We arrived at the Gili and quickly made it through to immigration. With just one person in front of us, we made it through in no time. After waiting just a few minutes for our checked bag and then having our bags x-rayed on the way out (I assume to look for forbidden prescription medications, pork products and pornography), we exited into the arrivals hall. Since pretty much everyone arriving at Male is a tourist, there are lines of resort operators waiting for their guests. We looked for the Gili operator holding a sign, but after going through the line twice, they were nowhere to be found. We walked amongst all the booths looking for the Gili booth, but again came up fruitless. Slightly panicked, I began looking for any sort of contact information I could find for the Gili. Fortunately, one of the other resort operators saw us in our predicament and came over to see what resort we were supposed to be staying at and then pointed us in the direction of the Gili greeters. The Gili employees were friendly, but it made for a very stressful welcome!
The Gili staff informed us that they were waiting on three other couples and guided us to a separate part of the airport terminal to sit on some public benches. We noticed some other resorts had air-conditioned waiting areas for their guests and after a few minutes in the stifling humidity, we were quite jealous! In all, it was probably 45 minutes before everyone was assembled and we made our way to the speedboat.
The speedboat easily held the four sets of couples, three recently married ones like us, and one pair of middle aged Chinese women. We were all given life vests to wear and a refreshing Maldivian ginger iced tea. A short 25 minute speedboat ride later, we finally arrived at the Gili Lankanfushi.
On arrival, we were greeted by various staff members, including our Ms. Friday, Liu. Each villa is assigned a personal butler/concierge who is available 24/7 by phone and can make reservations for the restaurants, tennis courts, excursions, or to respond to any questions or concerns. We actually called her 1-2 times daily to reserve a tennis court, make a restaurant reservation or ask logistical questions and she was always readily available.
We got onto a golf cart with another couple and were given a quick overview of the various points of interest on the island. Given the island is very intimate, it didn’t take long.
Map of the resort
We were finally dropped off in Villa 9 with Liu, who showed us how the Do Not Disturb sign worked, our his/her bicycles, various villa amenities, and handled the check-in. All check-in and paperwork is done in the air conditioned bedroom of the villa. Finally, check-in was complete and we were left alone in our amazing overwater villa.
The view from our villa dining room. They provided us with a bottle of sparkling wine and iced tea on arrival. There were also four bottles of drinking water that were refilled twice daily. Our housekeeper caught on pretty quickly that we were heavy still water drinkers and by the end of our stay, we were getting eight bottles refilled every time.
Bathroom with dual sinks and a bathtub on top of the water
Large open closet area. The blue thing at the bottom was a circular seating area on top of a glass bottom that let you look straight into the ocean. At night the area is lit up so you can see the marine life in the water.
The outdoor shower area. I thought it was kinda weird to have an outdoor shower until I saw that you pretty much get complete privacy. To the right is a glass door leading to our private plunge pool. A cool feature, but since you can pretty much walk out into the water from the dining room area, we didn’t use the plunge pool that much. I guess you could use it if you like snorkeling naked?
My one complaint about the villa is that the toilet was small. It got to the point where I was leaving the door open and just closing the door from the dining room area to the bathroom area. That made it seem like I was doing my business straight into the ocean…
The bedroom. This is the only room in the villa with air conditioning. We noticed that if you leave it on 24/7, it’s not as strong and found that if we turned it off whenever we left the villa, it would be cool whenever we turned it on. Kinda random. There’s also a TV built into the wall to the left that is built on a swivel, allowing you to watch TV from the couch or the bed. There’s also a DVD player and an ipod with a large collection of movies built into it.
We used the mosquito net the first night just for novelty’s sake, but we really didn’t need it.
Cake and amuse bouche on arrival. A nice touch.
First night sunset
Coming into the Maldives, I was very worried about the cost of food. Though the wife and I both have stable jobs, we’re frugal at heart and decided that we would eat room service for an early dinner and load up at a late buffet breakfast. The first night, we ordered room service pizza.
It was actually surprisingly good and decent sized. There’s a delivery fee, but it comes with free bread. We only ordered the pizza the first night and that was enough for the two of us. Total cost: $39.
Hard to beat this view when it comes to dinner time.
We got up pretty early the next morning and took a leisurely bike ride around the island.
Friendly neighborhood whale shark
Idyllic hammock photo
The breakfast buffet is amazing. I would say it was actually better than that of the Park Hyatt Sydney. Huge variety of fruits cut to order, sashimi, pastries, yogurts, hot food, as well as an extensive a la carte menu of smoothies, yogurts, juices, omelets, and more.
We just might have taken a few chocolate croissants with us each morning to fuel us throughout the day…
It’s amazing how fresh the sashimi was here.
They had pretty much every fruit in the world here. Just let the fruit chef know which fruit you want and they will expertly cut it up for you. We were big fans of the mango and dragonfruit.
Activities: We were never bored during our time on the island. Though the forecast was for rain every day, there was only one day where there was actually any significant rain, and it was a downpour that day. It was kinda cool to sit in our villa watching some DVDs while the rain was pouring outside. The other days were spent playing tennis with resort-provided tennis rackets, balls and shoes, snorkeling (equipment provided in-villa), kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, gym, all for free. There was also a movie night where we watched Life of Pi in their outdoor movie theater area, which was quite cool. Best of all, these activities were all free. You could pay extra for guided activities like guided snorkeling, scuba diving, fishing, but we had a great time just doing the complimentary things.
Some photos of the gym:
Finally, a decent selection of free weights. Are you listening, Park Hyatt Sydney?
We never saw more than one other person in the gym the entire time we were there. The gym and tennis court both had their own refrigerators with additional bottles of water and cold towels.
Food: As mentioned above, we did in-villa dining for three nights, and then decided to splurge and eat at the “By The Sea” specialty restaurant our last night.
Night 2
Dinner on the second night. Pizza and roast beef sandwich. Total cost: $65.
Night 3
A little variety with spagehetti and meatballs and chicken wings. Total: $71.
Night 4
We were hungry pretty early before our 7 PM reservation so we decided to have an afternoon snack.
“Movie nachos”. Cost: $32
Finally, the meal we had been looking forward to. There are two main dining rooms at the Gili, the main restaurant (creative name, I know) and the By the Sea restaurant. The By the Sea restaurant specializes in seafood and has a Japanese theme to it. The main restaurant has a theme that changes daily. We weren’t a fan of the theme on the last night, so we made a reservation at On the Sea.
By the Sea only has four tables, all overlooking the ocean. There’s also a bar area, but if you’re coming out here for dinner, you want a nice sit down meal. Three of the four tables were taken, but we noticed that the other two tables were just having appetizers or dessert, not a full dinner.
In any case, we were seated and the staff, like everyone at the resort, were extremely friendly. After looking through the menu, I went with the gourmet menu.
The most expensive meal I’ve ever ordered. I selected the sashimi mix, pork belly, and chocolate bomb. My wife went with a beef teppanyaki main course.
Some kind of seafood amuse bouche.
Chicken karaage appetizer
I also splurged on a cocktail, a caipirińha. They use paper straws here to minimize waste.
Appetizer assortment
Sashimi mix
Lemon sorbet palate cleanser. The thing I like about these tasting menus is that despite the price, you always get more than what’s listed, like an amuse bouche and palate cleansers.
Steak teppanyaki. I highly, highly recommend this. It was honestly the best teppanyaki I’ve ever had. The meat melted in your mouth.
My pork belly by comparison was not very good, though in reality, it was pretty good.
Chocolate bomb dessert
All told, our total for this dinner was $350, more than the other nights combined, but totally worth it.
Since this was the first time we actually left our villa in the evening, it was also the first time we received turndown service. We came home to this:
It was a great end to a great evening of a great honeymoon.
The next morning, we checked out of the villa at 12 noon and were picked up by Liu. They took a picture of us with her and they came back a few minutes later with a framed copy, a nice touch. They had given us a questionnaire the night before and we had written about our disappointment at how the transfer was handled. As we walked out to the pier with one of the service managers, he apologized for the problem, which we appreciated.
And with that, we were on our way home.
I took a couple videos detailing the island and our villa. My apologies for the shakiness of the videos, but hope you get a better feel for the resort. We’re already making plans to come back in a couple years!
Bike tour of the island:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVOGNBbqnhI
Villa tour (starting approximately 1:30 in):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyiYBNnx8To
