South Palm Resort Maldives

We went there for our daughter’s birthday. The staffs went above and beyond to make this special day into one of the beautiful memories that we could give to our daughter. The kids really enjoyed their time in this property.

Everything was amazing This our third time to visit Maldives and best one of them

Arrived after 24 hours of travelling but we were not met at Male by a rep and had no clue how to get onto the internal flight to Gan as Blue Bay do not supply any tickets or info. After a while I spoke to the Cana Reef rep as I know Blue Bay advertise this resort too. He took us to the air conditioned lounge and rang our rep who eventually turned up about 1 hour later. Not her fault, she is ran ragged dealing with departures and arrivals, they need more staff. South Palm could be lovely but needs investment. To say it’s only 5 years old is quite shocking. We initially had a beach villa but had ants in our bed and cockroaches. There were also many flies in the restaurant on food as most things are uncovered. The food is very repetitive and don’t go if you are vegan or vegetarian as they cook toasties etc on the grill that has had raw meet on it. The deserts are terrible and the drinks especially the cocktails are vile. I’ve never drank so much Diet Coke in my life. Pool is nice but there are loose tiles and no hand rail and you get glass glasses to bring back from the bar yourself may I add as no waiter service allowed at the pool. Most staff are lovely but when we tipped our waiter he went off with us as though our tip was not enough!! We moved villas to a water villa due to the problems we had faced which was good but had to wear shoes on the outside verandah as sharp wood sticking up in places. The manager who sorted for us was kind but we found out he died playing football shortly after!!! The place needs serious money spending on it and it could be made lovely. I would personally not return as it is far too far for what you have waiting for you although being in the Maldives was beautiful and the trips were amazing.

We went as a family of 3 adults on 13 th March 2025 for 10 nights. We landed at Male airport on 14 th at 4.55 am where we were supposed to be met by representative from South Palms but he was not there. We asked other hotel reps who said he will come soon and asked us to wait or go to information desk. Information desk gave us resort’s phone number. Called resort they told us he will there soon. Finally rep showed up at 8 am whilst we waited in hot humid waiting area. There was no apology and he took us to domestic airport lounge and told us he will be back at 10.30 am to check us in flight to Gan. He did not show up at all so we went to check in at gate. Luckily there was airport manager who checked us for flight departing at 12 pm. Blue Bay do not provide any documents for transfer from Male to Gan! So after 25 hours journey we reached the resort. The resort is absolutely stunning but the management let it down. We were staying in beach villa which was basic but had everything you needed. The beds are rock hard I have returned with backache. The resort manager came to meet us in the evening because I had emailed Blue Bay because the trouble we had at arrival. The manager kindly offered to upgrade us to water villa or to pool villa but both of these were unsuitable to us. The water villa is nice but has no sun cover , the sun bed is for 2 people and the access to sea is unsuitable. The pool villa has pool with no seating area,the seating area is room with window and door with no view to sea or pool. The pool is also enclosed by walls on all 4 sides so no views. Not sure how is one able to relax on bean bags in a room with large window and no air in the stifling heat. The manager then offered us 2 bottles of J P Chenet bottles of wine. I had to sign a document which stated that “ by accepting these 2 bottles of wines I will not be claiming any compensation for the troubles we had on our arrival”.! This was demoralising and very petty. There is one restaurant at this resort it is huge with no air conditioning and few working fans. When we went for our dinner we were not allowed to seat to where we liked we were told that these were reserved and showed us to table with no fan above and not near a window. So we had our dinner because we were exhausted. Next day we asked for a better table and after tipping we were showed to a table of our choice. We have visited numerous hotels and resorts all over the world but have never experienced such behaviour where the resort staff stipulate where we can sit. These table was assigned to us for the rest of our stay. The restaurant has minimal choice of food where you can find something to eat. The food is not refilled, no one checks and when you ask it takes about 10 minutes for it to be refilled. Couple of times we were told they have run out! This was not near closing time either. The deserts is bare minimum, they never refill fruit. The fruit offered is either water melon or pineapple nothing else

Our time at South Palm resort was amazing on all levels. The staff were very friendly and always went out their way to provide a 5 star experience. The beach villa 116 was spacious always clean and provided everything you needed for an enjoyable stay. The room cleaner was super efficient and kept the villa spotlessly clean and topped up with fresh water twice daily and coffee and tea. The air conditioning in the room worked very well. We liked the fact that at the main restaurant a lot of food was cooked to order at the food stations creating less food waste and nice to have the meal cooked from scratch. There was good variety of food for all meals. The beach bar by the outside pool served a good variety of drinks and the sta ff were always friendly and helpful. The reception staff were always quick to act on requests and had great customer service skills always polite and helpful. So lots of positives for this Holliday stay. The only one thing that would have made our holiday experience even more enjoyable would have been to allow us to take back drinks to the room when you placed an order at the bar. Overall this was a 5 star holiday 10/1 0 I would definable recommend a holiday to the South Palm resort. Thank you to all the staff that really looked after us during our stay 😊

Just returned from lovely break here. It does take a long time to get to South Palm Resort as there are only 3 daily flights between Male and Gan but we were met by a resort representative who took us to the lounge on our arrival and then met us again to check in for transfer. Internal flight was 70 mins then speedboat trip was 15mins. Stayed in an overwater villa which was very clean and was cleaned, water replenished etc twice a day. Billal was a very friendly housekeeper, Infact all the staff were extremely helpful and pleasant that we encountered. Ali was great and our waiter (Solly?) was too. We did the shark/fishing/sunset trip and it was well worth it- it was cancelled one day due to engine trouble but rearranged to the next day. The food was ok once you worked out the various stations that cooked things fresh for you and while there wasn't huge variety what we had was very tasty. We aren't big drinkers anywat but the drinks available were absolutely fine for us. The views here are amazing and from our water villa we saw a turtle every afternoon. The island is really clean and the buggy transport easy to arrange with a quick call to Reception. Overall, we were happy here, particularly for what we paid, and loved the views, the friendliness and laid back feel.