I visited another island in the Maldives November 2021 and thoroughly enjoyed it so much I wanted to return. That island was only 45 mins away from Male ( airport) . Whereas this island is over an hour plane flight from Male. We had to wait 6 hours @ Male for this domestic flight and then a short speed boat to our island . When we arrived (30 hours travel time!)we were welcomed with an iced and cool flannel to freshen up with. We were shown our room which was a spacious beach bungalow . I loved the position of the bungalow - a few steps and we were on the sand . The outside shower is a great experience . The restaurant was a big food hall where you sat at the same table for the duration of your stay. There was plenty to choose from the buffet and waiter service for drinks . There was another restaurant and bar near the water bungalows but this was not included in the all inclusive , so we never tried it. The pool was of good size as both my husband and I enjoy swimming , the guy who looked after the pool area saved our beds each day and we tipped him for his service . The bar staff were friendly but no snacks were available in between meal times. We brought our own stock of nibbles for the room fortunately! The snorkelling outside the restaurant was great we saw lots of beautiful fish on this coral reef including a sting ray which was amazing. We also had a snorkelling trip included with our package holiday which was also a fab afternoon where we saw sea turtles . We enjoyed kayaking on the still waters and I scoured the whole island for all the beautiful shells which I enjoyed collecting. There was evening entertainment including crab racing which was great fun. All the staff were very kind and helpful ensuring we had a wonderful holiday. We unfortunately were diverted on our domestic flight home so missed our international flights this was no fault of our own but big shout out to Sheena (South Palm Resort Rep) who calmed me down when We landed in Male just missing our flights. We were eventually put up in a hotel overnight and caught another flight the next evening so it took 48 hours to get home in the end ! When you travel to paradise you have to take into account it takes a long time getting there ! But in my opinion well worth it every time ❤️…
Comment from room 410 ,409. Amazing place to visit, very friendly staff. We are very recommend this place. Would like to mention guys from staff , Bilal from house keeping very nice guy, also Naseem who works in restaurant, give them bonus they really deserved it.
South Palm Resort is wonderfully located on a small atoll measuring 3.2kms in circumference. Our accommodation, a water villa, was large and nicely done out with a balcony with steps straight into the Indian Ocean. The staff are very friendly and welcoming. Beware if you go all inclusive as we did because it does not measure up to AI we have done previously. There are lots of hidden extras that normally come as standard on AI. There are no snack bars anywhere only food at meal times unless you pay extra. Very limited cocktails unless you pay extra. Cheapest bottle of champagne is US$ 165 approx £120 yes that is correct. Everything you have to pay for is exorbitant. Food at meal times is very good with a wide variety on offer. Do not take children, there is nothing for them to do and it is blistering hot. They can't get ice cream/snacks etc unless paid for in US$, ice cream can range from 10 to 20 dollars. Entertainment is laughable and consists of mainly advertising the resort water sports and spa. Having said all that both my wife and I had a great time, we would consider the Maldives again but not this resort. Hope you find this useful…
Really enjoyed our 2 week stay in South Palm Resort, Maldives. Everyone was friendly, welcoming and provided excellent service, from the staff at the Moodhu bar, to the chefs and our waiter at the Banyan restaurant. All the staff at the snorkelling centre were excellent too.. really helpful, encouraging and patient with my wife who was a little nervous! We had some great trips and saw loads of colourful fish, turtles, a ray and a couple of sharks.. perfect!… Nurislam deserves a mention too, as he was friendly and kept our villa spick and span, kept us regularly topped up with water and towels and who one evening created a very special towel art on our bed… beautiful!.. thank you
Lovely resort, and loved our Beach Villa. Special Thank you to Nur Islam for looking after us and the Villa so well for our stay, we especially loved our surprise Flower arrangement on our bed, wow, so lovely. Also, special Thank you to Dina our waitress in the restaurant, lovely girl. Nice to meet the Asst Manager Ali Mohamed too.
I allways dreampt of going to the Maldives and in my dreams it was lovely blue sea and soft white sand. It didn't disappoint!! Well even though the flight is long it was so worth it. The island is not big and even though it was full it didn't seam busy. The staff are all so friendly and can't do enough for you. We stayed in a water villa it was spacious and very clean,overlooking the water with steeps down to the water which are cleaned daily. Room service is brilliant clean towels every day water morning and evening. But if you need more just ask. The water activities are excellent please try they are so helpful and well worth the money. I thought the prices were fair. We saw dolphins, Ray's, sharks, tortoise, octopus, and a variety of fish. By snorkeling and diving. The water villas are at the bottom of the island a short walk to the restaurant but there is a shuttle to take you around the resort just text or ring reception. The bar area has music but is loud if you want to talk. The swimming pool is well looked after and maned all day. The gym is dated but use able. The food is buffet style with something for everyone you keep your table all your stay. I enjoyed my time at South palm and looking forward to going back. All the staff do a great job and made us welcome. I would recommend without a doubt.…
First of all this place is stunningly beautiful. We stayed in an over water bungalow and it was perfection. The staff is tremendously friendly and helpful. There are a few things that I fee like would be good for others who come to know.... 1. there isn't much to do here and the things offered are expensive. They plan some excursions. We did the dolphin cruise (good). There is scuba diving if you enjoy that and there is a spa. Other than that bring books to read or something to occupy yourself. I struggled because I love adventurous vacations. 2. You can access the water from your room but be aware that when the tide is out the water is maybe 10inches deep and full of coral. We also packed floats to use in the water which were nice. The resort pool is not very big and there were probably 12-15 lounge chairs.... limited space. 3. The food is "fair/good" at best. If you are a foodie this place will not excite you. It is basically the same foods every night... (lots of emphasis on Indian and Asian)--there are cooking stations and they don't change. There is a salad room and a dessert room and our group was not impressed with either. The desserts were just bland and pretty meh. Overall based on what we paid for the trip and that it was in the Maldives, we are happy that we went. We got a vacation deal during covid. If we would have paid full price I would have been disappointed and again, mostly that is because the food is just mediocre.…
As others have reported it is a long journey but so worth it, We flew with Qatar from Heathrow via Doha to Male, with a 2 hour connection in Doha, we found this to be fine and wouldnt cut it any finer as Doha airport is huge. On arrival in Male, after collecting our luggage and having passed through passport control we were met by Shina and Shafa (wow what a credit to the resort), they took control of everything that needed to be done whilst we relaxed in comfort in a hospitality room, When the time came to board our internal flight to Gan they collected us and took our cases to the internal flight section, checked us in and then escorted us to the departure gate, it must be noted we received the same excellent service on our return journey. Upon arrival at Gan airport we were swiftly shown to our speedboat for a quick 10/15 minute trip to our island destination. Upon arrival at resort we were met by the islands staff and were shown straight to the restaurant for lunch whilst they processed our passports and accomodation vouchers and return flight details (no waiting around here). You are allocated a restaurant table for the duration of your stay, ours was adjacent to an open window which was great as we had a great airflow helping us to stay cool. Our main waiter was Didi and his lovey assistant Tasha who simply did not stop smiling throughout our stay. We found the food to be what we expected, plentiful with a good selection of live cooking stations. The menu is repeated on a weekly basis and unfortunately there were one or two niggly concerns. Why no cheese and biscuits available for desert at lunch or dinner yet it was available for breakfast, On very few occassions was ice cream on the menu yet a huge arrange of cakes at every meal. Also there appeared to be an unwritten law which restricted alcoholic drinks to two very small glasses of wine at each sitting! We stayed in a lovely Beach Bungalow which was very well equiped and serviced twice a day by our room attendant Noor who kept us well supplied with fresh towels and water daily. Being able to simply pull out your sunbeds onto the stunning beach every morning was a total delight. Yes you do need water shoes as there are numerous bits of broken coral and large stones on the sea edge and in the water, but the sea temperature and calmness on the sunset side of the island more than makes up for it. When the tide is out you can wander quite a way out before the water even breaks waist level. I found it to be great for snorkelling particularly around the pier and water bungalows. We saw numerous baby sharks, turtles, octopus and numerous other sea creatures throughout our stay. Entertainment in the evening is quite low key, be it a resort presentation, a band, a disco and the weekly Crab racing (Great night) one to avoid personally is the saturday kareoke session. Bar service is generally good although most of the cocktails and spirit options appeared to be watered down. A slightly annoying thing was having to sign for your drinks at the end of the evening when a simple inclusive/non inclusive wrist band could easily resolve the situation. We only did the one trip the dolphin search and that was simply WOW we've never seen so many dolphins at one time, simply surrounding our boat and performing for us. We also booked a lobster meal on the beach which was a great way to experience the quiet of the ocean at night and to receive great individual service, only one point of note here was that the lighting was so soft we could barely see the food we were eating. Overall a magical stay on a very lovely island which was undoubtedly outstanding value compared to some more illustrious island, with one or two little improvements it would certainly be worthy of 5 stars.…
We had a fantastic time. The staff were amazing and so friendly. Sibby our butler was very helpful and always made sure everthing was looked after. Athif our waiter always had a big smile and too made sure we had everything we needed. We had a lot of fun at meals because of the great service he provided. Hassan also provided great service at the bar where we enjoyed the music and live entertainment. We loved the snorkeling there - it was one of the highlights of the trip. We saw many fish , eels, octopus, turtles and a stingray around the villas and the snorkeling excursion by boat was also fantastic. We did the tour to Addu City and got to experience some of the local culture. The buggy drivers were great and were always ready to give us a ride when needed. We also did the dolphin watching - and it was an experience we will never forget. I now know why they are named Spinner dolphins! The last day we did a couples massage in one of the huts and both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was followed by the Valentines dinner on the beach - a day we will never forget! It really was a trip of lifetime and not only met but exceeded all our expectations!…
The journey to South Palm Resort is a long one (2 x 5 hour waits for each leg of the journey) but once you arrive it’s most definitely worth it. On arrival at the resort Talal greeted us and we could not have wished for a more welcoming reception. Talal took us to our Beach Villa accommodation which had everything we needed. The villa leads onto the beach and it really is like your own private area as it is so quiet. We had a sunset dinner on the beach which was perfect, all organised by Talal, a huge thank you to him for making our trip such a memorable one. Nurislam looked after our room, brought water regularly and anything requested was brought straight away. The food in the buffet was great, freshly cooked and lots of choice. The beach, sunsets, sharks, turtles are just amazing and the daytime dolphin trip was too. I’d class the resort as rustic but there is every facility you require. It’s a lovely piece of paradise. The only negative is that the AI doesn’t include cocktails and your mini bar/fridge is chargeable. We would definitely return but try a different route so that we didn’t have to wait so long at the airports. …
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