Barceló Whale Lagoon Maldives — Hotel in South Ari Atoll

B is for birthdays and for Barcelo Whale Lagoon Resort, where we went to celebrate them! Located in the southern tip of South Ari Atoll, 35 minutes by seaplane, recently opened, Barcelo provides a relaxed Maldives feel!

We stayed in a sunset suite ​villa with pool. While we were unlucky due to cloud cover during our long weekend stay, an uninterrupted view of the horizon should provide awesome sunsets which can be enjoyed from your pool, sun lounger, or deck seating.

Rooms were generous in size, with high ceilings and lots of light. A large comfy bed affords views of the beach and ocean. There is a sofa, lounge chair, desk and plenty of storage space. Amenities include TV, wifi, beach towels, safety deposit box, torch and socket adaptor. There is a separate entrance hall equipped with mini bar, tea and coffee (Nespresso) making facilities, snacks and water. A wonderful outdoor bathroom with outdoor and indoor shower, bath, two basins, toiletries, hairdryer, bath robes and slippers, completes your accommodation.

The landscaping in the bathroom and throughout the resort has been carefully planned and executed using Maldivian trees and shrubs and whilst a lot of areas have established themselves, another 6 to 12 months will really see the vegetation mature to its best, further enhancing the property.

There are infinity pools at either end of the resort. One attached to Breeze ​Cocktail Bar and the other to Magical​ Pool Bar. From Magical you can see across to the local island of Fenfushi and there is access to a beautiful string of sandbanks at low tide under the watchful gaze of the resort's Lifeguard. There are lots of areas to sit and chill and watch the world go by​, either in the shade or where you can soak up the sun! There is a watersports centre and PADI certified dive centre operated by Koamas, a well equipped gym, games room including PlayStation, board games, tabletop football. A small gift shop and finally the Spa, equipped with a sauna and steam room.

Unsurprisingly, we spent a lot of time in the Spa! We indulged in massages and also a great package offer, at the time of our visit​ consisting of foot bath, body scrub and balinese massage, 90 minutes for $150.

Meals are served in the main restaurant ​Sea Salt, where you can dine overlooking the ocean. At the time of our visit there was a mix of buffet and menu items which provided a wide range of options across breakfast, lunch and dinner. An a la carte ​seafood restaurant 'Aqua' is due to open in the next few weeks, snacks can also be purchased from both bars and room service is offered.

There are ​5 room categories which in addition to the ​sunset suite​ with pool, include, ​sunrise beach villa​, sunset beach villa, sunset water villa and ​sunrise water villa.

Barcelo makes a welcome addition to the resorts nestled in this area of South Ari. Perfect for a standalone holiday if you are in search of whale sharks and manta rays. Or ideal to combine with a local island stay. Due to weather conditions we were unable to snorkel around the resort so unable to comment from personal experience.

Finally, a shout out to the team who all welcomed us with smiles and conversation. Special mention to Malini in the restaurant who had our names and preferences, memory banked in minutes​, Asti in the spa who has magic hands and Modu our room attendant who has a skill for sand art!

Thank you everyone for your hospitality, I think it​'s safe to say we...

Think twice before you book this resort ! My birthday holiday is ruined by this resort 😅

Pros:

1. Spacious room with sunset view , with separated shower , bathtub and toilet
2. Amazing diving instructor Jai Lam
3. Well-facilitated, two fantastic pool bar with fascinating views
4. Smart design water-proof key band , no need to bring key card with you
5. Good housekeeping , offering twice per day. Room is neat and tidy.

Cons :

1. Unmotivational staffs, you seldom find the smiles on their faces. Help yourself is the tips for you. The drink order from the restaurant is usually wrong .You need to follow-up most of the things by yourself , especially arrangement on special day, checkout time etc. They completely forgot it 😅and delayed to do it
2. Poor management , wondering any training and management to the staffs ? They are very weak in service and food knowledge. They are not really eager to provide services.
3. Awful food, it was shocking me about the food condition. The cheese served with the moist on the surface. The juice shot is warm. How disgusting it is ! The drink quality is not consistent, sometimes it’s good from the bar , it’s always bland in Sea salt restaurant. No standard for the drinks. The soup is watery. And the sushi is cut by the big butcher knife instead of proper sushi knife. The staffs obviously don’t have enough knowledge about the food in terms of cooking skills and food hygiene .Seriously, the management should take some action on the food quality control. This is not 5-star hotel quality.
4. Chaotic arrangement, the seaplane arrangement is super bad. They didn’t reply us in email about our arrival flight till our previous hotel told us. The seaplane schedule is changed without any notice. We sat in the lounge and waited like a dumb. They informed us to check out at 1:30pm and the seaplane departed at 2:30pm. Later , we learnt our flight is delayed till 3:40pm but still no information till 3:44pm. I haven’t had this experience in Maldives resort 😅
5. High mark-up on US dollar payment! Check your bill before you pay by card. No joke ! The payment machine is gonna charge 8.5% mark up on US dollar payment. We were shocked by this and then the staff took another payment machine charge by Maldivian currency. It’s the normal exchange rate instead of US dollar and your local currency. 6)Only westerner got golf car service from the reception to the seaplane . We were asked to walk by ourselves but then we saw the westerners got the golf car ride at our back, why ?😆
6. No relaxing and welcoming atmosphere. No one cared about your feeling. And stay experience.The staff approached and smiled to you for SALES purpose only !

To conclude, the hardware is good but the...

We had been to Maldives twice in the past 2 years and stayed in 5 hotels. This is seriously the worst one with no doubts. The other 4 are all with excellent hospitality, including the two we only stayed in Male for one night. Don't book this hotel unless you want to ruin your holiday by their extreme poor management (if any) and awful food quality. Pros: Good scuba diving centre. JaiLam took us with 2 dives, he's professional, knowledgeable, and very polite. Good and spacious rooms Cons: Staffs are so unmotivated and never smiled, which is so different from the other 4 Maldivian hotels we stayed. Maldivian hotels are supposed to be famous for warm hospitality and make you feel relaxed and hustle free. This hotel managed to do the complete opposite. They didn't informed us the seaplane flight schedule and arrangement even I had asked them by email the night before onboard, I had to ask the hotel we stayed before Barcelo for the arrangement done by another hotel (i.e. Barcelo). We were informed we were departing at 0930 am for the outbound flight to Barcelo but the flight was scheduled at 1100. Same for the return flight, we were informed to depart at 0230pm but the actual schedule time was 0400pm. Different from all other Maldivian hotels, even including those in local islands charging you at least 6 times less than Barcelo, they offered no one welcoming you at your arrival point but you have to walk to their counters, seaplane buses (vs private transfer from our previous villa) and seaplane terminal lounge yourself Food hygiene and common sense: supposingly cold drinks were not kept in cold conditions; cheese with water coming out since they were left in high temperature environments for too long; sushi looked nothing like sushi They almost never make the right drinks in the sea salt restaurant. When I ordered ice cappuccino, they came with iced latte 15 minutes later, and claimed they are all the same, "coffee, milk, ice, the same". Sparkling water becomes still water, iced cappuccino becomes hot cappuccino etc. extremely poor arrangement for birthday celebration a random sales approaching you in the sea salt restaurant selling you their package without caring what you want they mixed too much water in the juice and drinks and soups They used awfully cheap products for their capso coffee, flip-flops, shampoos and body wash. You only expect those qualities at a random $60...