When you think of the Maldives you probably envisage a villa resort stretching out over the water like a string of pearls. This is what the Maldives is known for and the archipelago has developed into one of the world’s favourite honeymoon destinations with overwater villas catering to newlyweds and young lovers seeking a romantic interlude.
However times are changing. Honeymooners are returning to the Maldives years later with young families, large families are planning multi-generation vacations together, and young people are travelling more and more with friends. The Maldives needs larger villas to cater to larger groups and Amilla Fushi is leading the charge with their stunning Amilla Villa Residences: a new era of luxury villas in Maldives.
Where is Amilla Fushi?
The Maldives is an archipelago of 1,192 islands grouped into 26 coral atolls. Each atoll is a giant ringlike coral formation that has fragmented into small islands.
Amilla Fushi sits on the edge of the Baa Atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage site with some of the richest marine life in Maldives. It lies northwest of Kaafu Atoll, home to Maldives’ capital, Male.
Amilla Fushi is easier to get to than a lot of resorts and is more tranquil on account of being far enough away from commercial flight paths and shipping lanes heading into Male.
Getting to Amilla Fushi
After flying into Ibrahim Nasir International Airport in Male, you have two options: you can take a seaplane direct to the resort or take a domestic flight to Dharavandhoo Domestic Airport followed by a short 15-minute speedboat ride to Amilla Fushi Maldives Beach Resort.
The seaplane costs around USD $550 per person versus roughly half this amount for the domestic option. Ministry of Villas will of course help arrange everything for you, so both options are completely stress-free. Plus the gorgeous staff at Amilla Fushi will be awaiting your arrival in Male so you’re being looked after every step of the way.
Arriving at Amilla Fushi
We arrived in Male at 8am, checked in with Amilla’s arrival desk right in front of the arrival gate, and were whisked away to Amilla’s private airport lounge. With a great breakfast table set up we enjoyed coffee and scrambled eggs prior to taking off in a seaplane.
What an experience! The flight was incredible. Looking down at the countless islands is just spectacular. Flying at low altitude in a seaplane really allows you to soak in the islands from above. Landing on the water was also a surreal experience that just adds to the magic.
Our first treat was waiting for us on the jetty: a gold Rolls Royce inspired buggy!
Amilla Residence guests are provided their own buggy for exclusive use so you don’t need to call reception for one.
Our personal butler collected us and unlike other resorts there was no waiting in the lobby or check-in procedure… we were simply escorted to our villa.
Introducing Amilla Villa Residence
Naturally, we were eager to see the 4-bedroom Amilla Villa Residence after studying the photos online. OMG! I don’t know how else to describe our first impressions. The entrance is grand, the garden is lush, the living room is huge! But my eyes were drawn to the amazing aqua blue water of the infinity pool and ocean in the distance.
Amilla’s beachfront villas have enormous glass sliding doors and high ceilings that bring the natural beauty of the Maldives inside. Open living areas open out to a private beach,with gorgeous turquoise water in the shallows turning into a deep blue where the reef meets the ocean. The setting is simply magnificent. You don’t need to Photoshop your photos when you get home.
Amilla Villa Residence Layout
Amilla’s 4-bedroom villas have a large living room, fully equipped kitchen and one bedroom with twin beds and ensuite bathroom on the ground floor. Walking upstairs you’ll find the master bedroom overlooking the beach with huge ensuite bathroom including bathtub and walk-through wardrobe.
The two other bedrooms are facing inland with king beds and ensuite bathrooms. Each bedroom is immaculately furnished and ample in size, although not as grand as the master bedroom. Finally there is a second living room on the first floor that looks out to the beach. Set up as a games room it has large lounges, ping-pong table and entertainment centre.
Back downstairs the villa’s best feature is the outdoor living area with dining table and BBQ overlooking the pool. This turned out to be a great spot for breakfast and there is a hammock just off the beach perfect for relaxing throughout the day.
Getting Around Amilla Fushi
We always say it’s the little things that make staying in a villa so special and Amilla’s team certainly know how to bring this statement to life. Besides having an exclusive Rolls Royce buggy for the duration of our stay, our butler presented us with two bicycles with our names engraved on personalised number plates!
I can’t explain the feeling; it was just so cool to have our own wheels. So we opted for pedal power over Rolls Royce style and had so much fun riding around the Island.
Amilla Fushi is only a little over a kilometre long, but the island has a lot of variety – overwater boardwalks with fish swimming below, cool forested paths surrounded by banyan trees, tree house villas high on stilts, and of course beaches – gorgeous beaches.
Amilla Fushi Resort Facilities
Staying in Amilla’s Villa Residence gives you the best of both worlds: absolute privacy and every luxury within your own villa in addition to access to resort facilities outside.
Amilla Fushi has one of the Maldives’ largest infinity pools, an indoor spa, tennis court, four restaurants, sunset cocktail lounge bar, hair salon, gym, games room, cellar and an array of water activities.
Perfect for young families, Sultan’s Village Kids Club has plenty of day-long activities for the little ones, an air-conditioned supervised clubhouse packed full of toys and board games, fenced garden with children’s paddling pool and playground plus complimentary babysitting during your stay. Um, what could be better then that?
You Must Try the Javvu Spa
We were invited to enjoy a 50-minute full body massage and I can genuinely say it was one of the best massages I’ve ever experienced and Alastair is still raving about his, saying it was absolutely his favourite massage ever.
Javvu Spa have employed Pure Massage, who as their name suggests, specialise solely in massage. London-based massage expert Beata Aleksandrowicz designed the program with techniques based on her ‘12 Principles of Massage’. Alastair describes the combination as taking the best parts of all the massages he’s had from around the world.
Javvu Spa caters for couples with several huts featuring twin massage beds, a change room, bathtub and showers. The girls who looked after us were so experienced. We honestly didn’t want the treatment to end.
Snorkelling in the Maldives
Most resorts in the Maldives include snorkelling gear as complimentary. The same goes for Amilla, however they also include all non-powered water sports including catamarans, kayaks and more. You can also arrange dive trips to neighbouring islands and underwater caves.
Although we had these options available to us, all we wanted to do is snorkel the shallow water right in front of our villa. Alastair said to me: “let’s swim over to that dark patch of coral” which was about 50 metres from our villa. It turned out the dark patch in the water wasn’t coral; it was a school of fish!
I have never experienced anything like it – we were surrounded on all sides with colourful reef fish. There must have been hundreds of thousands of them … just a stone’s throw from the shore. In short, we were amazed by the abundance of marine life in Baa Atoll – it’s a divers paradise!
Dining In or Dining Out?
This was the only tough decision we had to make each day. We had a buffet breakfast the first day, a private chef looked after us for the next two days and we finished our stay with sunset cocktails and a Japanese dinner in one of the restaurants on our last night.
Amilla has a total of four beachside restaurants to choose from. Guests come to mingle whilst taking in the breathtaking view. It truly is a food bazaar with diverse culinary offerings from around the world where you will find something to suit your palate.
The Who’s Who Stay Here
Of course we had to ask if Amilla had entertained any A-list celebrities since opening a year earlier. The list included Hollywood actors, rock stars, professional footballers, world leaders, captains of industry… you name it!
So this where celebrities come to relax. With the level of luxury we experienced at Amilla Fushi we could certainly see why.
However you really don’t need to be a celebrity to stay in an Amilla Villa Residence. If you breakdown the cost of staying in the 4-bedroom or even the 8-bedroom villa with your family or a group of friends it actually works out to be great value – economies of scale kicks in with this new era of luxury villas in the Maldives.
Plus these magnificent villas are available at 40% off the normal rate for the next few months, so give us a call and let’s arrange your family to experience staying at an Amilla Villa Residence!
All good things come to an end
We were sad to say goodbye but know we will be back one day. We felt like we were here much longer then we actually were. Finding the perfect villa can be challenging but we think Amilla Fushi has absolutely nailed it!
Now we are off to explore more of the Maldives.
