What a spectacular family holiday. We absolutely loved our stay and will cherish the memories forever. We felt extremely sad to leave this beautiful island . If I close my eyes , I can still hear the lap of the waves against the shore and feel the warm ocean and see all the fish and sharks and turtles and other sea creatures that live on the beautiful reef . Zeeshan , our butler was the cherry on top ! He arranged our entire holiday calendar and was an absolute delight to work with.
When you find yourself asking ‘Are there are any jobs available on the island?’ before you leave, you know you have fallen in love with Ayada. We so didn’t want to leave and cannot wait to return – and these are the reasons why. 1. The ultimate escape The Maldives can provide a pretty unique escape from reality during normal times, but during a pandemic, we felt so lucky to be able to forget about the real world for our 12 day stay. If you have any concerns about travelling here at this time, then you shouldn’t. The staff were so happy to see us, there’s a doctor on site doing daily checks to make sure the island stays virus free and you can feel assured you’re doing your bit to support the Maldives – an economy that relies on tourism. 2. The people Now the people should have been No.1, but first of all we wanted to reassure you that you’re good to travel during these times – just as the amazing staff did at this resort. The service you receive here is everything you would expect of a 5* resort and more, but it’s the relationships you build with the staff here that leave you longing to return. Some people who deserve a special mention are; Roshan, you are our absolute favourite – thank you for making our stay so enjoyable, keep smiling, keep laughing 😊 and keep in touch. Aruham, the pride you take in both the service you and your team provide is so evident and this is lovely to see – thank you for your service, your insight into Maldivian culture and for being a great friend. Ada, it was amazing to chat to you at the bar, while you served up the most delicious drinks – thanks for your hard work, friendly nature and invitation to travel Sri Lanka. Niliam, Zayed, Rahul, again thank you for everything and thank you to all of you who we didn’t manage to note the name of, you made Ayada feel like home for us from the moment we arrived. 3. The rooms Wow, the rooms at this resort really do spoil you. The Sqm size of the room I think is bigger than our house! We had a Sunset Lagoon villa, a room that comes with a huge king size bed, a sitting area, a huge en-suite with twin sinks, an outdoor shower and finally an amazing private decking with sun loungers, table, swinging chair and your own infinity pool providing sunset views over the Indian Ocean. We have never had the pleasure of staying in a room of this standard before, just utterly breath-taking. 4. The food During our stay here, due to the current pandemic, Maldivian law restricted the buffet restaurant Magu from opening. But that didn’t stop an extensive variety of food being made available to you on the island through the resort’s different restaurants. Our favourite restaurant was Ocean Breeze, for the food, views and the staff. The seafood at this restaurant was delicious, as was the fillet steak, but what was really nice was that the chef would accommodate pretty much any request that wasn’t on the menu. My wife is a vegetarian and a lover of Indian food and once the chef found this out, she was treated to many different Indian curries made personally for her each night – amazing food and again amazing service. 5. The infinity pool Yes, a pool that is so amazing, it deserves its own point in this review. During the day it provides that perfect refreshment from the Maldivian sun (by the way the sun is strong, so pack a high factor sun cream!), into the evening it presents that perfect Insta photo shot for sunset, then in the evening it lights up with thousands of coloured lights to twinkle like the night sky. And yet again, the service you receive while you laze around the pool is second to none, with cocktails, milkshakes, water and food all brought directly to your sun-bed from Zero-Degree the pool bar and restaurant (it’s worth saying too, that the food served at lunch here is nothing short of exceptional for a pool restaurant – delicious and such a wide variety). 6. The white sand and turquoise water A view that, trust us, you will never get bored of. While this is fairly symbolic of the Maldives, here at Ayada it seems to be taken to a whole different level. The clear turquoise water stretches out so far from the beach, you feel immersed by it. Plus at low tide, sand banks pop up around the island that you can walk out to – just incredible. 7. The marine life There is a comprehensive water sports and dive centre available at Ayada. We used them once to go on a Lucky Dolphin tour (and yes we were lucky, seeing lots of dolphins playing in their natural environment) and Private Snorkelling Tour (which again was incredible). Ayada also has its own house reef (out the back of the Beach Suite Rooms), where we saw every colour of fish you could think of, reef sharks and even turtles – we had a close up encounter with a turtle as he came up for air – amazing memories 😊 8. Finally, the journey there and back Other reviews have mentioned that the island is remote and travel to it is longer than other islands. Yes, this is true – the island has undisturbed views in paradise and on the 30-minute domestic flight to get there you get an aerial view of hundreds of tiny islands dotted in the ocean, an experience in itself, followed by a near private speed boat on which we saw dolphins during our journey. Don’t let the remote location put you off, these journeys created memories of their own, that resorts closer to Male won’t offer you. To sum up, for us to have the experience we did, when the resort had only been re-opened for four days was nothing short of phenomenal. We hope we will be lucky enough to return one day to this incredible place, meet again the friendly faces of the amazing staff and enjoy the pure luxury that awaits us on the paradise island of Ayada. For more travel tips and pictures of this amazing resort, follow @triedandtestedtravel on Instagram. If you have any questions or want to know anything more about the resort too, then just message us on Instagram.…
Absolutely to recommend to everyone who likes the Top of the Maledives! Ayada Maledives is really great and the unforgettable, specially the Service, People and the excellent fresh Food! The long journey to Ayada Island is worth it and just romantic!
The island is beautiful and a good size with enough to explore and enough variety across restaurants to keep it interesting. We stayed in a Sunset Lagoon Suite which was the best of both worlds as it had direct sea access and an outdoor shower with coconut trees at the back, and close to all the restaurants. We couldn't fault anything, the food and chefs teams were amazing - thanks! Its hard to believe you are in the middle of the Indian Ocean and all the food was so delicious and fresh. I have never eaten so much lobster! We did bed and breakfast as the HB/FB/AI only included the buffet dinner at Magu and we preferred to eat in other restaurants. If you take a package it includes a $50 credit if you want to eat at the other restaurants but average dinner price for 2 was $200-300 excluding drinks. If you drink a lot of alcohol then AI would be better value but if you don't then you may be better B&B. You can actually upgrade in resort if you ask your butler apparently. If you stay for 7 nights you can choose the diamond AI package which includes dinner in every restaurant and some activities (we only stayed 6 and were a bit confused about the packages) so if we came back we would do 7 nights diamond AI. Everything is very relaxed and even with covid feels like being on a relaxing remote island as everyone has been tested and wearing masks is not obligatory. Covid test is $150pp. The island doesn't feel busy even if the hotel is full. We used the spa and the massages were amazing. The reef was really good - we spent 45 mins swimming with a turtle and saw reef sharks every time we went snorkelling. There is some damaged coral but there is a lot of new growth with amazing colours and wildlife. Last time we visited the Maldives we stayed at Adaaran Vadoo Prestige and the Ayada was far superior in every aspect. I didn't like the Adaaran as it was close to Male and you could see the city lights and airport (and rubbish island) so I was happy to take the longer transfer to Ayada - it isn't that bad 1hr flight and 20mins in speedboat and you really get that remote desert island feeling I was looking for. The butler service was great (we had Z thanks!), we just said we want to eat in every restaurant and he booked us a different one each night and sent us the time each day, along with any other activities that were going on. He sorted out all the transfer times and PCR tests and took care of everything. I would definitely recommend Ayada!…
Dear Ayada Team, I would like to say a huge thank you, that you let all our dreams came true. I did a very-very long research on which island should we choose, because we had so many preferencies. We wanted to visit an island with a beautiful lagoon without seawalls, lush vegetation, very good house reef and secluded room with pool, with privacy and also with ocean view. Our secret wish was to be able to swim with a turtle and see Nemo fishes, along with my non-swimmer husband and my 8-year-old son. First of all we would like to say a special thank you to Hussein at the Dive Center, who guided and took care of us on both the house reef snorkeling and on the Dolphin Safari excursion. With his help we were able to experience all the above wishes and we also could see dolphins. We would like to say thank you also to our lifestlye Butler, Zeeshan, who was always ready to help and arranged the extension of our stay, but he was smart enough to see that we preferred to do our own thing. We were accomodated in a Beach Villa with Pool, and we asked for a room on the South tip of the Island, far from the main buildings, which we were lucky to get (Villa 231). This location was the best at the time we visited the island, because to our misfortune the weather was a bit stormy and the lagoon side was quite windy, which is usually not the case. We loved our Villa, especially the outside shower and I have to mention, that I have never ever had such a comfortable bed on any vacations. Husham, our room boy made our villa perfectly clean and wonderfully fragrant every day. We were on halfboard mealplan, and we were very satisfied with the buffet breakfast and dinner. The pastries and fruits in the morning and the theme nights of the dinners were perfect for us, we always found all food very tasty and fresh. Let me also name Naba, the waiter, who was very kind and remembered our favourite drinks and led us to the tables we preferred. We also tried the in Villa dining a few times using the Ayada App, and the service was spotlessly perfect. The very basic Pizza Margharita was soooo tasty. Last, but not least I would like to say thank you to Dominic, to the revenue manager, who even responded patiently and attentively to my 100th letter, which inspired tremendous confidence in me even before we arrived. Huge thanks again for this experience of a lifetime. We hope to come back one day.…
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