JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa

The experience at JW Marriott was great and we were impressed with both the service and the facilities. Our housekeeper Shamil's meticulous care made our trip happier. Will choose here again next time!

Nice hotel and service are good

We had the pleasure of spending our Honeymoon on this island and although the vacation was extremely expensive it was one of the best experiences our life and worth it for our special occasion. We ended up spending 15.000 USD for 5 nights which is an average of 3k per night. We opted for all included in food but still it was a price extremely high for our expectation. The staff has made the experience special, from our personal assistant Naawish to the chef who made specially handmade gluten free food for me, his name is Rohit. He made me experience for the first time in my life Prata and other Indian food thanks to his skill in making everything gluten free for me. There are 5 or 6 restaurants in the island so there are plenty of option for you to eat every day in a different place. They also surprised us during the stay with small surprises for our honeymoon like giving us special seating on the dock during our last night and few other small gestures that were highly appreciated. The island is gorgeous and I think it's quite private so you have so many time in which you have the beach all for yourself. We stayed in both Overwater Villa and Beach Villa and I recommend doing the same so you can experience both during the stay. There are few reason that made me give though 4 stars and not 5 and here are some of the consideration if you plan to stay here: - Missing points as Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Member: For some reason the points received after the stay as Platinum member are less than what I was expecting. I reached out to them and they called me and sent me various emails acknowledging that I have not received what I and they were expecting. Up to this day (3 weeks from my stay) I still haven't received the missing points. Unfortunately they after stay support hasn't not been great and this has affected the overall experience. (Hopefully somebody from their staff will read this and follow up from my emails) - this brings to the second point. All activities, photo shooting, Taxes, GST, seaplane are not eligible for Points. For us was 33% of our overall spending (only 9.8k out of 15k spent were eligible for points). That's a lot of points and honestly I wasn't expecting to miss so many points from the stay. - This island is extremely expensive. We have traveled a lot around the world and this has been the most expensive place we have been. be ready to spend way more than you plan. Between villa, food and other activities we had planned 2k USD a day but we ended up spending 3k a day. Anything you do is expensive, even something simple like Shisha that anywhere else would cost you 30$ here will cost you more than 100$ . We had some photos taken by the photographer and it cost 450 USD to have a digital copy of them. I was honestly expecting to have it included in the package since we spent over 15.000 $

The Maldives is a nation of over 1,000 islands and atolls spread out across 90,000 square kilometres in the Indian Ocean. Visiting any of its resorts requires flying into Malé, the Maldavian capital island and then taking separate transportation, usually via seaplane or speedboat, to the resort itself. For most of the Maldives resorts, once you’ve made a reservation, the resort takes care of all the pre-arrival logistics so that you don’t have to worry about anything. The JW Marriott Maldives was no exception, confirming our seaplane bookings on our behalf and having staff members at the International Airport to take care of arriving and departing guests. Upon arrival into Male, our JW Marriott hosts took our passports and completed check-in with Trans Maldivian Airways on our behalf. After check-in was complete and we had our boarding passes in hand, we boarded the JW Marriott private transport and driven across the airport towards the dedicated lounge facilities for guests who are awaiting their seaplane journey. Along the way, the driver let us know there was complimentary wifi onboard, the first of countless acts of going the extra mile service that we experienced on this trip. We were invited to make ourselves comfortable for the 30-minute wait before it would be time to board the seaplane. The JW Marriott Maldives, which completely encompasses Vagaru island in the remote Shaviyani Atoll, is a spectacular 50 minute seaplane ride and has to be one of the highlights of your holiday. It has to be said, that hotels here are very few and far between, so there’s pretty much uninterrupted views without another island in sight. This island won’t disappoint, with its amazing pure white sandy beaches and electric blue waters, plus, seclusion and serenity are the signature offering here! Vagaru island was a former resort adopted by JW Marriott with the designers having to work around many of the existing buildings. The result is a quirky take on a contemporary style with natural elements. All 60 villas have been designed from the outside to mimic the lines of a traditional Maldivian Dhoni boat. Each has a decent sized outdoor deck as well as a private pool. We booked the duplex villa option which gets a separate second en-suite room. This worked particularly well as we were travelling with two kids and gave us all our own space. Villas are categorised by their sunrise or sunset views and you can choose between overwater or beach, although do note, the overwater villas are set along quite a lengthy jetty. These villas also have bathrooms that overlook the walkway, so you will need to drop the blinds for privacy. For those staying in overwater villas which do not have the direct beach access, there are a plenty of designated sun lounger spots. The JW caters very well for both families and couples alike. There’s a large T-shaped family pool and then a separate pool called Pool 18, designed for adults-only. Pool 18 reaches out over the sea with am