Ayada Maldives — Hotel in South Huvadhu Atoll

Nashid welcomed us at the international arrivals area and swiftly took us to the domestic terminal and departure lounge. For those wondering about the lengthy travel journey we had a direct flight from Milan to Male. Landed from a red-eye-flight at 09:45am and by the time we got our passport controlled and checked luggage it was 11:00am. Departure to Kaadedhdhoo Island was at 13:05 and arrived at 14:45 (we had a go around at landing) followed by 50-minute speed boat journey. It’s a long, long journey with lots of wait time even though we had a direct flight so heads up about that. Our villa (217) was just perfect. Primarily well maintained and immaculately clean. Everything in the right place for the enjoyable and comfortable stay. The cleaning (both day and night time turn down service) was carried out at appropriate times which is very much appreciated. It just worked the way it meant to be and what guests expect. Our beach villa had a secluded garden with private pool where we could really be in Eden. Evening dinner was included in half board. We enjoyed Italian, Maldivian; the tuna was outstanding and the kitchen really went above and beyond. Third night we dined at Kai restaurant as the theme in Magu was Turkish and just not for us. Fourth night Mexican; amazing! Wonderful selection of everything Mexican. This evening was followed by a fire show which was a true highlight of the evening entertainment. Absolutely outstanding. Fifth was Asian followed by a Sunday roast. Sixth was international food which ranged from pizza, fish and chips and curries. Seventh evening we had the Sea Salt BBQ at Zero Degree enjoying the breath-taking sunset on the Indian Ocean. The setup of the BBQ was just pure dedication to providing the best guest experience; so romantic. One evening we also enjoyed the entertainment of teppanyaki dinner. Breakfast is overwhelmingly. Everything your heart desires from vegan, vegetables, egg station, salads, curry’s, bloody Mary’s and Mimosa bars, sweets, eggs, rice, smoothies, pastries, breads and cheeses. Enjoying a lazy morning breakfast was just a real treat. Recreational facilities included a technoGym and fitness center, Beach volley ball, table tennis, snooker, chess, tennis and football. The snorkelling along the edge of the house reef just past Magu restaurant was great; we saw an array of fish and sharks. Main pool we could bask in the sun on, sun decks chairs, loungers, sun beds and cabanas while enjoying lunch. The hardware product of this hotel is from my eyes extremely well maintained; all the buildings maintenance is very well kept. The software of the hotel being the app for the phone was very manageable and functional. Our butler used a group WhatsApp to keep in touch which was efficient and effective. It’s with resorts like Ayada who has so much surrounding completion that it is the small and welcomed details that really makes Ayada stand out; the lemongrass oil used by housekeeping, cleaning at the appropriate times, the warm welcome being seated at breakfast and dinner, pro-active staff members and management who are engaging. A very attractive asset to Ayada is the chef Sebastian and the GM Simon; thank you for not hiding behind your staff, being present for the guests and having a chat. A note to Sofiko and Zaid who greeted us at Breakfast and Dinner with a warm heart. To Ranbir who diligently cooked my omelette. To the team at the dive kingdom where we enjoyed dolphin watching, snorkelling with the huge sharks and snorkelling off the reef. It’s the unshakable friendliness and professionalism of all the staff that was really noteworthy. Finally, to our butler Zeeshan; thank you for being there at all the appropriate times. Often a hotels butler service is just too overwhelming and infringing but Ayada and Zeeshan have this delicate art perfected! Check out, billing and departure at 06:00am was all very efficiently and discreetly carried out. A solid 5 star hotel which stands out in areas of small details which lead to a unique guest experience. We cannot...

My husband and I visited Maldives and only stayed at Ayada for our honeymoon the last week of January 2022. We stayed in an Ocean Villa for 6 nights and didn’t select a sunrise or sunset room. My recommendation: definitely select one of those; you think it won’t make a difference and you’ll be able to see somewhat of either, but you really don’t. My husband and I are vegan so we only had a handful of resorts (based on research) that we could chose from. We added the Crystal package and the Ayada Experience. The Crystal package was well worth it, while the Ayada Experience could go either way – we loved the floating breakfast, bed decoration, couples massage (best massage I’ve ever had), and Sea Salt BBQ. The dolphin cruise and stand-up paddle were alright. I asked a couple people while there on the trip who have been to the Maldives a ton of times which resort they recommend the most. Almost every answer was they are all great and you can’t go wrong in the Maldives. So I won’t spend too much time gloating about the actual resort. They greet you upon arrival at the airport and the villas and island are just beautiful! They literally think of everything you could possibly need, down to the outlet converter, so maybe pack a little lighter. Be prepared though, the journey from the airport to the resort can be a bit exhausting taking an hour-long domestic flight and then an hour boat ride – but needless to say, it’s well worth it. To all my fellow vegans and non-vegans (the non-vegan food looked just as delicious and innovative!), you can’t go wrong with this place. We definitely got the royal treatment, especially at Magu and Zero Degree. Each time we dined there, the staff would spot us and inform the chef that we were there. The chef would personally come out and ask us what were in the mood to eat. After a couple days, they would just start preparing early that day and have food ready for us!!! I must give an extra shout out to Chef Roma at Zero Degree (I call her Momma Roma)! She would be super excited to prepare meals for us and prepared enough to possibly feed a family of 6! Chef Kartik at Magu was just as amazing and accommodating! He would go above and beyond to provide us a vegan alternative for almost everything that was offered in the buffet! Although we only had the opportunity to eat at Sea Salt once during our stay, Chef Dede prepared food for us ahead of time (even vegan steak!) and prepared a 5-course meal for the lovely event on the beach! Lastly, I do recommend a dinner at Mizu – its what we in the US experience at any hibachi restaurant, but the location on the beach and Chef Misdar absolutely make this incomparable! I have to say, we were disappointed with our experience at Ocean Breeze – we heard such good things about the food and of course the ambiance at this restaurant is unlike any of the other restaurants, but we weren’t blown away by food or service. For the excursions, we did the dolphin and snorkeling cruise, but we did not see a single dolphin which was disappointing. What made this experience over the top was our guide Hussein. I’m a beginner at any water activity, but my husband is deathly afraid of jumping into a deep pool, let alone the ocean! Hussein magically convinced my husband to come into the middle of the Indian Ocean and snorkel. He also took our camera and captured some beautiful memories, as well as the ocean life that was deeper than our reach. Lastly, nothing makes this resort more phenomenal than the staff – the hospitality, service, and connections we made honestly felt like we had a family there. I gave some love to our mains above but would also like to give a huge shoutout to Afu (our favorite), Naba, Ali and Beril – all from Zero Degree and Raasih from Magu! If there was some room for improvement, I would have to say the lighting in villas could be brighter, pillow options, and the night could come to...

Ayada is one of the most southern islands in the Maldives and it does take some time to reach there after initially landing at Male Airport. Our flight from Dubai to Male took around 4 hours, upon arrival at Male, we were greeted by an Ayada representative, who took our luggage and escorted us to a comfortable lounge where we were provided with breakfast, wifi and shower facilities while we waited for our domestic flight. We landed in Male around 8am and the domestic flight was due to depart 3 hours later, at 11am.

The domestic flight took around 2 hours to reach Kaadedhdhoo Airport, which included a short stop to another island on the way. Upon arrival, we were greeted by another Ayada representative who took us to a buggy to wait while he dealt with all the luggage of all the Ayada guests. We then boarded the speedboat to Ayada, which took around 45 minutes. The whole journey was quite tiring, but that was all forgotten once we arrived at Ayada! We were warmly greeted by staff as we disembarked the boat and then taken via buggy to our room by our personal butler (Nattu).

We were pleased to know that we had been upgraded to an 'Sunset Ocean Villa'. The room was absolutely amazing, easily the best room I've ever stayed in, very spacious and the view from the room was just stunning! We were given complimentary bikes to ride around the resort, a floating breakfast delivered to our villa, snorkeling equipment and other nice little gestures.

We opted for the crystal package which is full board. Breakfast is served at Ocean Breeze which is probably one the most beautiful places that you'll ever have breakfast. They have a good selection of food and fresh juices to keep everyone happy, every morning we were also given a bread basket with doughnuts, crossiants etc.

Lunch is served in Zero Degree Restaurant and Bar which has it's own infinity pool and is right next to the beach. We loved eating at the tables which were in the water, it's a nice experience to have your feet in the water while enjoying lunch. The lunch menu is vast and we tried different things everyday, the quality and the taste of everything we had was excellent. It was also nice to have the wild parrots come over to your table and join you for lunch!

For dinner we had two choices included in our package, Kai Restaurant and Ocean Breeze. The Ocean Breeze dinner menu is a Mediterranean one and we dined there once. The dinner menu is quite limited but the food was still very good. We really recommend trying the Mango and Coconut Panna Cotta for dessert which my wife and I loved, so much so that we went back the next day just for dessert. We absolutely loved Kai restaurant, which serves Asian cuisine, the food there was delicious and we dined there 3 out of 4 times that we had dinner. The are a lot more options when compared to Ocean Breeze. We loved everything we had and we highly recommend the prawn tempura, which we had to order every time!

It would have been nice if the buffet restaurant 'Magu' was open as we had heard great things about it, but I think it wasn't allowed to be opened due to government guidelines regarding buffet restaurants at the time(Covid).

We would also highly recommend the fish feeding, which takes place daily from 6-630pm. We got to feed plenty of baby sharks and a stingray too, which was a great experience. We also saw many fish swimming around next to our villa.

We had an amazing experience from start to finish and we would recommend Ayada to absolutely anybody planning on going to the Maldives! As soon as we landed at Male airport we knew we were in good hands, they even helped us with our luggage and check-in when we departing from Male...