There isn’t quite anywhere in the world that is like the Maldives. The Maldives is a country with almost one thousand atolls, with a select few of them containing some exceptional and outstanding resorts. A typical resort experience on the Maldives involves a private island experience with only a few guests; complete peace and serenity for miles around often surrounded by the most unimaginable beauty of nature and island living. Our return trip to the Park Hyatt Maldives was no exception to this rule. We were treated well and enjoyed several days on the island.

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Hotel Review: The Park Hyatt Maldives, Beach Access Pool Villa, Hadahaa Atoll, Maldives

“The Park Hyatt Maldives on Hadadaa set the standard of the luxury private island villa resort. The beauty of the island and it’s remoteness remains one of my favourite luxury beach holiday destinations the world”

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On this visit to the Park Hyatt Maldives, we stayed in a wonderful Park Hyatt Pool Villa. We also had the opportunity to circumnavigate the Hadahaa Island, took in a back of house tour, explored and snorkled the wonderful Hadahaa house reef, and enjoyed many sunsets on Hadahaa.

For our experience during our last stay, and to see some other room configurations, please see here for our time in a Park Hyatt Maldives Park Villa and Park Hyatt Maldives Over Water Villa.

Booking and Getting There:

The Park Hyatt Maldives has been written about and reviewed so many times by many frequent travellers. We last visited the Park Hyatt Maldives for our honeymoon, staying in both a Park Hyatt Maldives Park Villa and an Park Hyatt Maldives Over Water villa. We enjoyed it so much, we decided to return for a 5 night visit. It was a pretty easy decision. This place was, and still is, one of my favorite destinations on the globe and easily one of the few that I’d return to in a heartbeat – even if it means traveling twelve time zones across the world to enjoy it. One of the things that’s so unique about it is that it’s on its own pristine private island. It’s so unusual, that it’s fitting to start with the rare photo (courtesy of the Hyatt website) that no traveler ever gets to take unless they’ve chartered their own private helicopter. 

Instead of writing about every last detail of the Park Hyatt Maldives experience, I’ll just try to cover off the highlights of what has changed and what is new in the last two and a half years. I’m going to break up this report into several parts:

• Pool Villa
• Back of House Tour
• House Reef
• Sunsets

Arriving to The Park Hyatt Maldives:

The Park Hyatt Maldives

North Huvadhoo, Gaafu Alifu Atoll, Maldives, 20054

On arrival we were welcomed and provided a welcome drink in the Dhoni. It’s still an immaculate and interesting building. Truthfully, despite its chic factor, the only time we’ve ever been in here is to check in and check out of the resort. Each of the groups of guests had their own Park Hyatt Representative to deal with them individually, so there was no waiting in queues to be checked in. 

During our check in process, we were informed that, as returning guests, we had been upgraded with compliments, to a Pool Villa for the duration of our stay. This was the start of royalty treatment on the part of the Park Hyatt Maldives for their “returning guests”.

We were escorted to Pool Villa #36 by golf cart. Villa #36 is close to the restaurants and two villas away from the over water villas access jetty. Access around the island is through roads covered by a canopy of trees. I had requested a west facing view and the reservations team was happy to accommodate. 

The Room: A Beach Access Pool Villa

After a ride through the sandy jungle, we arrived to the modern looking Park Pool Villas. The villas make a great first impression, as they are modern and understated, despite being found in the middle of dense vegetation.

The Park Hyatt Villa:

The best way to describe the villas are that they are exceptionally spacious. This is one of the main draws of the property. You get complete seclusion and don’t have to see another person unless you step out. The villas offer plenty of space, room to run around in, and a comtemporary style.

On arrival to our villa, we were also provided a welcome bottle of Kramer French Sparkling Wine on ice in the villa with the resorts’ compliments. Our host explained that Park Hyatt Maldives wants to reward their return guests. This is likely a wise strategy considering the level of competition in the Maldives with the sheer amount of hotels and the long distances involved in getting there.

Park Hyatt now offers a personalized representative that handles all of your guest service needs. This was offered in the past. However, the resort has taken a more active approach in monitoring this with signage placement in the room and more frequent and regular contact with the representative than in the past. We had 2X daily contact with our representative, whereas days would pass previously without seeing our representative on our past visit. There was also a 10% discount for Hyatt Gold Passport Members for all wine after sunset. This was automatically deducted from the bill whenever we signed for it.

Compared with our last visit, the dedicated host for a single point of contact is a much improved level of service. Natalia from Russia, made herself available to us “up until midnight” through cell phone. 

The Washroom:

An advantage to the park and pool villas are that they feature among the largest outdoor bathrooms out there. The area is split into a large indoor area and a large outdoor tub and shower area. There is nothing like having an outdoor shower underneath the stars in the middle of the moon light. I certainly miss the outdoor showers when we stayed in the Water villa – it’s such a terrific feature. The indoor bathroom is couple friendly, with his and her sinks, closet areas and storage cupboards. 

The villas, despite being super comfortable, are showing a bit of wear. It seems like they need a coat of stain, in addition to some UV damage and some general warping of the wood likely due to the heat. Perhaps it’s a matter of commercial grade products not being used? Either that or the insane temperatures and climate of the Maldives isn’t kind to structures that are now 7 years old. Overall, it was still an excellent stay. Those looking for peace and quiet may be out of luck. It was very busy by private island standards in the first half of our stay, with staff running around trying to keep up.

The Park Hyatt Ocean Access and Private Pool:

It was nice to have the pool to plunge in. Having said that, the pool is not heated / cooled and it naturally got quite warm due to the strong heat of the sun.

Around the Hadahaa Island:

The Park Hyatt Maldives Pool Area:

We didn’t lie on the beach that much, having a nice deck and private area all to ourselves. We also moved our beach chairs down the beach at times. Having said that, the main public pool deck area is awesome. Frankly, it looks straight out of a luxury magazine. We didn’t spend much time at the general pool on this visit. There were also less deck chairs on the beach for this particular visit than on our last one.

During our stay, I happened to cross paths with Flyertalk member lucky9876coins and author of the Boarding Area blog One Mile at a Time. I had a nice chat with him at breakfast and we shared our opinions of the resort. He was among the only people at the resort working with a laptop over the breakfast hour. I have to admire his dedication to work, despite being in such a beautiful environment.

My Thoughts on the Park Hyatt Maldives Pool Villa:

We were fortunate to have received a complimentary upgrade into the Park Hyatt Pool Villa. It was a nice feature having access to the pool villa for quick plunges into the water to beat the ever present heat. It allowed for exceptional privacy and personal space, which is something everyone can appreciate. The Park Hyatt Maldives rooms are generally exceptional, and it’s hard to imagine having a “bad” room at this property. Having now stayed in all three room categories of Park Villa, Pool Villa and Over Water Villa, I’d have to say that my favourite is the Pool Villa followed by the Overwater Villa and lastly the base villa. There’s something about being on land and surrounded by lush trees that is exceptionally cool.

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If you’ve stayed at Park Hyatt Maldives, did you find the stay exceptional?

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