With nearly 80 Maldives resorts that feature overwater villas, it’s not easy to find the one that suits you the best. Just because a hotel has a high rate doesn’t automatically mean that it’s one of the best out there, so we’ve gone through all of them to create a list of the absolute best of the best luxury resorts in the Maldives to help you find the best for you.
The majority of the overwater bungalow resorts in the Maldives are 4-star or 5-star, so expectations tend to be pretty high with any of them.
Water villas and overwater bungalows continue to gain in popularity around the world so it’s no surprise that new resorts keep opening that feature the rooms on stilts. The Maldives alone now has 81 water villa resorts with more than 3,100 water villas combined, which is nearly two-thirds of the world’s total.
In the past few months we’ve seen three new resorts opening to the public, with one aimed at the mid-level market and the other two at the high end.
Maldives is already one of the most unusual and magical holiday destinations in the world, particularly as home to about two-thirds of the world’s overwater bungalows.
But for those who want to take the sea-life observation one step further than watching through a glass panel in your bungalow floor, you can dine at the world’s first undersea restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island Resort.
Open since 2005, the Ithaa Undersea Restaurant is made of all glass and has 180-degree views of the magnificent tropical sea and plant life.
This week we are highlighting one of the handful of Maldives resorts that promotes what they call a “No news, no shoes” policy. The Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu is a luxurious private-island resort where the emphasis is on being casual and comfortable rather than fancy and posh.
This style is perfect for those who might have to wear a suit every day during their normal life and the last thing they want to do on holiday is to dress up for dinner on a tropical island.
Overwater bungalows and water villas are known for being expensive, but at least they are also known for being larger than a typical hotel room, especially when you include the private decks. There are over 110 resorts in the world offering these over-the-water rooms, and almost all of them are over 500 square feet, and usually around 1,000 square feet. This makes those about 2 to 3 times larger than a typical city hotel room.
Belize gets more and more popular with tourists from around the world, more people are asking whether there are any overwater bungalows perched off its many tourist islands. The good news is that the answer is yes, but this is not a typical overwater resort, and it’s not for those without a big bankroll.
So yes, there are overwater bungalows in Belize, at four different resorts, but only one has a “honeymoon style” overwater villa, and that resort only has one of them.