We stayed here in April 2011 for the 2nd leg of our honeymoon and Ioved it. After reading other reviews we decided against AI and booked half board, we saved over £800 between 2 of us over 10 days and could not have eaten or drank another thing!
We had a wonderful time. We spent the first 7 days in a beach villa opposite the small local island and enjoyed watching the dolphins each day as they swam past and enjoyed the close proximity of the beautiful fish. We were initially disappointed to not be on the sunset beach side of the island as we were shown to our room but soon changed our mind and by the end of day one, agreed that our side was much nicer with so much to look at all day.
We upgraded for the last 3 days to a water villa with private plunge pool and it was the perfect end to our trip. There was not any shade for 1 hour mid afternoon but we easily over came that by taking a late lunch.

This was my 2nd trip to the Maldives and having previously stayed at the wonderful Reethi Beach, I was nervous this trip might not live up to the lovely holiday I had previously enjoyed but equally, did not want to risk going anywhere else in the world for such an important event. It was equally as good and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this island to others.
Top tip picked up from another review was to take all in one coffee sachets to drink in the room and book half board. Do take fins and snorkel mask to enjoy the wonderful sealife only a few feet from the beach.
Only negative - the hotel failed to tell us that the seaplane departure was moved back by an hour. We were made to vacate our room at 7.45am and rushed breakfast to make sure we were there in plenty of time and left standing on the deck for over an hour trying to get an idea of what was happening. It took 3 trips to reception to get an honest answer! Shame, to leave on a low but otherwise this was a beautiful and relaxing honeymoon location.

I and my wife spent our honeymoon at Vilu Reef Beach Resort. We stayed at the water villa with pool and had a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Though the water villas are quite expensive (esp. the ones with the exclusive pool), we opted for them after seeing photographs of them on the hotel website as well as tripadvisor. Also, we had read of problems/cleanliness issues with the beach villas so we didn't want to take a chance with them, esp. on our honeymoon.

First the positives - Overall, our stay was pleasant and luxurious. The service is prompt and the locals on the island are very helpful and courteous. There is plenty to do on the island - snorkeling, scuba diving, night fishing, water sports, or just strolling on the beach. There is a special event each night - we attended the crab race and the Maldivian show. There are a few other activities as well like the excursion to the Robinson Crusoe island but we didn't try all the activities.
The food in the main restaurant (buffet) is good as well. The chefs, especially, are great fun to talk to. Since we were on our honeymoon, they took special care of us!

The negatives - It is definitely expensive, but then again, every private island on Maldives is. Besides, we were on our honeymoon, so we didn't really mind spending more to enjoy that extra bit of luxury and privacy. All activities have to be paid for separately as well.
Not exactly a negative, but the water villas with pool are closer to the island than I had imagined. The other water villas (without the pool) are further out. I would've expected that the more expensive water villas with pool will be further out into the ocean and offer more privacy.
The view from the other side of the island isn't great (some nearby island with a lot of construction going on there). So, if you are opting for a beach villa, make sure its not on that side. The water villas are all on the opposite side, so it wasn't a problem for us.

All in all, it was a wonderful and memorable experience. I would definitely recommend Vilu Reef for somebody planning a vacation on a special occasion.

We spent 5 days in Dec 2011, we stayed in Beach Villa Nr. 115. I can recommend to stay in beach villa, Nr. 125-140 because they are on the Sun-Rise side of the island, where is the reef and best snorkeling.Negative can be, that there (Beach Villa Nr, 115) is a view of another island, where some reconstruction of the harbour is in process. The water villas are too far, too expensive. Equipment in beach villa is OK, Maledivien-fashioned but a little bit old and needs renovation. But if you are looking for tidy, clean and accomodation with a special magic, it is a good choise. The island is green, is perfect size - not too big that there are a lot of turists and not too small that you don´t know what to do there after 3 days. The food is perfect, but do not order all inclusive or full board because the Sunset restaurant is a must to visit and it is a pitty when you have payed for full board (quite expensive) and then you pay again for lobsters, fish or prawns... The resort has good diving centre, staff is very nice, but spa has very expensive and harmfull massage (esp. Sun spa signature massage for 120 USD). If you go to Maledives, be patient with the seaplanes, we had to wait in Male more than 2 hours for our transfer. The prices in Maledives are high, but you can expect it and count with it (then you will not be disapointed or stressed) - the water (1,5 l for 3,50 USD, Pinacolada for 12 USD, big lobster for 60 USD, trips about 50 USD...) Finally I must say, we had a perfect holiday and we got everything, we had expected. Especially we had a great time with snorkelling (I did it for the first time, I was a little bit scared of it, but I saw sharks, hunderts of fishes...).

START WITH THE POSITIVES!
Lovely firm four poster beds!
Garden rooms - lovely that you come out onto your decking and straight onto your own bit of beach within 10 paces. Love that!
Beautiful white sand. easy to walk into water- no sharp pepples.
nice tourist shop and stunning jewellery shop (if you want to invest)to look at even if you dont buy!
nicel little swings here and there
Food good quality and plenty variety, International cuisine & the friday night special was extra special - very nice touch! very attractive dispay.
called the Emerald isle for a reason -Very lush and green. dense and attractive.
Nice that the boys go up your coconut trees and bring you a coconut to eat few times a stay.
Nice that they plant a tree in our name! Well maintained by gardeners
Well serviced by cleaning staff.
Treatment rooms lovely - nice therapists good at massage. had several treatments and felt great. nice greating at sunspa. Sunspa menu was very well designed and wonderful huge choice of treatments.
beautiful sunsets at bar. good choice beer and cocktails, friendly service.
Nice lagoon on our side, good for snorkelling & watch fish
NOT SO POSITIVES!
We booked last minute so we were always taking a risk esp as our two other choices 1st Filitheyo & 2nd olhuveli were not available in the end and so Vilu reef was the only option available in our budget (although we did go way over!).

The transfer was longer than we expected to the island. Compounded by the fact we had just flown indirect via Dubai which made the entire trip over very tedious. The transfer by sea plane was 1hr (expected 35 mins) as winds were up and it was raining heavy. Then we had a further 20 min boat trip afterwards in rough weather so by the time we had finished we arrived 6.30pm their time and had left uk 4.30pm day before so 20 hrs in total travel time!!!. It wiped us out for further 24 hrs. For our future travel we now know to fly direct (1st choice not air srilanka) and to choose an island closer to Male airport. We apreciate that in rainy season there is always a risk of bad weather even postponing the flights over to the island but in hindsight, we would not have chosen a long transfer at the end of a longhaul flight.

Hayes and Jarvis said that they would mention in the booking email that i was arriving on my birthday but there was no acknowledgement of this by the island. On the same note, there was no 'Goodbye ceremony' either as previous islands do a beautiful flower dispay on turndown in the evening and there was no formal goodbye. There were no little gestures of goodwill if you like, which we found on other islands no comp water in room on arrival etc

we brought up an incident with the management about the luggage porter who showed us to our room and then stood at the door asking if there was 'something else' several times. he did not bring our luggagae through over the threshold and i had to do this. it was very confusing as i just expected he would bring the luggage in and then thought he was asking for a tip before he did the job! I was assured by management that it was a miscommunication and the porter was asking my permission to actually come in to drop luggage. However it did not give a good 1st impression!

The decor and style of the rooms and the entire resort is a little dated and jaded. Everything is wooden and quite dark. The furniture and fixtures all need a little revarnish and revamping. The bathroon too. Bath was stained and bit of a death trap trying to get to it as slippery trying to avoid the sand that surrounds it by stepping on steps. The hairdryer in bathroon was falling apart as was loo flush as was the remote control. If you like new, light contemporary style or boutique then this is not it! it is a cute, straw hut but not impressive. The whole vibe of the island is 'laid back' kick your shoes off which is great if you are a bit of a hippie or like basic natural accomodation or not visited other islands before. The sand bags outside 137 to prop up beach need covering too as not very attractive even if beach is erroding.

Sadly there is construction work opposite (direct view) on locals island and building work audible and not very attractive to look at. Spoils otherwise nice view, but not quite Robinson Crusoe that I would expect.

Also the smell of sewage was very strong on this island.Processing plant close to us. Never noticed this with prevoius stays in other Maldives islands.

the 'Spa' was really 'Treatment rooms' as there was no communal sauna, steam room and jacuzzi which is what i call a 'spa'. They have a single person steam cabinet that i sat in! This was soletary, claustaphobic and dated (80's) it felt like it was burning my lower right leg where steam comes out. i was left in there 5 mins (thank fully) so it was a bit pointless anyhow. My partner loves the sauner, steam, jacuzzi on all our hols and we always request this so when we heard they had a full spa we were excited. he was left disappointed. There was no comments book in the spa.

Staff in general are pleasant but sometimes hard to get attention at bar and restaurant as they not attentive enough. could be alot more firendly and smiley and go out of way- i am left with the impression that 'laid back island' means ' not quite on the ball island'

Villu Reef calls itself 4.5 star but in my opinion it has along way to go! Overall we enjoyed what we had and made the best of it but will not recommend Villu Reef as it was £5000 for the two of us at end of day with extras and I do not think it was value for money. If we had spend £3500 in total i would have been happier. Its all relative!