Alila Kothaifaru Maldives

I recently stayed at this lovely hotel, and it was an absolute delight! From the moment I arrived, the staff greeted me with warm smiles and genuine hospitality. The service here is truly top-notch-every request was met with efficiency and a personal touch.

We stayed here for 5 nights for our Honeymoon. We wanted to experience both the beach and water villa so we did 3 nights in the beach villa and 2 nights in the Overwater. The upgrade from the beach villa to the overwater was $250/night AND our concierge gave us the BEST room (all the way at the end, completely unobstructed). Their lounge is by TransMaldivian and shared with other resorts, bot nearly as nice as other lounges, but it’s about the destination right? First off the beach villa is HUGE compared to the overwater villa. We loved having access to the beautiful sunrises on the beach. The outdoor bathroom concept is beautiful, but one big issue… MOSQUITOS! Because of this very reason, I would recommend the overwater villa over the beach villa, for sanity purposes, even though it’s a bit smaller. There are coconut bats all over the island (super cool) so keep an eye out for them in the evening. Sea Salt was good and during the day they even have Banh Xeo! (Vietnamese savory turmeric crepes) I was so impressed, but then realized the head chef was Vietnamese, yes it hit the spot! Skip the yakitori bar, I though food was boring and overcooked. Umami was decent for my sushi craving. Room service menu was excellent and portion sizes were great. Best snorkel spot is right by the Yakitori Bar where their house reef is. The island is relatively small and they did have some events when we were there like a sunset cocktail hour which was complimentary drinks and appetizers. Other than that, you should definitely book an excursion or two. Our fishing trip was canceled due to not enough people joining in which was a shame because my husband really looked forward to it. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and loved the modern-ness and cleanliness of this resort.

It was wonderful moment. Couldn't prepare much but just Alila made it more than enough. Especially thanks to Yakitori Bar team 👏👏 Beginning and End of our stay were with Yakitori bar and they made our journey extremely memorable ! Thanks Chanaka, Ariya and Alex

We had a fantastic stay at the Alila for 9 nights. We originally planned on staying 7 but quickly extended our stay for an extra two nights after the warm reception and seeing the quality of the resort. The hotel is beautiful and the service and amenities are top notch. We travel a lot and this has become our new favorite resort. The beach villa is very well appointed and quite large. It fit our family of 4 comfortably with two rollaway beds in the living room. As expected for a Maldive resort, food was on the pricey side but wasn't as bad as anticipated. The breakfast spread is one of the best that our family has experienced and kept us full for most of the day. Cherry was an excellent host and she always had our table prepared for us and our coffee ready to go. She gave us some great tips on our future travel to Indonesia which we are going to take advantage of. The hotel was very generous in their events as they hold a resort wide happy hour every Wednesday where they serve unlimited drinks and small appetizers as well as two globalist events per week with the same layout. The globalist events were a nice perk to reward our loyalty. These types of events and perks continually help us maintain our loyalty to Hyatt as we end up choosing Hyatt's over other competing brands even when others may be less expensive or more convenient. My wife and I did the "Art of the Coconut" experience which was very nice. While it was expensive, as per another reviewer, we asked to split the experience up for two days which is highly recommended. If you did participate in the activity, I would recommend actually splitting it in three days where you can do the introduction to the coconut and mixology one day, the cooking demonstration and lunch a second day and the spa experience the third day. For the experience, the cost was reasonable ($355 per person) as getting the individual items separately would have been at least 25% more expensive or even more. Spreading it out over a few days is also a great way to break up the beach, pool and snorkeling activities. We spent a lot of time at the Mirus bar as the staff at the bar were always accommodating and always gave the kids a complimentary mocktail or slushy. Upul, Lemon and Asanka were all excellent and really made our stay. They always had a smile on their face and were always ready to assist with anything that we needed. We ate at all of the restaurants on the island. A stand-out was the Pibati restaurant and the chef, Damodar. The restaurant is quite small but provides a nice view and reasonably priced pasta and pizza, all things considered. There were very little "misses" on our stay as the hotel is clearly a step above the rest. As Globalists and extensive travelers, we did have somewhat high expectations and can say that they were met or even exceeded. The "misses" were small but important. Each room comes with a Villa host to help with activities, reservations, etc. Upon check-in, we inquired whether there was any option to get an overwater villa for a few nights of the stay. While she said that she would look into it, we never heard an answer. Even if they couldn't accommodate us, I would have preferred a response rather than ignoring the request. They also had a Padel facility at the resort which looked nice. I had wanted to find others to play with as my family does not play. I asked to potentially be matched with someone to play with and again, the request was never fulfilled. Another item was that we weren't informed on any food or beverage packages. When asked, we were given some options (as Globalists, $200 plus 23% (tax and service per person), per day) but they weren't too appealing given that the children rates were $195 per child per day, only $5.00 cheaper than the adults and obviously did not include alcohol. Apparently, they also offer all inclusive beverage options but we weren't informed on those even though they may have been appealing. As many reviews have mentioned, there are mosquitos on the island. They do fumigation everyday from 5-6 and some days in the morning. While we had some bites, it wasn't bad and they have repellent in the room and at the restaurants. They also provided incense sticks to use around the villa. The one recommendation that I would ask the resort to consider is having the sea plane transfers included for some minimum length of stay. The seaplane transfers costs $660 per person which adds quite a bit to a very expensive stay when factoring in room costs, food and beverage and activities. Overall, we had a wonderful time at the resort and will happily return. Apul, Lemon, Asaka, Damodar and Cherry all contributed greatly to our enjoyment and are already planning a return visit. We will almost certainly return to the resort as this has been a highlight of our travels.

From the moment we landed in Male, to the moment we got back to the airport, our trip to Alila Kothaifaru Maldives was a dream. We booked this hotel for 5 days / 4 nights to celebrate our ten year wedding anniversary, many months in advance. A few days prior to our arrival, an Alila resort representative reached out to me via email to arrange the seaplane transfer. Alila Kothaifaru arranged our airport pick-up and drop off. Upon being greeted by an Alila rep at landing, we were driven to the Noovilu terminal for our seaplane. We waited at the VIP lounge about 45 minutes to board. Once we were on board with about 10 other passengers, the ride to the Alila resort was around 45 minutes. We were the first stop; my understanding is that Alila Kothaifaru is located in a most north atoll. When we arrived at the Alila port, several of the staff were there waiting for us, waving to us as we disembarked. Thomas, the hotel general manager, along several others personally introduced themselves and welcomed us to Alila. We were then driven around the resort in a golf cart, by Hiya, our personal host. He showed us where everything was and explained he would be in charge of booking any reservations we wanted to make. He then took us to our beach villa, room 103. There was a small cake, bottle of champagne, and other snacks waiting in the room for us. We also received a handwritten note from Thomas and the staff, congratulating us on our 10 year wedding anniversary. This gesture was such a nice, thoughtful touch. Our host, Hiya, indicated that because we are globalist, we may be able to receive an upgrade to an overwater villa at some point during our stay. Our beach villa was immaculate and very spacious. It had a small private pool, and direct beach access. Everything we could have needed was already provided in the room; water, both still and sparkling, a variety of coffee and tea, as well as all the toiletries were complimentary. There were sodas, alcoholic beverages, and snacks available for purchase. During our visit, we were able to visit most of the restaurants. We enjoyed the daily buffet breakfast (included for globalists) every morning at Seasalt, as well as the a la carte items. For dinner, we ate at Umami, Yakitori, and Mirus bar. All were excellent. Although the food and drinks are on the pricier end, I would rate everything 5 stars. The details and presentation of every dish were beyond my expectations. The service was even better. All of the employees seemed genuinely happy to assist with anything we needed. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous, and the beach is stunning. During our stay, we enjoyed snorkeling, a few of the complimentary classes, the gymnasium, which is well-equipped with various workout stations. But most importantly, we were able to relax without any loud music or boisterous crowds. This was the perfect choice for a quiet, tranquil retreat. We ended our vacation with an upgrade to a stunning overwater villa, room 202. We also ordered a beautifully prepared floating lunch, which was honestly almost too gorgeous to eat. This was the icing on the cake to end our anniversary trip. All in all, this has been the best hotel I have ever visited, and overall best trip of my life. I want to thank Thomas, Abeel, Hiya, and all the wonderful people at Alila Kothaifaru Maldives for making this trip an unforgettable one. Until next time!