The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort Review

Service

The butlers make this place. Mine was waiting at the jetty when the seaplane landed, offered to unpack the cases, and from then on ran everything over WhatsApp, from dinner tables to a snorkel trip to a bath drawn for the end of the day. Coffee arrives at the villa in the morning, and clothes are pressed at no charge. The housekeepers are just as much a part of it, and I came back most evenings to a note written on the window or a message laid out in leaves on the bed.

Each butler looks after a lot of villas, though, so the service is quick when you ask and less good at guessing what you want. When the island is full, over Christmas and through February, the team at Alba can look stretched and breakfast service slows down. There's also a quiet expectation of a cash tip for your butler, and no cash machine on the island, so bring dollars.

Rooms

The villas are the reason to come, and I'd book a Sunset Overwater Villa. There are 77 of them, 33 on the island and 44 over the water, every one with its own pool, and even the smallest is around 140 square metres. The overwater ones are shaped like manta rays, with high timber ceilings, a huge bathroom, an iPad that runs the curtains and lights, and a wide deck with a pool, a daybed and steps straight down into the lagoon, so you can snorkel the reef from your own ladder. The deck faces the afternoon sun, though, and it's too hot to sit out between about eleven and four, so plan to be in the water or under a fan then.

The Beach Villas are lovely if you want shade and sand between your toes, though the planting means you see less sea than the name suggests. I'd skip the Garden Villas unless you're on points and hoping to be moved up. They're big and private, with no view of the water at all.

The resort opened in 2016 and has been kept up, with new decking, roofs and timber over the years. Look closely, though, and some interiors are starting to show their age, and I found the earthy colours a little sombre. The wifi is slow, too.

Food and drink

Breakfast at Alba is my favourite meal on the island. It's an enormous spread with a menu of cooked dishes on top, from dosas and idlis to Maldivian tuna curry and very good croissants, and there's a duck confit waffle I'd order every morning. Dinner at Alba is Italian and reliable.

I'd start the evening at the Whale Bar, built over the water in the shape of a whale shark, where a bottle of champagne is sabred at sunset every day. Then I'd book Cargo, a lantern-lit spot in the gardens with an Indian Ocean spice menu, and keep T-Pan, a small Japanese counter, for a special night. Decanter, the underground wine cellar, does a paired tasting dinner that is the big splurge, and for lunch the pizzas at Crust and Craft are the best value on the island.

It isn't all at the same level, and it's priced steeply even for the Maldives. Orientale, for sushi on the beach, can be hit and miss for the money, and the Indian dishes at breakfast are better than the ones at dinner. Main courses run from about $50 to well over $100, cocktails are $20 to $25, and bottled water is free in your villa but charged in the restaurants. A couple who drink lightly should still allow $300 to $400 a day beyond breakfast.

Setting

The house reef is the best surprise here. Blacktip and whitetip reef sharks, stingrays, turtles and the odd octopus turn up most days, a few fin kicks from the overwater villas. The coral itself is still recovering, so come for the fish, and the snorkel gear, kayaks and paddleboards are free.

On land it's not one of the barefoot, castaway islands. The centre is thick jungle with sandy paths you cycle along, which I love, but the beaches are narrow and partly man-made, and rock breakwaters interrupt the view along some stretches. The Iridium Spa, shaped like a lobster, has a saltwater hydrotherapy pool called the Blue Hole that's worth an afternoon, though there's a charge for it.

Getting here takes some planning. Vommuli is in Dhaalu Atoll, a 45-minute seaplane south of Male, with a private lounge at the terminal, and waits of an hour or two for a seat are normal. The planes only fly in daylight, so if your international flight lands after mid-afternoon you'll need a night near the airport first.

Value

No, not if you're paying cash. Garden Villas start at around $1,700 a night in the wet months from May to September, and overwater villas are around $2,500 to $3,500 for much of the year and far higher over Christmas and New Year. The seaplane, which isn't optional, adds about $900 a person return before you've eaten anything. A lot of guests are here on hotel points, and for them it's one of the great bargains in travel, but at cash rates the service and the beach fall short of the very best resorts in the country.

If you do pay cash, travel between May and mid-December, when the resort often takes a quarter or more off the rate and includes half board. Read the terms, because it has to be taken for every night, drinks aren't part of it and some dishes carry a supplement. For the sharpest service in the country at the very top, I'd look at Cheval Blanc Randheli, and the Waldorf Astoria Ithaafushi saves you the seaplane.