Angaga Island Resort & Spa — Hotel in South Ari Atoll

My wife and I travelled out to Angaga, April 2022, for my 65th birthday, as a revisit, following my first stay on the island some 35 years ago(!). It was, what I would have called a 'traditional' Maldivian holiday resort 'back in the day', with sandy floors and individual thatched bungalows and has certainly tried to keep with that tradition, rather than the generic corporate holiday resorts, that have appeared everywhere, in this Indian Ocean paradise.

The flight by sea-plane from Hulhulé (Velana International) was a little noisy but a new experience and only took ~25mins and we were well welcomed by the staff at Angaga Island resort and Spa. The general welcoming chat was short but very informative and well spoken in English, although this is mainly German tourist resort (we felt).

We were shown to our beach bungalow and were immediately impressed with the quality of what was to be our abode for the next two weeks. The bed was larger, firm(ish) and comfortable, the air-con effective, even on the lowest (quietest) setting and the bathroom new, modern and better than we expected.

On our first exploratory walk, we saw that although there are plenty of large expanses of white fine sand beaches, and every bungalow receives their own dedicated loungers and a little private area. There are however, signs of major sand erosion on the Western and North Western edges of the island, down to the underlying rocks in places. There was remedial work being carried out on this, but worth checking out, as this might be seasonal.

We were visiting with a Half-Board plan and both of our meals were from the well stocked buffet. There was ALWAYS something to tempt us on the daily changing selection and we were NEVER disappointed with what was on offer. Both of the bars were well stocked but don't expect a cheap hangover, as prices are what you'd expect to pay in an upmarket London club. A half-pint-lager was $4.50 and cocktails up to $10.50 (and above) for my 'Long Island Iced Tea'..!

The snorkelling was good with many rocky outcrops and coral heads to enjoy and the coral was getting back to it's former glory, with Angaga actively farming new corals to transplant back onto the reefs. Good for you Angaga. The dive shop was expertly staffed and Marina and Olli were very helpful in getting this aging Divemaster back into shape..! Good, reliable and well maintained SCUBA gear is available to hire and prices are reasonable. An acclimatisation dive and two boat dives was less than $250, which was fine by me.

We (my wife and I) wanted a relaxing holiday, following the well known trials and tribulations of the Covid pandemic, and Angaga Island Resort fitted the bill perfectly. The shifting sands of the island are being addressed and it's good (for us) to find a resort, where the palm trees are still higher than the buildings (an old by-law now seemingly forgotten). I could not recommend a visit to Angaga strongly enough, if you want to experience a 'No News, No Shoes' getaway break, although we NEVER had a problem with the Wi-Fi connect-ability either.

The staff are first-rate, polite and will get things done for you if asked. The food excellent and it was great to find an omelette chef who knew his stuff, and enhanced breakfast. Our bungalow (147) was perfect, spacious, clean, well maintained and no more than 20 paces from the beach.

We will be...

Went for honeymoon in January and it was incredible. Weather was amazing; sunny with scatter clouds and 80s everyday except for maybe 4 hours total it rained. Went with overwater bungalow and it was amazing. Room was clean, A/C worked great, bathroom/shower was nice. I'm glad I did the overwater bungalow for honeymoon but if going again would probably just go with a beach bungalow. Water is so clear and you can see so many fish. Bring an underwater camera! You can rent snorkeling equipment or bring your own or buy from gift shop. Gift shop is pricey so don't forget things like sunscreen, lotion, sunglasses, hat, etc.

Food is from the restaurant which there is only 1 and it is buffet style for breakfast and dinner. Lunch if you want is ordered from a menu at either the restaurant or main bar. We went with the half board option (breakfast and dinner) rather than all inclusive and that was plenty for us. There is also a half board plus option where you get drinks included and sandwiches at 3 pm which would be perfect enough for most. Drinks are roughy 7-10 USD so depending on how much you get you can decide which option is better for you. I think for the price difference we saw each person would have to have around 4-6 drinks per day to make it worth it and we are not that so we passed. No need to get all inclusive in my opinion.

Pros: Beautiful water, relaxing, snorkeling, weather, friendly and accommodating staff, excursions, water sports.

Cons: Island is fairly small - only 15 mins to walk around all of it. But so much to see, beautiful birds, flowers, fish, baby sharks by the shore, bats and more! I say this as a con but it's really to adjust expectations. It's an island lifestyle here, not much to do after 9 pm. There is music and dancing once a week but other than that you can hang by the bar. Bring some books, movies, cards and relax. Got various bites (assuming from mosquitoes) so would bring some insect repellant though I had some and it didn't seem to help. Most of reef in Maldives is discolored - apparently a few years back they had unusually hot weather in the 40s (100s) and this killed off a lot of the reef, but it's starting to make a comeback in some areas. Sunsets/sunrise - the sun would rise and set behind a lot of clouds so it wasn't as spectacular! Also stars at night weren't as clearly visible

All in all this is a great place to honeymoon or just take a holiday on the beach! Would highly recommend.

Also when factoring in price, remember to include seaplane transfer to and from (400...

We stayed in Angaga for 2 weeks, mid Feb to beginning of March 2020. Here is what we thought: We didn't realize there would be no swimming pool, as most of the resorts in the Maldives do have it (we've been to 6 others before). Customer service was not great, for example: we were asked to leave the restaurant immediately after serving time is over, e.g. dinner 9pm sharp. cleaning was done during the resting hours of the afternoon which was inconvenient. when taking drinks or food for the room we were asked to return the dirty dishes back to the bars we took it from. There were a lot of mosquitos close to the beach bungalows which made it very difficult for us to actually enjoy the beach. Some of the beach bungalows are located on the windy side of the island and as such do not have a direct access to the beach (there is a slope which is hard to overcome). Even though we requested a bungalow on the calm side of the island prior to our arrival, we were initially accomodated in the windy bungalows. We were then transferred after requesting it multiple times. We were on an all inclusive package and the alcoholic drinks included in this package were of very poor quality. There was a notable lack of entertainment, the beach dinner was cancelled due to bad weather (although the weather was perfect). Other than that, there was a crab race and a live music evening at the bar which were a bit disappointing. The food at the restaurant was very good, although in my personal opinion there was not a big choice of vegetarian food, that is apart from pasta and salad. The scuba diving school was great. Staff was friendly and very professional. The coral reef on the other hand was dead with few colourful fishes swimming here and there. There were a lot of baby reef sharks, sting rays and eagle rays which could be seen easily when snorkeling around the island. There is a swing in front of each beach bungalow which we enjoyed a lot! There are many parrots, small birds and bats around the island which is lovely.

Overall, we had a nice stay in Angaga - there are just a few things that probably need to be improved in order for the quality to match the price...