Heritance Aarah - Premium All Inclusive - 40 Minutes Away from Male by Seaplane

Wonderful island

This was our second visit to the Maldives, the first being last year where we stayed at two excellent resorts that were really tough acts to follow! One of the reasons we chose Heritance Aarah because we wanted somewhere with a good selection of restaurants so that we didn’t get bored of the food over our 9 day stay, and in this respect it definitely lived up to our expectations. Food Ambula, the Sri Lankan/Maldivian tasting menu restaurant, was excellent and we loved both the standard and vegetarian menus. The staff there were excellent, especially Nilanta. Ginifathi, the seafood grill is very good. There are two menus that switch halfway through the week to give variety. The food was great and we visited there a couple of times. Ralu, the overwater Mediterranean restaurant, was superb with lots of choice and great team, especially Adam, Elina and Damith, who were so attentive. Jasmine, at front of house was fantastic and always made sure we were well looked after. Ranba, the buffet restaurant is good, but not great. A decent selection of food is available with theme nights all week. Generally service was just about okay but on our first night, just after arrival, we went there and didn’t feel too welcome and our waiter wasn’t that interested, which made us worried about what it would be like on the island generally - really not a great first impression. It was similar situation on our only other evening visit there (we discussed this with Deepak, the restaurant manager - see below under areas for improvement). Morning service was better. We often preferred to have breakfast at Ralu (rather than Ranba) because it is overwater and cooler. It doesn’t however start serving breakfast until 10am so if you’re an early riser, you’ll need to use Ranba, which has very good variety. One final thing on the food is the Pizza Shack near the pool; Pizza’s are excellent so highly recommend that for lunch or afternoon bite. Bars We really liked the pool bar - great ambient music and vibe during the day. In the evening, while we were there, was a really good live singer, which we enjoyed. The team there are really good too, particularly Ishan and Sakshi, who looked after us very well. The Pool itself is large and very attractive and at night has lovely lighting. Cocktails were great and they will make your requests - we enjoyed trying a variety from the extensive drinks menu. We went to the Sky Bar on our final night. It’s a beautiful bar above Ambula restaurant with views all around and it was wonderful watching the sun set for up there. Service and cocktails were fantastic. Villa We booked a beach villa, preferring these to overwater accommodation based on our experience last year. We originally tried to book a Sunset Beach Pool Villa, but none were available so we requested a villa on the north side of the island away from the pool and restaurants etc. We had villa 160 which had a nice outlook and was very quiet, with a lovely breeze most of the time.

Heritance is really paradise on earth! We have been here two times and it’s magical! All the fanatic staff are so incredible kind and friendly - really doing everything so that you as a guest have the best vacation! Never met so kind people before! Both the water villa and beach villas are nice, two separate experiences, should recommend to try a couple of days at both! The gym is great! They have butler services who take great care of you! Great restaurants!