Peace, quiet, luxury, excellent standards, excellent service, excellent accommodation, beautiful beaches. Everyone knows what to expect in the Maldives – and this resort offers all of the above and bit more too.

The best way to describe Gilli is “understated luxury”. Absolute perfection of service, food, facilities and accommodation without the stuffiness and dressiness of other top class resorts. They take your shoes when you arrive. There is no front desk – you have your own “Mr Friday” who is on call (ours was called Atheef and was superb). It doesn’t take long for the staff to know you by name but it’s also easy to keep your anonymity if you want. Shorts and t-shirts are acceptable attire at any time, anywhere on the island. Everyone is so friendly and genuinely wants to help and make sure you have a great experience, all under the watchful, attentive and superb eye of the Resort Manager - the wonderful Alec!

Gili has a reputation amongst locals as the ‘one to work for’ because staff are valued and cared for. This is probably the ‘secret sauce’ that makes for a very genuine and enjoyable environment. That, and the fact that the owners injected significant amounts to improve back-of-house facilities. Note that there are 300 staff for a maximum of 100 guests.

Things to try are: a massage (ask for Tree), morning yoga with Dave (although I’m sure he’s not really called Dave), wine tasting with Rohan (what a great guy), Dolphin spotting (hope you get lucky – we did and it was amazing), snorkelling (wow)!

When it comes to food, the breakfast is superb (from sushi to congee to bacon to curry to porridge to croissant to (lots of) fresh fruit...you get the picture). Everything is fresh and prepared on site from top quality ingredients. I recommend the wholemeal pan au chocolate. There are two evening buffets each week: the Mediterranean and the Asian. I never thought I’d actually enjoy kebabs as much as I did at the Mediterranean buffet – you have to try the schwarma. The Asian buffet, however, deserves a special mention. Chefs are invited to represent their home country’s cuisine or one they particularly love. The buffet is set up as a street market with food from The Maldives, India, Sri Lanka, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan etc. The chefs pour their hearts into the cooking and are delighted when guests want to learn more about their dishes – the origins, ingredients, how is it cooked, why it was chosen. In that brief moment, the chefs are at the centre of the magic of Gilli – it is their moment. Under candle light and to the sound of the gently lapping waves in the background, guests are merely bystanders in the wonder of this culinary expression of national pride and tradition.

I would have to say that this is the best resort that I have ever stayed at. That is a difficult title to bestow, as so many different things factor into your total experience, but at Gili, everything came out tops! From the initial welcome at the island to our last few minutes at the airport, service was seamless. One thing that made our stay so amazing was our villa - the standard overwater bungalow at Gili. It was huge and beautifully laid out, and the decor blended into the surroundings, making our stay relaxing and enjoyable. I believe the villas at Gili are some of the largest over water bungalows in the Maldives - with a bedroom, living room, patio, rooftop terrace and huge open air bathroom. Superb snorkeling just off our patio - huge amounts of beautiful fish, giant clams, turtles, eels, manta rays - even sharks! We never wanted to leave our villa and had dinner there many nights. The food was awesome - so many different cuisines are available and they are all great due to their team of international chefs. Indian, Italian, Japanese, Thai food were all fantastic - rarely is one place able to provide such a wide array of cuisines and execute them all well. My husband and I are vegetarian and we were well catered to with many options - they were pretty much able to make anything we wanted! :-) The food & wine was actually not as expensive as we had feared - about the same as you would pay in NYC. The breakfast buffet is fantastic with so many options we never got bored, which is pretty rare for us. Spa was fantastic, but obviously not cheap. There is glass flooring below the massage tables so you can watch all the beautiful fish while getting a massage - I thought that was pretty cool! Complimentary morning yoga sessions were awesome - how great is it to do yoga on the beach as the sun rises - instructor was top notch too. Husband and I loved the fact that everything was luxurious, yet relaxed, and you were encouraged to follow the "no shoes, no news" mantra. The only drawback to such a resort is that we stayed here at the beginning of our 2 week vacation - everywhere else was such a letdown. I will be begging my husband to take me back here very soon!

Overall
Best resort hotel I have ever stayed at. Truly magnificent on every level if you are looking for a relaxing holiday, in a very private setting, want to feel like you are the only ones on the island and are happy to have low-key luxury, dont want to get dressed up at night, and don’t need to party all night long. It is unsurprising they just one the award for best resort and spa globally in the World Travel awards. It’s also worthy of note that this hotel is very eco friendly. Really make an effort to cut down on waste and use recycled materials and educate guests on marine life and how to protect the reef.
Rooms
Very large and private. Expansive seating are both in the sun, by the water, in the shade, on lounger chairs, sun beds and hammock style seating. Makes it very easy to spend the whole day relaxing in your room and then just jump into the sea for a cool off or snorkel. Huge bathroom with lovely bath and shower facilities as well as private ocean swimming area. Nice air conditioned bedroom (only the bedroom) with corner windows and magnificent views of the sea. Four different Jetties to choose from, each with different benefits.
Food
Fantastic food. Great breakfast buffet on the beach with anything you could want include 15 jams, 15 honeys, wonderful cheese, meats and chocolates (yes for breakfast!), crepes, French toast, eggs etc etc. Great lunch choices in over water bar and various dinner options including themed nights (we had Mediterranean and Asian buffet nights) and Over the Sea, Japanese sushi restaurant is good too. Excellent food but very expensive (everything needs to be imported to Maldives) and worth getting the half board package. Only slight disappointment was the speed of service in the restaurants – dont wait until you are hungry to go for dinner – usually takes 30 mins to get your first course. When the food arrives however it is worth the wait as everything is delicious !
Service
300 staff serving 85 guests. They go above and beyond. Same person cleans you room every day, same people serve you at meals, Mr Friday caters to your every need personally as though he is your personal concierge. Just when you think you need him, he is magically there. Big thanks to Waheed who was great and managed to get “Out of Africa”, my wife’s favourite movie to be shown in the Jungle Cinema even though they did not have it and also put it on an ipad for us so we could finish watching it the next night. Management were very attentive and checked in to see everything was going well. Special thanks to Alex (Resort Manager) during our stay and to Iain (General Manager) for getting us onto the Jetty we preferred.
Activities
Anything you want to do can be arranged (fishing, scuba, snorkelling, canoeing, wind surfing, water skiing etc). Dolphin cruise was a highlight for us. Lagoon is very large and protected from the winds so ideal for swimming and snorkelling – basically a big, clear swimming pool. Basically go to relax rather than exhaust yourself !

Location
Very convenient from the airport, only 15 mins by speedboat. Makes the most of the time you have in Maldives. Downside is you are nearer to boat traffic into the neighbouring port island and get some flyovers by seaplane and jets as they come in to land or take off from Male aiport. Thankfully there are not that many flights though each day

If you are looking for peace of mind look no further - no wrinkles no unsuspecting disappointments, the staff are to a man and women exceptional, attentive and commensurate professionals, cheerful to a fault. Step off the plane and be eating breakfast on the beach 60 minutes later no long lengthy or disrupted transfers. Food is healthy, tasty interesting, exciting and tastes great. The little things are taken care of with the simple result that you get what is written on this tin - peace and plenty of it.