Lux South Ari Atoll

Fabulous Maldivian oasis with so much to do! Very friendly and attentive staff. We would personally like to thank Rachael, Shameez, Khan, Rohit and the bar team at the East Bar who went the extra mile to making our stay very welcoming. We had the opportunity to swim with a whale shark, Manta rays and turtles - a truly incredible experience led by Lux*’s own marine biologist Mark. He was excellent and informative as well as getting the most remarkable GoPro videos and photographs - these memories will last a lifetime - thank you!! My only criticism is the sheer numbers of divers and snorkellers and their vast number of boats chasing one whale sharks - not very eco conscious - I would not be surprised if there have been boat strikes - this really needs to be addressed as well as distressing the poor creatures. I recommend snorkelling in the coral garden by reception due to the incredible numbers of fish inc baby reef sharks and eagle rays - the colours of the fish are extraordinary! The House reef is a short boat ride away with Again a large number of fish and the occasional turtle. The Lux* has great restaurant choices which were all really delicious and the buffet breakfasts are something else! Also try the wonderful ice cream bar - heavenly! We stayed in a beach villa with direct access to the beach which always seemed so empty and to ourselves even though there were lots of people on the island. We were able to hire bicycles to get around the island which was super handy. Again Lux* thank you for a wonderful stay and memories that will last forever.

What a gorgeous part of the world!! We stayed here for 6 glorious nights in a beachfront pool villa for our honeymoon. The luxury started on arrival off our flight from Colombo. There was someone to meet us off our flight that escorted us to the check-in with Maldavian Air Seaplanes. Check in was speedy and then we were escorted to a shuttle bus that took us to the seaplane terminal. From there we were taken to a lux lounge to wait for our flight - what a great start! The seaplane flight to the resort was thrilling with a couple of touchdown stops on the way. On arrival at the resort we were escorted by golf buggy to our gorgeous beachfront pool villa, number 332. The bed was decorated with red rose petals in a big love heart and a welcome bottle of prosecco on ice, snacks & cake were provided. The room was very large and spacious and our private pool was so inviting - we swam in it a number of times each day. The bed was huge and the pillows & linen was oh so lush. We were hooked up via whatsapp to our concierge and we were updated every day via this format - it was very efficient. Anything we needed throughout the stay I just messaged via whatsapp and like magic our requests were fulfilled. One night we ordered dinner to our room and this was set up on our outdoor deck overlooking the indian ocean in time to enjoy the sunset - very romantic! We rented bikes which was very handy to get around the island - it was lots of fun riding all over the place. The public pools were very nice with good bar service & the food for the entire stay was fantastic - the choice of dinning establishments was varied and of great quality. Every day when our room was serviced we would come back to the room and it smelled so good. I mentioned this to the housekeeper and on our last day he supplied us with 2 bottles of the fragrance - so I have a gorgeous smelling house that brings great memories back to me right at home, back in New Zealand. Thanks Lux South Ari Atoll - we had a wonderful honeymoon. We look forward to our next visit in a few years time!

Wow wow wow ! What an amazing memory making holiday , it’s paradise overload with impeccable service and staff, amazing food and just luxury from start to finish . We chose Lux because of all the reviews and recommendations from our friends and it didn’t disappoint, it’s just made us sad now we are home, but looking forward to a return back to lux when we can. We stayed in two different rooms while there , a beach pool villa for 3 nights middle of the island then moved to an over water temptation pool villa for 4 nights Near East . We were greeted at the airport by the Lux team and showed to the lux lounge while we waited for our sea plane , lovely touch and great coffee and snacks . When we arrived at the lux South Ari Atoll island we were greeted by lots of staff waving us onto the island , lovely touch and our host was Awazbek he greeted and welcomed us and explained everything to us and he created a what’s app so we could message him with any requests we had , we booked restaurants, boat trip, etc etc with him , nothing was too much trouble , he messaged us every day to tell us what was on and times for restaurants , great asset to our holiday, he took care of all our needs. We were shown to our beach villa 331, we had gifts from Lux a cap,fan,kaftan & a bag to use on our holiday lovely gifts thank you .we had 3 nights here and loved it , we don’t know who looked after our room but it was so immaculately cleaned . We then moved to our water villa and met Maui who was looking after us there and it was again cleaned to a very high standard , he was so lovely with our family he pulled out all the stops thank you. We did the tree of wishes one day it was a great idea from Lux and lovely to see all the ribbons floating around. We looked for the hidden bottles around the island but didn’t find any !! We did the house reef snorkelling boat trip the guys taking us out were great , we saw some amazing fish and new reef additions, We didn’t use the spa so can’t comment. We saw so many different types of fish and a lot of reef sharks , one day a lovely couple told us to go to the jetty at night and we did and saw so many baby sharks . We saw cuttlefish,puffafish,needlefish & many more types the sea was that clear ad turquoise blue, we saw a sting ray on our last day . We went to the junk yard to paint coconut shells very enjoyable and therapeutic. We ate in Mixe , Allegria,Beach Rouge, lagoon bar, east market , all the food was outstanding,we especially liked the fish night at Mixe and our beach table meal at Allegria ,so romantic and delicious. The resort never felt busy which was so nice . We had bikes the whole holiday and went on them everyday m we loved the shuttle bus/buggy all day and night the drivers were so lovely and very kind great with the kids too, We hired a jet ski and had so much fun on it and went on a pedalo to the sand bank If you are reading this and thinking wether to book Lux South Ari Atoll you won’t regret it , we gave it 12 out of 10 luxury at its best, Thank you to all the staff as we didn’t get all their names , our mistake as we would of named them all but too many to remember . We did speak to the general manager on our last day to tell him that all the staff were amazing , he gave our daughter a lift on his buggy to the reception but my husband and I wanted to walk back to take in the last few memories before we boarded our sea plane home. We loved the coffee and cakes at reception too all included in the all inclusive too ,

We spent eight days on this beautiful lush island and absolutely loved the setting, which really is paradise with the gorgeous clear water and the stunning mature trees and established gardens. There is an abundance of bird life and other small native critters The island is around two kilometers long and takes approximately twenty minutes to walk end to end. There are buggies every few minutes for those who wish to take the easier option. On arrival we were assigned our Villa ( Romantic Pool Villa ) on the sunset side. On entering this space we were quite underwhelmed, the interior is outdated and the furnishings are cheap and unattractive, the soft furnishings are boring and looked grubby...the room is certainly not understated elegance and looked like it was thrown together by someone with no taste. Outdoors the decking needs replacing, the tiling around the plunge pool is rough and cheap looking...the pool itself is small and not actually an infinity pool, it doesn't merge into the surrounding landscape, in fact you cannot even see the ocean when sitting around or in it as there is vegetation obstructing the view, we noticed this was the case with most of this villa type. The bed in the villa was extremely comfortable. The sunset side of the island is the working side, it is where the planes come in to land and where the boats are coming and going...also most of the restaurants face this side. Once we settled in we went for a walk along the water front outside our villa, it was late afternoon and the tide was coming in, most of the guests were leaving for the day, as we strolled along we noticed bits and pieces of rubbish left by these guests, then we noticed a baby's soiled nappy left in the sand to be taken by the tide....seriously do these people feel so entitled that they expect someone else can clean up after themselves. We were so turned off by this behaviour that we asked to be moved to the other side of the island where it is much quieter and the water is cleaner. The Villa on the sunrise side was identical, however the location is so much nicer, the water is crystal clear and we were lucky enough to have a deep swimming hole directly in front of our villa.Be aware though that this side of the island at certain times of the year the water can be shallow when the tide is out, not sure which month this occurs though. The food on the Island was generally good, our favourites were Beach Rouge Bar and Allegria where the food was exceptional, MIXE was our go to for breakfast. Our preferred alcohol choices were not on the package list and if you deviated from this list the choices were very expensive. The staff were all brilliant, I'm not going to single out any one staff member as it would be unfair to the many others who all do an amazing job, they all really do help make this island the paradise that it is. On a sour note we were totally not impressed with the departure protocol of pretty much booting you out of your room at 7:45am when the Plane didn't arrive until 11am. Our luggage was picked up at 7:45am, we left our personal things in the safe and toothbrushes in the bathroom whilst we went to breakfast, on our return to the room half an hour later it had been stripped and the bed remade, as it was not high season and the island was only about 30% full this was totally rude and unnecessary, hence the 4* rating.

Just returned from our 3rd stay this year. 11th in total. Next one booked for Feb 26 already. We have travelled as a family of 3 this time in a romantic pool Vila. Perfect just love the beach villas just as much especially those with the added pool. Everything once again was perfect even the wet weather to start with didn’t spoil our holiday. Once again it is the staff that make this resort. Khan and Vijay Shiraz and parveen at veli. Manu at beach rouge. Zahir at lagoon. Alludin and ravi at east. Shawkat mofizul and night night the buggy drivers. Pong and Esther at east market. Rachel our host. It’s truly a very special place. All members are there to help you and have an amazing holiday. I just wish they had a loyalty programme I understand they have the website and their programme but something that is official for the many frequent repeaters that is tiered per number of stays and we were aware of the expectations and not having to second guess if they will be Available or offered. The senior daminda sangeeth niaz are incredible and Like friends to us now. There seems to be changes planned for next year to the AI package ?? Are these for the better not sure ? My daughter visited the spa and had a lovely treatment.