Lily Beach Resort and Spa — Hotel in South Ari Atoll

When we arrived, we were greeted by a cheerful gang of people and walked to a welcoming area, where refreshing drinks were being served. They shared all the amenities at that time and since we were going to have our wedding on Sun Lily Island, the Food and Beverage director, Sharif, met with us and gave us our itinerary for our wedding the next day. He worked amazingly with staff to have our wedding go smoothly. He not only took care of us that day but always made sure our stay was going accordingly. There was a time that I mentioned that I wish we would had more cake because we only got a bite from it and he delivered a small cake to our room.

We would have our breakfast in Lily Maa and I cannot day enough about the variety of all the food! Not only that but it was delicious! Remember, we were there for 2 weeks, we never got bored with the food. We had our server Azlif, who took exceptional care of us and always setting up flower arrangements for our table. Speaking of flower arrangements, Fayaz, our room boy always treated us with a beautiful arrangement to come home to, or a nice bath drawn after activities. Thank you for our lovely gift Fayaz!

We went to the Aqua Bar to have lunch several times and loved the service and food. Shaffax, Hari, Ahmed, Susisira, Akbar, Joseph always took amazing care care of us! Once they would see us walking in they would pull out the chairs to the bar, put down place mats and settings because we preferred to talk to them and have the best view of the whole place. They knew our favorite drinks and they would make the perfect Manhattan to enjoy the sunset with. They also knew that we liked extra spice on our food and accommodated it as well.

We had several dinners in Tamarind as well, Allen was our server there and was exceptional as well. I have to say that I never had an appreciation for Thai food like I do now, it only took me to come halfway around the world for it but now they have set the bar high!

Cannot forget the bartenders: Jeemon, Karthik, Silvan (my baby), and Mano, thank you for the amazing service and your conversations.

The island Dr, Dr Lydia, although we didn’t need you for anything, we were happy to meet you and we will await your call when you are ready to retire! You are what we aspire to be one day.

Moosa and Jessica thank you for problem solving and being so efficient at your job.

On our wedding day, I needed help on doing my corset tie and I called the front desk and Yumiko came to my help! She was just so sweet! Her roommate, Oana, the fitness instructor, happened to have become my “adoptive daughter” on the island! Ashram who was our boat captain for our sunset cruise after our ceremony took such special care of us throughout our stay. For our candlelight wedding dinner the sous chef Lakshitha “Lucky” made such an amazing dinner for us. He also noticed that we became friends with a couple from South Africa and invited all of us to have a special dinner together. For our last night we were told that they could arrange for us to have dinner at Aqua or Tamarind, we wanted to have our last night with our server Azlif. All of management and sous chef and pastry chef set a beautiful dinner for us on the macana. (Hope I am spelling that right.)

Patrice, the general manager had invited us to sit with him and another manager for drinks one evening and we just noticed how much love they have for their staff and how much they love their work. We had asked if we can be taken to a Sunset Villa for a tour and a Laguna Villa and the managers Anna and Roula accommodated us to those tours and we can’t wait to come back! Thank you also for accommodating us with a later departure and the beach suite as well. We so cherished those extra hours.

Lily Resort.....you have exceeded way beyond what we had expected for our special day and our honeymoon. We are ruined for life, we only think about coming there. I only hope that people appreciate this place as much as we do. Thank you all for being so kind and full of love. ...

Additional note on 12th Aug 2025

Dear Laurent, Thank you for your response.

Over the course of numerous stays at 5-star hotels — including four trips to the Maldives — I have never encountered a situation where I was unable to stay in the room I had reserved due to the hotel’s overbooking.

I would like to emphasize that this is not a complaint raised on behalf of your future customers, but rather a complaint based on our own unpleasant experience — one that stems from your operational challenges, mismanagement, and subsequent lack of transparency.

I will be staying at this hotel until Friday. Should you wish to speak with me, please feel free to approach me directly. If your intention goes beyond a verbal apology and you genuinely wish to take meaningful action, I will be available.

——- The double booking and transportation arrangements were terrible, and the staff seemed only concerned with covering up their mistakes, constantly lying. If you are used to traveling in India and accustomed to such conditions, I might recommend this place. But if you want the best possible experience in the Maldives, I would not recommend it at all.

First of all, upon arriving in Malé, the wait for the seaplane was extremely long—we waited for four and a half hours. Even though you pay for time spent enjoying the resort, you end up spending that time in a waiting lounge instead.

Then, when the seaplane arrived at the buoy near Lily Beach Resort, the hotel’s boat did not come to pick us up. We were almost left stranded on the buoy, exposed to the strong backwash of the seaplane, with our small child. Fortunately, staff from the neighboring resort that shares the buoy kindly helped us, allowing us to take emergency shelter there. Later, Lily Beach Resort staff eventually came to pick us up, but there was no apology—only an explanation that they had been “somewhere else.” Being left standing on the pier while watching guests at the neighboring resort being warmly welcomed was a truly miserable feeling.

Upon arrival, I thought we could finally relax in the Deluxe Water Villa we had booked. Instead, the reservations manager came out and told us, “As an apology for the earlier mishap, we will upgrade you for one night to the Presidential Suite free of charge.” (In reality, there was no such thing as a Presidential Suite—it was just a room called the Beach Residence.) We had specifically come to the Maldives to enjoy a Water Villa with our children, so we declined the offer.

That’s when they said, “Actually, the Water Villa is under maintenance, so it’s not available tonight. We can arrange it for you tomorrow morning.” Despite having booked a Water Villa, we were told our room wasn’t ready. In reality, there was no upgrade at all—they were simply trying to hide the fact that the room was under maintenance.

I then asked, “In that case, please show us the room under maintenance. If the issues are acceptable, we’d rather put up with it for one night than be forced to stay in the Beach Residence.” They responded again with, “Actually, it’s a double booking, and another guest is already staying in that room, so you can’t stay there.” They tried to cover up their mistake not once, but twice, with lies.

Worse still, these lies didn’t just come from the reservations manager—our assigned female attendant told us the exact same story. This made it clear that this culture of concealment wasn’t just the fault of one person, but part of the organization itself, making the experience even more awful.

If this had happened at a cheap, budget hotel, I could tolerate it. But to travel all the way to the Maldives, spending a large amount of money, and have this kind of experience was beyond my expectations—in...

We are currently staying at Lily Beach resort now and are in day 3 of 6. We almost 100 % agree with review of Harold Florian’s from a month ago apart from we are a family not honeymooners.

The food option for breakfast and dinner are limited to one restaurant - Lily Ma. The food there is equivalent to some three star hotels we’ve stayed in and not up to scratch of other 5* resorts in which we have stayed in the Maldives previously. The food quality is good to ok but selection choice is low. The food at Aqua and Vibes, which is only open for lunch, is better.

The restaurant setting for dinner is not the most pleasant. There is limited seating by the water and you are told to sit on same table every night. Getting the tables next to water seems to be a game of guest favouritism maybe fuelled by tips. In general in Lily Ma restaurant, staff responsiveness seems very in-hand tip driven which is the first time I have seen this happening in all-inclusive resorts Maldives.

The whole feel of the restaurant does not make us excited to go to dinner and with no other dinner options we feel a bit frustrated and ripped off given the cost per night of this resort.

We fedback our disappointed about the food choice yesterday privately to both reception and via the Lily beach app hoping to find a solution. However, the receptionist response was dismissive and said “what do you expect of a buffet?” while our concern via the app has not been responded to. I note from the response on Harold’s comment, the GM did not respond to his issue about food which suggests it is something that is not going to improve soon.

As noted by Harold the wine and cheese selection is good and better than some places we’ve stayed previously.

Our inquiry about night snorkelling which we also put in via the app has not been responded to. This general lack of responsiveness is in stark contrast to other resorts we have stayed at where communication often happens over resort whatsapp and responsiveness is quick.

I agree with Harold on staff friendliness too. Staff are not friendly and barely say good morning. Our “personal butler” blanked us on our second day when we passed him on the path despite us saying “hello”. The English of staff is very low which also impacts service quality.

We are currently sat by water sports centre now and witnessing people struggle to find loungers in the shade. We are literally all huddled up like a row of ducks with many other guests under the one gazebo that offers shade. With this long white beach, I don’t understand why the resort can’t create more intimate options for guests to sit on the beach.

There is in general not enough seating in any of the communal areas with pleasant settings. Last night, at the bar near the restaurant, people struggle to find seats next to the water and had to sit in reception. People don’t come to desert islands to sit inside the reception and not see the sea.

On the whole, the place is ok, the rooms are tired in places. There are some spots of black mould/stain on our bathroom ceiling, one of our deck loungers in broken and tiles are missing from the pool. The air con unit of the villa next to us sounds like a drill so it disturbs the tranquility of sitting on the villa’s overwater deck.

I am sure we will have a lovely holiday, as we love snorkelling and spending time together as a family, but knowing there are better places in the Maldives, in the same price bracket, makes our experience here a little...