The Best One&Only Resorts, Ranked by Guest Reviews

One&Only is a small, resort-only brand, and its resorts are not equally loved. So we ranked them the way guests experience them. On 3 October 2026 we took the 100 most recent verified reviews for every One&Only on our booking platform and scored them ourselves: the mean out of 10, the share of guests scoring 9 or more, and the share scoring under 7. We also read what the written English reviews talk about (the service, the food, the beach, the kids' club) and how the reviews that mention each topic score against the rest.

The rule for the ranking: at least 50 reviews, written since June 2024. That gives nine of the fourteen One&Only resorts we track; the five that miss out, and why, are at the bottom of the page. Every resort was also priced on the same dates through our own booking engine, the one behind hotels.biirdee.com (10–13 November 2026, 12–15 March 2027 and 15–18 July 2027 in the table, two adults), so each entry shows what a night actually cost on 3 October 2026. Taxes the resort collects at checkout are extra. What each resort costs month by month is on One&Only prices.

1. One&Only Reethi Rah, Maldives

9.88 out of 10, with 95% of recent guests at 9 or more and 1% under 7: the highest score at any One&Only, and the highest of the Maldives resorts we scored. Families wrote 51% of its recent reviews, and it shows: the kids come up in 33% of written reviews, averaging 9.93. Service is mentioned in 91% (9.9), the food in 66% (9.87) and the beach in 42% (9.89), and the spa, in 22% of reviews, averaged a perfect 10.0. Forbes Five-Star for the resort and its spa. It is also one of the dearest resorts in the brand: villas only, $3,251 in November, $3,861 in March and $2,620 in July, with nothing on sale over New Year. Our Reethi Rah guide has the month-by-month rates.

2. One&Only Palmilla, Los Cabos

9.72, with 90% at 9 or more and 2% under 7, and the best-reviewed of the five luxury resorts we scored in Los Cabos. It is the brand's family resort in the Americas: families wrote 62% of recent reviews. Service comes up in 56% of written reviews (9.76), the pool in 13% (9.9) and the view in 11% (10.0). The one soft spot is value: the 9% of reviews that mention price average 8.71. Forbes Five-Star for the resort and spa, and Two MICHELIN Keys in 2026. Breakfast was in the cheapest rate on all our stays: $1,944 in November, $2,077 in March, $1,054 in July. More in our Palmilla guide.

3. One&Only Portonovi, Montenegro

9.62, with 89% at 9 or more and only 1% under 7. Every written review that mentions the service scored 10.0, and so did the reviews mentioning the pool, the view and the kids; breakfast comes up in 32% of reviews, averaging 9.86. Couples wrote 61% of its reviews and solo travelers 15%, far more than at Reethi Rah or Palmilla. Forbes Five-Star. It is also the price outlier: $321 a night on our November stay and $322 over New Year, the cheapest One&Only on both, rising to $1,733 in July. If you can travel between November and March, this is the best value in the brand on our numbers.

4 and 5. The Palm and Royal Mirage, Dubai

The two beach resorts in Dubai sit almost level. The Palm scores 9.28 (86% at 9 or more, 6% under 7) on reviews from May to August 2026; couples wrote 63% of them and solo travelers 21%. Service comes up in 73% of written reviews (9.75), and every review that mentions breakfast scored 10.0. It is Forbes Four-Star and holds Two MICHELIN Keys in 2026, and it is the dearest Dubai One&Only: $1,223 in November, $2,527 over New Year, $524 in July.

Royal Mirage scores 9.26 (83% at 9 or more, 9% under 7), with a Forbes Five-Star. Service comes up in 82% of written reviews (9.54), the food in 47% (9.57) and the pool in 30% (9.47); noise is the gripe, in 6% of reviews averaging 6.67. UK tour operators report that The Palace wing is closed for a full renovation, with guests moved to Arabian Court, and all our cheapest rates were Arabian Court rooms: $778 in November, $691 in March, and $300 in July, the cheapest One&Only on that stay.

6. One&Only Cape Town

9.07, with 81% at 9 or more and 8% under 7. Breakfast is the star: it comes up in 34% of written reviews, averaging 9.82, and the food overall in 30% (9.93). The pool (24%, 9.5) and the view (20%, 9.9) score well too; the spa (12%, 8.17) less so. Forbes Four-Star. In Cape Town itself it ranks third of the three luxury hotels we scored, behind the Mount Nelson (9.90) and The Silo (9.43, on older reviews). Rates held at $1,275–1,507 on the three stays with rooms, with breakfast included every time.

The Lowest Scorers, Honestly

Aesthesis, on the Athens Riviera, is last at 8.84, with 70% of guests at 9 or more. The beach is the problem: it comes up in 18% of written reviews, and those average 7.62. The food (13% of reviews, 8.0), the pool (16%, 8.43) and even the service (60%, 8.44) score below the resort's own average. It is Forbes Recommended, with a Four-Star spa and One MICHELIN Key, and in Athens it trails the Four Seasons Astir Palace (9.06), the only other luxury hotel we scored there. The upside is price: $604 a night in November and over New Year.

One Za'abeel, the vertical resort in Dubai, scores 8.98 on reviews from May and June 2026, and 11% of them came in under 7, the highest share at any ranked One&Only. Service comes up in 58% of written reviews and averages 8.8; the view, in 15%, averages 8.5. It is the cheapest One&Only on our March stay ($671) and costs $335 in July, so the value is there for a city stay.

Le Saint Géran in Mauritius scores 9.05, with 75% at 9 or more. The food is excellent (41% of written reviews, averaging 9.64); the service is not, at 8.37 across the 70% of reviews that mention it, and the kids (8.25) and the pool (8.0) score low too. It ranks fourth of the four luxury resorts we scored in Mauritius. Our Le Saint Géran guide weighs it against the island's alternatives.

Mandarina is the one to watch. Its reviews average 9.53, but they stretch back to December 2020, so we flag them as older. On awards it is the brand's standout: Three MICHELIN Keys in 2026 and number 23 in The 50 Best Hotels 2026 (up from 39 in 2025), the only One&Only on that list. It sold only treehouses and villas on our dates, from $1,105 a night in July to $4,997 over New Year.

The other four are simply too new or too small on our platform to score. Moonlight Basin in Big Sky opened in November 2025 as the brand's first resort in the US and its first ski resort; Kéa Island opened in June 2024, runs seasonally, and had rooms on our July stay only. The two Rwandan lodges, Gorilla's Nest and Nyungwe House, each earned Two MICHELIN Keys in 2026, Rwanda's first year in the selection, and both priced on full board on our dates.

Best One&Only Resorts: FAQs