Anantara is a global hotel chain headquartered in Thailand, with the kind of deeply ingrained service ethos that you'd expect from the Land of Smiles.
We had previously dined at a couple of Anantara hotels in Thailand as well as spending three wonderful nights at the Anantara Royal Livingstone in Victoria Falls and were very excited to see how the brand would express its unique style in this most competitive of hotel markets.
Finolhu is a radically different proposition to the majority of luxury properties in the Maldives. It is not looking to be the most OTT or the most luxurious, if that's what you're looking for you'll be disappointed. There are plenty of other resorts which will happily take $25,000 from you for a bottle of Mouton Rothschild before you wander back to the rooftop deck of your duplex villa....
Nine months after our initial visit, we returned for another four night stay. This fact alone should tell you a lot.
If you're booking this hotel using points, it's a complete no brainer. The villas are utterly spectacular and no other chain hotel on earth comes close to this in terms of value when redeeming loyalty points.
A destination that is almost tailor made for social distancing, with a stable entry policy, close to Europe, a low COVID rate and its steepest ever discounts on accomodation. If you've made the decision to travel during this pandemic I think it's almost impossible to make the case for a better destination.
Whilst BA has gone down the route of creating additional plastic waste and reducing the quality of wine on board, Qatar has instead opted to give full bottles of sanitiser to passengers in addition to providing them all with face shields, gloves and face masks.
I was curious to see the new First Class cabin in the flesh and when you compare it to the 14 seat cabins that previously graced the 777 this is clearly a superior product.
The doors are actually the least exciting change in my mind. I can see the business logic for installing them but in reality they make little difference to the overall experience.
My main takeaway with this property is that it looks and feels so much better in person that the pictures on the Four Seasons website would imply. It is also a hell of a lot busier than I would have imagined. There's a real scene here, even during COVID. For some people that may be off putting but if you enjoy the buzz of having various bars and restaurants right on your doorstep then this is the hotel for you.
I had two terrible nights of sleep here and despite that I would still return in a heartbeat and emphatically recommend this hotel to anybody.
The quality of the hardware and service isn't just better than everything in Dubai, its up there with the best I've ever encountered globally...
This was a surprisingly good stay. We obviously lucked out with the crazy room upgrade but honestly I wasn't expecting the public spaces to be so elegant and the service to be so great as well.