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| Holiday-Truth Readers Reports |
Kevin Rutherford from Morpeth travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
Tradewinds
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 03 2007 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness |  | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food |  | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: Right hear goes.
Travelled to the Lily beach for 14 nights with Tradewinds & Qatar airways flights via Doha.
On arrival at the hotel we were greeted with a flower garland round our necks and fresh juice drink and sandwiches which were very welcome after the long flight.
The check in was fast and courteous and we were offered a water bungalow for the first night as our beach bungalow was not available. This meant that we could not unpack but it did give us the experience of one night in the water bungalow which we thought was great but in our opinion not worth the extra cash.
The staff were very helpfull throughout the first night and carried our bags etc to the room.
We were first allocated room 211 and the moved the the beach bungalow 122 which was a great location in the middle of the island between the pool bar and the main restaurant.
Our roomboy Faruhad was very professional and the room was serviced twice a day and we had some lovely floral decorations over the two weeks we stayed.
I signed up for the Discover Scuba package with the Ocean Pro dive team which gave me one lagoon dive off the North side of the island and one dive to 12m off the South side. I think if you have ever fancied giving diving a go try it at the Lily Beach. The instruction and the underwater sights on the house reef were fantastic.
The restuarant served a good selection of meals and the soups were fantastic. We especially enjoyed the Wok Fried meals offered at lunchtime. Our waiter was also very friendly and was a wealth of knowledge when it came to the football scores.
The main bar served a good selection of drinks and two different cocktails each night which were potent and included in the all inclusive package. The waiters were all very mannered and took great pleasure in ensuring you never had an empty glass.
All in all this was a dream holiday and i cannot fault the service or the quality of the island and would definitley visit again if possible.
Click here for more information on this hotel, resort and region
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John Willens from Leigh on Sea travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
Hayes and Jarvis
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 11 2006 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: The food was excellent and varied.
Everywhere was very clean and our room was made up twice a day. Most of the staff were attentive and friendly.
We were looking for a chill out break and that is what we got.
No shoes No news as they say! Fantastic.
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Nikki from West Midlands travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
Hayes & JArvis
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 04 2006 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food |  | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: Well here goes……I will try not to bore you too much but you’ll have to bear with me as I can waffle!!!! The First Choice flight was Excellent. We were in Star Class premier and were given champagne and strawberries prior to take off which was a nice touch. Staff were brilliant both ways – I could fault them!
Arrived at Male and had a swift transfer to the seaplane terminal… then a quick 25 minute transfer to Lily Beach.
We were greeted with flowers and drum roll followed by a cool towel and a fruit cocktail drink – which was very welcome.
We were in room 215 which was in a great location and situated slightly further away from the other water bungalows (except for our immediate neighbour obviously). It was great to be able to sit out on the deck and watch the fish swim by – we had a sting ray that decided it wanted to stay under our deck most days!
The immediate difference that we found from our only other trip to the Maldives (Kuramathi – a much larger island) was it was quite noisy. There’s a workshop immediately behind our room and they were grinding metal every day from 8am until around 5pm (intermittently). We asked if we could be moved – and they offered us room 205 which was slightly more overlooked and you could still hear the grinding from there too. In the end we stayed where we were and asked them if they could wait until after 9am before they started grinding. (we are up at 5am at home, so it’s nice to get a bit of a lie in on holiday!).
Our room boy Ismail and our Waiter Jaleel were great; nothing was too much trouble for them. The staff at the coffee shop were also very helpful.
The food was good, but my husband found it a bit repetitive as he isn’t keen on curry, Chinese or fish. We had a few special dinners on the beach, mostly Fillet steak which was excellent, and we also had a few hot dogs and cheeseburgers at the coffee, which were a welcome change. The deserts were wonderful … I took a liking to the strawberry mousse, and the Pecan Pie. I love Chinese food, and there was always a plenty of choice at both Lunch and Dinner.
I loved the fact that the reef was so close, as I am not the strongest of swimmers so it was good to see some of the lion fish, trigger fish and spotted puffas.
There were plenty of trips to go on but we only did the Whales shark trip (didn’t see the whale shark, but plenty of dolphins), the fishing trip – I caught one! And the coral garden snorkelling .
I would definitely recommend the water bungalows!!! although you cant sunbathe on the deck after midday it was great to sit in the shade and read or snooze, and it was only a few steps down a ladder in to the warm sea!
Overall we came back feeling refreshed and we didn’t get bored at all (on the last island we were bored after 11 days!!).
Looking at where to go next time now!
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Donna Anderson from kingennie,Angus travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
Thomson Worlwide
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 04 2006 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: My husband and I spent seven perfect nights a Lily Beach in a superior room which was immaculate and cleaned twice a day by our room boy.
The bar and restaurant were also spotless with the waiters picking up dirty dishes and glasses as soon as they were put down.The food was buffet style and even the most fussy eater would struggle not to find something that they like.
Breakfast consisted of a choice of: a selection of fruit,cereals,yogurts,musli,pancakes and cooked breafast items: additionally, the chef would make any variations of egg that you requested.
Lunch and dinner choices were again wonderful (especially if you enjoy curries and spicy food) with a good choice and variety of dishes which always included fish.
We kept the same table throughout our stay and also the same waiter who was exeptionally attentive and smiled constantly, even though he always appeared to be on duty.
The bar staff were also wonderful and as soon as your drink was finished (or nearly Finished) they were over looking to offer another.
Entertainment was very low key and was based in the Pool bar and although we weren't looking to be entertained, we did attend a live band one night which was very good.
The hotel did have a very good mixture of nationalities who all appeared to integrate well together.
There were a few children who were all very well mannered and behaved - apart from one small group of English boys aged about 8-12 yrs who had obviously struck up a friendship and on most days hung about the area of the pool,but occasionally ventured on to the beach to hire(free) pedalos etc without the supervision of their parents.They clearly enjoyed the sound of their own voices and made sure that everyone around heard them) This however was not an everyday occurrence and certainly did not spoil our holiday.
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Joe Luque from Larkfield travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
Hayes and Jarvis
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 03 2006 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Trip report 05/03/2006
Arrived at Gatwick Airport at 1.30 pm, used Tudor Rose meet and greet, just rang them as we exited the M23, waited at arrival for them for about 5 minutes before handing the car over to them, they charged us £64 for the two weeks.
Proceeded to the check-in counters to find that all the First Choice check-in booths would accept any flight destination for check-in, therefore no queues.
Flight on time Boeing 767 star class, sat together 32GH.
The service on this flight was very good, I would suggest that it was the best that you would find for a charter service and would easily compare to scheduled if not better than some. First thing we noticed was the seat pitch, plenty of leg room.
In flight service started with drinks and snacks followed by a choice of hot meals accompanied with wine, usual coffee and tea to follow.
In flight entertainment was good, back of the seats viewer giving a selection of 3 movies, free headsets, you could upgrade for £5 which will give you more movies and games, a suggestion if you are thinking of doing this is to upgrade one then swap seats later in the journey. About an hour and a half before landing we were given a light breakfast and coffee/tea.
Landed at 09:30 local time, the flight took about 10 hours.
Had a delay disembarking due to an auxiliary power unit failure, quite common I’m told, this also delayed the arrival of our luggage.
Once our luggage arrived, a 40mins wait, we proceeded to the arrival area where we were ushered to the seaplane desks, our luggage was taken by air taxi staff placed onto a van ourselves into a minibus and then transported across the airfield to the seaplane terminal, don’t forget to get your free ear plugs from the seaplane terminal desk.
We waited approx 15mins for our flight, the Maldivian Air Taxi DeHavalland twin otters are a great way to see the other islands whilst travelling to Lily Beach.
The seaplane approaches Lily Beach from the north, a good opportunity for aerial photographs of the island, and lands about ½ a mile from the island, a Dhoni (Maldivian boat) waits for the seaplane to tie up to the floating pontoon then comes alongside to pick you up, journey time to the island jetty is about 10 minutes.
On arrival you are greeted by the islands staff to the sounds of a beating drum, a necklace of a local flower is placed around your neck and you are taken to reception, here you are given a refreshing drink and a cool facial towel whilst you are filling in your registration cards, by the way, from the time you reach the seaplane terminal to the time you enter your room you do not touch your luggage.
Your luggage is taken to your room once your key has been given to you, give the lad that takes your luggage a tip.
You are there………
The rooms nearer to 101, that’s the lowest room number, are nearer the pool which is located at the eastern end, room numbers near the main restaurant/bar are 130 and above.
The staff are quite attentive to your needs, if you go for a swim at the pool by the time you have finished your dip a fresh towel has been provided for your use.
The restaurant is buffet style with lots to choose from.
There is a protective wall around two thirds of the island, some say that its unsightly but if the wall wasn’t there no island would exist, also it provided good safe snorkling for those that are weak swimmers, plenty of beautiful fish to observe, both inside the reef as well as out side.
The current outside of the wall does vary and sometimes is very strong, usually flows from east to west.
Most snorklers pass over the reef at the eastern end and let the current take them to the other end, less work involved and you can just float whilst watching all the fish.
9 pm one of the staff a chap called Beestoo from Nepal, feeds the rays and the occasional shark from the main jetty.
Each room has its allocated loungers on the beach, your room number will be on your lounger. Each room has aircon and ceiling fan.
After many weeks without rain you can guess what happened during our stay, second week we had 4 days of storms, one day where it rained all day, because its always warm we still swam and snorkled but we could not sit and read on the beach so off to the pool bar for drinks followed by a few more drinks.
The diving was excellent but alas no whale sharks, they seem to be elsewhere at the moment, when the word gets out that they have been seen then the trips resume.
The 14 nights seem to pass very quickly, on our last night with our cases almost packed the telephone rang it was our H&J rep, she stated that there was a 24 hour delay to our flight and that we would have to stay in the same room on All Inc for another day…
Gutted NOT, mind you it’s a shame for those travelling out that will get a day less.
Our return trip was almost the reverse of our outward journey, flight times a little longer due to headwinds staff still good.
Happy Journeys
Joe
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Sally from Wolverhampton travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
Hayes & Jarvis
on a couples holiday.
There were 4 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 02 2006 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: What a fantastic island! We had read so much before we went that we hoped it all lived up to expectations. Wow! it certainly did. Arrived After a good First Choice flight and stayed in rooms 156 & 157, which was right at the back of the restaurant, so there was no chance of walking off all that wonderful food. Not being a great curry fan myself I did try some and the vegetable curry was superb, so much so that I went back for seconds. Also real cheese in abundance, which I love and ate at every opportunity. The staff in the bars and restaurants were wonderful and always there to help you if you needed anything. Entertainment was very low key, but no one seems to mind the peace and quiet with no loud music blaring. People tend to sit and talk at night or play cards.
We had only just arrived and were going into lunch when we saw lots of people standing on the beach, so we went to have alook and there were the dolphins out in the ocean. A wonderful sight which we have never experienced in all our times in the Maldives.
Our rooms were always clean and tidy and well serviced. We also tried the laundry service which was excellent.
We were situated on the north side of the island and had the sun all day long. The sand had quite a lot of coral in it and made walking a bit difficult at times, but nothing a pair of flip flops wouldn't sort out. The snorkelling was wonderful and you didn't have to go too far to find some wonderful fish. We found snorkelling by the turtle pens was brilliant as you had some really big fish there and sometimes the turtles would swim by.
Night fishing - a must! So much fun, we went out three times. Caught some great fish which were cooked for us the following evening and tasted delicious, especially the Oily Grouper!!
Went out on the pedallos a few times which was superb, especially on the days when the sea was so still and you could look straight down over the edge of the reef and see all the beautiful fish below you.
The only down side to the holiday was nothing to do with Lily Beach at all, we could not fault it. But we had a 51 hour delay in getting home due to a problem with the aircraft. This necessitated us staying over on two different islands for the next two nights. Not the best end to a holiday, but it did give us the opportunity to see some other islands. We were put up on Olhuvelli and Paradise Island. Very nice, beautifully furnished, but far too big for our liking. We liked the small intimate feel of Lily Beach, so much so that we have booked again for next year. Something we have never done in the Maldives and this was our sixth visit.
All in all I can say it rated 10 out of 10 in our book!
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Annie from Berkshire travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
First Choice
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2005 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: What can I say ? An amazing holiday that left us blue to come home.
The hotel was clean & tidy and the location was perfect. A tiny island in the middle of no where !
All members of the staff were friendly and could not do enough to help.
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Sean from Leeds travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
Kwik Travel
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 04 2005 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Lily Beach April 2005
Well, here goes. This report will definitely not be as comprehensive as Joe’s, as he has captured the essence of the island exactly in it.
I will basically summarise our holiday and the wonderful experience that we had.
Firstly the holiday booking. We actually started looking to go to Lily Beach in October last year but didn’t actually do anything until late November. We use a company called Kwik Travel who are based in Lichfield. They are an independent travel agent who basically take your request for a holiday and try and tailor it to your needs. The good thing about them I feel is the one to one relationship that you have with your travel representative. A lot of them work from home and therefore have individual numbers that they can be contacted on without the hassle of having to phone a main branch just on the off chance that they might be available.
Anyway we initially requested the first two weeks in April, flying from Manchester and not with Monarch. Was not overly impressed with the flight and service we had last year when flying from Gatwick, nothing really bad, but as people say have definitely had better. Cathy our rep took all the details and then went off to find us our holiday. This is not always a same day service as I believe they do literally trawl through all the brochures, Internet sites etc to find the best deals. She eventually got back to us 4 days later with the bad news that she could get us the rooms but not the flights, but not to worry she’d keep trying. Couple of days later she told us that there were no flights available at all for the dates in question. At this point we resigned ourselves to not going !!!
Three weeks had passed when we received a surprise call from Cathy saying that she’d managed to find us a holiday to Lily going a week later and flying with Qatar Airlines from Manchester to Doha, and then Doha to Male. The price quoted was also very, very good so we literally snapped her hand off. Form the holiday truths website I had read very good reports on Qatar.
At the end of February we had some really bad news concerning a very good friend of mine (32), which just prompted me to upgrade to business class (as they say you can’t take your money with you when you go !!!). This was sorted out again by Cathy with no hassle at all.
April 11th, arrived at Manchester airport (terminal 2) in plenty of time for check in and the obligatory duty free shopping. Is it just me or does terminal 2 just seem to have less of everything than terminal 1 ? Whisked through the business class check in, and then up to the lounge to leave our bags. Was quite fun trying to find the Qatar airways lounge as they are all on the same floor, but it is like a maze. We were advised that we would be called from the lounge when it was time to depart, and this happened accordingly.
The first plane was an Airbus A300-332. the business class section was exceptional the service too. Leg room etc was unbelievable, seats that turned effectively into beds at the push of a button. Speaking to other people that were on Lily beach at the same time about the economy cabin there were no complaints about this either, more legroom that standard flights, very good food, and in-flight entertainment. There were no complaints.
Flight time to Doha was about 5 and a half hours.
Doha Airport. On arrival the business class passengers are taken off the plane first (which I thought was novel). On entry to the airport, you are directed to the transfers hall, all hand luggage is scanned, and once through this you need to proceed to the transfers desk. There was a separate desk for Business Class and once we arrived there were told that there was nothing we need to do and we go straight through to the duty free goods area or the lounge. Had a three hour stop over here, which was just a bit too long, but hey you can’t have everything. Doha has a duty free area that’s not that big so it’s not a three hour browsing paradise, there are coffee shops but they do get crowded at the busy times of the day.
Doha to Male. Different plane type with a smaller BC cabin, legroom diminished but still plenty. Was the same in economy. Food good, entertainment limited. Flight time approximately 5 and a half hours.
Male Seaplane Terminal / Male to Lily Beach See Joe’s report, it’s still the same. Would just add that at the seaplane terminal there is a small souvenir shop that also has free earplugs. Would recommend these for the seaplane flight, as it is quite noisy. Two people that were on our flight still had problems hearing a good three hours later !!!!
Lily Beach 2005. We were allocated room 301, which is at the Western end of the island, which is the quieter end (not than you can call the island noisy in the first place). Requested either this room or 303 as that’s where we stayed last year and found it convenient for entry to the reef and not too far from anywhere really.
Room boy was Mohamed, waiter in the dining area Abdullah, and our good friend Rushdee at the pool bar, the only man I know that knows what type of drink I want/need before I do !!!!. As usual the service received was exceptional and although everyone says it that’s been to Lily Beach don’t see how it can be bettered.
Just for starters on day one the temperature on the beach at 10 in the morning was 50 degrees, we knew we were going to be in for a hot one !! I had bought myself a new underwater housing for my digital camera and needed to check it out to ensure it didn’t leak. Set off to the Northern reef edge, when I got there after about 15 minutes I saw a mother and two baby Spotted Eagle Rays about 30 foot below, typical that I didn’t have the camera in the housing to take some snaps. After speaking to Atheef from the Oceanpro dive team he told me that they were territorial, and if I’d seen them once they would more than likely stick around. Which they did, and pictures were duly taken, although a bit hazy as they were so far down even the zoom couldn’t pick them up fully.
Also managed to see when snorkelling over the fortnight, Moray Eels, Clown Fish, Trigger Fish, Puffer Fish, Surgeon Fish, a baby Sting Ray and also a White Tipped Reef Shark that scared the living daylights out of me just as I went over the edge of the reef.
Unfortunately couldn’t do any scuba diving as I developed toothache, and couldn’t equalise when descending, was gutted, but it definitely didn’t spoil the holiday. Had the tooth out the day we arrived back in the UK, ouch !!!
Trips we did were the Whale Shark Hunting as described previously. Was excellent as we did manage to see the Whale Sharks and got some excellent photos, two pods of dolphins, and other people also saw some Manta’s (which I missed), so we managed to see all three which is some kind of rarity on any one trip. Just one thing about the trip is you pay the money you take the chance, there is no guarantee that you will actually see anything, as I went diving last year to Whale Shark point and saw nothing on the two dives we did.
We did book to do a full day trip on the Dhoni that included Island Hopping, a beach barbecue lunch and snorkelling, however, because there weren’t enough people (minimum 10) on the trip it was cancelled. We did manage to get 8, and entered into negotiations to go, the management still wanted everyone on the trip to make up the shortfall in money. We tried to compromise, but they wouldn’t budge, they wanted to cover the full cost and that was their final stance. We could understand their feelings but thought that a little give and take might have been a better way to deal with this.
On the Sunday before coming home we went on the weekly free trip to the Ari Atolls main island. It’s about 50 minutes on a Dhoni, and they show you the island, which is inhabited by about 1800 people, visiting the hospital, main atoll administrative building, police station, “Power Station”, local school and some of the souvenir shops. A tip if you do this is to take plenty of water, it was absolutely roasting. A pleasant trip that’s worth doing once, and ‘er indoors obviously picked up a few souvenirs !!!
We both used the spa, I had the neck, back and shoulder massage and reflexology twice, along with the special 4 hands massage (which is the spa’s speciality), this was very good, but at one point did make me feel a bit sea-sick as the two masseurs were doing my back in different directions at the same time. Weird !!
Partner had the coffee and coco scrub, which she said was brilliant, and she did smell absolutely wonderful afterwards. She did buy some of the scrub products as they have a 50% off sale at the minute. Don’t think I’d be as good as the girls in the spa though !!!
One thing to mention that was spectacular, and at the same time I’m sure scary to some people, was the tremendous thunderstorm we encountered on the Tuesday of the second week. Happened about 12:30 to 01:00, and I have never heard thunder or seen lightning like it before in my life. We had been watching the lightning in the distance in the bar earlier, but it seemed to be moving away. How wrong we were !!!. When people say that buildings shake from the strength of the thunder I can now believe it. The storm hit us directly overhead, the noise was deafening, and the lightning something that I’ve never experienced before. It took out the islands telephones, and some of the rooms temporarily lost power, with some having no power at all overnight. Was all put right by 08:00 the next morning, the telephone company were there at 07:30 to sort out the problems (would you get that in the UK ???)
Homeward Bound. Our flight from Male wasn’t until 20:00 hours so we didn’t actually leave Lily Beach until 16:30. Left with a heavy heart, but we’re already planning next years trip. Will hopefully be going with 6 friends in April again.
Upgrade. We were talking to a few people on the island as well as the staff, and there are plans being discussed to close the island for 8 months to do some renovations and upgrades. Build some new full water bungalows at the Western end of the island (which is still being worked on to get the sand back lost after the tsunami), and also to modernise the bar/dining area. This is as a direct result of the opening of at least 12 new resort islands in the next year or so. Whilst I understand that they have to compete with these new resorts, I hope that they don’t spoil the intimacy of the island, which to my mind makes it that extra bit special.
If anyone would like to discuss any of the content of the report, please PM me and I’ll be happy to discuss. Will hopefully be posting some photographs soon, as and when I have them downloaded.
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Sean Buller from Leeds travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
Airtours
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2004 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Lily Beach resort is one of the best places that I have visited! The hotel is very clean, the rooms are checked twice daily, and the guys who do the cleaning go out of their way to ensure everything is right for you, ask for anything and it wont be long before it's sorted.
Food is all buffet style, but there is a wide and varied choice rnaging from Western, to Thai, Indian etc. Even tried the Banana curry which believe me was excellent.
The location is 25 minutes in a sea plane from the capital Male, doesn't seem that long as the views of the other islands takes your mind off the noise of the planes (good tip is to take ear plugs for the sea plane journey).
Staff are excellent, nothing is too much trouble, yet they are unobtrusive when you're out and about on the island.
Entertainment was a little lacking, but due to the nature of the holiday and where the island is you're not going to get live entertainment every night. There was traditional Maldivian dancing and a disco arranged weekly, but again I don't think it detracts from the whole experience.
Have booked again for next April 2005.
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Marg from stoke on trent travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
Tradewinds
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2004 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Here is my report on Lily beach in the maldives.
26/6/04 - 10/7/04 With Tradewinds and Emirates
We flew out of Manchester with Emirates what luxury for economy class, superb food and drink, excellent service, fantastic entertainments system. It was our silver wedding anniversary and they had given us some extra leg seats for free and also came round with a cake, champagne and strawberrys!!! what a suprize. We changed at Dubai for our onward flight to the Maldives without any stress or hassle.
Arrived at Male for our seaplane Transfer we were met by representatives for tradewinds who guided us through and sorted our luggage. The sun was glistening on the clear green waters of the sea which surrounds the island airport what a site!!
We were soon up in the air and on our way to Lily beach in a sixteen seater sea plane within 25 mins we were touching down at the pontoon with our boat waiting to take us to the island 5 mins away.
We were greated with flower garlands and beating drum as we were shown into reception to fill in the registration card whilst sipping a cool drink and being given cold towels.
We stayed in a water bungelow (204) this was fantastic the water at our doorstep and lovely open air bathroom.
They also knew it was our anniversary decorating our dinner table with flowers and bringing us a special cake, then when we got back to our room we had a bottle of wine on ice along with a large basket of tropical fruit. The room boy had also decorated our bed with flowers and petals, it was so romantic!!
The island is totally all inclusive so no rist bands or money to carry round, any extras such as trips or treatments at the spa are booked to your room and payed for on departure.
The facilities are all first class, the island is spotlessly clean, the food is to die for!!! must have put on 2stone!! The staff all over can not do enough for you . You never have to lift a finger it is heavan on earth total paradise.
The beaches are white sand the water crystal clear always warm and teaming with fish life and coral. You do not have to be a diver to enjoy this as the reef is only few short steps from the beach.
The island it self is full of wild life too. Lots of herons, a pair of fish eagles, a family of fruit bats, gecoes (small lizard) maldivian water hens, even a couple of cockerals and numerous other small birds.
If you can visit the spa it has 3 girls from Bali who can perform miracles!! The treatments are varied but they pamper you from head to toe.
The weather was varied as it was the rainy season we had a couple of very bad storms the likes of which we had never seen before. Even this all added to the tropical experiance, but when the sun was out it was hot, but we found that on one side of the island there was a refreshing sea breeze.
To sum up the whole island is paradise I would recomend it highly to any one and it deserves much more than its 4 star rating.
Will definatly return in the future. Have never had such a relaxing and pampered time as I did there.
EVERYBODY SHOULD VISIT LILY BEACH AT LEAST ONCE IN THEIR LIVES!!
A totally chilled out Marg
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Joe Luque from Larkfield travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
Thomson
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 02 2004 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Lily Beach Hotel/Resort is a combined holiday destination, details of which are in the resort report.
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Joe Luque from Larkfield travelled to Lily Beach Resort with
Thomson
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 02 2004 | rated the Lily Beach Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Hi all
Just got back from Lily Beach, south Ari-Atoll, Maldives.
I did say that I would post a report on my return so here goes.
Lily Beach is one of the best of the Islands that we have visited, so much so that this was our second trip there after a break of seven years, after your flight to the Islands airport, Male, (in fact the airport is on its own Island adjacent to Male) you and your luggage are transported across the runway to the Maldivian air taxi terminal, within 30 minutes we were on our way by seaplane to Lily beach, flight time was 25 minutes followed by a 10 minute transfer from the seaplane to the island.
On arrival you are greeted by members of the staff and shown into the reception area where you are offered a cool refreshing tropical drink and cool fragrant wet towels, this was very welcomed following the long journey.
The island is approx 550m x 100m in size, it has 68 rooms plus 16 over water bungalows and one deluxe room.
So you get the picture... This island is not too small or too large
As for the facilities... Main reception area adjacent to the main bar area which in turn is adjacent to the restaurant, the bar has luxury seating leading through to a decked terrace looking out to sea.
All food is served buffet style with plenty of choice, the menu seems to be on a weekly cycle.
At the Eastern end of the island you will find the pool bar, the pool itself is approx 20m x 5m surrounded by decking, a small childrens pool (yes children do go to the Maldives, but not too many), the pool area also has a large bar area, this becomes a focal point for the evening, a disco takes place once a week.
This island also has a Spa offering various treatments, I can recommend the Swedish massage and reflexoligy, a gym for those who wish work out and a tennis court for those that way inclined.
The dive school is a first class outfit, quality
divemasters, decent equipment and a good variety of dives for all standards of divers.
Most of the island is surrounded by a low wall, this wall is there to protect the island from erosion, its not the best of views but in the circumstances you can understand why its there, in being there it provides two types of snorkeling, inside the reef wall and the other side over the house reef, both snorkeling experiences are superb.
I can not begin to describe the various types and quantity of fish that you will see.
This island also has a turtle preservation program, it has a pen in which turtles are kept until they are old and fit enough to be released into the wild, you come across several other turtles swimming around the island as well.
Only one small criticism, the island has an incinerator to get rid of rubbish, it is possible to hear this, but its not intrusive.
There are 2 sea eagles that have also made this island their home.
Joe
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