The Residence Maldives

THANK YOU! Great location & AMAZING staff! We felt very welcomed! Good dinners, excellent rooms, nice beaches, very kind personnel.

The staff were incredibly friendly and genuinely considerate, making the entire experience very pleasant.

We travelled from England with three connecting flights, then a boat ride and a short local transfer to reach the resort. Unfortunately, the experience did not match the advertised five-star standard. When we arrived, our room was not fully prepared. There was no water under water villa, and the area around the villa looked more like a swamp, After complaining, we were moved to a different room, which was better, but the first impression was extremely disappointing. Although the hotel advertises itself as all-inclusive with à la carte dining, the food quality wasn't great and the portions were so small that we were still hungry afterwards. I developed tummy pain and diarrhoea, The à la carte restaurants offered very limited choice and there were almost no fruits or vegetables available not what you're expecting for a 5 star hotel in a tropical island —even in the all-inclusive restaurant. (We went in November)To make things worse, if you booked à la carte, you were not allowed to eat in the all-inclusive buffet, which is located nearly 2 miles away in a different resort. This made the “all-inclusive” description very misleading. On the positive side, the staff were very friendly and helpful. The bicycles provided were great for getting around, and the reef is beautiful for snorkelling. One major concern was the amount of plastic and rubbish in the bushes around the resort. With high tide, all of this will end up in the ocean. I reported it to reception, but nothing was done and it seemed like no one cared. In a place like the Maldives, this is extremely disappointing and irresponsible. However, overall, the resort feels more like a business setup similar to some Turkish-style all-inclusive hotels—focused on upselling rather than service or quality. The lack of food variety, poor organisation, and the issues on arrival make it difficult to call this a five-star experience. Most activities were actually located in the nearby dhigurah resort, not in falhumaafushi, which made things inconvenient. In summary: beautiful location and lovely staff, but the service, food, and organisation do not meet five-star standards and I would not return. I would rate as 4 star

This is our second time at The Residence at Falhumaafushi and it was just as good. The water villas are amazing and very spacious. The food and drink selection was plentiful with planty of choice. The reef is great and easy to reach although this visit it was quite windy due to the weather in Sri Lanka and so visibility was impaired. Every single staff member wants to make your stay special and go out of their way to help and make sure you are OK. I would mention them all by name if I could but I wasn't always able to read the name badges! I will mention Hafiz and Shina who remembered us from our last visit. Ramesh does a very informative wine tasting session, and a special thank you to the arrivals team who looked after us as my partner wasn't well. Its great that you can cycle between islands and use both facilities (and of course it helps work off the food and drink!). Thank you to the Library Bar staff, and those on reception. Everyone is really helpful and nothing is too much trouble.

One word-perfection! We have recently returned from The Residence for our Honeymoon and wow, what a resort/island. The whole place is the most stunning resort we had ever set our eyes on! We stayed on the Falhumaafushi side in an over water pool villa and it was perfect. We had a sunset view villa and even with some of the cloudy weather we had, the sunsets were beautiful and so worth having our own pool for, the snorkelling from our villa was also incredible! The food-wow, the food! Everything is delicious, with an amazing selection of different cuisines for breakfast lunch and dinner. Our personal favourite meal was the dinner at the Falhumaa, incredible food and service but the real stand out was the view. We were lucky enough to see sharks and a manta ray whilst eating dinner, a truly incredible experience not to be missed out on if you go! The service-where do I start with the absolutely incredible service from every single person at The Residence?! Everyone is so friendly and does everything to make sure you have everything you need. They all work so hard and add to the whole experience to make it even more special. Mimi who served us regularly at breakfast was so lovely and kind, always made sure to have a chat with us and it was great to hear and learn more about the island! Jaavid and Ishan who served us a lot in the dining room were incredible, always on the go and delivering impeccable customer service! One of our favourite spots to go to (daily!) was The Beach Bar, this place is amazing for lunch and afternoon cocktails! Samitha who was behind the bar making all the cocktails was incredible! Every cocktail (and we had a few) was perfection and even with all the orders, he always had a big smile of his face and didn’t once look flustered, truly incredible! We were regularly served by Jahed, Isuru and Ramesh here and they were absolutely amazing, took the time to chat and remember your orders and just couldn’t do enough for you, always had a smile for you and just the most amazing customer service-thank you so much to them for helping to make our special trip the most special trip we have ever had! If you can, definitely go on the Dolphin Sunset Cruise! It is so worth, we saw so many dolphins and it was one of the most beautiful experiences we’ve ever had! Overall, we cannot recommend The Residence enough, it’s a long trip to get there but so worth it, it’s isolated idyllic paradise and we hope to return one day-thank you