Lily Beach Resort
, South Ari Atoll
Lily Beach Resort Reviews
- Board Basis:All Inclusive
- Tour Operator:Hayes & Jarvis
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Well we got back last week from a fantastic two week stay over Xmas and New Year at Lily Beach. The weather was brilliant - two 1 hour showers during our entire stay and they were both at night. During the day, we barely saw a cloud.
Flights with Emirates were mixed. Outbound to Dubai on a boeing 777 was great. Wonderful service, nice food and loads of legroom. The huge entertainment system kept my hubby occupied the entire time. Onward from Dubai was on an airbus A330-200. Less legroom, service not quite as good but flights were all on time.
Arrived at 8am and 28 degrees to find our luggage was still in Dubai. Luckily i had packed enough in our hand luggage bags for 24 hours which in the end had to last for 48 hours as our bags didn't make it to lily Beach for 2 days.
Didn't have to wait more than 15 mins for our seaplane and after a stop at Maayafushi we arrive at Lily Beach around 11am.
It was lovely to see so many people who were also there last year and we formed a Tsunami returnees club. We asked for and got the room we had last year (154) which is just behind the main bar and restaurant (so not far to trot to get a drink during the day) which was kept wonderfully clean by our roomboy Zaid. He without being told, knew when it was my husbands birthday and beautifully decorated our bed. The 187 petals he laid out plus a happy birthday meggage must have taken him ages.
The rooms are simple but spotless. You have a cd player in your room so take a couple of your favourites or you can borrow them from the CD lubrary in reception. Teh open air bathroom was again wonderful as long as you don't ming sharing it with the odd geko and a few ants.
The food was as good as ever - a good selection which was always piping hot. I'm not a vegetarian but the chefs make some fabulous veggie curries every day which i thought were much nicer than the meat ones and i usually had these everyday for lunch. I can especially reccommend the pumpkin, pea and cashew nut and the bean and carrot.
The gala dinners on Xmas eve and New Years Eve were amazing - they must have been 30 different appitizers and choice of 10 different meats for main course and 15-20 types of cake for dessert. We paid for a couple of extra meals. We had the romantic dinner on my husbands birthday - this was a 5 course dinner (asparagus, wonton soup, home-made chicken kiev, mousse and a fruit platter was $90 per couple. The surround your table on the beach by palm leaves shaped into hearts.
We also had two steak dinners which cost $17pp and again we had them on the beach 10 feet from the waters edge. You could choose, fillet, T-Bone or sirloin. We both had fillet and they were perfectly cooked as requested. I have rarely had a better steak in London. This comes with Fries, a salad and a fruit plate. The wine list was very reasonable. We stuck with a hardy's grenache-shiraz rose which was $16 a bottle. Champagne on hubbys birthday was $70 for a bottle of Mumm. Piper and Moet was $72 a bottle.
We also paid for lunch once at the pool bar - just fancied a bit of grease when we were hung-over and paid just $9 for a cheeseburger and chips and a hotdog and chips.
The house spirits served are all branded. the rum was Barcardi, vodka was Rither Finlandia or Smirnoff, whiskey was Johnny walker red label and gin was Walkers London Gin. Although cocktails aren't usually included there is a happy hour every day from 6.30 -10.30 when two cocktails are included in the all inclusive. We enjoyed the rusty nails (whiskey and Drambuie) Pimms, Cointreau and seven up, and all manor of fruity cocktails.
The snorkelling at Lily beach is superb - the house reef is one of the best in the Maldives. I saw a huge ray, a moray and turtles on different afternoons. I also went on the whale shark snorkelling trip which first takes you by speedboat to manta point where we plunged into the water and searched for manta's for a while and where lucky enough to find 3 of them together. We then moved on to whale shark alley where we were all really excited to swim with a 6.5 metre (18ft) whale shark (they said it was a small one!). We then stopped for excellent tea and cakes and then speed back to Lily passing a pod of about 15 dolphins. This trip was $65pp.
Service was generally very good. The bar service is superb. Tip these guys and they ensure your glass is never empty. You have the same table in the restaurant the whole time and thus the same waiter. Ours was OK - a bit patchy. One day he never came to our table during lunch so we had to go to the bar to get our own drinks but generally it was OK.
As Lily beach repeaters we got a bottle of white wine in an ice bucket and a basket of fruit just after we checked into our room and on our last night we had a special 3 course goodbye dinner on the beach (you get to choose prawns or steak) plus another bottle of wine and you also get given two Lily beach t-shirts.
Flights home were on time and our bags even made our Dubai connection. Unfortunately we had an airbus A330 on both legs so not as comfy as the Boeing 777. We were one row behind the bulkhead seats and two crying babies meant a very long flight from Dubai.
- Board Basis:All Inclusive
- Tour Operator:Thomson
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We arrived at Gatwick on the Sunday evening for our flight with Thomson Fly. We didn’t really know what to expect as we had heard conflicting reports.
We had decided to upgrade to premium cabin as my husband is 6ft 2 and wanted the extra leg room. I have to say on the whole we were really pleased with Thomson fly. The crew were very friendly and always very helpful. Unfortunately though neither of our TV screens were working - The crew members tried for ages to try and mend them but to no avail.
It was annoying as I had wanted to watch Charlie and the chocolate factory and Bridget Jones - the edge of reason. The food was nice, and overall everything was fine on the flight. I must say though that I think the planes need a good refurbishment - a big tatty - in my opinion.
We arrived at Male (well the airport )and the heat hit us, it was lovely, a little cloudy but very hot. After a quick panic that our cases may have been lost (the last ones off the carousel) we made our way across the runway (literally) to the seaplane terminal. We waited about half an hour for our plane to Lily Beach. We boarded and took our seats for the amazing trip over all the atolls.
I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life. Our seaplane transfer was included in the price, but if it isn’t - it is well worth paying the extra. After about a forty minute journey we arrived on the pontoon to be greeted by our dhoni boat, to take us on to Lily Beach. It was quite a rough journey, so we had to hang on well!!!!. After about 10 mins we arrived at our paradise home for two weeks.
We were greeted by beating drums and a flower garland was put around our neck. It was a lovely welcome. We were then taken through to the reception area where we sat down and were given a most welcome cool drink plus sandwiches and fresh fruit. Very nice it was. We filled in our details and were then given our keys. The porters took our bags for us.
Our room was very nice - basic but very clean and spacious. We had a semi outdoor bathroom, which was weird at first. I have to say that i began to really like it. I was worried at first that the lizards would come into the shower bit - but thankfully they never did.
After we had unpacked, we had a nice cold shower and then we took the few paces to the beach - through the small archway through the greenery. This is where the pure beauty of the island hit us. It was amazing. Pure white sand and the turquoise sea.
We then got ready for dinner. We were allocated a table with another couple that we had met on the sea plane who we had become friendly with. If you had wanted you could have a table on your own. The choice of food was very good. There was always something on the menu that even the fussiest eater could have.
My husband is a fussy eater, but he literally ate for England. Once a week we had a barbecue, which was lovely (all of your usual meats). Chips were available on the buffet between once and twice a week. In the second week it was Lily Beaches 11th anniversary, so we had a gala buffet. There was an even bigger choice of foods, plus a huge birthday cake.
There are lots of wildlife on Lily Beach. There were two Herons, a sea eagle (which we were able to feed by hand), lots of fruit bats, a turtle conservation, amongst other things.
Every evening at 9pm a member of staff came out with a barrow full of tuna heads to feed the stingrays, fish and even the odd white tip reef shark. It was great to watch them all fighting over the food. I have never seen so many fish in one go.
Snorkelling was amazing at Lily Beach. I was very worried at first, because I didn’t like the thought of the fish touching me but i have to say I loved it. There were so many types of fish - just like an aquarium. Usually when I holiday I spend most of the time sunbathing but this year I did more snorkelling, I found it so fascinating.
We took the kayaks out a few times and went round the island - stopping for a pit stop at the bar !!! before ending our journey. On the last day my husband went out on the kayaks with friends and had a pod of dolphins jump up 6 ft from their boat. They said it was amazing. I was so envious as none of us had seen any dolphins up till then. I saw the same ones later in the distance.
We also went on a manta ray trip. We went out on the dhoni and jumped off the boat when the guide saw some rays in the distance. I struggled because I am not a strong swimmer. All the others had seem some and were well happy. I was upset and sad. We had several chances to go out again and when the guide saw that I was struggling he took my hand and took me out. This is where I saw these amazing creatures. They are huge. The ones I saw were about 15ft across. I swam above it. I was so grateful to the guide. I went out a couple of times after that and eventually managed to see about 8 in total. I would definitely recommend this trip.
We did want to go on the Whale shark trip, but several people had said it was alot of money and very unlikely that you would see any, even the divers hadn’t seen any. This was surprising because there was alot of plankton in the sea.
I visited the spa once and had a reflexology/head massage which was very nice. The Balinese girls were very good.
The weather was quite mixed at times. We had three and a half full days of rain on the trot. This was because Sri Lanka was having a cyclone. It annoyed us women more because we couldn’t sunbathe. The men just went in the bar!!! When the sun was out it was very hot. I used factor 30 and still burnt badly one day.
The bar choice wasn’t bad, although I wasn’t that keen on the white wine. Every evening there were two complimentary cocktails. The nicest cocktails were on a big board next to the bar. We thought they were very expensive though. I chose one, one evening and it was £10. I wasn’t allowed many of those!!! The lager was very nice. It was quite fizzy but lovely and cold.
All in all we had a wonderful holiday at Lily Beach. All of the staff were great, and always had a smile for you. I would definitely this resort. Hopefully I will return one day.
- Board Basis:All Inclusive
- Tour Operator:Thomas Cook
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4 readers found this review helpful
Well here goes, I will try not to bore you too much but you’ll have to bear with me as I can waffle! The First Choice flight was Excellent. We were in Star Class premier and were given champagne and strawberries prior to take off which was a nice touch. Staff were brilliant both ways – I could fault them!
Arrived at Male and had a swift transfer to the seaplane terminal… then a quick 25 minute transfer to Lily Beach.
We were greeted with flowers and drum roll followed by a cool towel and a fruit cocktail drink – which was very welcome.
We were in room 215 which was in a great location and situated slightly further away from the other water bungalows (except for our immediate neighbour obviously). It was great to be able to sit out on the deck and watch the fish swim by – we had a sting ray that decided it wanted to stay under our deck most days!
The immediate difference that we found from our only other trip to the Maldives (Kuramathi – a much larger island) was it was quite noisy. There’s a workshop immediately behind our room and they were grinding metal every day from 8am until around 5pm (intermittently). We asked if we could be moved – and they offered us room 205 which was slightly more overlooked and you could still hear the grinding from there too. In the end we stayed where we were and asked them if they could wait until after 9am before they started grinding. (We are up at 5am at home, so it’s nice to get a bit of a lie in on holiday!).
Our room boy Ismail and our Waiter Jaleel were great; nothing was too much trouble for them. The staff at the coffee shop were also very helpful.
The food was good, but my husband found it a bit repetitive as he isn’t keen on curry, Chinese or fish. We had a few special dinners on the beach, mostly Fillet steak which was excellent, and we also had a few hot dogs and cheeseburgers at the coffee, which were a welcome change. The deserts were wonderful. I took a liking to the strawberry mousse, and the Pecan Pie. I love Chinese food, and there was always a plenty of choice at both Lunch and Dinner.
I loved the fact that the reef was so close, as I am not the strongest of swimmers so it was good to see some of the lion fish, trigger fish and spotted puffers.
There were plenty of trips to go on but we only did the Whales shark trip (didn’t see the whale shark, but plenty of dolphins), the fishing trip – I caught one! And the coral garden snorkeling.
I would definitely recommend the water bungalows! Although you can’t sunbathe on the deck after midday it was great to sit in the shade and read or snooze, and it was only a few steps down a ladder in to the warm sea!
Overall we came back feeling refreshed and we didn’t get bored at all (on the last island we were bored after 11 days!).
Looking at where to go next time now!