If you like bones in your chicken, this is the place for you. However it is not the place for us.
Jul 21, 2025 Amystayme22
We have just returned from our stay at Villa Park. To sum up our experience, it was like our speed boat on our way back, very rocky.
We were a family of seven with four rooms. When we arrived at Male airport at 2pm we were shocked that our domestic flight was not until 5pm and so had to wait for our flight after our 14 hours in the air already.…
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We have just returned from our stay at Villa Park. To sum up our experience, it was like our speed boat on our way back, very rocky.
We were a family of seven with four rooms. When we arrived at Male airport at 2pm we were shocked that our domestic flight was not until 5pm and so had to wait for our flight after our 14 hours in the air already. We were not told about this waiting time until we checked in at the airport. After our long waited flight we were hoping to have a lovely welcome. However, to be honest our host gave off the impression he did not want to be there and just wanted to get the paper work done with and leave. looking around at other groups hosts seemed more engaged with them. Quickly after paper work, me and my partner were left confused as our key did not match the information on our paper work. The room they were going to place us in was a double bed room what was not ideal. It took multiple attempts for the staff to understand the misinformation and then we had to wait for our key. However we were then told our key was not ready and so the door would be open for us and to get our key later. Fine, we went to our room unpacked and went for a drink to give them time to get our key ready. So just before dinner me and my partner went to get our key. However when we asked about our key the staff were clueless and asked us to wait, but I was hungry and dinner was closing so I went to eat hoping my partner would not wait for long. after another 15 minutes my partner still was not at dinner and so I went to get him as he needed to eat. After he left I received our key and went to dinner. However after all of this we found out that our key had be broken and needed to be re-cut so that was the reason for the wait. The staff could have told us this and we would have had a more relaxed dinner instead of rushing about.
After that day we never saw our host again really. My mother kept in touch via messaging, but he seemed to only really care when we wanted to book restaurants. We also saw multiple groups given tours but we were not offered this at all.
That leads me to talk about the food. If you have the money and there is availability book the other restaurants. The Italian is amazing but the portion sizes are so big they will leave you stuffed. So I recommend sharing in this case, but you can also view the reef too, we even saw an eagle ray one right. The Teppanyaki is amazing and must see experience, we went twice. The food is great and the chef is lovely. The Thai is good and you get to see the nurse sharks from the restaurant. Zero is a great concept but it's best to go in the day so you can see its beauty. However the make your own salad to me seemed expensive and you could just go to the buffet. However the food is lovely in there but it is an alcohol free restaurant what is unknown till you get there. The Vani coffee shop also does great coffee and afternoon tea what was nice to go to.
However the reason we booked restaurants for a majority of our two week stay was because the quality of the food was just not up to standard. It was nice at the start but over the days it just got repetitive. Also if you don't like bones in your chicken and fish in some cases I would not recommend this resort. The chicken did taste good however the bones were plentiful and ruined the food. The only safe food is pasta really and the only topping there was for plain pasta was cheese. The children's table did have sauce however the adult section there was none. Some groups were also very greedy with portion sizes and would take whole plates of fruit or pastries and then would leave. For an island trying to promote a bit of sustainability as seen on there glass bottles this felt off. But you can't control people, can you. Food would also stop around half an hour before closing and so you were lucky to get anything decent. Also if you see a dish with fish in don't get your hopes up, the fish will probably be gone. The fruit is also lovely but you are lucky to have one tropical fruit a day. Also anyone with allergies might struggle as even though allergy cards are put on each dish they are only centred around key allergy like, fish, nuts etc not the specifics. If you have a dairy allergy or are vegan, Good luck! Finally, at the start of our stay we tend to have a table for all of us in a similar area. As we continued our stay this lesser and sometimes we had to walk around the buffet for a while before being asked if we needed help finding a table. In this case I would mention the staff are a hit and miss. Some can be attentive and will wish you good morning but others are less attentive, but if you give them a tip they may be more attentive. The staff in the golf bar are lovely though and in the al a carte restaurants they are nice, but that's because we are paying for that service.
Moving on to our rooms. We originally had the beach villas (even though the beach was not very near). However we were upgraded to the sunset beach villa due to issues. For example the beach villas have not been renovated and are quick run down looking. For example my brother had different beers and snacks to us saying the room looked like it had not been touched in years. The electrics were scary, sparks would come out when the kettle was on in my parents room, our light base was cracked and the fans electrics were cracked. The sockets were coming out the wall and there are also no sockets near your bed. The bed was creaky. My brother had a crying baby next to him all night and because the rooms are interconnecting someone would be pushing the handle down all night. The area of beach near our villas was also were the beach dinners were so it felt intruding. There are also a lot of ants too. So when we moved to our new updated rooms we hoped issues would decrease. However when moving rooms were nearly missed our breakfast as we had to wait for our bags to be picked up and did not want to leave them alone. Also our new rooms had issues such as our shower being broken as water would come out the top. The sinks were not sealed in correctly as my partner could fit his finger under the basin. Before dinner one day we also had a staff member come into our room about a drainage issues what we wrestle not notified about and so had to leave our room open what felt weird. Also my parents room had disco lights however none of our rooms had them what felt strange. We also had people stealing our beds and using them in front of us.
My parents decided to move again to a beach poll villa for our final week. It was lovely however there were still some issues and they did not find out they were officially moving till very last minute. Since my brother was moving into their old room they also had to move last minute too. My parents new room had wonky taps, parts of the shower was broken, there was uneven flooring. The Tv was also not working when they got there. Their bar was also sometimes not stocked until 3ish unlike ours what was stocked around 12. We you are paying for a more expensive room you expect to be restocked quicker. This leads me to an issue regarding my parent's anniversary. Prior to our stay my mother had to send her wedding certificate to prove it was their anniversary. However when its came to their anniversary they were given nothing and the staff were clueless about it. We had the Italian that day and the table next to us had decor on their table and we saw a table decorated in the buffet a few days prior to. My mother bring her own banner what felt disgusting. I sent out host a message about how sad I was and to that I got a reaction of thumbs up. To me this was appalling and disregarded my whole message, but the management communicated this a lot they would not listen to any feedback properly. When we returned after dinner my brother came into his room and staff were decorating it with anniversary bits (clearly last minutes) and asked him to wait outside his room. They were decorating the wrong room and we wrestled flying early the next day so the decoration was just too late. we laughed it off but my parents were quite upset especially as in previous hotels the stuff they received for their anniversary was amazing and thought through. It was not a good way to end our final night.
Now the facilities on the island are great with loads of sports on sight and a gym. however if your expecting to use a sauna or steam room in the spa they are located in the gym instead and will need to be booked. The nature is also lovely with flowers, cats, parrots and even bats on the island. But there are also a lot of bugs and they like to bite, so bring repellent.
The snorkelling is also great but I recommend giving the Italians corals a miss and going towards the water villas and near the beach pool villas. The corals are closer and less crowded and you are more likely to swim with sharks or turtles. We also went on a snorkelling trip and barely saw some manta ray for a few seconds. We were told were not swimming fast enough by staff. We also only saw one turtle that staff had to wake up. No whale shark for us what was disappointing. But the whale shark point is along the sea after the water villas so for the money your spending for only a ten minute speed boat is a bit much in my opinion. The staff were nice though. We also done a complimentary fishing trip, our host mislead us on the idea we would get to cook the fish we caught. This was a bit annoying as we caught over 30 fish as a collective and to not see them again was a bit useless. However we did enjoy the trip and the staff were lovely. The other had to go in as there were children and so caught nothing.
The entertainment is okay, it would get repetitive quite quickly. The bingo is good but the prizes would have been useless to us. The singers are good but the songs they sing don't really get the people up and dancing. The crab racing seemed a little bit cruel. Also within the bar that holds the entertainment, your drinks can either take minutes and a while to arrive. The gold bar probably has the quickest service as it is smaller. On the note of alcohol I must say I don't drink although I am 20. On our final night my partner looked at my cup strangely and smelt it. He drinks rum and told me there was a significant amount of rum in my glass. It was a mistake and was resolved, but I take my non-alcoholism very seriously and so it scared me as I don't know if that could have happened multiple times during our stay. There was also another time we felt this happened and so I tried to just drink from the can instead of the glasses.
I would just like to comment on the eco-friendliness of the island. The nature is great and promotes lots of wildlife. They use glass bottles to reduce plastic and paper straws too. However the resort uses a receipt system whether you're all inclusive or not and if you think about that is a lot of receipts a day. With the money spent of receipt paper you could probably get iPads or electronics that can bring up receipts that can be singed. The island also uses coasters that are not durable at all and so cannot be reused. This just seems like a waste to me in my opinion and does not help the sustainability of the island.
On a final note, I would say this resort is catered for young families with children as the kids club is well equipped. However if you have teenagers and above it is not the place for you. If you were a couple, you might be fine. But this place was not good for us at all especially after our Maldives stay last year what was five star and was amazing, with little to no issues at all with anything. My parents have been to five resorts in the Maldives and would happily go back to each one, however this resort would be a strong no for them and for the rest of us.
However, management will probably read this review written by a 20-year-old and do nothing about it because it felt like they simply did not care about us when we were there. The only way they care is when you spend money to put it simply. But if you still want to go to this hotel, go ahead, it's your money you would be wasting, but I think there is a lot better out there.
Thank you to those who did make our time at villa park a bit better, but we will not be coming back anytime soon, Aimee Winter.
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