You & Me Maldives

The Island

Transfer from Male to the resort and back is done by sea plane (Trans Maldivian Airlines). You have a person waiting for you at the airport that will guide you to the seaplane. There you might need to wait several hours until your transfer departs. But you don't know how long you will wait until you are in the TMA terminal It takes 45 mins from Male to the resort and it might stop in some resorts before you arrive (which might make the trip longer). The flight back to Male is organized by the hotel and you will not know the departure time until the night before.

This Italian-designed resort is an adult-only hideaway, offering a mix of overwater and beach villas. First impressions are rustic chic – think Indonesian driftwood-style furniture, plank walls, tree-stump tables and a sand-floored reception. However there’s a more glamorous side too, such as a Moët & Chandon branded Green Carpet restaurant, an Elizabeth Arden spa and guest photo studio.

The pace of life is sublimely carefree and your troubles and worries will seem as distant as the tropical horizon. The gleaming waters surrounding the Island are irresistible, inviting the visitor to experience the underwater world which lies beneath the waves. Swimming and snorkelling are ideal pursuits in this pristine location, with a beautiful coral reef visible in the waters. All manner of marine life, from vibrantly coloured fish to rays and turtles are readily seen in the seas bordering the island beaches.

The great location of You & Me by Cocoon also makes it an ideal venue for water sports. An officially certified diving school offers programmes and courses for divers of any ability, from beginners to experts. Exceptional diving sites are available in the vicinity of the resort.

Everything is within a short stroll on this small, partially man-made island (or you can hop on one of the golf buggies buzzing around). A well-stocked watersports centre has complimentary snorkelling equipment, paddleboards and kayaks, though diving and flyboarding cost extra.  DOWNLOAD RESORT MAP

Terra firma’s as appealing as the ocean thanks to comfy beach pods, daily activities such as sunrise yoga, aqua aerobics and afternoon Pilates, four restaurants, a bar, volleyball and excellent You & Me by Elizabeth Arden Spa. Set on its own boardwalk above the sea, it has four double suites with glass floor panels for spotting fish during treatments (I saw a baby shark glide by during a massage). Staff are friendly but service isn’t as slick as some of the archipelago’s five-star resorts.

One last thing that's really worth a mention is the Orchid house/garden which is near by to the Spa. its a real hidden little gem.

Location

A brand new, 5-star resort, You & Me is located in Raa atoll, Northern Maldives. The private island is 175 kilometers north from Malé International Airport and accessible by breathtaking 45 minutes scenic seaplane transfer, or 30-minutes domestic flight followed with 20-minutes speedboat ride from Ifuru airport. Guests will be greeted and received by airport's staff and escorted further to the check-in counter.

Villas and Suites

With 99 overwater villas and suites and 10 beach villas spread over seven room categories, there’s plenty of choice. Dolphin Villas with Pool have beach chic décor – large driftwood-style beds, plank walls, lights set into branches above bathroom sinks lined with Ortigia Italian toiletries, rope bedside lamps – but with slick amenities such as universal plug sockets, USB points and smart televisions showing the daily activities list. It’s all spot on apart from heavy sage green floral curtains and twee dolphin paintings, which clash slightly with the airy rustic vibe. The priciest villa, targeted at honeymooners and VIPs, is the You & Me Suite, which comes with a large pool, gym, massage beds and open-plan lounge and dining room.

Couples seeking sheer indulgence can choose an Aqua Suite or Aqua Suite with Pool. These are larger overwater villas, with a spacious bathroom with rain shower, couple's bathtub overlooking the ocean, king-sized bed, sofa and large outdoor deck to relax and sunbathe with lagoon access and spectacular sunrise views. The Aqua Suite with Pool features a private infinity pool in addition to the large sundeck, with direct lagoon access for guests to enjoy a dip in the pool or the ocean.

Overwater villas have a spacious bathroom, including a shower with glass doors leading onto a private outside terrace. Timber plank walls and driftwood branches imbedded with lights and hung above double sinks, continue the rustic ambiance found in the bedrooms. Beach villas have even larger bathrooms, with freestanding egg baths and al fresco showers.

On the beach, guests can opt for a Beach Suite with Pool. These spacious rooms offer a luxurious feel, with a beautiful bathroom including a couple's bathtub and rain shower, a king size bed overlooking the beach, sofa, sun deck and private pool with beach and sea views.

Spacious and private, Dolphin Villas with Pool are rustic over-water villas offer spectacular views of the sunset and come with polished wooden floors, a king sized bed overlooking the ocean, comfortable sofa, rain shower, and a sundeck with lagoon access. The rooms have a private infinity pool overlooking the ocean and is perfect for a memorable honeymoon with your loved ones.

Facing sunset, You & Me Suite (280 sqm) is the resort's largest accommodation; this beautiful, rustic over-water villa has one large bedroom, a bathroom with a couple’s bathtub, a huge living space with TV area, a kitchen area, a recreation room with private gym, cinema, and massage table, and a gorgeous lagoon setting with a sunset view. It also has a private pool. The suite offers everything you could want for an exclusive, romantic and unforgettable vacation in the Maldives.

Restaurants and Bars

Embark on an exquisite culinary experience with "Dine- Around" concept at You & Me by Cocoon Maldives. “Dine around” concept at You & Me gives the guests an opportunity to sample the resort’s remarkable, thirst-quenching gastronomic offerings.

As part of this concept, all the guests on Half board, Full board and All-Inclusive are entitled to dine from all the A la’ carte restaurants (except Underwater restaurant- H20) for lunch and dinner. Breakfast would be taken at the main restaurant. You & Me is the first resort to introduce such as a unique concept for its guests.

The Sand, right by the beach and sandy-floored as the name suggests, is the resort’s laidback main restaurant with table service throughout the day. Breakfast, served in The Sand, is table service rather than buffet and has Italian touches, such as a waitress wandering among diners offering Nutella with freshly baked bread. Fresh juices come in generous portions, English breakfast tea is endlessly topped up and the pastries are flaky and delicious; the only dish letting the side down is avocado toast with poached eggs, which arrived lukewarm each day. For mostly the breakfast a la carte offering is perfect. Freshly made juices, smoothies, pancakes and omelettes and smoked salmon, amongst others. If you think quantity might be an issue, just double up and order as much as you like and breakfast is served until 11am, so take as long as you like.

Green Carpet is an à la carte garden restaurant, overlooking the pool and beach, where guests will dine on a pretty, English-style lawn. The Green Carpet (it has an Astroturf floor and Moët & Chandon champagne stations) serves lunchtime bites, including seafood poke bowls.

Tucking into plates of spaghetti at Italian La Pasta restaurant jars with the tropical environment. Every meal served in the resort’s restaurants is freshly prepared from an à la carte menu, with no buffet service meals at any time.

Serves a Japanese à la carte fine dining menu for lunch and dinner, Rising Sun a superb teppanyaki restaurant where entertaining chefs serve up sizzling scallops and fresh sashimi.

Beside the main pool area, is the Cheers Bar, adorned with hammocks and lounge chairs, serving freshly made cocktails as well as a wide variety of wines and champagnes, offered via a unique partnership with Veuve Clicquot. At Cheers Bar, guests can enjoy live music performances and entertainment each evening.

The resort’s gastronomic offerings include H2O, a fully-submerged, underwater restaurant that treats diners to a 360-degree view of the Maldives’ incredible marine environment, as they dine on gourmet cuisine that’s unrivalled in the Maldives. Underwater restaurant is the resort’s culinary showpiece. Made in Sri Lanka and submerged off-shore six metres below sea level, guests arrive by boat and descend, via a spiral staircase or lift, into an intimate, glass-arched space to dine on gourmet seven-course menus featuring dishes such as truffle risotto and seafood platters, while exotic fish swim by. It’s magical, particularly the 6.15pm early sitting which allows you to experience day and night beneath the sea, yet it’s not perfect – couples sitting side-by-side in a row facing the water felt odd and external lighting needs improvement so guests can see fish, rather than a reflection of themselves, wherever they’re seated. Located just 100 metres from the hotel, on the stunning, unspoilt reef, H20 is the only underwater restaurant in Raa Atoll and one of only six in the whole of the Maldives.

Half Board Plus

• Breakfast at the main restaurant
• Dinner at the resort’s a la carte restaurants or main restaurant excluding the Underwater restaurant
• Drinks during dinner – water, soft drinks, house wine, tap beer, tea and coffee

Full Board Plus

• Breakfast at the main restaurant
• Lunch and dinner at the resort’s a la carte restaurants, or main restaurant excluding the Underwater restaurant
• Drinks during lunch and dinner – water, soft drinks, house wine, tap beer, tea and coffee

All Inclusive

• Breakfast at the main Restaurant, lunch and dinner from a la carte’ restaurants, afternoon Tea/Coffee with snacks served from 1630hrs – 1800hrs
• Bottled water, Drinks served by the glass (including soft drinks, beer, house wine and pouring spirits which includes Gin, Vodka, Whiskey, Brandy, Tequila, Rum, Arrack and Martini). Beverages to be served between 1000hrs and 0000hrs only. After midnight, all consumed drinks will be charged at the normal price
• Selected cocktails & mocktails.
• Minibar - soft drinks and Water (replenished once daily).
• Tea/coffee making facilities in the room.
• Non-motorized water sports.

In December 2021 You & Me announced the Extreme All-inclusive Meal Plan. The price of AI Extreme Supplement will be USD95 per person per night on top of existing All-Inclusive supplement in the wholesale contract. Valid for minimum of 5 nights stay only.

You & Me Maldives introduces a “dine around” concept, whereby guests on Half Board, Full Board, and All-Inclusive packages can choose to eat lunch and dinner in any of the à la carte restaurants, and breakfast in the main restaurant. This gives guests a wide variety of dining options, and the chance to sample the resort’s gastronomic offerings.

Things to Do

When not relaxing and discovering the beauty of the island, guests can opt for a range of activities and excursions, including water sports, scuba diving, local island tours, big game fishing tours, snorkelling trips and dolphin cruises. Daily entertainment includes live music, DJ; Sandbank Party; White Party and Maldivian cultural showcases. The ‘White Party’ is a lovely way for the guests and staff to get to know each other.

Due to the vast lagoon and hard to reach house reef the snorkelling is a not great here. The current is strong too because of the open ocean on the other side of the reef. But, if you walk round to the boat dock on the other side of the island and swim out following the water pipe you get to the deeper water more quickly and will find a school of fish and a beautiful reef. It is fantastic and the best you have ever seen. The best time to snorkel is an early morning, low tide or high tide, otherwise the swimming is tough. There are many off island excursions to experience snorkelling.

No stay at You & Me by Cocoon would be complete without a visit to the You & Me Spa, featuring four double treatment rooms. Experienced therapists offer a wide range of therapeutic treatments, featuring Elizabeth Arden products, designed to soothe the mind, body and spirit to ensure a sublime spa experience. The spa rooms look out on the beautiful azure seas of the Raa Atoll.

You & Me's Water Sports Centre offers everything you need for the ultimate water sports thrill. From snorkelling to jet skis, we have the complete range of water sports equipment and activities to satisfy even hard-core adventurers.

You & Me is a great location to see some of the Maldives' most charismatic megafauna, such as manta rays, turtles, napoleon fish, and grey reef sharks. You & Me houses a fully-equipped diving centre, run by certified professionals. Novices can learn to dive and complete their PADI certificate here. Experienced divers can enjoy bespoke dive trips to some of the Atoll's most vibrant dive sites.

You & Me by Cocoon Maldives located in Raa Atoll is the perfect escape to explore the magnificent Manta Rays which will take your breath away. In just about 25 minutes speedboat ride from the resort, you will find a Manta Point named “Maadhi Gaa” (which means Ray Rock in Dhivehi language) where you can observe these magnificent creatures very often during the period from November to April or May.

The minimum certification level required for this dive site is Open Water Diver, maximum depth is 20m. Except for mantas, you can frequently spot a family of eagle rays that are often curious and it is possible to find different species of cone shells, hermit crabs or even lobsters. If you are lucky enough, you may even see a sleeping nurse shark. The larger rocks serve as shelter to different species of fish, so it is necessary to swim towards these rocks that can be seen at the distance during the dive.

Reviews

Stunning location, wonderfull facilities and friendly people, what more can you want from a luxury holida with every minute that is unbelievable. In general, the reviews are positive, although many believe that the management will need to make sure they keep improving in relation with breakfast service, prices of activities, extra charges on top of what was supposed to be an all-inclusive holiday and coordination of transfers from/to Male airport.

Pros: What Guests Love

• adults only resort
• Very friendly staff
• Manta Villa rooms are lovely and spacious and clean with twice daily room service.
• underwater restaurant H20
• The Teppanyaki experience at the Japanese restaurant
• The Spa
• Towels are changed twice per day and you have additional towels for the beach.
• nightlife

Things to Know before You Go

• Check-in 14:00 - 18:00; Check-out 06:00 - 12:00;
• You & Me by Cocoon is adult-only
• The resort has an Italian management
• there seems to be a lack of communication between the restaurant waiters and the kitchen, food sometimes take a very long time to arrive and sometimes didn't appear at all, at other times orders were duplicated leading to confusion and embarrassment for the waiters. A la carte is not working well in the breakfast. Overall, food concept here is the main negative for many.
• With Full board eal plan you can dine at any of the island restaurants.
• The restaurants (on the sand- not appropriate to wear shoes but flip flops) offer very good quality food, specially in the Italian and Japanese restaurants (you have to book upfront with time).
• The beaches are powder here only at the water's edge, all other sands are only coarse mixed with corals and shells
• The beach is very nice for swimming and chilling but if you love snorkeling there is not good places close to the beach, and you should book a snorkeling trip, that will take you to better places. This snorkeling trips are very nice, but a little bit expensive if you want to do it everyday.
• An underwater restaurant is the jewel of the resort including delicious food. (lunch $180 and dinner $260). We highly recommend visiting this restaurant - you will love it!
• HONEYMOON BENEFITS
  These services will be provided on a complimentary basis where applicable. Should clients wish to avail these services the request is to be submitted at the time of reservations. To qualify for honeymoon services, honeymooners will be required to submit certified documents (validity max. 6 months) and this should be communicated at the time of reservation.
  1. All Honeymooners for a minimum 4 nights stay will receive the following services:
  a. One bottle of wine, chocolate with special turn down service per room per stay, 50% discount from H20 (underwater restaurant), excluding drinks. Free Villa upgrade from Manta Villa to Dolphin Villa, from Dolphin Villa to Aqua Suite or Beach Suite Pool, from Dolphin Villa Pool to Aqua Suite Pool (upon request and subject to hotel confirmation at the time of booking).
  2. All Honeymooners for a minimum 6 nights stay will receive the following additional service:
  a. Romantic Candle lit dinner for two persons once per stay.
• there is a doctor on the island
• WiFi is not great
• Prices for watersports and excursions are expensive
• Take some suitable clothes for a White Party and if you're there during a full moon, try out the excursion to the remote island and have a BBQ as the sun sets and the moon appears over the horizon. It's amazing.
• Design aesthetics and Landscaping: there are just a few trees in the middle of the island; the rest has no cover. If you are out, you are in full sun - no shade unless seated at one of two designated areas with beach umbrellas. Almost no attempt at landscaping at You&Me.