The Taj Exotica Resort Review

The Maldives are a notoriously expensive destination, but they are also the ultimate tropical getaway. There are an endless slew of luxury resorts here that boast the coveted overwater bungalows, but the Taj Exotica may just be the biggest bang for your buck for this experience.

Welcome bottle of champagne on arrival to the Taj Exotica Maldives

The Taj Excotica has rooms starting at about $730USD per night, and while this cost is pretty standard, you really save on the transport to the resort and the costs on site. While most resorts in the Maldives require an expensive seaplane or private yacht transfer, setting you back between $300-800+ per person, the Taj Exotica is a quick 15-minute speedboat ride from the airport. We were able to snag this transfer for free due to a promotion, but usually it costs about $45/per person.

Another factor that makes the Maldives so expensive is the cost of food and beverage on the resorts. Due to the fact that you’re staying on a remote island, everything needs to be imported in, which causes costs to skyrocket. Therefore, the farther your resort is from Male, while your resort may offer tranquility and seclusion, it will also cause your food to be much more costly. It’s not uncommon to see $85 USD cheeseburgers and $20USD lattes. At the Taj Exotica, while you could still find extravagantly priced meals, it was very easy to order a dinner entree for about $40USD.

FORA Perks

Room upgrade to Deluxe Lagoon Villa with Pool at the Taj Exotica Maldives

Booking with a FORA Advisor offers you highly valuable perks, which in a destination like the Maldives can really help you stretch your dollar. We were able to book the lowest tier of room and since we visited in the off-season, we knew we had a very high likelihood of getting an upgrade. On arrival, we were upgraded to an overwater bungalow and got to experience other great perks such as a welcome snack tray and a bottle of champagne, free breakfast daily, a $100 food and beverage credit, and daily breakfast for two. During the busy season, free breakfast includes a buffet offering. During the off season, you can order whatever you want from the menu. We would order juices, coffees, smoothies, and whichever breakfast dishes we wanted—filling up on breakfast for the day. We used our $100 credit to go towards our dinners and snacks.

Activities

The resort offers free non-motorized water sports such as stand up paddle boards, kayaks, and snorkeling. You can even snorkel right off of your villa porch! They have an activity center where you can book scuba diving, jet skis, and other motorized water sports. The prices weren’t too crazy, but we didn’t have a big desire for those activities and opted to relax at our villa, on the beach, and partake in the included non-motorized water sports.

Resort Grounds

The beautiful main pool at the Taj Exotica Maldives

The resort grounds were impeccably kept. One of the best hidden perks of the resort is that just about everybody spends the majority of their time in their villa (soaking in their private pool and overwater platform!) so the grounds are not crowded in the least bit. That means you can wander around at any time of the day to snag a beach side cabana or a prime spot at the pool. Once a meal rolled around, we were shocked to see how many people were staying at the resort.

Dining

For our first night, we ordered room service to eat on our private overwater porch. I highly recommend doing this for at least one night because it is such a treat! There were no extra fees to order to your room and the prices are the same as in the restaurant.

There are 3 restaurants in the resort, including one finer dining establishment. We ate at the main restaurant for all of our meals which we thought was great. The nicer restaurant looked amazing, but was more expensive so we opted to skip. If you are looking to splurge, there are several dining “experiences”, including dinner in a tree house or on a floating dock.

Spa & Gym

The resort had a beautiful gym that was an overwater bungalow itself. It had everything you could need for a decent workout, as well as towels, water bottles, and apples. The Spa was gorgeous and offered reasonably priced treatments, with massages starting around $220USD.

The Room

We stayed in a Deluxe Lagoon Villa with a Pool and it was the quintessential Maldives experience that we were looking for. The overwater bungalow sat on top of a lagoon with crystal clear water. We could lounge on our private porch, take a dip in the infinity pool, or enjoy the view right from our bed. I would say that this room is the classic over-water bungalow Maldives experience. The resort also offers Lagoon Villa Ocean View rooms, which are very similar but don’t have a private pool.

If you are traveling with a family, the resort offers several villas that can accommodate up to 4 guests. These villas are not overwater bungalows but do sit on the beach with a private pool and patio.