Royal Island Resort at Baa Atoll Biosphere Reserve ★★★★★

From Male airport we were greeted from hotel representatives who told us exactly how and when we will get to the resort. When reaching. the island, the checkin was very fast, and every booking was assigned to a host. Our host Thoo was always available to answer questions, help with various things, and every morning she send us messages about the events on the island. It was great to have this kind of host service , and Thoo was amazing at making us feel welcome and always attended to. The breakfast, lunch and dinner was excellent, with a plethora of selections every day , and of course amazing fresh coconut milk and coconut ice cream. Everything was very clean and the staff was always smiling, which made us feel at home. The beach villa was excellent, it was cleaned twice a day, and everything was kept clean and up to high standards. The cleaning staff was every day the same for our villa , and he was doing a great job. The towel quality, sheet quality and air condition quality was excellent and you could see these were well maintained. Overall it was a great feeling to be in Royal island resort that we will remember for a long time.

It wasnt clear to us beforehand that the non rainy season in Ba atoll area ( December to Feb ) was actually off season for manta rays and whale sharks. I think this is something that can easily be missed, that only at Ari atoll during this time one will be able to see these amazing creatures. If you are a fan of snorkelling and your dream was to see these, then you will have to pay 2500 dollars to get a long trip to Ari Atoll from the Royal island. They didn't try to organise a trip with many people so they were giving us an individual price. Would have been great if they would advertise this expedition and if enough people showed up then to get a more reasonable price.

Our host Minimol was great!Beautiful place ,good staff, clean room.

Complicate and uncomfortable transfer. the hotel does not correspond to five stars

Friendly staff. Good food variety. Great beaches. Beach villa with pool was outstanding.

Five star resort, but instant coffee in room??

- snorkeling : amazing lagoons & reefs with lot of fishes including sharks and turtles just in front of our bungalow - hotel in the nature (trees, palm trees, orchids, flowers, bats, grey herons, ravens...) - very well maintened hotel with lots of employees - amazing buffet with a wide choice. We stayed 7 nights and it was different each day - lots of activities (however rates for a few are not reasonable). Good gym club. - Wonderful sunsets from the beach - Assistance by a dedicated person during all the stay (special thanks to Mini who took care of us always with the smile) - Employees are very polite - No mosquitos at all (mid january 2024) - Housekeeping twice a day - Good Wifi and air conditioning - Very beautiful and relaxing spa - Swimming pool not used, lagoon is more attractive - Water bottles provided for free - Transfer from Malé airport well organized

- No power socket close to the bed - Rate for the internal transfer from Malé airport is not mentioned before the hotel booking. Then you learnt that you have to pay about 400$/person, no other option. You can wait lots of hours between the international flight and the internal flight, you will know the schedule only the day before - Rates for sea activities and spas are just too high. Don t hesitate to ask information before coming just to have an idea - Rates for special diners are as well incredible high - However you can enjoy your stay without any of the extra above

The beach villa is well maintained, spa with well-trained staff, very nice staff and responsive to customers' requests, very nice snorkeling with variety of fishes and sea life.

Very small island with the narrow beach, the transfer from Male is done with an internal flight which adds another 6 hrs, long waitting for internal flight.

Lovely island in beautiful Baa Atol. Very good snorkling on house reef with all sizes of black tips, eagle rays and enormous amounts of fish! Nice food, lots of choice and kind staff, in very casual setting, all in all great experience!

Quite some musquitos..

Everything from the arrival to the departure was absolutely beyond expectation !! ..The staff treated us above and beyond expectation ...My partner had her birthday while there ,, she was treated to the the room being decorated and then cake and wine at the restaurant in the evening,, they really do go that extra mile to please.. We really didn't want to leave .....

There was nothing to complain about!!!

The staff is well trained, friendly and professional. Many gluten free option with every meal. It is not easy to get to the resort but absolutely worth it.

None

Everything. Location, hospitality of staff, food. I mean literally every aspect of staying in that hotel was excellent!

Nothing

Fantastic views, good food, good bar. Hotel saff is very professional, friendly and helpful. 

Airport transfers comprise flights by local airlines to- and from- the nearby island. These flights were always late, will keep you sitting hours in waiting rooms and you may miss your return flight home from the main airport.

We had a family pool villa facing the sunrise, a nice beach, a good option with two children. The island has multiple ways of entertaining, watersports, diving, spa, tennis, pool,, all activities that we tried were nice. The food is great, especially the fish and beef, and the tables were distanced in order to maintain Covid-19 safety. We felt great the whole 6 days of the holiday.

When we arrived, we had a little work to do on check-in with the GRO representative to give us the Premium All-Inclusive package that clearly stated in the booking, he insisted that we should receive "basic" All Inclusive (that did not include some drinks, an excursion, and few other perks). We prefer to think that he was less experienced in the job. However, he spoke with his manager and finally, they gave us the package as booked. Except for that, all human service was great. The private sandbank excursion is private only as of the boat ride to it. When we arrived there there were tenths of locals from the inhabited islands around. Our guide from the resort told us that the sandbank is private usage to Royal Island but however the reality seems to be different. So if you have dreams of being Robinson on a deserted island, this "private" sandbank is not the place. Except for that, the sand is great and there is a little (mostly bleached) reef on one side of the sandbank, you can enjoy few hours outside the resort (most probably, not "private").

Beach, snorkeling, diving

The island was beautiful and the staff was extremely pleasant. We enjoy bring active and we found plenty of options - badminton, squash, tennis, gym and yoga studio. The snorkeling was A-mazing! The staff at the diving center was super helpful with recommendations. The turtle swim was also unforgettable!

Many comments say that the transfer from Male is poorly organized and the wait is long. Based on these comments I have emailed the hotel asking about the wait time given our arrival time. I was told it will be a 2-3 wait including check-in and such. Well, like everyone said, it took us 7 hrs to get to the island. We would have appreciated being given realistic information. Our expectations would have been very different.

From the first second I step to this resort, all were great, I can say this resort has everything I need. Restaurant with good food & friendly chef. Great villa, great beach, great sport facilities. Most of frontliner staff were nice and friendly. Unfortunetaly all these beautiful things has been spoiled by rude Manager. Before we had medical problem, we were very happy and satisfy with this resort. But after I met this manager, I won't come back to this resort anymore, unless they change the Manager.

1. Manager Hotel doesnt know how to treat his guest. What is in his mind is only money and money. He did not care about medical problem which my friend had. He doesnt know how to talk to his customer. Normally people stay in this resort for 1 week, and we paid for 23 days, but still no respect to us. 2. In the Bar, the waiters made us uncomfortable, keep coming pushing us to order something eventhough wr still not finish up our drink. This made this resort look cheap. 3. Same thing happen in restaurant. Every table has a person who assigned to serve the drink (free water for lunch & dinner & free coffee or tea on breakfast). This person, everyday pushed us to order alcohol drink or coconut. We really felt not comfortable with that. This also made this resort look cheap.

Nice island and beaches, calm enviroment, warm Ocean, beautiful water wildlife, great choice of food, etc. So if you want to hang on and rest, snorkeling in the Ocean for hours, than Maldives one of the best place.

The hotel itself a bit old fashion and hard to get there from the airport (waiting 2-3 hours for sheduled plane after 15 hours travel from Hungary, 30 min small plane based on time table and speed boat).

The island is perfect, the villa itself is also superb BUT your comfort depends on the villa you get. We were living close to the garbage sector where they burn the garbage and the smell was awful. Luckily the resort tried to solve this problem and offered us another villa and reduced the amount of garbage being burned. So if you’re very sensitive to the smell I would recommend to book villas on another side of the island (eastern side). Also the quality of the beach varies. However we really enjoyed our stay there.

Smell of burning garbage

It was good island but small not much to do

We had to do the PCR test one day before but the staff didn’t say anything about it till we came and ask one day before then they say you were supposed to do it before we already sent the symbols so we had to leave to the airport 24 hours before our flight and stay all day all night at the airport to do and wait for the test results. Plus when we arrived their representative told us to go inside the city while there was Clinc inside the airport but we were lucky and we found out about that Clinc before we went out anyways everything was ok except they should be more conscious about these things which would make the trip so miserable.

The beach was great and well maintained, housekeeping staff was swepping the leaves off the beach every morning. The selection of drinks was great and so were the facilities and the trips that the hotel organizes. You could never get bored there.

I, as well as other travelers, spotted several rats along the beach which was rather disgusting. The bathrooms were not equipped with toilet brushes which was very odd and housekeeping staff did not know much about personal space. They kept moving things around and even throwing away some personal belongings like vitamins that were left on the table.

Good value for its price. All staff is very friendly, from restaurant to bar to reception to room cleaners. Very good dive center, good equipment, attentive and professional diving instructors, amazing dive sites at close distance. A place to fully enjoy your AOWD certification. One an only Iru Suite - #132. This wonderful villa is perfect for a family with kids. It has 2 bedrooms (each with its own bathroom) and a pool. Definitely made our holiday, despite squeaky wood floors and overall feeling of traveling 30 years back in time. We felt very comfortable, there are separate ACs in each of 6 rooms of this house, so we never had any problems setting a right temperature etc. One important advantage of this villa is its location at the end of the island, so you have your own sector of the beach without close neighbors.

The majority of the rooms (with the exception of 2 villas at the eastern and western ends of the island) are located very close to each other. So in those regular rooms you would miss the feeling of seclusion and quietness that you usually expect from a Maldivian resort. Pathways through the island are paved with stone tiles. This is something you expect from Turkey/Dominican Rep/Mexico, but not the Maldives. The island is surrounded by a breakwater wall made of big black stones. This makes the place comfortable for small children, but somewhat spoils the view. We were on the all-inclusive package, so in most cases our drinks were included. Every time you take a free drink at the bar, you are required to sign a check with zero amount, that's a bit annoying.

Everything was amazing. It's really hard to find words for kindness professionalism of the resort staff. Our housekeeper Mr. Muneesh did outstanding job to make our stay complete and comfortable. Always fresh towels and spotless room without disturbing our belongings it felt better than at home. Our waiter Mr. Zubair was also very attentive and caring during our delicious meals. Food was very tasty and versatile, I think everyone could find something to their tastes and cravings. All Island well maintained, clean and welcoming, clean beaches. You mast try snorkel here it's amazing also bring your water sports shoes or sandals further out into ocean where white sand ends there corals and rocks with amazing tropical fish, rays, reef sharks etc. We had unforgettable experience.

Little beat pricy transfer. But I guess everything should have it's adequate price.