them each evening to just listen to the waves. This is the place where you can also smoke, in case you’re a smoker, or you can have a drink. We even took our baby monitor to the beach and did some star gazing, this is how close the sunbeds were (and star gazing in the Maldives is amazing, there’s little light pollution and it makes the sky very bright).
Internet
The internet had good speed, and I even needed to do some audio calls with screensharing, and it worked perfectly fine. Each room has its own network, so when you move around the island, you don’t automatically have a connection; you have to change the network manually every time.
What can bother you a bit is that it doesn’t work until more than 5 meters from your villa, so if you’re on the beach, you might not get enough speed to be able to scroll endlessly on TikTok. You can bring your sunbed closer to the villa if this is really a must for you, but you’ll be further away from the waves this way, so it’s a matter of preference in the end.
Food
To start on an open note, I will mention that none of us are foodies, and I’m just a mildly picky eater, not a full one. On the other hand, my kid eats literally anything; he has no standards whatsoever (which says a lot about my cooking skills), except for very spicy things. So this is the lens that I’m using to share my culinary experience at the Royal Island Resort & Spa.
In my opinion, the food was very tasty and plentiful. There wasn’t a huge number of choices (for example, in Bandos we had way more options), but we found quite a lot of options to try every day and for every meal.
They usually had a salad bar (with ready-made salads and ingredients to make your own), an Indian corner (I’m drooling only when remembering this), appetizers, desserts, fruits, and freshly grilled things. As I didn’t see any pork-based products, I assume everything was halal, but please contact the property to confirm just in case (I am not Muslim, so I might not have the full grasp of the concept).
Meal plans
While I feel that I might write a dedicated blog post about meal plans in the Maldives, as for sure it can be confusing, and given the difference in prices between them, you do not want to be confused when choosing your meal plan, I haven’t gotten to writing it yet.
The Royal Island Resort & Spa offers the following meal plans:
- Full board – includes all meals (this is the one we had) in the buffet restaurant
- Premium All Inclusive – includes all meals, all around dining in both buffet and a la carte restaurants, unlimited snacks and drinks (coffees, soft drinks, milkshakes, selection of wines and spirits, beers, cocktails and mocktails)
- Infinity All Inclusive – Premium all inclusive plus minibar consumption, various activities, spa treatments, and land sports.
If you want my opinion, if you’re usually drinking at least 2 alcoholic drinks a day, get the Premium All Inclusive for your peace of mind. If alcohol is not your thing, the Full Board plan will be enough for you, and you can still splurge from time to time with an a la carte meal or a drink here and there.
Restaurants
The resort has a few restaurants and bars, not too many but just enough for this small island. If you get bored easily and want to try something new every day, maybe this island is not for you, as you don’t have that many options.
The restaurant where all meals are served is called Maakanaa, and it’s a buffet-style restaurant. We like this style the most as you can try just a little bit of everything, a great way to discover new tastes and flavours. It is an open-air style, so be prepared to feel the heat, and it has a very nice pond in the middle, full of nice corals and colorful fish.
The service here is absolutely amazing, you will never have an empty plate on your table for more than 5 seconds. There’s plenty of seating available, and they have a lot of baby and children’s seats as well. The chef often comes to the tables to chat with people, and he offered to bring us anything we want for our kid (who was devouring some chicken mughlai like he had never seen food before in his life).
The a la carte restaurant is Raabondhi, and it mostly serves various types of seafood. It has both an inside and an outdoor area, and it faces the sunset, so you can come here for a romantic dinner. The atmosphere here is more laid back, and it’s also less crowded than Maakanaa.
Boli Bar is where you can spend your days at the pool and evenings listening to live music or playing pool. Right next to it, there’s the pool bar, as sometimes you just don’t want to get out of the water to have something to drink. You can also eat at the Boli Bar, but the available dishes are more fast food or snack style than actual full meals.
The Fun Bar is where there’s dancing and music all night long, but sadly, I can’t give you more info as I’m basically old and with a 4-year-old who is not sleeping, so I’m not voluntarily missing any nights in bars anyway.
Drinks
In terms of beverages, water and tea/coffee are included in the full board meal plan. For us, these drinks are enough; we’re not heavy drinkers, and we don’t prefer juices either. For lunch and dinner, you’d have a bottle of water on the table, but at breakfast, the situation was different.
In the morning, they offer 3-4 types of infused water (with lemon, ginger, and other cool stuff), but you have to go and get it yourself from the serving table. This annoyed me a bit as I had to go 329472384 times, since I needed to drink almost one liter of water at each meal (yes, it is that hot outside!). But at breakfast they also offered tea, which was served at the table, and various fruit juices (they’re not freshly squeezed though, so for my taste they were too sweet).
Alcoholic drinks
As you might know, alcohol is available in the Maldives under precise conditions, mostly on resort islands. As it is highly regulated by the government, it’s also quite expensive, and you will notice this if you see the price difference between the full board and the All Inclusive meal plans (not only at this resort, but at all).
Since we weren’t interested in this, we didn’t check the prices, but I took some pictures of the all-inclusive menu, so you can at least see the options. If I manage to get updated information about this topic from the resort, I promise I will update this post with this important information.
For kids
This vacation was, in my kid’s words, “the best of the best”. Now, I don’t want to complain to you (I already did this to all people I know, and a few I don’t), but he truly didn’t use this place as he should. He mostly spent his time at the pool, jumping around like he had never seen water before in his life. Yes, I know he could have seen Nemo in the ocean, but he was not interested in this topic, while owning about 5 snorkeling sets.
Activities
Apart from just making a lot of noise and splashing at the pool, my little one had his share of fun at the Easter egg hunt organized by the resort. Since we visited in April during Easter time, they organized an Easter egg hunt for little kids. They had bunny ears and baskets and all the cute things, and each kid found tens of eggs filled with sweet treats and toys.
Kids club
The kids’ club is where he spent some time here and there, so that his overtired parents could enjoy some snorkeling to see the amazing marine life this island had to offer. Every day, I would get a WhatsApp message from our concierge with the activities available at the kids’ club for the day, and I would sign him up for whatever I thought was worth it.
To give you a few examples of activities they would do at the kids’ club, check out this list:
- Bracelet making
- Henna tattoos
- Easter card making
- Paper crafts
- Flag making
- Painting and hand drawing
Now, you know your kid better than I do, so you’ll be the judge if these activities are what would keep your little one busy for some time, so you can relax for a bit. Keep in mind that only children 4 or older can come here unattended, but you can come with them if they’re younger or get a babysitting service otherwise.
What was not ideal for us was that they would keep him for at most one hour at a time, and this is really not enough for a longer snorkel. Two hours would be my ideal time: long enough for a good swim, but not too long for my kid to be bored or to miss us.
The personnel, though, were incredibly sweet to him, and he loved the club. He kept telling us he wanted to go there every day, and never complained. The only thing I would have to complain about, but this happened just in one instance, is that I came to pick him up, and he was watching cartoons on a phone (we have quite a strict “no screens” rule).
In the personnel’s defense, they had to do a huge henna tattoo on another kid, and basically mine was probably getting bored (he had his done already). They addressed the situation, explained what happened, so it was not like they acted as if “what’s wrong?”, and also I am not that strict with the rule (God knows we need a break as parents from time to time, especially on long flights).
Kids pool
The main attraction of the island, ladies and gentlemen, is a small part of the only pool on this island, where tiny humans can make all the havoc they want. This part of the pool had water 60 cm deep, and is separated from the main pool through a rather wide strip that they have to cross.
The water in the pool is extremely hot, especially in the afternoon when it feels almost like soup. There’s limited shade in the pool, though, so be prepared with all the sun protective gear for your little one.
Around this pool, there’s quite limited space, so there are very few sunbeds available. I would have liked to lie on a sunbed and watch my kid from there, but I managed to do this just once, as the sunbeds were always booked. You can stay at a table to watch the kid, or, of course, in the water, but it gets tiring if you do this for long.
Ammenities
As I previously said, anything I needed for my kid was granted to us almost instantly. We wanted one more sunbed, I just had to ask our concierge for help, and we had it the next day. We wanted passion fruit for him (yes, he has an interesting favorite fruit), bam, we got it. We even got things we never asked for, like some nice mango juice from the bar or a coconut for him to play with.
While I know plenty of families choose to co-sleep, in our case, co-sleeping means “mommy gets hit in the spleen,” so we always ask for a separate bed when we travel. At this resort, they gave us a bed for him, fully equipped with everything needed. We arranged it in such a way that he can’t fall from the bed, and the cleaning personnel didn’t change our setup for the duration of our stay.
On Easter day, we came to our room and found the kid’s bed with a very nice decoration for him, with a bunny plush toy and eggs with sweets, the cutest little thing I have ever seen. Gestures like this, or like the very nice people from the boat who took my kid with them, called him “captain” and showed him around, are what make me say this is the best resort for families with kids.
Food
Since there are so many choices of food options at this resort, I’m sure you’ll find something for your kid as well. They even had a corner with the classic “kids food” (I’m using quotes as truthfully I have never found these options good or appealing to me, but maybe I’m just weird), like simple pasta with various sauces, or chicken nuggets and similar things.
But at any meal, you will find kid-friendly options, even for the more pretentious kids. You will always find simple rice, boiled or baked vegetables, simple meats and fish, eggs, and salads of all sorts. All dishes have a note next to them mentioning the allergens and if the dish is spicy or not, so don’t worry about this if you or your kid has allergies of any sort.
If the situation is very delicate for your family, though, I suggest you contact the resort and ask if you can have special meals prepared for you, and I’m fairly sure they’ll accommodate all needs. For example, although I’m quite positive that all meals are halal here, I strongly suggest you ask them directly before booking.
Marine life
Finally, we got to my absolute favorite part of this resort! I’ve been wanting to write this since 5000 words ago. While climate change is making a mess in the marine life all around the world (and I strongly suggest we all do our part in at least slowing it down), the biodiversity we encountered on this island was absolutely amazing.
The island is surrounded by a wavebreaker, and this is absolutely amazing for the kids, as the water here is very shallow and peaceful. There are a few fish that come on the island side of the wave breaker so kids can see them, but not that many.
But on the other side of the wave breaker is where the fun begins. There’s a stripe about 2 meters wide here that’s full of corals and various animals, and then the deep, dark ocean begins, where we were afraid to go because we’re basically chickens.
We saw not only a lot of types of fish, but also various other animals, some of them not even on their official posters from the diving center. Of course, my GoPro decided to break after the first snorkel, because why not, so I have limited footage available, but I can give you a short list of animals we saw:
- Reef sharks
- Black tips sharks
- Trigger fish
- Clown trigger fish
- Various types of morays
- Reef stonefish
- Lionfish
- Whitespotted eagle ray
- Blue stingray
- Dolphins
Now, some of them I would have preferred not to meet, like the trigger fish that I have bad memories of from the first trip (one of them attacked my husband), or the lionfish that I was not ready to see so close to me since it’s deadly (I have a detailed post about safety in the Maldives that I fully recommend you read). The dolphins we saw from the shore, I have a picture, but they’re so far away you can’t understand a thing from it.
Activities
If you wondered what can you do in the Maldives except for just laying on the beach (which is a perfect thing to do if this is what you need), I can tell you there are some activities you can try, but don’t expect to have something new to do every day for a month, like it’s the case in other destinations (hint: Japan would be a good fit for you if this is what you’re looking for).
Pool
Of course, you can spend your day at the pool, or even your whole vacation. I have never understood people who preferred the pool when the gorgeous ocean is right there, but who am I to judge your life choices?
Water sports
If you’re into water sports, then of course the Maldives will be worth it for you. The resort has a diving center on the island, and you can book your dives upon arrival, or you can go diving every day if you book the Infinity All Inclusive package.
Apart from diving, you can try surfing, parasailing, or stand-up paddleboarding. Other activities include windsurfing, jetblade, canoeing, seabob, waterskiing, jetski tours, and anything else that involves the ocean.
Of course, you can also go on boat trips with various focuses in mind, from moonlight cruises to big game fishing to sandbank picnics. You just have to look at the available options and discuss with your concierge what you’d like to try.
Nightlife
While the resort is not a party place, there are quite a few things you can do here at night. You will find printed posters with the following activities on the panels all around the island, and of course, you can ask your concierge to send you this information in the daily updates.
As spending nights out was not the purpose of our trip (my little one thinks sleeping is for losers, so we spend our nights trying to sleep instead of having fun out), I haven’t joined any of these activities, but I can share the ones I’ve seen published around the island as a short list:
- Lobster dinner – every Saturday
- Live Boduberu performance
- Romantic candlelight dinner
- Wine tasting night
- Private barbecue party
- DJ party
- Live music evening
- Cocktail evening
Now, if this is not enough for you, I get that. I was young once (I think at least, I can’t really remember), and I probably would have been bored by having only these options. But between you and me, if I were a party animal, I would choose other destinations instead, as truly the Maldives is more for chilling in the night after a full day doing water sports or for lazily lying on the beach all day.
Spa
Finally, we’re talking! Can you guess my first activity upon landing? You’re right, I did go for a massage, and I don’t regret this decision one bit. I did get a bit of help to make this decision by receiving an offer from the resort, which I assume all guests receive: a voucher for a 60-minute full-body massage per person (yes, my kid was included), with the precise purpose of refreshing us after the long flight.
The cool thing is that we wanted to enjoy a massage while here, so this was right up our alley. The price was also acceptable (for the Maldives, I mean, not in the grand scheme of things), as it was $99 per person + tax and service charge, which totaled at around $126 per person in the end.
The massage was absolutely amazing! The spa is in a secluded area of the island, a quiet, private garden where you can fully relax. The massage beds are outside, and feeling the warm breeze while enjoying a massage was very nice to me.
The oil smelled really nice, but not too strong, something I truly appreciate. The masseuse has even put a flower in my hair when she braided it again after the head massage. They collected a long list of information before the massage, like areas of my body where I would like to focus or if I had any health issues they should know about.
In the spa area, there’s a locker room where you can put all of your clothes and slip into your bathrobe, slippers, and single-use underwear. You can also shower before or after the massage, but of course, you’ll need to plan your time in such a way that this doesn’t affect the massage scheduling.
When scheduling the massage, they found a way to schedule them so that we each could stay with our little one. My husband was the first to go and enjoy his massage, and I stayed with the little one, and when we switched, they allowed my kid to go to the garden to his father while I prepared for my time for myself.
Sports
Now, I’m not the most sporty person, and anyone who knows me is probably bursting out laughing when reading this. I have recently started running, but for the moment it looks more like walking. I do this outside, though, as I want to get some fresh air, and this, of course, can be done anywhere, so I just ran around the island until I couldn’t breathe anymore (running in what feels like a sauna is not easy!).
But it seems that they have a fitness center. I haven’t checked it, honestly, I have no idea where it is, but I intend to ask the resort to help me with a few up-to-date pictures from it, as maybe you’d like to know the machines they have.
If you like team sports, they have an array of sports fields you can use. You can play tennis, table tennis, squash, badminton, basketball, and beach volleyball. Of course, this is in addition to the multiple options for water sports.
Shops
Now, don’t assume this is the place to come if shopping is your way of life (no judgement, I have more pairs of shoes than I want to admit). As the island is quite small, there are just a few tiny shops on it.
While the jewelry shop looked very interesting to me, I made my effort not to enter as I knew I would buy some nice jewelry that I’ll then ignore in a jewelry box at home. What I can tell you by looking through the window is that there were no prices displayed. Personally, I don’t like this marketing approach, as I feel they will decide a price based on my looks (or whatever other random reason), thus feeling like I’m about to be scammed (not saying this happens, this is just my perception when I don’t see prices openly displayed next to the items).
I also saw two souvenir shops, one of which also had various other items like clothes, snorkeling gear, and basic cosmetics you might have forgotten to add to your packing list. I’ve bought myself a coffee cup because this is my latest trend, and I wanted to buy some earrings, but they felt too expensive for me, so I just gave up on them.
The prices were decent; I expected worse. The only things that seemed expensive for me were suncreams and mosquito repellent, two very important items you should ensure you don’t forget. These items and a universal power plug are what I deem the absolute must-haves for this trip, but please read my detailed packing list as well to ensure you have everything you need.
Environment protection
One of the things you probably should know about the Maldives is that it’s hugely affected by climate change, and we should all focus on protecting this fragile environment by doing everything we can to keep it clean and safe.
In addition to our collective efforts, resorts have to do their part as well to keep this place afloat for longer, as they’re the biggest pollution factor in the end. I know it should be obvious that they should make all the efforts necessary, but you’d be surprised what some resorts’ management decides for some additional income.
The Royal Island Resort & Spa has put in some measures to protect the delicate environment around it. For example, they offer you only filtered water in glass bottles, and never the plastic-bottled one. Considering how much drinking water is consumed here due to the heat, this measure alone and it’s already a great progress.
Around the islands, you will find trash cans separated for various recyclable materials. Now, I’m Romanian, we have trust issues, and I hope they also truly recycle what they collect, and not in fact dump everything somewhere in the sea, but there’s no way for me to check this myself.
They also, by default, change the sheets and towels every 3 days, unless you ask for a different occurrence. This is very helpful in reducing water and detergent waste, and in my opinion, it does not affect your experience in any way.
What I have also noticed is that they don’t use that many single-use items on the island. Public restrooms (that they have a lot of and I’m so grateful!) have cloth towels, table napkins are also the cloth type, glasses are always reusable (either glass or very thick plastic), and they usually don’t bring straws with your drinks unless you specifically ask.
Another thing I noticed was that there didn’t seem to be any activities that would harm the environment happening on the island. There was no shark feeding activity, for example, and they are always planting corals (we could see the baby corals when snorkeling). I don’t know what happens on organized boat trips, as I haven’t been on one, but what I could see on the island itself looked very respectful for the environment.
Service
Where the Maldives shines, and everyone who has ever been there can tell you this, is in the service. We have rarely seen nicer people than here, and we’ve been to more than 30 countries by now. And I know, it’s part of their job to be nice, and I agree with you. But you see, I’ve worked in the service industry and have never been as nice as these people (not a good place for me to work, if anyone wants to keep their customers).
For starters, you have a concierge assigned to your room, a person who you can contact at any time with any request, and it magically happens. Now, this poses for me a question regarding respecting resting times for the employees, as we’ve been here for 8 nights, and our concierge has always answered us.
But as a service, our guy was absolutely amazing! He sent us a message every morning with activities he thought we might be interested in, answered all of our questions, and provided anything else we asked for (like an additional sunbed for my kid, changing our domestic return flight, and registering my kid for activities we were interested in).
Our room is cleaned two times a day, once during breakfast and once in the afternoon. We rarely used both these cleanings, as honestly, they’re not needed if you’re a half-decent person and don’t bring all the sand in the room. I know some people love to get the extra attention on vacation, and that’s fine, I just feel better if no one enters our room that often.
People at the restaurant are incredibly prompt and nice, with both us and the little one, always offering us anything we need for him. Even when walking around the island, everyone is incredibly nice, smiling and saying “Hi”, waving to the kids, and showing them a lizard or an interesting bird.
Someone always takes care of your luggage; you don’t have to even touch it from the moment you arrive until you leave the island. Even for small things, the service is amazing. For example, my conditioner container was blocked, but I could still use it by unscrewing the pump. I mentioned this briefly to our concierge and told him it’s not urgent for me, I could still use it, and I don’t care that much. Not 2 hours later, this was already fixed, like it wasn’t ever a problem.
Everything until now is part of their job, and I fully understand this might not be relevant to how nice the people are. But it’s no one’s job to make my kid happy, and they still did it. We were taking a walk on the pier, my kid and I, and we were looking at the fish (me trying to convince him to finally go for a swim in the ocean instead of the pool!).
A speedboat approached, and they had nothing to do for a while. So they just took my kid (after asking him if he wanted to come on the boat), called him Captain, and entertained him until they had to go. While my kid was taken care of, another nice gentleman was explaining to me where they are taking the boats at night, what’s on each island we could spot from where we were standing, and other super nice things.
Now, this is what I call “going the extra mile”. None of them had to be so nice! They could have just said “Hi” and continued with their day. But somehow, they felt the need to exchange a few words with us, and this is so precious in this world where we all ignore each other.
Special requests
If you are celebrating anything while on your trip to the Maldives, you have to mention this to your resort, no matter where you go. Even when we visited a local island a few years back, my husband received a nice beach dinner and a cake for his birthday.
If you visit during and public holiday, like during the holy month of Ramadan, during Easter or New Year’s, you can expect some sort of special activity happening on the island. We visited during Easter time, and they had a lot of special activities planned, including an Easter egg hunt for the little ones, Easter card-making activities in the Kids club, a special cocktail evening and beach dinner, and a special DJ night as well.
Plenty of resorts offer floating breakfasts, and this one is no exception. If you have a pool villa, maybe this is a nice way for you to surprise your partner, especially if you’re celebrating a birthday or anniversary.
But if you’re celebrating something, it’s better to mention this upon checking in, as you will receive a bottle of sparkling wine and a fruit basket for weddings or anniversaries, or a cake and bottle of wine for birthdays. This is all complimentary, so why not enjoy this for your special occasion?
Price and value for money
Now, for most of us, the price is an important factor when deciding on a resort, as it can vary greatly based on various criteria. While there are a few ways to save money, some things you cannot make cheaper; you can maybe only plan better and make a decision with all the information available.
We went to Royal Island Resort & Spa in April, which is the last month of the high season, but a month with lower than expected bookings (even though it was during Easter time when there’s a school vacation in plenty of European countries, an event that usually takes the prices up a bit).
Using my Booking account, we paid $2,000 for 8 nights, two adults and one 4-year-old with full board (out of which $288 was the environment fee paid directly at the resort upon arrival), and an additional $1,000 for the return transfer for the three of us ($400 per adult and $200 per child).
Now, a week after we made our reservations, they published an offer on Booking that they would offer a discount of 50% off the transfer price for bookings of more than 7 nights between April and September (if my memory serves me well). As you can see, we would qualify for this offer, but we had already booked our reservation, and the price difference was about $500, which is no small potatoes for me.
So I did what I assume other people would have thought about, I wrote them mentioning the offer, and that our reservation would qualify for it, and asked if we could benefit from it as well (we could have used resort credit as well, not necessarily a discount straight from the price, if this would be easier logistically to organize). They very politely told us this is impossible, as they only mean new reservations, even though, again, we were matching the criteria.
Now, I understand not being able to honour an offer retroactively, but I would also understand my frustration as a customer to not benefit from something I qualify for. So yes, this left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, but well, we still decided to choose the resort nonetheless. But if anyone part of the resort’s management reads this (and I hope they are), maybe they’ll find a better way to handle this in the future.
When it comes to prices, you have to think about food and drinks, activities, and miscellaneous things. Please always keep in mind that everything is subject to tax (17%) and service charge (10%), and plan your budget accordingly.
Food and drinks, honestly, just buy the meal plan that caters to your needs. On our first trip, we only wanted half board (breakfast and dinner), as we were waking up late and eating dinner early, and this was enough for us at that time. On this trip, we took full board mostly because of the little one (I think he would eat me if he weren’t given his food on time).
When it comes to drinks, especially if you enjoy more than one alcoholic drink a day (no judgment here), just get the all-inclusive package. Just the stress of counting everything you consume will be way too much for what’s intended to be a relaxing time. And since everything you buy on the island is just added to your room tab, the amount spent is less visible, so there’s a high chance you’ll realize just at the end of the trip how much you’ve spent (and this is not a surprise anyone likes).
Activities are another topic that might add to your invoice, as they can be quite pricey, especially if bought individually and not part of a package. A package of 1-4 dives (tanks and weights per dive) starts at $110 per dive + tax, assuming you have all of your equipment and are already PADI certified. You can find the latest list of prices on their website, and please check everything quite well so that you can decide if you want individual dives or if you should choose the Infinity All Inclusive package instead.
As I have mentioned, there are a few shops on the island, and you can get various things from them. I have just bought a coffee cup as a souvenir (I have a small obsession with coffee cups from places I travel, organizing them is becoming challenging, though) for $20.
I checked a few other prices as well, for example, a sun cream was $30 (proving my feeling that you need to be very organized with your packing list to ensure you’re not spending a lot on necessary items on the island. A toothpaste was about $10, which is not a lot, but compared to its price anywhere else in the world, it is quite a price hike.
If you want to offer a tip to employees on the island (and I warmly suggest that you do so, if you can afford it), you’ll have to bring some cash with you, preferably dollar bills in good condition. You can also leave a tip from your card, as we did for our awesome concierge. When we settled our bill at the end of the trip, we told them the amount and for whom to leave the tip, and we just paid for it by card (we used Revolut, which you might know we love, and it worked perfectly fine).
The dark side (what we didn’t like)
There’s nothing perfect in this world; even salted caramel ice cream has its downside. So this island is not perfect either, and that’s fine. What matters is for you to find out if it’s perfect for you. What follows is a list of things that annoyed me, and some that didn’t, but I thought maybe they’ll annoy you, so I took note of them anyway. Just read everything and decide for yourself what’s acceptable and what isn’t.
For me, one of the major red flags was giving us 2-3 bottles of water every day, and charging if you’d like more. Now, I understand they have to run a business, but is really “drinking water” the item to build a business on? I absolutely understand for other types of drinks, as they’re part of a separate meal plan, but when it comes to drinking water, this is the hill I’ll die on.
Now, to be fair, no one asked us for money for any bottle of water, and you do have water at meal times, so this is just water you have available in the room, and it probably is enough for most people. I just feel uneasy when I don’t have unlimited drinking water at hand, but maybe you’re normal.
Another point that my husband didn’t appreciate is the open-air bathroom. While most people love it, we’re the weird ones who don’t, as no matter how cute it looks, we’d just prefer it to be functional rather than pretty. My husband is absolutely delicious for mosquitoes (they don’t even look at me when he’s around), and every trip to the bathroom had to be prefaced with a thorough spray of mosquito repellent.
On my side, I hated sweating when brushing my teeth, as you just have to go from an air-conditioned room to a hot sauna every time you needed to use the bathroom in any way. On top of this, I haven’t found a toilet brush or a bum gun in the restroom, and luckily, we didn’t need one. While I could have asked for it, I can’t help but think this should be included in the default setup of a bathroom.
Mosquitoes are indeed another issue on this island, although they were doing quite a lot to get rid of them. Fogging two times a day was apparently not enough, as there were some rains recently that increased the mosquito population (why I always suggest bringing mosquito repellent with you). The rooms are also equipped with mosquito repellent devices and a bug spray you can use if needed, and between this and the air conditioning, we were quite safe in the room.
Another item that might bother some people is the sand. While it is white and powdery like you would expect, this is not the case on all sides of the island, and you’ll feel different textures when taking a walk. It’s also not kept scrupulously clean; it often has small branches and leaves in it.
This doesn’t bother me as they’re part of nature (unlike plastics, which would bother me, but I’ve never seen any), but people with sensitive feet might not appreciate this, or they might decide to wear water shoes on the beach as well (and you should wear them in the water too).
Another thing about the sand is that it often has ants in it, at least in front of our villa, there were quite a lot of them. This doesn’t bother me either; they’re part of life, and my kid had fun playing with them, but I know people who are bothered by any insect they see, so I wanted to mention it anyway.
The second-to-last complaint you’ll read from me is about the kids’ club. While the people are incredibly nice and careful with our little munchkins, the schedule is not the most convenient, as activities are available for about 2 hours a day, and sometimes not in a row. When you take your kid to a kids club, one hour is not that much time, really, if you include drop-off and pick-up.
We could barely enjoy a snorkel together in these conditions, and luckily I have my waterproof watch so I could be completely aware of the time (not very relaxing though). Additionally, one of the days I left my kid at the kids club (they were doing henna tattoos as an activity), upon arrival, I found him watching cartoons on a phone. Now, truth be told, the lady was taking care of a giant tattoo a kid wanted to she couldn’t also watch my son at the same time, but maybe this could be better organized with more people available for activities like this.
And I saved the best (or the worst) for the end. At least for me, this is the worst, but again, I might be strange. While doing my evening runs (or whatever anyone might call my sport activities), I have not only once spotted rats on the island. To be completely upfront, I hate rats; I think I have a phobia, so I am extra aware of them wherever I go.
I also saw the employees putting traps around the island, nicely hidden under fallen leaves, so they are not very visible, and there is an effort made to fix this issue. And I have to be honest, I’ve seen rats in way too many places I haven’t expected, Rome, Bali, and Switzerland being just a few examples I remember from the top of my head.
Alternatives
Now, especially after reading the previous complaints, I can understand that maybe you’d like to look for an alternative to this resort. This is why I actually wrote this part as well, as I know nothing can be for everyone, and you need the full information to make the best decision. As alternatives, I can recommend the two other islands I’ve been on (I’m intentionally ignoring Male here because I would only recommend you to go there for a night at most).
The other resort island I’ve visited is Bandos, and we loved it for the good food and overall feel of the island. The dining options are more varied than at Royal Island Resort & Spa, and the island feel is way more tropical and chill. On the other hand, the marine life is not at the level of Royal Island, as Bandos is closer to the airport, so the water is more polluted.
The other island I can recommend is Bodufolhudhoo, a small local island. The marine life here was absolutely amazing, probably the same or a bit better than at Royal Island, and the beach experience is overall very nice. The experience is, of course, different as it’s a local island (for example, you have to follow some special rules here, and alcohol is under strict prohibition), but you’ll also get to see the local people and experience a bit of their life, and this for me is priceless.
Personal thoughts
Phew! That was a lot, even for me! You’ve read almost 10k words, more than some kids these days are reading in a month, so kudos to you if you made it this far!
Overall, with all the info I gave you already, and based on what I would call “my feeling”, I would recommend this island to families with kids, and couples looking for a chill holiday. I wouldn’t recommend it for people looking for a vivid nightlife, as a party resort would be better for them.
There are indeed some things the management can improve, and I will try to contact them to address this if possible, but even until then, the island is definitely a good choice for you if you’re looking for rich marine life, a safe environment for your little ones, and a peaceful atmosphere.
The takeaway
Royal Island Resort & Spa is a small and cozy island in the Baa Atoll of the Maldives, with diverse marine life, a good choice of food and activities to offer, and a great setup for families with children (kids club, medical center, shallow pool). After visiting it in April, I would fully recommend it to anyone asking, and I hope you get to visit it soon. You can check the prices and availability below!
If you’re ready to go to the Maldives, may I interest you in some other helpful guides for your upcoming trip? Check them out below!
- Do you need vaccinations for the Maldives?
- Do you need a visa when traveling to the Maldives?
- Can you take shells from the Maldives?
- Maldives dress code
- Maldives’ rules for tourists
- Mistakes to avoid in the Maldives
