The Residence Maldives

I had a wonderful stay at The Residence Maldives Falhumaafushi for 10 nights across July/August 2026, staying in a Water Villa with a pool, over the Indian Ocean - a paradise location. The staff were extremely attentive and always very friendly and helpful and the island itself was beautiful, and clearly very well looked after. Ulviya at the Front Desk provided genuinely kind and personable help throughout my stay. My room was spacious and well appointed to a very high standard, and I was well looked after by my housekeeper Pinky. The food in the many restaurants was delicious and the service was excellent, special mentions to Ishan and Jaavid for their friendly and attentive professionalism. My favourite restaurant, The Falhumaa, deserves special mention for beautiful food in a delightful overwater setting. The Beach Bar pool area was a great place to relax offering the option of both an immaculate swimming pool and also the warm waters of the ocean, with good availability of sun loungers and cabanas at all times. The high point for me was scuba diving in the Indian Ocean. My bookings were organised by Faiha at the Dive Center who was helpful, efficient and had a wonderful sense of humour. I ended up doing five dives with one-to-one service from my divemaster Ali who was excellent, and who took me to a different reef location every time. I have scuba dived in various locations around the globe but I have never seen so many large turtles as I did here - I saw some on every dive, and they permitted me to get quite close, it was truly magical to stare into the soul of such large beautiful creatures, 15 metres below the surface! I also saw black tipped reef sharks, and many eagle ray and manta ray, and the stunning oriental sweetlips, amongst dozens of other beautiful species of marine life. Overall, it was a wonderful visit. The ambience in the resort was very relaxed, calm and peaceful and the staff made you feel welcomed, with many greeting you by name as if they have a photographic recall of the name of every guest! I would certainly recommend this resort and look forward to staying here again.

Everything was wonderful. The food was excellent, good choice of restaurants. Amenities were wonderful. The teams simply could not do more. The islands are beautiful and cycling the bridge between the two felt like a very special experience. Will return.

Me and my partner spent 2 weeks at the Residence in August and we never wanted to leave. Every single staff member made us feel so welcome and nothing was too big or small for them. We felt so relaxed, the food every night in all the restaurants was fresh and delicious and the chef’s and waiters went above and beyond for us with also coming out to ask personally how the food was which was so lovely. A special shout out to Haviz (in the Dining Room) and Romesh (at the beach bar over Falhumaafushi) who really spent time to chat with us, make us feel welcome, and no thing we asked for was any problem especially the surprise cocktails. We also got engaged and I know my partner had been in contact with the hotel staff before hand to ensure the proposal was perfect, and it really was all the way down to the tiny personal touches and last minute changes due to weather. The snorkelling on the house reef was incredible, seeing daily turtles, sting rays, reef sharks and thousands of other fish. The rooms were spotless and cleaned every day, with special delivery of treats every evening and the mini bar topped up every day. The resort was so well maintenanced, and despite the rain the men filling up the ‘dips’ that would appear on the pathways/road worked so so hard. Thank you to every single member of staff. We had the most magical 2 weeks and will be sure to return in the future.

This was a truly memorable family holiday, made even more special by the excellent, efficient staff at the resort. We were treated wonderfully by everyone — the airport meet and greet, housekeeping, admin, restaurant staff, and the chefs all took care of our every need. The start was a little bumpy, but the resort executives and manager more than made up for it, looking after us beautifully for the rest of our three-day stay. Our beautiful two-bedroom overwater pool villa was exceptionally quiet and peaceful, with nothing but the sound of the ocean for company. We had a wonderful time swimming and snorkelling, enjoyed delicious meals across the resort’s multiple restaurants, and rounded it all off with a relaxing, much-needed spa treatment. I wanted to mention the names of all those who made this trip so special but as I didn’t have all the names it wouldn’t be fair to name a few.

We spent 9 days at The Residence at Falhumaafushi for our honeymoon towards the end of July, and we had the most incredible time. The resort itself is wonderful - a beautiful location, exceptionally well-maintained & spotlessly clean, and beautifully quiet. The food was great - the buffet options were above average, the restaurants on site were great (Li Bao in particular stood out), and we loved being able to get freshly grilled meat & seafood prepped in front of you. The absolute best part of the stay however was the exceptional service. Every member of the resort team who we spoke to or interacted with couldn't do enough for us. A particular shoutout goes to Ramesh at the Dining Room Beach Bar on Falhumaafaashi - we ate lunch here on our first day, and ended up dining there pretty much every day afterwards as well, both because the food was great, but also because Ramesh made it such an enjoyable place to eat and drink. Exceptional service all round, and a lovely man to boot - thank you, Ramesh! We'd also like to mention Pinky in housekeeping, who always kept our room perfectly tidy & clean, was always helpful in working around when we were in the room or out and about, and was always friendly, approachable and helpful. Thank you, Pinky! We stayed in a sunset-facing water villa with a pool on the balcony, which was fantastic. We could snorkel out to a reef within a few minutes, which was full of life - plenty of fish, turtles, eagle & sting rays, moray eels, and (harmless!) black- and white-tip reef sharks. The house reef was also brilliant - easily accessible, and with a great variety of life - we saw green sea turtles resting in the reef every time we went out, as well as plentiful other sea life. The coral also seemed much healthier than when we stayed on another island resort closer to Male last year - we spoke briefly to Janna, the island's resident marine biologist, and were really excited to hear about the coral restorations projects she's working on. We had the most incredible time staying here - it's a little further south than many of the resorts, and it took a little bit longer to arrive due to the domestic transfer - but it was worth every minute of the journey. Strongly recommend visiting the Residence - we loved every moment.