Gangehi Island Resort & Spa, 47 rooms and villas on a small island with the reef a few metres off the beach, in North Ari Atoll, 25 minutes by seaplane from Malé
A week here, month by monthGangehi suits couples who want an island walked round in 10 to 15 minutes, Italian cooking at the buffet and a sandbank for the sunset, with nights for 2 from $350 in early April 2027, against $597 or more in February. Anyone set on a swimming pool or a newly refurbished villa will be happier elsewhere.
Official websiteDoes it suit you?
5 pairs of hotels, and the guide tells you whether this one suits you.
For two I would ask for a water villa, as 5 guests between 2013 and 2025 recommend: the Overwater Villa faces the sunset, the Deluxe sunrise or sunset. Another 3, between 2018 and 2022, preferred or recommended the Beach Villa, which has a covered veranda.
In the calendar read on 12 October 2026 the lowest run after New Year is the 5 nights from 5 to 9 April 2027, at $350 to $355, with $478 to $488 on the 2 that follow. The dearest night is 3 January, at $1,006.
The seaplane: $435 return per adult aged 12 and over, taxes included, paid at reception on arrival. The green tax: $12 per person per day at a Maldivian resort since 1 January 2025, children under 2 exempt; Veratour’s guests settle it on the island.
Walk the sandbank at low tide: 4 guests who wrote between 2018 and 2022 put its length at 500 to 700 m, 3 of them with the tide out, and one adds that at high tide it disappears.
Gangehi is a small private island in North Ari Atoll, about 85 km from Malé airport according to Tripadvisor. Its official website belongs to Uvet Hotel Company, a Milan firm, and the tour operator Veratour sells it as Veraclub Gangehi: 47 rooms in 5 types, from 34 m² Club Rooms in the garden to the largest water villas, at 102 m².
The sea is the reason to come. White sand runs almost all the way round the island and stretches out into a sandbank, and the reef begins a few metres from the shore: guests who swam here in 2025 and 2026 describe sharks, rays, eagle rays and turtles. Of the 268 Google reviews with text, 91% of those discussing the location are positive.
Choose it for what it is: a simple island classed as 4-star by Google Hotels, with sea and beach access but no pool documented in the official pages read, with an Italian kitchen and Veratour’s entertainment team. The official pages do not say when the resort was last renovated. The seaplane costs $435 return per adult, and excursions, diving, the spa and, if the plan does not cover them, drinks are charged on top.
Lumina Guide 2027
Gangehi is a small green island in North Ari Atoll, 25 minutes by seaplane from Malé: 47 rooms and villas, the reef a few metres off the beach and an Italian table.
How we choose the hotelsWhat we found reading the hotel’s own pages, one thing at a time.
A small North Ari island with the reef off the beach and a sandbank; 25 minutes by seaplane from Malé.
Sandy paths among the palms, teak, low-key entertainment and an Italian table.
34 to 102 m², each with a veranda; the water villas have steps down into the lagoon, and several guests in 2025 and 2026 found no TV in the room.
An Italian-leaning buffet with fish every day and 2 themed nights; Thari’s à la carte is extra.
A Balinese-style spa, yoga on the beach and a small gym; no swimming pool.
Google, read on 12 October 2026: from $350 a night for 2 in early April 2027 to $1,006 on 3 January 2027.
What do Gangehi’s guests say? They write it in their reviews, even those who only came for a drink or dinner: we read every one and tell the 5 things that matter, from the location to the bill.
9 in 10 guests who mention it are happy with it. Guests write about the reef a few metres off the beach, with its sharks, rays and turtles, the sandbank and a small, quiet island.
7 in 10 guests who mention it are happy with it. Guests describe the space, the wood, the veranda and, in the water villas, the steps straight down into the lagoon.
7 in 10 guests who mention it are happy with it. Guests remember the waiters and the cooks, the dive centre and Veratour’s entertainment team, present without ever intruding.
Breakfast is a buffet at Veli, the main restaurant by the sea, where lunch and dinner are served too.
On Veratour’s Formula Club the 3 buffet meals come with water, soft drinks and wine at the table; excursions, diving and the spa are charged separately.
On location it shares first place with Bathala Island Resort among the 4 hotels compared among the small islands of Ari Atoll.
| What | Score out of 10 | Guests who mention it | Happy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | 9.0 | 138 | 91% |
| Room | 6.9 | 90 | 67% |
| Staff and service | 7.2 | 193 | 67% |
| Breakfast | 5.9 | 19 | 37% |
| Price | – | 54 | 28% |
The scores come from 268 Google reviews with text, left from 12 December 2012 to 17 August 2026. The other hotels are the ones weighed for a stay among the small islands of Ari Atoll: for each we read its latest 500 Google reviews with text, or all of them where there are fewer, as of 7 October 2026. The score is the average of what they say, from 0 if they speak of it very badly to 10 if they speak of it very well. Where only a few mention something, the score stays close to the guide’s average: a handful of voices does not make a reputation.
The hotels we weigh it against among the small islands of Ari Atoll:
Price: for two on the night of 6 April 2027, from $350 (seen on Google Hotels on 12 October 2026).
On 12 October 2026 Google showed nights for 2 from $281 at the end of October 2026 and from $575 between 11 January and the end of February 2027, with no price at all from 28 December to 2 January. Between the readings of 4 and 12 October all 7 nights from 13 to 19 October rose, the first 2 from $254 to $343, while the 13 nights after them moved by $22 at most; for a low night I would look to April 2027, where the calendar falls from $566 on 4 April to $355 on 5 April.
| Period | Dollars a night |
|---|---|
| 13 October to 8 November 2026 | 281–510 |
| 9 November to 20 December 2026 | 411–737 |
| 21 December to 10 January | 680–1,006 |
| 11 January to 28 February 2027 | 575–972 |
| 1 March to 4 April 2027 | 427–659 |
| 5 April to 2 May 2027 | 350–513 |
The lowest price Google Hotels showed for the hotel for that night in a search for 2 adults, read on 12 October 2026; the calendar ran to 2 May 2027 and 13 of its nights had no price, 16 November and 28 December to 2 January among them.
Gangehi for a small island with an Italian table and Veratour’s team; Athuruga, in South Ari Atoll, for a small island too, where the all-inclusive, sold beside a breakfast-only rate, covers wine, cocktails and the minibar. Kuramathi, in Rasdhoo Atoll, for an island nearly 2 km long with 9 à la carte restaurants and a free club for children of 3 to 12.
A night: the lowest price Google Hotels showed for each hotel in the week of 1 February 2027, in a search for 2 adults, read on 12 October 2026. Google names neither the room nor the meal plan behind the 3 figures: Athuruga’s own site sells breakfast only or all-inclusive and Kuramathi’s plans start at bed and breakfast, so they may not buy the same thing.
Italian cooking at Veli and Thari, a Balinese spa among the trees and a reef that begins where the sand ends.
Veli, the main restaurant facing the sea and the beach, serves 3 buffets a day with mostly Italian cooking: 2 pasta dishes at the pasta corner every day, one made to order, fresh fish daily, an Italian night on Wednesdays and a Maldivian one on Fridays. Thari, à la carte with an open kitchen and by reservation, offers lobster and prawn menus; the Kandu Bar, next to the main restaurant, is open all day.
Balinese-style pavilions among the greenery, Ayurvedic and traditional massages, from Swedish to deep tissue, couples’ massages, detox and vitamin C facials, body treatments with clay, black salt and essential oils, manicures and pedicures. There is outdoor yoga on the beach every morning; the website publishes neither prices nor hours.
The dive centre sits by the beach and takes divers onto the reef straight from the shore. Nurse, leopard and grey sharks are seen all year, and from December to April mantas and whale sharks are common, according to the centre; guests who swam here in 2025 and 2026 describe turtles, rays and small sharks a few metres from the sand.
Excursions, diving, the spa, the minibar, laundry and, if the plan does not cover them, drinks are charged on top; snorkelling gear is for hire. Source: veratour.it
Gangehi has no swimming pool: no official page mentions one, and nor does Veratour. Google Hotels lists a pool among its amenities. Swimming is in the lagoon and on the reef.
Veratour’s Formula Club covers 3 buffet meals at Veli, with water, soft drinks and wine at the table; Soft All Inclusive, for a supplement, adds beer and selected bar drinks during the day, except those in bottles and cans. Guests on half board in 2018 and 2021 paid for water at dinner.
Tripadvisor’s review summary, read on 3 October 2026, says some travellers mention pests in the rooms.
Veratour, an Italian tour operator, sells the island as a Veraclub and runs its entertainment team; the cooking is mainly Italian, and Veratour describes the guests as international.
The Trans Maldivian Airways seaplane takes about 25 minutes and costs $435 return per person aged 12 and over, taxes included, paid at reception; the speedboat, about 2 hours, leaves at 10.30am and 4pm and costs $100 per person each way.
Between August 2025 and June 2026, 3 Google reviews describe worn furnishings, faults in a villa or rooms needing upkeep; one from May 2026 distinguishes villa 45 from villa 39, which the guest found in good condition.
By seaplane or speedboat from Velana airport
| Seaplane | About 25 minutes with Trans Maldivian Airways, according to the official page; Veratour gives 30 minutes |
|---|---|
| Fare | $435 return per person aged 12 and over, taxes included, paid at the resort’s reception in cash or by card |
| Speedboat | About 2 hours, up to 2 hours 30 minutes in rough seas, at 10.30am and 4pm, $100 per person each way; Veratour gives 1 hour 30 minutes |
| Luggage | 25 kg per person on the seaplane, 20 kg checked and 5 kg hand luggage, and $5 for every extra kg |
| Distance | About 85 km from Malé airport, 53.1 miles according to Tripadvisor |
From the official website’s contact page and Veratour, read on 6 October 2026, and Tripadvisor on 3 October 2026. A resort representative meets guests outside the airport and walks them to the seaplane desk; the speedboat is booked by the guest.
Gangehi Island Resort & Spa · North Ari Atoll
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The Ginger Spa holds its yoga session every morning in the open air, on the white beach in the first sun.
The dive centre is by the beach and takes divers onto the reef from the shore; 4 guests who wrote between April 2025 and January 2026 describe turtles and sharks, 2 of them rays as well.
Veratour’s excursions, charged separately, include the fishermen’s island of Mathiveri, fishing and a sunset cruise; from December to March or April there are manta and whale shark trips too.
Thari, à la carte with an open kitchen, opens by reservation: the resort suggests it for a sunset dinner, on menus of lobster or prawns, and Veratour’s Formula Club charges it separately.
On Wednesdays the evening is Italian, on Fridays Maldivian; on the others the pasta corner has 2 dishes, one made to order, and the fresh fish is cooked several ways each day.
The platforms’ scores, read on 3 and 6 October 2026, and what guests say about the sea, the rooms and the bill.
On 6 October 2026 Google showed 4.4/5 from 417 ratings, 74% of them 5 stars. The figures by theme come from all 268 reviews with text, from December 2012 to August 2026, in many languages, Italian, English and Polish above all. They are accounts of stays we have not verified.
5 stays described on Google between August 2025 and May 2026.
GoogleIn February 2026 a guest describes clear, calm water, a white sandbank stretching out into the ocean and the sunsets seen from it, spacious rooms cleaned every day and an entertainment team that draws you in without pushing.
GoogleIn December 2025 a guest recommends the water villas, spacious and well kept, each with its own way down into the ocean: from the deck you can watch small reef sharks and bright fish. Near the reef, water shoes help.
GoogleAt the end of October 2025 a couple had rain and wind on nearly 5 days out of 7, and no snorkelling or excursions. They praise the welcome and the cooking, but on an island you can walk round in 10 minutes they wanted a plan B, even just a television in the room.
GoogleIn August 2025 a family with 2 children, the youngest aged 4, stayed 5 days: a room with direct sea access, cooks who baked the little girl the biscuits she asked for, a Maldivian dinner and the shark trip, which the 9-year-old could join too.
GoogleIn a review of May 2026 a water villa guest describes days without steady hot water, a leaking basin and the Wi-Fi dropping out, before being moved to another villa, which they found perfect.
What people ask before booking Gangehi, with answers from sources read between 3 and 13 October 2026.
A 4-star resort, as Google Hotels classes it, on a small private island in North Ari Atoll. Its official website belongs to Uvet Hotel Company, a Milan firm, and the tour operator Veratour sells it as Veraclub Gangehi Island Resort & Spa, in its Atmosphera Collection: 47 rooms across Club Rooms, Garden Villas, Beach Villas and water villas.
The pages read do not say when it opened or when it was last renovated. A guest who came back in 2025 after 10 years writes that little has changed, and means it as praise.
5 types, according to the official website: the Club Room of 34 m², in the garden; the Garden Villa of 64 m², among the greenery, with a stone bathroom; the Beach Villa of 64 m², on the beach; and over the lagoon, with their own way into the water, the Overwater Villa of 76 m² and the Overwater Villa Deluxe of 102 m². There are 47 in all, according to Veratour and Tripadvisor; no source gives the number of each type.
All have a veranda, a shower room, air conditioning, a hairdryer and a safe; the minibar is charged, says Veratour, and the water villas have a kettle. Sockets are Italian on land and European over the water. No room has a private pool.
In North Ari Atoll, on the island of Gangehi, about 85 km from Malé airport: 53.1 miles according to Tripadvisor. Booking.com puts it 15 minutes by boat from Gangehi Kandu, a well-known dive site.
It is a small island that guests walk round in 10 to 15 minutes, with low-key entertainment, as Veratour describes it, and themed evenings; several guests chose it for the calm.
By Trans Maldivian Airways seaplane, about 25 minutes, at $435 return per person aged 12 and over, taxes included, according to the contact page; it is paid at the resort’s reception, in cash, dollars or euros, or by Visa, Mastercard or Amex. A resort representative meets guests outside the airport and walks them to the desk.
The alternative is the speedboat, about 2 hours and up to 2 hours 30 minutes in rough seas, leaving at 10.30am and 4pm, at $100 per person each way, booked at the guest’s expense. Veratour gives 30 minutes by seaplane and 1 hour 30 minutes by boat. The seaplane allows 25 kg per person, then $5 per kg.
No: Gangehi is an island reached only by seaplane or boat, and there are no roads. Google Hotels also shows parking as not available.
White sand runs almost all the way round the island, with free umbrellas, loungers and beach towels, according to Veratour, and ends in a long sandbank. The Beach Villas are on the beach; the water villas have their own way down into the lagoon.
A 2025 guest recommends water shoes, because by the water villas the reef starts close to the steps.
Yes. The official website describes the island as protected by a coral reef, and the dive centre takes divers onto the reef straight from the beach. Guests in 2025 and 2026 describe reef sharks, rays, eagle rays, turtles and moray eels a few metres from the sand, with just a mask and fins.
Snorkelling gear is for hire at a charge, says Veratour, and several guests advise bringing your own.
None. Neither the official website nor Veratour nor Booking.com mentions a swimming pool, and a guest pointed it out in 2018; the Google Hotels listing includes a pool among its amenities, and is wrong. Swimming is in the lagoon and on the reef.
Gangehi has no swimming pool, so there is no temperature or timetable to give: swimming is in the lagoon, from the beach or from the water villas’ steps, and the beach is set up all day.
According to the restaurants page: Veli, the main restaurant facing the sea, a buffet with mostly Italian cooking, 2 pasta dishes a day at the pasta corner, fresh fish, an Italian night on Wednesdays and a Maldivian one on Fridays; Thari, à la carte and by reservation, with an open kitchen and lobster and prawn menus; and the Kandu Bar, next to the main restaurant, open all day.
The website publishes no hours; in 2022 a guest wrote that breakfast ended at 10am and dinner began at 8pm. Bread and pasta are available for coeliacs if requested at booking, says Veratour, and Booking.com lists vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and halal options. The lobster dinner at Veli and Thari cost extra.
Guests who book through Veratour have the Formula Club: breakfast, lunch and dinner as buffets at Veli, with water, soft drinks and wine at meals. For a supplement, Soft All Inclusive adds beer at meals and selected soft and alcoholic drinks at the bar during the day, except those in bottles and cans, with tea, herbal tea and American coffee.
The official website lists no meal plans; Google Hotels shows breakfast included and all-inclusive available, and guests describe stays on half board, full board and all-inclusive. Guests on half board in 2018 and 2021 paid for water at dinner. According to Booking.com, children aged 2 to 12 get 50% off the meal plan and the youngest eat free.
The Ginger Spa is a cluster of Balinese-style pavilions, built of natural materials among the tropical greenery; it offers couples’ massages by candlelight, and alongside is a fitness area with modern machines, the small gym described on the services page.
The website gives no size and mentions no sauna, steam room or jacuzzi, and Google Hotels lists none either.
Treatments are charged: Veratour lists the spa among the paid services, Formula Club included. No page publishes a price list; in 2022 a guest wrote of massages between $45 and $130.
No page publishes a spa day pass or access for anyone not staying on the island, which is reached only by seaplane or boat.
The official website publishes no hours or booking rules; it says only that yoga takes place every morning, outdoors, on the beach.
According to the spa page and the services page: Ayurvedic and traditional massages, from Swedish to deep tissue, relaxing and draining massages, body treatments with clay, black salt and essential oils, detox and vitamin C facials, manicures, pedicures, scrubs and waxing, couples’ massages and morning yoga.
Prices are not published; in 2022 a guest put massages at $45 to $130, and in 2025 another praised them.
Yes: according to Booking.com children of all ages are welcome and pay as adults from age 3, although its own notes give 50% off the meal plan from 2 to 12; a cot for under-ones costs $10 a night. Booking.com sells the Garden Villa, the Sea Front Villa and the Deluxe Overwater Villa with a king bed and 2 singles.
No page mentions a kids’ club. The dive centre takes children diving from age 8 and onto its basic courses from 10. In August 2025 a family with children aged 4 and 9 had a good stay, the older one joining the trip to see the sharks.
According to the official website: the spa, the dive centre, a gym, a beach volleyball court, yoga, a library, a boutique, a tailor, a laundry service at a charge, evening entertainment, a drone service and free Wi-Fi, in public areas and rooms according to Veratour, which adds canoes and beach football.
The dive centre, SNSI, PADI and SSI, gives free nitrox, uses a 16-metre dhoni and runs full days of 3 dives in Ari and Rasdhoo for groups of 6 or more; diving insurance is required and sold at the centre. Google Hotels mentions flat-screen TVs, but several guests in 2025 and 2026 found none in their room.
The dive centre has a package of a stay with 10 dives shared among the room’s guests, from Open Water level, with no published price; according to Booking.com, honeymooners find a fruit basket and a flower-decorated bed on arrival.
The website’s Offerte page, read on 6 October 2026, shows an offer for Baia dei Mulini, another of the group’s hotels, in Sicily, and none for Gangehi.
The Momenti speciali page offers marriage proposals with a candlelit dinner and champagne, vow renewals on the beach under an arch of white flowers, with a photographer at sunset, and birthdays and anniversaries with dinner on the beach; you write to the resort to arrange them.
The website publishes no prices or capacities, and says nothing about a legally binding wedding.
The Gangehi and Veratour pages read on 6 October 2026 publish no Christmas or New Year programme.
On Google Hotels, read on 12 October 2026, there was no price for the nights from 28 December 2026 to 2 January 2027; a night cost $956 on 26 December and $1,006 on 3 January, against $572 on 13 December.
No: neither the official pages nor Veratour mention golf. The sports on the island are canoeing, beach volleyball, beach football and the gym, and the excursions are fishing, snorkelling, mantas and whale sharks.
Confirm operation for your dates: the pages read announce no closures. On Google Hotels, read on 12 October 2026, 189 of the 202 nights from 13 October 2026 to 2 May 2027 had a price; 16 November, 28 December to 2 January and 6 nights between 14 and 29 April did not, which does not mean the resort was closed.
The dive centre says mantas and whale sharks are common from December to April, and Veratour runs its manta and whale shark trips from December to March or April. At the end of October 2025 a couple had rain on nearly 5 days out of 7.
On Google Hotels, read on 12 October 2026, for 2 adults and one night: $510 on 29 October 2026, $440 on 5 November, $737 on 24 November, $572 on 13 December, $812 on 24 December, $956 on 26 December, $1,006 on 3 January 2027, $575 on 11 January and $350 to $355 on the 5 nights from 5 to 9 April 2027.
Of the 202 nights read, from 13 October 2026 to 2 May 2027, 189 had a price, from $281 to $1,006; the calendar shows the lowest seller and names neither the room nor the meal plan. 16 November, 28 December to 2 January and 6 nights between 14 and 29 April showed no price at all. The seaplane is extra.
On 6 October 2026 Google showed 4.4/5 from 417 ratings; on 3 October Tripadvisor gave 4.6/5 from 1,471, with a Travellers’ Choice award for 2026, and Booking.com 9.1/10 from 51, with staff at 9.6, cleanliness and location at 9.8, value for money at 9.0 and Wi-Fi at 5.8. On Veratour’s website the score was 4.9 from 56 reviews.
In the 268 Google reviews with text, 91% of those discussing the location are positive, and 67% of those discussing staff and services; on the rooms 67% are happy. The sea, the sandbank, the cooking and the staff recur. Depending on the plan, water beyond the daily bottle and drinks cost extra, as do excursions and the boat. The furniture is simple and not new.
Google Hotels prices for the Maldives include taxes and fees, and the seaplane fare on the official page includes tax; Tripadvisor warns that its partners’ prices exclude taxes. The Maldives’ Green Tax is $12 per person per day at a resort since 1 January 2025, with children under 2 exempt, according to the country’s tax authority; Veratour, read on 13 October 2026, has its guests pay it on the island.
Charged on top are the seaplane or boat, excursions, diving, the spa, the minibar, laundry and, if the plan does not cover them, drinks: in 2021 a guest counted 1.5 litres of free water a day, then paid for more.
Check-in from 2pm and check-out by 10am, according to Booking.com; at arrival you show the credit card used to book. In 2020 a guest paid $80 to leave the room 2 hours later.
184 villas on a South Ari island with the reef a swim from the beach, full board in the rate and an adults-only half, 25 minutes by seaplane
120 beach and water villas round a house reef you can swim, in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, a domestic flight and a speedboat from Malé
A small all-inclusive island ringed by its reef, with a kids’ club for ages 3 to 12 and 5 villa types, 45 minutes by seaplane from Malé
176 rooms, villas and residences on a Baa Atoll island, with a kids’ club from age 2 and a house reef, 35 to 40 minutes by seaplane from Malé
94 bungalows on a small South Ari island with a house reef all round it, half board included and nights from $287
120 overwater and beach villas, 65 with a pool, on an island 20 minutes by speedboat from Malé, with the reef beneath the villas
105 villas on a Baa Atoll island reopened in December 2025, with the reef a swim from the shore and Hanifaru Bay 20 minutes by boat
51 villas and suites with pools on a South Ari island, an NH hotel of Minor Hotels, 25 minutes by seaplane from Malé
A North Malé island renovated in 2025, ringed by its own reef, with 69 villas and studios by the sea and every meal included, 45 minutes by speedboat
150 rooms and 12 Water Villas on a green island in South Malé Atoll, with the reef off the beach, 45 minutes by speedboat from Malé
Beach villas round a green Baa Atoll island, with the reef in front, all-inclusive plans and Hanifaru Bay 25 minutes away
90 bungalows around a freshwater lake on a Baa Atoll island, always on half board, 15 minutes by boat from Hanifaru’s manta rays
This guide is written with Lumina, the marketing system for hotels.
