Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru — Hotel in South Maalhosmadulu

Came here with my family in mid February and stayed in a beach villa (108).||The villa was incredible, inside and out. As you entered through the doors you went into a cool, spacious indoor living area. The bed was at the other end of the room and had an amazing sea view, with enough privacy without spoiling the view. Behind the bed on either side was a large open wardrobe with a safe and plenty of other draws. After a set of double doors, there is a spacious bathroom, with 2 sinks, a bath, an indoor and an outdoor shower and a toilet with a bassinet behind a translucent door. ||Outside of the villa is a well sized pool with 2 loungers on one side and an eating and outdoor seating area on the other side.|The pool was very refreshing and was perfect for the weather. There were also personalised bikes for every guest waiting outside your villa.||There were plenty of restaurants (4). Al Barakat, an Arabian restaurant. The flavours were amazing and I would highly recommend having the Phoenician feast and the Shish Tawoak, more of a meat place, but suitable for vegetarians. This is only open for dinner, and would advise to visit at least once. ||The other dinner only restaurant was Fuego Grill, a meat and seafood restaurant. The food was amazing, view stunning feet in the sand experience. The steaks and lobster are amazing. ||The first, open all day restaurant was Café Landaa. This was an open and breezy restaurant with spaced out tables. We had breakfast every day and loved it. There was an egg and pancake bar where you could put in a customised order from your table or with the chefs, you could then enter a cool room with warm asian food at the far end near the bread, you saw a small pastry section next to the door and cereal and cold dishes in the middle. One of my favourite parts was the fresh fruit stand where you could put in an order and have it delivered to your table, strongly recommend the pineapple. ||For lunch and dinner it was a south east asian restaurant, and you should definitely try the chicken and beef satay, which was incredible. ||The final restaurant was an Italian called Blu. This place is our favourite we loved it The lunch was incredible, I strongly recommend the pizzas and chicken Milanese, which you need to ask for chicken instead of veal - and hopefully they may make it for you. The people were amazing everywhere but especially at Blu (where we spent most of out time). Mo, who lead the team at Blu, was absolutely fantastic, always giving advice on what to eat and being super friendly. But I will come onto the staff later. ||If you wanted to stay at the villa you could always get room service, with a really nice chicken dish. We had that after we got there and had lovely Krishna serve us. ||The island was massive with a farm and garden in the middle and a marine center near the port. The marine center is where you can collect snorkelling gear for the sea. ||The pools here were incredible, with a ≈25m pool at blu and a massive 50m pool near the main restaurant. The 50m pool is also around 15m wide at the smallest point meaning whether you want to do laps or just have fun there is plenty of space for all. There is also a decent sized salt pool next to the main pool. And if 50m isn't long enough for you then you always have the sea, which is would recommend the side with no sea wall as it has a beach at the blu end of the island and also is much calmer. ||Another one of the amazing amenities at Landaa is the beautiful spa. This is an amazing spa with lovely treatment rooms and brilliant staff. They looked after us superbly ||The travel between Malé and Landaa is easy, you get on a 35 minute seaplane ride, this was by far the best journey in my entire life, it is a must do Maldives experience!||I would also like to say that, organised through Shidad, I had a mini bartending lesson at the Blu bar, where lovely Budi gave me an interesting tour on bartending. After this I was also given a great demonstration of how my drink wise made by lovely bartender Kan.||Now as I mentioned earlier the staff were out of this would. The staff were always attentive and thoroughly helpful. ||We cannot possibly name all the staff, many of which went above and beyond These are just a couple of names of staff who were utterly brilliant ; From Blu; Mo, Jailam, Anandhu, Nived, Mohd, Budi, Kan, Widya, Ita, Bill - Ice cream man, Tony and Firaz. From Cafe Landaa; Sanjeev, Zaid, Cody, Azin, Suman and Tilas. From Al Barakat; Bassaam, Aju, Margarita and Krishna, who we had on room service upon arrival as well. From other places we had Fajar at the seabar, Suhail at the shop and Guatam and Putra from the pool. Everyone we met at the spa was delightful, sadly we didn't get any names of!||As I said before everyone was amazing, but these are the ones who we talked to a lot and are from the restaurants and places we were at a lot. ||Thank you to everyone at Landaa from the amazing Shidad from front of house who helped us non stop through our stay to the house keeping who we sadly didn't get any names of. ||Thank You everyone...

First review of this resort despite coming back for more than ten years. Started coming here as a couple on our honeymoon and when we had children, we brought them here. They practically grew up in Landaa Giraavaru and Kuda Huraa, plus a bit of Nam Hai. ||When you are taking time out of your limited vacation schedule, you hate to be disappointed with a bad holiday. We can afford to stay anywhere in the Maldives but we keep coming back, because we know Four Seasons Maldives will try their best to give my family an amazing holiday. ||My family love the culture and aspiration of Four Seasons Maldives and wish it will never change. This is not a posh and chic resort with gilded taps and staff in designer uniforms. FS Maldives LG is elegant and effortless luxury with a sense of place. There are no straight starched tablecloths and the dining tables are a little wonky because the wooden deck has warped over time, but we love the charm and it takes us away from the perfection of the urban lifestyle. Luxury to us, is being able to experience what we want, without worry or inconvenience. The material aspect of it seldom appeals to us. At FS Maldives, the staff are supremely thoughtful and silently work behind the scenes to ensure that we are taken care of. The children roam the island and the shores safely whilst the parents relax. Even when they do fall ill, we were always reassured that everything will be handled seamlessly and we should never have any anxiety over travel plans.||The restaurants and bars are all open air, permeated by the sea breeze, but the sensible architecture means it rarely becomes stuffy and unbearably hot. We have seen the quality of the F&B at Landaa get better over time. We use to have a certain amount of dread knowing that you are stuck on an island, having to eat less delicious meals, day after day but that is no longer the case. Now, we look forward to seeing what the team will surprise us with and has become quite the highlight of the day. Blu is my favourite restaurant on the island, especially for lunch when the sea is a thousand shades of blue. The children love Al Barakat at night. Once we casually mentioned we missed Ayam Taliwang, and the chef jumped into action and prepared a special feast for us a few days later, even though it was not the easiest place to gather the necessary ingredients.||The rooms are air-conditioned, clean and very well maintained. Nothing is broken or out of place. Perhaps the mattress is a little too soft. Privacy is good but not deserted great. The villas are far apart and screened with vegetation or furniture so that you will not see your neighbours, but if they were to talk loudly or party hard, you will hear them. Then again, it's probably because the environment is so serene without the city din and background noise to drown out disturbances. Closing the doors will let you retreat back into the coziness of the rooms. Mod cons like wireless charging pads and USB sockets are available, good wifi coverage, together with awful Nespresso, reminds you that it is not truly an isolated paradise. The only thing missing is a working water kettle to make tea (but not difficult to request for one). There is a hot water dispenser on the mini bar area that we can never figure out to use effectively!||As whole, we are quite boring guests. We stick to scuba diving and snorkelling, or taking the yacht out for a bit for fishing and dolphins. It never gets boring in the Maldives if you love the sea. The whole family received PADI certification from Four Seasons. ||The staff are the stars of the show at here. Some have become good friends because they are such kind and sincere people. Eddy always greeted us with a big smile but he has move up with his career. Virginia has taken over and I don't see any lapses. She has filled in very well. We love the F&B team, they are never flustered by the heat or the work load, always jovial, Sandeep, Argus, Ita, Widya, Margarita, Nemo, Ivan and so many more I cannot remember the names. Special mention goes out to Zaid (Cafe Landaa at the moment). The ever efficient buggy team that ferry us around the island cannot be left out. Captain Mode and Captain Afeef, are always so professional with the dive boats and yachts. Boat crew Zaid could very well be the best fisherman on the island! Last but not least, Modex and his team at the dive centre providing so much fun yet balancing safety all the time. Diving at Four Seasons Maldives has made it very difficult to dive anywhere else. They define luxury scuba diving!||We love this place because if not, why would we keep...

Background: I'm from New York. Maldives has always been a dream. I visited with wife and 2 young kids.||Our entire stay was wonderful from top to bottom, beginning to end. The Four Seasons at Landaa Giraavaru really delivers the "dream" Maldives experience the way I always imagined. The resort, people and activities are world-class. The food is good but falls short of great (but breakfast is amazing!). Below is some details in case it helps you to make a choice.||RESORT|Set against the gorgeous backdrop of the Maldives, the resort is maintained to the highest standards. Immaculate room set against white sand and crystal clear light blue oceans. The turn-down service ensures that no matter what you do in the day, that the room is beautifully set for a great night's sleep. We had an ocean-villa and the in-room pool is just an amazing benefit. To swim during the sun-rise is something I'll never forget. ||PEOPLE|The level of hospitality is the best I've ever experienced. The people at the resort seem genuinely devoted to making the stay as comfortable and as special as possible. The resort will escort you from the moment you land in Male all the way until you are checked into the airline on the way back. Don't feel like walking back to the room? The buggy service is extremely convenient and though I felt guilty for using it so much (our room WAS a bit far from the main areas), the staff never makes you feel that way. Need assistance with anything? They are always available and responsive either on phone or whatsapp. Have a special request? They are always their to listen and we made use of this through some custom orders during breakfast. Hint: The masala chai is amazing! ||ACTIVITES|Our primary activity was scuba-diving or snorkeling. The dive center is top notch. It may be recency bias but this may have been my best diving experience ever. It's a simple thing but having access to a shower and towels after a dive is really nice! The dive staff are very patient in helping you learn (or re-learn in my case) skills. I'd also recommend dolphin viewing as seeing them jump out of the water to "surf" the waves is something I'll never forget.||FOOD|Like other reviewers have indicated, the breakfast buffet is just incredible. Asian and Western options abound. I like my scrambled eggs runny and they delivered some of the best scrambled eggs I've ever had! Dinner was a bit more hit-miss. It's a tough one as I understand the resort has to cater to so many different tastes but I wish they would have had some truly signature dishes that the chefs really specialized in rather than such a large variety. This is the main opportunity for improvement as I wish I could have had more dishes that would make me really remember the resort for. Instead, I'll mostly be thinking about that breakfast buffet and the...