Sun Siyam Vilu Reef

9.0

Wonderful

104 Guest reviews

9.0

Wonderful

104 Verified Reviews

Read all reviews

Cleanliness9.4/10

Service9.0/10

Comfort9.2/10

Condition9.0/10

location9.0/10

Neighborhood9.2/10

Amenities9.2/10

Beautiful Quiet Retreat professional and super friendly stuff good food variety options this is a small island but you don't feel it

Amazing hotel in paradize. The island is small and exquisite, beach is around the whole island, water and sand are unbelievably beautiful. The island is small, and the hotel occupies the whole island. Very quier resort, but if you want music and party, they have big beautiful bar, where people watch sunset and hang out. The transportation to the island from Male is well organized by the hotel, just give them your flight number. AAA resort, highly recommend.

My personal resort host Niyaaf greeted me immediately upon my arrival after traveling for almost 36h to get to my resort from Canada. Despite traveling alone I felt safe and welcome the whole time. The resort staff give a loving family vibe. Everything from the delicious food to the breathtaking house reef was amazing. Very flavorful food, good presentation, excellent service. The excursions were awesome! I got to snorkel with a whale shark and many Manta rays. We saw Dolphins on that excursion and even more on the Dolphin sunset cruise. The Water sports team was fun and knowledgeable about the reefs we went on the snorkel safari to. The dive team were an amazing group, they even let me try scuba diving for free for the first time in my life. If i had more time and didn't go snorkeling so much this trip I would have tried to get my scuba diving certification. Hopefully I can come back to get it here one day! I can't say enough about how wonderful my stay was here. To me, Sun Siyam Vilu Reef was little taste of heaven on earth! Thank you so much to all of the staff. I will come back again!

My husband and I stayed here for our honeymoon, and we had an amazing time! We stayed in a sunset reef villa and had amazing views of the ocean, and were able to jump straight in and start snorkeling which was absolutely incredible. The resort was beautiful, and had heaps of brilliant beaches, resting places and amazing photo opportunities. Very quiet and relaxing ambiance. In terms of included activities there’s dj nights, crab race night, Maldivian dancing night etc, a pool table, ping pong, kayaking and stand up paddle boarding. There’s also plenty of activities to do if you’re willing to pay, the scuba diving boat excursion was excellent and well worth it, the scuba staff were fantastic. There’s 3 restaurants on the island, which plenty of variety. We opted for the all inclusive package, and it’s definitely worth it if you want 3 solid meals a day with unlimited beverages. If you don’t drink much and eat less you could get away without it, as it is quite pricey. That being said the all inclusive was fantastic, and the service was incredible throughout the resort. The staff were so friendly and helpful. Special shout out to Shayanth and Poonam who were outstanding, as well as Ayman, Sududera and Didi who were fantastic. Overall would highly recommend staying at this fantastic resort, and we will hopefully go back one day!

Very friendly staff. A special gratitude goes to mohamed and shayan. They were really caring about us.

Fantastic Staff, the best from the reservations to the Aqua staff to room staff to best dive center staff I have visited.

We had an amazing trip at this resort it was jaw dropping beautiful and was everything I imagined and more was well worth the 20 hour flight! One thing I would have loved the resort to have more of is maybe some music by the pool and more theme nights but overall we loved every minute the snorkeling was out of this world! So many reefs and different fish to see absolutely incredible!!!

My wife and I just got back from our honeymoon and we had the most incredible experience at vilu reef. The staff was very welcoming and friendly and the food was delicious. All rooms were neatly kept and comfortable. We went fishing for our excursion and had an awesome time! I highly recommend the trip. Thank you to our host Reema and our fishing guide Allho for being especially accommodating. We are looking forward to returning in the future!

Hidden costs. Food is only available during certain hours. All inclusive isn't really ALL inclusive. Significant extra costs.

Talk about blissful..the resort and the staff were so beautiful. It was very beautiful to walk past staff where they acknowledged you and greeted you. The food options were limitless: even if you’re not a fan of the native food, there’s always something to eat. I enjoyed every moment of my time spent and will definitely return. My host, Reema, was absolutely amazing. She made sure to keep me abreast on activities taking place, as well as scheduling activities for my husband and I. I’m so grateful that my husband and I were able to experience paradise because that’s what it truly is.

The apartment (aqua honeymoon suite) was amazing. The food was exceptional. All inclusive was excellent with everything you need included. The best part was the staff. Everyone in the bars and restaurants were amazing, so helpful and so friendly. Especially the guys in the pool bar and Falak, Reddy and Sudha in the nautilus bar. Brilliant customer service. Muja was also an excellent liaison person.

It was so beautiful and clean and the staff was very friendly

Everything was excellent. Very clean and love the private huts. Will definetley recommend and come back again soon.

A cheap resort - No free water served in restaurant. In-room breakfast was offered for our honeymoon incentives. But the portion is ridiculous small. We wanted to leave some bread for later, the housekeeping guy took it away. He left the bread basket outside the room. We saw some bread got eaten! The restaurant served cold food or overcooked food. They dont know how to cook seafood. It’s all dry! On the other day we ate raw meat! Loud music played until late night. It’s very annoying!

Magical island

It’s a magical place filled with white sand and blue water dreams. Truly one of the most beautiful places we have travelled to. The hotel staff are all very friendly and accommodating. The food is delicious and the drink menu is abundant. Each night they provide some sort of entertainment, and you can also go on outings and excursions. You’ll never be bored here. We would love to come back one day.

Best tropical island resort

We are here on our official honeymoon and we are not disappointed! The service is great! The facility is clean and well kept. The staff are super friendly and we love it all! It’s very family friendly and there are lots of different cultures people. It’s great!

We enjoyed every moments. Everything was perfect, the place, the view and the staff was amazing. We were sad to leave and hope to have a chance to go back one day.

Everything is nice. But the waiter who served us was very rude. Very disappointed.

The two persons who cleaned up our rooms did really good job and they are very friendly and helpful. The rooms are always clean and smell fresh.The food is just ok, but the manager Ali in dining hall is very nice and helpful. Overally, this resort is good because there is some minor things that we still were not satisfied. We were surprised and excited to know that we got 2 free photos by a photographer during our stay at the resort, but he did not do a good job. He is unprofessional and careless photographer, it looks like he did it without responsibility. We think a good photographer should put his heart and mind on when he decides to take guests' pictures. We feels like he did a bad job because those photos are free!We don't like any photos that he took honestly.Last thing we did not like about the resort is that one afternoon when we got wet by the unexpected rain, there is two staffs that we don't remember their names standing ahead us with an umbrella. Although I know they didn't want themselves to get wet, they should have gave us the umbrella for my wife is a lady and she was cold. It was just a small thing, but it shows how much you care and love your guests.Everything we just mentioned will help the resort improve its service in order to make guests come back and recommend to their relatives and friends to visit.

Beware of your departure schedule!! We came in a group of 10, and they had the wrong flight number for our departure. I have provided the flight number not only once but 2-3times and it was during February and one week before our arrival. This resulted that 10 of us were forced to take different seaplanes (split into 2 groups). We were really unhappy about this but since the hotel insisted that they can do nothing as the seaplane is already arranged, we had to agree with the arrangement. There are 2 batches whereby the first batch reach 4 hours before departure, and the second group reach 1 hour before departure. Ridiculous isn’t it? The first group was waiting at the airport for the next batch to arrive and we were so surprised that the hotel get the flight time wrong even with the correct flight number. Flight at 11.10am but when I check with the booth at the airport it wrote 12.35pm, and this is the reason why the second group reach so late as they get the departure time wrongly. I’m so surprised that a 5 star hotel can provide such service. To be honest no matter how relaxed I was in the island, all the stresses of not managing to contact the other group of family, fear of not able to catch flight on time had literally make this holiday ended with a very stressful way. I will not recommend this hotel to anyone, there are much more options in Maldives with good price and good service that would not make intolerable mistake like this!

It was wonderful for out honey moon. Staff is also very nice and warm

The hotel was beautiful, however, the one most disappointing this about this resort was how unprofessional, unaccommodating, and a bit rude the reception was. This is vital for resorts as the reception always tends to be the first impression guests get of the hotel and the environment, and it was not great. The receptionist that came to pick us up from the landing strip was not friendly and made us feel quite uncomfortable. And, when we forgot to pay for the water plane arrival and departure the moment we got to the resort (which is what is expected of guests apparently), they kept calling us at our room to remind us to "settle the bill", and even called us in our room at 10 pm at night.

Nice place to stay

Staff Vivian helped us a lot with the room arranging, thank you ❤️ However, not able to reach the restaurant (The Well Done) for dinner is a bit shamed causing by fully booked. Understood it's the peak season, but as for the 5 stars Villa, it's still can be improved. Though we heard it's a restaurant worth visit, there was no chance to prove it. Meanwhile, in-villa dining make a big plus. Food was delicious and the portion was fine. Honeymoon wine&cake and Christmas' dessert did surprise us thanks for that thoughtful arrangements. In general, the place worth visit. But if possible, please remove the orientation course diving for the people who own OW license. As for the journey of diving, we'd like to thank Max, the diving guide, with thoughtful and amazing diving experience.

Great place - poor staff

In short, the hotel is very nice. The food is good and the location is amazing. But the staff just weren't good. Unfriendly, sometimes rude and needed to be asked 3 times to get something -simole things like having the room cleaned. Loud music at night, and they put us right next to it even though we are travelling with a 2 year old. Shame really, I wouldn't go back or recommend..

Nice hotel amazing nature

In fact it was not just a vacation ,it was an experience,, the hotel cleanliness is out standing,the staff very nice and smily all the time, the nature and the security factors are quite enough to do some aqua excursions safely and comfortably.. thanks sun aqua vilu reef for our stay

Very quiet and relaxing.

Very quiet and relaxing but quite expensive, a lot more than I had anticipated. Staff is very friendly and helpful. Overall a very nice experience.

Lovely small island.

We spent 5 nights at the end of our honeymoon at Sun Aqua Vilu Reef in an aqua reef villa. The island is very small which means you are in easy walking distance of all the facilities. Snorkelling around the island is excellent with a huge diversity of fish, however a lot of the coral is dead so there is not much colour. We decided to go all inclusive for our stay in order to relax and not need to worry once we were on the island. However, the all inclusive options were limited and all the staff members were quick to point out what else we could have / do if we paid extra! We found this continual reminder to be frustrating and made us feel negative about what was available to us as all inclusive guests. The food on the island was OK, the honeymoon dinner on the beach was very nice, as were the pool bar snacks, however the buffet was quite variable in the evenings. Overall we had a fantastic stay on the island, it was lovely and relaxing and a great way to end our honeymoon. All the staff were very helpful and friendly, the wildlife was fantastic (hermit crabs and stingrays!) the room was amazing and the views of sunset were great. We would definitely recommend it, and would highly recommend the photo shoot as we got some great pictures of the two of us together rather than just selfies!

GORGEOUS water villa stay!

The water villas are stunning, seriously the most beautiful place I've stayed. There are different levels of ocean villas, some larger than others and they face in different directions. You want to make sure to face towards the aqua sports and dock and NOT towards the house reef and local island, your view would be much better. The water villas allow you to jump right into the ocean and have a perfect view of the sunset. We stayed in a deluxe beach villa 5 nights and the water villa two nights and it was the ideal combo. Highly recommend this place!

INCREDIBLE hotel, FANTASTIC island vacation!

My friend and I had an incredible stay at Sun Aqua Vilu and would highly recommend it. Particularly, the restaurant and bar staff and cooks at the buffet were really wonderful. And the diving school is outstanding, top-notch. We were able to easily get certified in a few days and go for amazing dives. Azeem and his staff are the very best! The island is absolutely GORGEOUS, the most beautiful place I've ever been. The island even has its own house reef for snorkeling that you can swim to from the shore. The front desk staff were not helpful and often annoyed us or didn't understand our requests. My advice is to be firm with them to get what you want. MAJOR FLAGS: Be careful if you rent a beach villa, some face the local island which to me is a TERRIBLE view so just complain and try to get switched to one on the other side of the island which is heavenly and I couldn't have been happier staying there. Also, the food is VERY expensive so if the all-inclusive option isn't too spendy, I'd opt for that because the buffets are fantastic and well worth your money, I wish we had done that.

Best value for money for sure

Value for money it was fantastic, I stayed in the aqua suite which is in the water and has the big pool. Highly recommend to spend the extra its worth it. The sea plane from Male is a bit expensive its $450USD per person return, and the waiting time is quite a bit. I would suggest you look at speed boat transfers, they mught be cheaper. Nashid the island host was a total gentleman and great customer service from him.

1) food below standard; 2) unreasonable item: 2 years old child should pay for gala dinner (buffet dinner);

Excellent experience and super customer service

Excellent Stay

Very nice and friendly staff. Food and restaurants are okay but need improvement.

Beautiful setting and the water bungalows were fantastic. Unfortunately food quality didn't quite match

Sun Aqua Vilu Reef is the Best!

What makes this place great is all the wonderful people who work here. We were treated with the utmost kindness at all times. Food was excellent. This was the perfect place to celebrate 10 year wedding anniversery. Went first week of June. Weather was perfect. Also not a lot of other guests so we had beaches and other facilities to ourselves. Overall, awesome experience.

Nice Hotel!

every thing in Sun Aqua Vilu Reef is high class and comfortable.

great property for total rest and relaxation

staff and property are excellent. Food is above average. Krisna, Akhuzam and Herath make Top notch drinks. We had a great experience

Great hotel with a wonderful scenic beach

I had a wonderful stay with my wife at Villu reef. We took 2 nights at beach house that was facing east to watch sunrise and 2 nights at sunset water bungalow to enjoy the sunset from our rooms. The food, stay, rooms and customer service was great. The only issue I had was that on the last day one of the waiters at the restaurant was flirting with my wife and was going too far with that. I refrained from complaining about him to his manager just not to spoil the whole mood.

A must-go to unwind

Wonderful stay, peaceful and serene surroundings. Excellent service staff provided which made the stay perfect.

Beautiful resort

We stayed beach villa with pool. It is very beautiful and comfortable. The departure seaplane was early at 6:45am. We were told we could have early breakfast since we already paid for it. However, the breakfast we had was only bread, coffee and some fruits. We didn't get full breakfast. We were not happy about it. The staffs were not so nice and warm. I felt they were so lazy, and they didn't even want to talk too much when you ask some questions. We also booked another resort, the communication was easy. All our questions were answered quickly. However, we emailed Vilu Reef many times, and we didn't get any email back. Overall, we didn't feel we were welcome. Additionally, You need shoes walking around resort if you don't want your feet hurt. We've traveled a lot around the world. This resort offered worst service based on the price we've paid. You pay high price for bad service. If you don't care about the service, you can choose it. The resort itself was very beautiful. We took a lot of pictures. We stayed in beach villa with pool, we liked a lot. We think beach villa is much better than water villa, at least in Vilu a Reef resort.

A slice of heaven on earth

What can I say I've dreamt all my life of going to the Maldives we booked 6 months in advance and so it was a long wait but absolutely worth the wait Arriving to Male was making my heart skip a beat but taking the seaplane to the island I thought I'd died and gone to heaven it was everything I ever dreamed of and beyond Cannot believe the hospitality and the humbleness of he staff Such amazing people And the staff are incredible They were very attentive They kept us extremely relaxed and happy Absolutely recommend this to everyone who wants to experience royalty in their lifetime Cannot even begin to explain how great this place is We missed our flight back from the storm but rather than being upset about it they made us feel like we were royalty with the utmost VIP treatment one could recieve Love love love this place Thank you to Shaheen the e commerce manager you were amazing Thank you to George Willian's island manager absolutely amazing And Ali our room boy I will never forget how much you made us laugh

Disappointed but can't compare to other resorts

We didn't have high expectations for food based on reviews but we were surprised how under impressed we were with the food. There were only a couple items on their combined menus of the 3 places to get food that were good. The prices were outrageously high considering the quality of the food. We stayed in the sunset water villa which was nice and isolated. The best part was the accessibility of the reef surrounding and lots of great options for snorkeling. The room was a good size but average in terms of cleanliness. The AC did not work that well, the fridge was never really cold, and room was not anything spectacular. We enjoyed our honeymoon time but probably would not go back to Vilu Reef. The staff are nice but customer service is not the finest. There were a few occasions where we were disgruntled but rightly so... re: arrangement for sea plane time, arguing for the breakfast buffet when we had to arrive at 7AM on the first day because of their lack of choices for sea plane times and when we had booked the inclusive breakfast package, and getting charged more on our lunch bill than we should have. The last 2 items were corrected in the end, and the service outside of this was great. We did the island excursion half day which is not worth the time or cost, the dolphin sunset which was pretty but did not see any dolphins so not sure this is worth the cost, and the snorkel safari half day which was great. WiFi was free but down for a day or so and not fast.

All Inclusive Take note:

We had a great stay here however guests should note the following when booking all inclusive: 4 restaurants as noted in the description equal: 1 buffet restaurant, a pool bar which offers some snacks (when buffet is shut), an a-la-carte which is additional cost, and the 4th "a Pizza takeaway" was closed for refurbishment however pizza was available through the pool bar at extra cost. Many drinks are not included on the all-inclusive package, so if you are picky with your drinks AI could be a waste of money for you, for example San Miguel and Carlsberg are included but there are 4-5 additional beers that are above London prices and there is no discount for AI guest you pay full price. You also have the choice of 2-3 of the cocktails (Pina colader, White Russian, Margarita) If you want a variety of restaurants on a night there are 2 in essence; one you pay full price for and one you have included in the package, prices are high at the a-la-carte as you would expect. If you are on holiday Im sure you are not counting the pennies but it can all add up. It is likely Commodore will get you 2 drinks if not on the AI package Service really is good here; the buffet food is good quality they do some theme nights such as bollywood night and Spanish night which are great. All bar/restaurant service staff were great. Some of the reception staff could use a little customer service training. On the whole experience was really good.

Great resort with very friendly service staff

Booked 7 days with the resort for my honeymoon, stayed at both water villa and beach villa. Overall my wife and I were very pleased by the service and condition of the rooms. It all begins with the waiting lounge at the TMA airport while we waited for our seaplane. The lounge is spacious and comfy enough for us to spend close to 3hours. My wife even had a complimentary shoulder massage there! Free-flow drinks and pastries were definitely a huge plus as we while our time away. And when we finally reached the resort, the coconut welcome drinks really relax and refresh us as we wait for our rooms to be ready. Upon mentioning that we were there for our honeymoon, we were issued a Honeymoon Dinner voucher, which turned out to be a awesome 4 course dinner, complimentary from the resort. With everything so pricey in Maldives, this free dinner was very much welcomed. We really enjoyed our stay with Vilu Reef. All thanks to the service staff and the hospitality they provided.

hanymoon

very nice

who said heaven isn't on earth

it's the best and most amazing place ever hotel is perfect, staff are extremely nice and friendly,activities are fully loaded Even at n8 we took over water villa and it's superb it's the first time ever we go to a place that exceeds all the expectations in every single aspect the only bad moment we had is when we were leaving the resort

Great place to be at. Food prices are too high, if you happen to be there and wanted to eat dinner or lunch but don't want the open buffet, go to the sunset restaurant it is cheaper, also you could take a plate from the open buffet to your room.

Best Honeymoon ever

it was excellent & I recomend all honey moon couples to vist it.

Beautiful Island, but service can be better

Service level & efficiency can be better, the island is beautiful..we spot a turtle at the house reef while snorkeling. we had a great time in paradise. we booked half board, breakfast & Dinner have many choice. since we are on our honeymoon, we get a free candle lite honeymoon dinner. food is great. poolside lunch is not bad. worth to try their pizza.

Amazing Holiday at Villu Reef - Just returned.

We have just returned from a 10 night stay at Villu Reef and loved every second of our stay. We originally booked a Deluxe Beach Villa (BB) and whilst there upgraded to the Jacuzzi Honey Moon Suite for 6 nights. I would definitely recommend going (BB) as this gives you more options for lunch and dinner. If you decide to have the Buffet which we did on average every 2nd eve you can pay at the end of your stay. We found that lunch & Dinner at the Sunset Bar was a great option instead of the Buffet which we never did for lunch time. The food was delicious with a lot of choice however as I'm pregnant couldn't enjoy as much of the fish dishes as I would have liked to but overall we really enjoyed every meal. We loved the Beach Villa, the best location for the Villa is on the snorkeling side. There is a very windy side of the island and the non windy side located by the snorkeling. I'd recommend requesting a room that side if you can, we were lucky. The Water Villas although stunning are all facing the windy side so the tide can get very choppy making it difficult to swim with some strong currents. The views and decking area are spectacular but we tended to go to the snorkeling area to swim and relax on the beach so a beach villa works out great from that perspective. Overall the Staff were fantastic and very friendly and loved our stay so much that we didn't want to leave ! Very sad to be sitting back at work today. I highly recommend this island for your holiday !