St. Regis vs. Ritz Carlton Maldives

For those looking for a Marriott property in Maldives, you probably have come across a lot of reviews raving about both the St Regis and the Ritz Carlton. I have summarized my thoughts on both based on my stay at the St Regis in Jan 2020 and Ritz Carlton in Nov 2022


TLDR version

St regis if

  • you have platinum and above, want free breakfast buffet

  • You care more about snorkeling and seeing underwater life more easily

  • You want slightly bigger rooms and like having huge hammocks over the water

  • You want to experience the infinity hydro jetted spa pool 


Ritz if 

  • You want higher chance of getting a room with emerald blue lagoon 

  • Easier travel between Male and resort 

  • Newer resort with a more modern look and feel 

  • You want to visit a sandbank 

Food & Wine

Both resorts have 3-4 options for dinners every night and at least 2 of them are outstanding. Ritz also hosts special dinners at their impressive wine room, which adds to the experience. Both offer wine tasting experience! St regis wine room is enormous and wine tasting along with an aroma kit was super fun. Ritz was in an intimate oceanview cellar and started with a sabrage! Both had an extensive premium wine list. Both breakfast buffets had free flowing prosecco/champange, although I did love having fresh salmon and tuna sashimi at the St Regis. 

Ritz: 5 stars 

St Regis: 5 stars 

Scenery, beach, pool 

Overall look at feel of the resort beach and pool is probably a personal preference but I personally liked beaces, pool, view from the rooms at Ritz slightly better. But honestly can’t go wrong with either options here. One special perks of Ritz is you can visit the sand lagoon, tiny sand island in the middle of the emerald blue ocean. 

Ritz: 5 stars

St Regis: 4.5 stars 

Activities 

We tried participating in more activities in St regis (daily morning workouts, painting class, snorkeling) vs. at the Ritz where we spent most of the times just chilling. So I can’t really speak for them but Ritz does offer daily morning yoga sessions, whereas St. Regis offered different workout classes each morning. This might be part of “food & wine” as well but I loved the daily sunset Sabrage at the St. Regis! Amazing view and free glass of Champagne :)

Ritz: 4.5 

St Regis: 5 stars

Service

This might be more dependent on who you get for your personal butler, while the entire staff went above and beyond at both resort, we felt like our personal butler at St regis was more proactive in making our stay amazing. 

Ritz: 5 stars 

St Regis: 5+ stars

Room 

This scoring is mostly due to the fact that Ritz was the second time we’ve been to Maldives and we  knew what to ask for. We did more research on the type of room we might like more and noted our preference to the hotel, which got us to a beautiful lagoon view over the water villa for 3 nights and sunset beach villa for 2. At the St. Regis, the base room is the garden villa and all we asked for was an over the water upgrade and while beautiful and better for snorkeling, it didn’t have the emerald blue lagoon view.  St Regis’s villa size is slightly bigger but the size difference is negligible. St Regis overwater hammock is amazing (vs small hammock on the deck at Ritz) but the Ritz infinity pool was more picturesque. 

Ritz: 5

St Regis: 4.5


If anything, refer to the photos and I’ll let them speak for themselves. Pick the one you like better! 

St Regis

Ritz Carlton Maldives

If you are curious about Beach Villa vs. Overwater Villa at Ritz, I’ve summarized the two in this IG post!

Best inflight wine: Qatar Airways First Class

For our recent travel to Maldives from SFO, we were able to redeem American Airline points for First Class seats on a roundtrip fare between Doha-Male. I have heard amazing reviews about Qatar Airlines business and first class (especially food and wine). Here’s my take of the experience

Al Safwa First Class Lounge

This was the best airport lounge I’ve ever been to (Cathay’s in Hong Kong is a close second) based on the size, service, amenities, food and drinks. They had nap rooms (that were actually more like a hotel room) with private shower and bathroom, multi-course dining, sushi bar, and a great selection of drinks. Their wine list included

Inflight food and beverage

Qatar is famous for serving Krug for their first class and we were in for a treat. They were serving Krug 2004 and Bollinger rosé 2008 paired with a caviar plate. Appetizer and main dish (choices include scallops, tuna, lobster, steak, fish) were delicious as well. We were so sad this leg was only 4hrs 50min 😂

Other details worth noting

  • Our flight coming back to Doha from Male required a shuttle transfer from the plane to the gate and this was the first time we saw a separate bus for first class passengers. We were the only passengers in the first class cabin and were the only ones on the bus as well.

  • Qatar Airways is very strict with the entrance requirement to the Al Safwa lounge. You can only enter if your outbound flight is in first class (or the very front seat of the plane) or if your inbound flight in first class is longer than 5hrs. They have separate lounges for business class, card holders, and elite members. There were conflicting reviews and anecdotes on different forums but we actually were not able to get in on our way back because our flight was 10 minutes short of 5 hours.

  • First class seats are usually double the price of business seats and don’t think most people pay for first class, hence we were the only people in the first class cabin both ways.

We loved the experience overall and would love to do it again. I’m not a points expert but the points guy has an article on redeeming points for Qatar Airways. Highly recommend trying this if you can!

Maldives resort for best food and wine - Ritz Maldives

Food and wine is always a big part of our travels, regardless of destination. Maldives isn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind for foodies or wine lovers, mostly because you can’t really leave the resort island once you check-in. However, if you pick the right resort, you would be pleasantly surprised at the quality of food and wine. Here’s a quick review and a few tips on food and wine at the Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands.

Wine tasting experience (my favorite)!

A few different resorts in Maldives have an impressive cellar including Ritz and their sister property St. Regis. Ritz Maldives’ cellar is still growing since it’s a newer resort, but experience was top notch. It started with a sparkling wine sabrage, opening a bottle using a saber by the emerald blue ocean. Once the excitement kicks in, you go into a glass wine cellar room that overlooks the Maldives ocean and taste through ~5 different wines from Champagne, whites, and red from various wine regions of the world. Highly recommend!

Amazing on-site restaurant options

We spend 5 nights at the Ritz and did not have a bad meal there. Our favorite restaurant was Summer Pavillion, Chinese cuisine inspired by Singapore's Michelin-starred Summer Pavilion. They often get booked up so highly recommend asking your Aris Meeha (butler) to book in advance. We ate there twice during our stay. Italian restaurant La-locanda, where you can have breakfast, lunch, and dinner was also excellent. Breakfast buffet has free flowing prosecco and fresh juices if you want to make your own mimosa. We had Maldivian buffet for one of the nights and felt like it was a good value for us as it included various ceviches, lobster, gilled meats, fish, and desserts. While it’s always a good idea to make a reservation, we actually didn’t reserve the buffet in advance but were able to take a look at the buffet menu on the day and decided to participate.

Another detail that we loved as wine lovers is you can order a bottle of wine and if you can’t finish it, you can either ask the restaurant to keep for another night or send it to your room. They do an amazing job at re-sealing the wine and delivering as if it’s new (minus the wines you already drank 😆).

High quality room service

We originally didn’t plan on ordering a room service (as we always feel like food is more fresh at the restaurant) but due to our mistake in opening hours, we decided to lunch in our beach villa room. Plus we had a bottle of welcome Champagne so it worked out perfectly! We ordered a shrimp pad thai and a ribeye steak and to our surprise, the meal was as good as any restaurant. Food came hot but not overcooked, pad thai noodles were still fresh and steak was cooked perfectly to medium rare. If we go back, we will definitely do more of this.

With all these wine and food, 5 nights went by way too quickly and we can’t wait to return! Do note that mark up on food and wine bottles is pretty high given how far these resorts are but it was worth splurging for a dream vacation :)