Uniquely @ W Retreat, Maldives

Marine Animals

W Retreat has one of the best house reef. A pity that we don't have our underwater camera with us. But despite that, I was able to get some photos of the abundant marine life.

Can you spot how many crabs are there? There are three of them. Look carefully.

Pals, can you all identify what the marine animals are?

Spot the different kinds of crabs?

Look carefully at the photo below. Did you see the big pool of fishes? We see the huge school of fishes everyday, at the link bridge between the Ocean villas and the resort island. Actually it's quite scary if you are swimming or snorkelling in the beach area isn't it?  The marine biologist at the dive centre told us it's what they call Scad. I'm not sure if we get it correctly. Do leave me a comment if you know what these fishes are.

The resident crane where we see everyday at the beach area.

Sunset Views

Look at the moon, arising from the horizon as the sun is setting.

With the passing clouds, the sun seems hiding behind the horizon.

I love the silhouette of the ocean villas against the sunset.

Spotted On

Saw this outside one of the beach villas. It took me sometime to recognise that it's W that they are drawing. But isn't it wonderfully done? I guess it's supposed to mark 5 May at W Retreat Maldives.

The Last Day

Well, you can imagine how sad I am on our day of departure. The Hotel Manager - Laurens, together with his team, is once again present to send the guests off. This is the heart-warming wave from the window of our seaplane. How can we not return to the resort again?

This is my best holiday so far. The End. I'm am really sad.

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Food @ W Retreat, Maldives

Away Spa & Other Facilities @ W Retreat, Maldives

Away Spa and Other Facilities @ W Retreat, Maldives

Away Spa

We were in awe of the design of the Spa when we first saw the design. The spa villas are modern, yet have these marquee-looking roofing.

We wanted a complete experience in W, so we can't miss the Spa experience. The price tag of an average 90minute treatment is about US$200per pax, a hefty price tag. However, we were comforted that the experience is money-worth. Papa Snew fell asleep during the massage despite him being a light sleeper.

The treatment room.

There's a jacuzzi pool facing the sea where we can relax in the tub before the spa session. Otherwise, we can just relax on the lounge bed enjoying the beautiful ocean view.

The corals below the spa villas are really amazing. We saw many fishes even without going into the waters. Believe this is the best place to snorkel as we were told that this part was remained untouched during the construction of the resort.

Down Under

The dive centre, known as Down Under, organises diving lessons and snorkeling trips. Check out what was their encounter this week!

Wave

Sea Sports centre, known as Wave offers a variety of equipment. Most are chargeable, except Kayaking.

Other sports including sea bob, para-sailing, wake-boarding and so on are chargeable. We didn't get to try. I guess lazing at the beach and sun deck was enough for our four days trip.

Wet

Wet is the pool area where guests can unwind with cocktails by the pool area. Papa Snew just love the lap pool and spent one of the entire afternoon here. No wonder we got sunburns at the end of the trip.

A pity that the jacuzzi is not a warm tub though.

For me, I just like to chill out with a cocktail at the pool area, while having a full access to the beach and sea view.

Sweat

There's also a gym for those who would like to have their cardio pumped. A good place for the wet weather as well.

Words

There's even a library where there's a wide selection of books and DVD which guests can loan. There's even a mobile recharge station where guests can recharge with various mobile adaptor.

Energy

The activity-area with pool table, board games, table tennis and many others in a relaxing area. Perfect for bad weather conditions.

15 Below

This is the coolest and most happening place in the resort. Opens on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 9.30pm till 2am.

Of course, the W DJ who plays there during the nights.

The speciality is the presence of 95 different vodkas. I wonder who would really have a chance to try all of it.

On our stay, Resident Mixologist - Jeffery Lee from W Taipei was there on a stint. The rational was to have an Asian face to tap on the growing PRC market in Maldives. But I wonder if this was really successful, as I still do not see much Asians patronising this place or the other drink bars.


Continue On...

Uniquely @ W Retreat, Maldives


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W - Whatever, Whenever!

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Food @ W Retreat, Maldives

Food @ W Retreat, Maldives

There are three restaurants in W Retreat. For our Half board meal plans, we are allowed to dine at Kitchen and Fire.

Kitchen
This is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We have our daily buffet breakfast here.

There's indoor and outdoor dining. You can even choose seats that allow you to dip your feet in the pool. Else, just choose the other outdoor seats or, when the weather get pretty warm, indoor seating might be a better choice.

Buffet breakfast was a nice spread. Honestly, after eating there for four days straight, we were getting a bit bored with the food. There wasn't any changes to the food variety everyday.

Other than the usual egg station, we can also order waffles, crepes, pancakes, egg benedict. These would be freshly-prepared by the chefs.

We made friends with this staff who's at the Fruits Station of the breakfast buffet every morning. He's at the Fire in the evening and was really courteous to us. After seeing us for two days, he told us that he will prepare something special for us, without us even requesting for a fruit platter. He added strawberries, that was actually not available. This really exceeds our service expectation.

We had dinner twice over at the Kitchen as well. Dinner is Ala-Carte and since we are on a half-board meal, we can order anything from the menu, from starter, to the dessert. As usual, drinks are not included in the meal plan. Drinks at W Retreat are on a pretty high side. A bottle of mineral water for us to share cost US$12++. Most Caucasians would order wine for dinner. Somehow, I do not understand why bottled water are available complimentary at the Sweet Treat Station, but yet, charged at a high price at the restaurants. So probably, ordering Wine was a better option.

Dinner was not bad. The staff highly recommended Tenderloin Steak and it turns out to be really yummy. Tuna steak was also good. But I should have requested for to be medium or medium raw. I ordered a medium well, which I think slightly over-cooked for Tuna.

On our last day, we met one of the staff, Didi, whom have served us the previous nights, over at Fire and chatted quite a bit. When I told him it's our final night, he quickly went to the kitchen and request the chefs to prepare a nice dessert for us. That was really sweet of him. That was really a WOW experience for us.

Fire

Fire opens only for dinner. It is a grill restaurant where we choose what we would like to eat, and they will have it grilled for us. It is a pretty romantic setting where tables are set up outdoors, facing the sea. So you can actually hear the clapping waves in the quiet night.

Picture this set up in the evening. Sorry, I can't get the right evening picture taken from the dark.

We ate at the Fire twice, one of the nights, being Korean Night. But it was far from being a Korean BBQ, which I kind of expected it to be. Honestly, food served during the usual BBQ (US$95) dinner and the Korean Night (US$120) was pretty much the same, although guests have to pay more to eat on Korean Night if guests are not on a meal plan. The only difference was the meat was marinated Korean style, eg. Spicy Pork Bulgogi.

I wouldn't rate that the food at W is fantastic. In some cases, for example the grilled fish was too spicy. The BBQ pork wasn't well done and tasted raw. We definitely can get better food in good restaurants in Singapore, probably at a lower price too. But well, it's Maldives. You pay for the location you are in. Fruits, meats, vegetables were mostly exported from overseas. Only seafood are local catch. We were told that there's an island where fruits and vegetables are grown. However, the price is pretty high. Well, of course, everywhere around us is water. The transport cost and the cost of harvesting would be expectantly, high.


Fish

We did not have the chance to try the food at Fish, but I would like to share the beautiful restaurant. This is a fine-dining restaurant which as a bar - Sip next to it. Similar to the Ocean Villas, the Fish is built on the sea.

Guests can start off with a cocktail before dinner, or have drinks after dinner.

The right hand side is actually the bar - Sip, and the left hand is the Fish restaurant.

The tables are all facing the ocean. A very romantic place where guests enjoy candlelight dinner. Someone who tried did tell us that food was not fantastic. Well, I guess the ambiance is what you pay for?



Continue On...

Away Spa & Other Facilities @ W Retreat, Maldives

Uniquely @ W Retreat, Maldives


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W - Whatever, Whenever!

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Night Fishing & Sunset Cruise Excursions

Night Fishing and Sunset Cruise Excursions

On our previous trip, we did not manage to go on any of the excursions trips due to the poor weather.
This time round, we booked our Night Fishing on the day of our arrival, for the next day. The program is available almost every other day of the week.

Night Fishing
The Night Fishing at W Retreat cost US$85 per person. Starts from 6.30pm in the evening for 2hours. Advance booking is required.

This is the boat that we are on, for the Night Fishing. Each boat sits about 10pax. On the day we were taking the excursion, two boats were departing for this excursion.

The staff would drive the boat out to the open seas, for about 10minutes, before dropping anchors in the middle of the sea.

Fresh baits are prepared on the spot. This is to ensure the freshness of the baits so that we can have a better catch.

Preparing the baits on a hook below.

This is a traditional Maldivian style of fishing, known as line fishing where lines are drop into the water, instead of using a fishing rod.

Patiently waiting for my prey.

I had no luck, but some members of the boat did have some luck. Oh, I forgot to mention the rules of this fishing trip. If we caught extinct species, such as rays or sharks, we have to let it back into the sea. There would be some charges for cooking the fish. So, for fishes less than 10cm, there's no point bringing it back for cooking. So, we have to return back to the sea. Guests can choose how they would like the fish to be  cook and where they want to be done.


I don't know whether it's good or bad luck, but some members repeatedly caught sharks and rays. So they have to let it back to the sea.

Look at the size of this ray being caught, even though the bait was not consider big.

This guy is really lucky. He caught a few times, although twice was a ray and a shark. But he finally caught a fish that could be for his feast.

I think his trick was to stand at the front of the boat, so that you can throw the bait further. I guess, coupled with a little luck, and probably, his experience in fishing.

I am really lousy, or probably, just no luck in fishing. Initially, I didn't even know that my bait was already bitten off. Then, there was a time which I think I caught one, but when I retract the line, it's gone off. There were also a time which my line was entangled with another line, resulting in a false alarm.

I think you really have to check on the tension of the line constantly, and retract it almost immediately.
Papa Snew did manage to catch a small fish, but because it's less than 10cm, we have to let it back to the sea.

Two members of the boat we were in, had luck. These are the two fishes caught.

But even without any catch, we were very happy. It was indeed a fun and exciting experience, and paying for US$85 was a worthy experience. I mean, how often to you go fishing in Singapore and experience catching something in less than 2 hours?


Sunset Cruise
The next day, we booked a Sunset Cruise, in the hope that we will be able to catch a glimpse of Dolphins.

The Sunset Cruise is priced at US$135per pax, on-board of a luxurious yacht. Starts from 5.30pm and takes about 1.5hrs.

Closer glimpse of the yacht.

We were taken on a tour of the yacht. It's a full facilities yacht with 2 bedrooms, lounge areas, kitchen, activity areas.

Guests can actually rent the yacht for half a day, one day, or even overnight around the islands. This cost at least US$2,500 for half a day. Probably only for the rich.

The cruise includes a glass of champagne and some canapes for us to enjoy the beautiful sunset scenery.

The sunset views that we enjoy.

The moon descending as we are reaching back to W Retreat.

As much as we enjoy the sunset cruise, we have no luck in catching any dolphins in sight. I wasn't really expecting much actually. But for US$135 per pax, it was a bit pricey just to go on one round to catch the sunset. Nevertheless, it was a relaxing leisure experience that we don't get in our everyday hectic life back home.

These are some sunset views that was not taken while on the cruise. But I thought to share it.

Continue On...

Food @ W Retreat, Maldives

Away Spa & Other Facilities @ W Retreat, Maldives

Uniquely @ W Retreat, Maldives


Related Posts:

W- Whatever, Whenever!

The Villas - W Retreat & Spa