Hello Friends!

So…. I spent a little longer than expected just talking about the introductory parts about Raaya, so I figured I need a post just to talk about our experience there. Honestly, we had a pretty good time overall, but for clarity’s sake, I thought I’d break this post into different sections as well.

Staff – Super Friendly

First up, the staff at Raaya were incredible! This is our first time in Maldives, so we don’t know how normal this is but everyone was so warm and friendly. Besides our Island Manager, Achala, we also met many wonderful people, such as Mo, Mary, and Amir, who were from various restaurants/places in the island and were always engaging and ready to help or give a recommendation. Unfortunately, it is a big flaw of mine that I don’t remember names or the list would be longer!

Other incidents that stand out include: while we were rushing to get to the dive center, a lifeguard at the beach near our villas helped us check for the buggy location so we could decide if it was faster to catch the buggy and that really helped us make it for the cruise (if we did not, it would have been our fault for losing track of time).

Additionally, we had an outdoor meal at Mizaq (Middle Eastern cuisine) booked and it was raining slightly on and off that day – the lady (I think it was Mary, actually) immediately let us know that even if the rain had stopped, it could restart and asked us if we wanted to rebook for the next day instead of waiting for us to ask. The weather the next day was perfect (see: photo above) and we really enjoyed the meal.

Speaking of meals…

Food – Delicious with a Wide Variety

We also have nothing but good things to say about the food. Because we had 4 meals at speciality restaurants, one floating breakfast, and one candlelight dinner, we didn’t get sick of the main dining hall (Raaya Life). In fact, I wish I ate there more, because they always seem to have a great dessert menu (I counted soooo much chocolate cake on our last lunch) and they even have live music and steak at dinner!

Breakfast was also a highlight of the day. I enjoyed the fresh juice bar very much because we could customise the juices, and my husband and I absolutely loved this nutella pastry they had. We had it almost every time it was available. It’s not a breakfast food but I also want to mention the fried risotto balls they had at the poolside – it’s a great blend of tomato sauce and cheese and I probably ordered it every time we went to the pool to snack or eat!

Most of the speciality restaurants were great too! We loved the atmosphere at Amper&and (though since we are Singaporeans, the Asian food was decent but not impressive), watching the sunset while having Middle Eastern cuisine was an amazing experience, and the Italian food at The Village was amazing! While I really liked the steak, the grilled tuna at Raaya was also very good; apparently it’s locally sourced. Definitely try the seafood if you are here because apart from the tuna, the Village also had a very good prawn gambaretti that we had twice!

Activities – Plenty!

As part of the Raaya plan, the sunset cruise, sunset fishing cruise, and the 45 minute spa were pre-booked for us. The sunset cruises were a great way to see the sunset and we found it very relaxing. When it came to the spa, we actually had three options we could choose from, so you don’t have to worry that you don’t like what’s on the menu.

Apart from these, you can also book the daily snorkelling tour to the house reef – it’s a one hour snorkelling trip and it was great for us (I was totally new to snorkelling and found myself enjoying it a lot more than expected!). They do have paid diving and snorkelling tours too, as well as manta ray and dolphin tours, but we did not opt for those as our days were full enough.

Every day, you can also head over to the activity center to assembly your dhoni boat, and I think there’s a dhoni boat race every other day. I’m happy to announce that team Singapore (aka my husband’s boat) comfortably won first place in our race! The time he spent to sand it down and smoothen it really paid off!

There is also a sports center where we played mini golf, but where there are plenty of other activities too, like petanque and tennis. We went there twice and it seemed pretty empty both times, which meant we didn’t have to queue or wait for anyone.

Finally, I wanted to mention that Raaya has a lot of free 30 minute classes – like pilates, aqua aerobics, core training, etc. You can book those in the app and they will be held either at the gym or at the yoga pavilion or at the pool. I went for the pilates one and it was really fun, but I didn’t manage to go for the core training one because I didn’t bring any exercise shoes! So if you want to do a few free lessons, or if you just want to use the gym (which is free), definitely remember to pack your exercise wear.

Weather – Mostly Gorgeous

We went in mid-September, which is considered the off peak season. Because of that, we were prepared for bad weather but we were pleasantly surprised! The weather was gorgeous most of the time, and it only rained on two days that we were there – once just before our dinner at Mizaj started (and so they let us postpone it to the next day), and on the day that we left. Most days, though, it was sunny with clear skies!

By the way, there are umbrellas that you can borrow at your villa and I remember seeing them at Raaya Life and the main reception center. So those are options if it rains while you are there!

Last point: Wifi – Take the Chance to Disconnect

Lastly, I have to mention the wifi. I opted not to buy data for this trip because all the esims sold data from 20GB onwards, which felt excessive given that the resort was supposed to have free wifi. Looking back, I still wouldn’t have bought data, but I would have tempered my expectations for the wifi. In general, there was wifi, especially in rooms and restaurants (not so much at the Dive center and while moving around) but it could be slow. I had no issues downloading podcasts and playing most games, but my husband plays Brawlstars where you have to team up with others and he had issues with the connection a few times (tip: Raaya Life before everyone turns up for breakfast has the best wifi).

Also, there were two times where the wifi and television signal got completely cut off in our villa. I’m not too sure what happened, because even the phone lines went down, but these periods didn’t last very long.

But hey, we went to Maldives to disconnect so honestly, these were not huge issues to us and helped us to put our relationship with our phones in perspective.

Overall – Would Definitely Recommend!

This has been another thousand words about Raaya by Atmosphere and I think the conclusion is: we loved it and we definitely recommend it! This honeymoon has totally converted me into a resort person – I adored the slower pace of life and I really needed the ability to take it easy. I think I finished something like six or seven books from the time the plane took off in Singapore and when we landed back after our holiday, which I think says a lot about how relaxed and how much free time we had.

While I definitely want to go back to Japan in the future, we also find ourselves wanting to go back to the relaxed life on Raaya and I think we’ll definitely visit Maldives again!