Maldives Complete’s most popular article by far has been “How to Pick Your Perfect Maldives Resort” with 288 comments. But it was written way back in 2013 and the destination, and the considerations around choosing a resort, have shifted a fair bit.
Some considerations are virtually identical …
- Large or small island?
- How important is off-beach snorkelling?
- Seaplane ride?
- Children?
Some questions are also the same except for my commentary with numbers…
- What’s your budget? – While the question remains the same, my comment that resorts “vary in cost from £1,000 per week to over £10,000” would have to change to “vary in cost from £200 to £20,000 per night”
- All Inclusive? – Same consideration as before but instead of “38 out of 132 resorts offer all inclusive”, it is now “59 out of 186”
- Any favourite activities? – Same consideration as before but instead “now with over 120 resorts, there is something for everyone” the count has grown to 186.
The one question that has changed quite dramatically (and the one which was one of the primary drivers to be creating the spreadsheet which led to the website) is “does the resort have a pool”. When I first published the piece, I noted that “86 out of 132 resorts have pools” (65%…lots of choice but certainly no guarantee). Today, 180 out of 186 – 97%! – have a resort pool. So not so difficult to find a resort with one (in fact, the real challenge is finding one without one). What I noted in my article addendum I made in October 2020 was that the new thing was “private pools” for each villa. These days, 727 room categories out of 1,406 (or 51%) have their very own dedicated private pools. So the question is really more “do you want your own private pools” and it is less a question of finding a resort than finding a suitable room type at a resort.
And as my follow up piece, “How to Pick the Perfect Maldives Villa” noted, the villa “pool” consideration itself has lots of variations, ie. luxury, standard, plunge, jacuzzi.