We had the chance to stay at Patina on our recent trip to the Maldives and it absolutely blew us away. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton a few weeks after the opening of the Fari Islands complex and were delighted to see the incredible changes that have occurred over the last few years. Read on to find out everything you need to know before you book.

Location: 5/5

Patina Maldives is located in North Malé Atoll, a 55-minute boat ride from Velana international airport. Patina sits as part of an island grouping developed to offer guests a slightly different experience from the usual one-island-one-hotel concept. Fari Islands currently includes the Ritz-Carlton and Patina that share a marina with shops, restaurants and activities.

One of the key advantages of Patina’s location is that guests can access the property any time of day so flight times in and out of Malé are not as important as they are when it comes to seaplane transfers.

The island is beautiful, with lush foliage, tall trees and incredible, soft white sand. There are numerous calm bays and lagoons with crystal clear water. It’s a spectacular destination for anyone looking for a beautiful property on a pristine beach.

Lobby & Check in experience: 4.5/5

Lobby & check in starts on arrival at Velana international airport. Upon landing, you will locate the hotel representative holding the Patina sign outside of immigration. From there, you are taken to wait for the transfer boat and any other guests that will be arriving with you. In our case, we did have a wait of approximately 45 minutes and currently Patina does not offer a waiting lounge. The representative showed us to the main boating terminal and offered us cold water bottles during the wait.

Once the boat arrived, we were shown to the boat and offered cold towels and snacks. They thoroughly explained how long the journey would be and offered any assistance. The boat’s interior is beautiful with comfortable seating for four groups as well as a toilet, complimentary wifi and charging outlets.

The ride was smooth and on arrival at the Patina jetty, we were greeted by management staff and quickly taken to our room for an in-room check in by our Essentialist.

Rooms: 5/5

Patina offers a variety of room types, starting with the one-bedroom beach villas and one-bedroom overwater villas. All the villas have private pools and the general layout of the rooms are the exact same. The key differences are sunrise or sunset as well as beach or over water.

We were checked into Villa 202, an overwater pool villa with a beautiful sunset view. The villa is 1800 square feet and it is jaw-dropping. The entire property was designed by Marcio Kogan, and is meant to feel extremely natural and comfortable. When you walk into the villa you are immediately greeted by the view, with doors that open up entirely to bring the outside in. The furniture all has a low profile to accentuate the view, with a desk, king bed facing the view as well as a size-able lounge area with sofa, chair and coffee table. The bathroom is located in the back of the villa and features two vanities, an open show, separate toilet room and two small closets. The patio space is incredible with a hammock, dinette, two chaise lounges, a bathtub and a plunge pool. There is also a ladder to access the lagoon below.

Patina worked with Haeckels to design a custom suite of toiletries for the resort that are all natural and well suited for men and women. The minibar in the room was well stocked with liquor, beer, soft drinks, snack sand a wine fridge. The prices of wine in the minibar was surprisingly reasonable, with a bottle of Minuty coming in at $55.

The beach villas have the same exact layout but include an outdoor shower in the back of the villa. The sunrise villas are completely private with tall mangroves surrounding the villas, whereas the sunset villas feature the view as there are no mangroves in front of the villas. If you are looking for privacy, I would recommend the sunrise versus if you are looking for the view, the sunset villas will offer you a better view. The water villas are all private and face out towards the lagoon or a neighboring resort island a distance away. One thing to note is there are no TVs automatically in the room, but they are available on request.

Patina also offers 20 Studios, which are a more standard hotel-room style option with the same amenities of the villas, minus the pool. They are located behind the marina and are 640 square foot rooms with spacious interior living space, double vanities, interior showers and separate toilet rooms. The patios include hammocks and two chairs. These are great options if you are looking to book Patina on a budget as they are typically around 30% less than the villas. They are also excellent options for families or friends looking for a comfortable room type with access to the amazing resort. These rooms come with full access to the resort facilities and are a great option if you plan to spend most of your time exploring the resort versus spending time in your villa.

Overall the rooms are beautifully designed, comfortable and feel a lot like you’re visiting your very stylish friends home. Coming home to our villa every day was truly like coming home and there really is no wrong choice when it comes to the room types at Patina.

Service: 4.5/5

From the moment we arrived to when we said goodbye back in Malé, we had wonderful service experiences across the board. It’s very clear that the motto of Patina is to never say no as every request came with a “certainly, ma’am”. Every villa is assigned an Essentialist who is personal concierge that is available via Whatsapp or by phone any time. They are in charge of helping you make reservations, book spa appointments and assisting with anything throughout your stay. Our Essentialist was great and always quick to respond on Whatsapp.

Housekeeping comes twice a day – once in the morning and once for turndown. Overall, housekeeping was excellent and the room always felt remarkably clean. Every night, we received a little gift of edible treats or a pillow mist which added a special touch to the turndown.

From the gardeners to the restaurant staff, everyone was respectful and friendly. We loved our interactions with everyone along the windy paths and through our different meals. Restaurant staff seemed to remember your names and orders consistently.

The one area of improvement is around being anticipatory. Since Essentialists are the ones making your dinner reservations, it would be amazing to see them proactively be at the restaurant to pick you up after dinner, particularly for experiences like Koen when the set menu. While you can certainly ask for a buggy and they would happily oblige, that extra element of proactively being there for you would be a great next step.

Dining: 5/5

Patina features an astonishing 13 venues and has access to the dining outlets at the Ritz-Carlton across the lagoon. We were able to try a variety of their venues and were extremely impressed with the variety in cuisine and beverage options:

Portico: Portico is the main restaurant on property and we had daily breakfast here. There are buffet and a la carte options ranging from western to eastern cuisines and the options are very extensive. Everything we tried was well balanced, healthy and very fresh. There are multiple rooms allocated to the buffet including an entire fruit and juice room that has daily detox juice offerings and an extensive list of fresh pressed juice included in the breakfast plan. What we loved the most about Portico was the fact that even when ordering something on the sweeter side, it was still extremely fresh and light feeling.

Fari Beach Club: Our first night, we had the chance to try Fari Beach Club for sundowners and dinner and the venue and food was excellent. The cocktails are beautifully crafted and elegantly presented. The sunset was stunning and the resident DJ played throughout the evening to add a fun ambience. Dinner was excellent with a variety of sushi platters, fresh seafood and salads. We absolutely loved the sushi platter and lobster pasta. The service was excellent and we could never say no to toes in the sand dining.

Koen: Koen is a stunning speciality restaurant that is entirely indoors and features a set menu of 9 courses. It’s a small, chefs table experience and we had a wonderful time watching the chefs work. They use ingredients from the island as well as the local area to craft a beautiful menu and we absolutely loved the experience. The resident DJ also played throughout the dinner which we hope they make a regular experience because it really added a cool vibe.

Helios: Helios is the mediterranean cuisine restaurant located on the sunset side of the island. We were supposed to dine at the outlet on our last night but sadly the weather had other plans for us. Instead, the resort brought us what felt like the entire menu to our villa and it was incredible! The food was beautifully presented, absolutely delicious and perfected seasoned. This was our favorite meal on property and a must-go if you stay at the resort.

There are, of course, a number of other outlets we were unable to try this trip but Arabesque is one we absolutely loved when we stayed at the Ritz-Carlton. We did have the chance to try their floating breakfast, which was excellent and the hotel does offer room service if you prefer to dine in-villa. Overall, the quality of the food is excellent and it is beautifully presented. Everything we had on property felt fresh, healthy and was absolutely delicious. The experience itself at every outlet felt very elegant, yet comfortable with comfortable furnishings and great music to accompany your meals.

Facilities: 5/5

Patina not only has their own 5-star facilities, but they also have access to the shared marina as well as the Ritz-Carlton facilities.

The Spa, called FLOW, is a beautiful facilities located near the main lobby. It features individual treatment suites as well as speciality villas for water-therapy based treatments and a deprivation tank suite. There is also a relaxation area that is truly relaxing where you can enjoy the sound of water and wind in the trees along with your tea following a treatment. We had the chance to enjoy a signature massage and Max tested out the deprivation tank and it was an excellent experience. The treatments were wonderful and the masseuses were very skilled.

The fitness center is located in the spa facility and is currently well equipped, but small. They are expanding the gym due to the feedback from guests and it will be finished later this year. The gym features cardio equipment, weights and a squat rack as well as some machines. They also have snacks, water and towels in the gym. The gym addition will add indoor, as well as outdoor space to the facility.

The main pool sits on the pristine, calm lagoon and has ample seating as well as a shade. There are comfortable loungers, beds, chairs and bar seating throughout the pool area. There are also some games like foosball and ping pong near the pool area.

Patina offers some included activities such as yoga and fitness classes. We did try a few of them out and had a great time. The yoga was excellent and included a guided meditation at the end and took place in the Amarta structure.

They also have a great Dive center and activities center located near the Marina. They run a variety of tours, including a turtle snorkeling trip with dolphin spotting along the way. We had a great trip snorkeling with turtles and we saw a huge pod of dolphins on the way back in a shallow lagoon. The Dhoni boat is comfortable and has great bean bags on the top deck as well as unlimited water and some snacks served after snorkeling.

They offer a number of other great facilities like dive trips, cooking classes and wine tasting that we did not have a chance to try but there are certainly endless activities onsite. There are a few shops in the marina for both men and women with a great selection of clothing and accessories. Lastly, the resort offers complimentary gelato to all guests from the gelato truck every day. It’s homemade and a delicious treat on a hot day.

Overall, the facilities are unbeatable at Patina. Access to the marina and even the Ritz-Carlton make this an amazing option for anyone afraid to get bored on an island vacation.

Style: 5/5

Patina is a design property at heart and it’s incredibly well done. Designed by Marcio Kogan and executed perfectly, this is truly a one of a kind resort. The focus on art and installations continued well beyond just the structures themselves as Patina has seemingly endless art installations tucked around the resort. One of the most impressive is Amarta, one of the sky spaces designed by James Turrell. Exploring the resorts art is one of the most fun and interesting ways to spend a morning and add a very sophisticated and fun experience to your stay. Every corner of the property is pristine, whether it’s the tree-lined walkways or the perfect 90 degree corners of buildings. It’s almost impossible to not stop every 3 seconds to photograph every moment. The furniture, fabrics and small pieces of decor are all thoughtfully chosen and placed in the perfect space. The villas are unbelievable- with natural wood tones, custom-designed frette linens and oversized seating. If you are looking for a property that somehow manages to make extremely high end design completely approachable and homey, this is the resort for you.

Overall: 4.9/5

Overall, we had an unbelievable stay at Patina Maldives. Between the bespoke, yet laid back service, exceptional dining and spectacular style, Patina certainly offers travelers something very unique in the Maldives. Access to the marina, Ritz-Carlton and future Capella make this an incredible, unique resort experience in the Maldives. What you miss out on from a sea life perspective, you gain in easy access to the property from Malé. If you’re considering Patina or other properties in the Maldives, be sure to reach out to us for exclusive rates and perks. Happy travels!