OUTRIGGER Maldives Maafushivaru Resort

A 5-star resort, as its official page describes it, run by the Outrigger group on a private island in South Ari Atoll. The website does not say how many villas there are: Tripadvisor and Expedia count 81, in 8 types.

The site gives neither an opening date nor a renovation date. Google reviews describe a resort entirely renovated in November and December 2020, still called LTI Maafushivaru in February 2021 and carrying the Outrigger name since June 2022. It has won Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best every year from 2023 to 2026, according to its awards page and Tripadvisor.

8 types, according to the villas page, with sizes confirmed by Booking.com. On the beach: the Beach Villa of 99 m², the pool version of 120 m², the 116 m² family villa with 2 bedrooms and the 184 m² 2-storey villa with 2 bedrooms and a pool. Over the water: the Over Water Villa of 95 m², the pool version of 151 m² and 2 villas on the sunset side, one with a hot tub of 95 m² and one with a pool.

For the last, the official page gives 1,023 sq ft, about 95 m², and Booking.com 151 m². The site labels every size in «ft»: for 5 villas the number matches Booking.com’s square metres, while for the other 3 it is true square feet, 1,249 for the family villa, which adds its 116 m², and 1,981 for the 2-storey one. The one-bedroom villas sleep up to 3, the family villa 5 and the 2-storey villa 4. All have air conditioning, a ceiling fan, a minibar, an espresso machine, a safe and a speaker.

In South Ari Atoll, 96 km south-west of Velana Airport in Malé, according to the official FAQs; the address is P.O. Box 2015, Maafushivaru Island. The island is a little over 350 metres long and takes about 10 minutes to walk round, according to the resort’s description on Tripadvisor.

It is a quiet island: no cars or buggies, and evening entertainment at the bar. Drones are not allowed. Lonubo, the resort’s uninhabited island, is a few minutes away by boat.

By Trans Maldivian Airways seaplane, about 25 minutes, sometimes with a stop at another resort, according to the official FAQs: Outrigger staff meet guests outside Terminal 1 and take them to the lounge. Flights run in daylight only: land between 6am and 3.30pm, check in by 4pm, or spend the night in Malé.

The official site does not publish the fare. Booking.com gives $611.33 per adult and $366.80 per child aged 2 to 11, return and including tax, until 31 October 2026, and $643.50 and $450.45 from 1 November 2026 to 31 October 2027. The flight must be booked at least 72 hours ahead and is not refunded if weather cancels it.

No: Maafushivaru is an island reached by seaplane, as the official FAQs explain, and there are no cars or car parks on it. You get about on foot, barefoot, along sandy paths.

From the beach, which runs round the island, and from the water villas, which have steps down into the lagoon. The official map marks the snorkelling channels and buoys, a lifebuoy and the no-swimming zones; according to the FAQs, fishing from the shore, the jetties or the decks is not allowed.

Guests describe a sandy seabed cleared of broken coral several times a day; in 2026 one guest saw staff whistle and raise the flag to call swimmers in when darkness or rain arrived.

Yes. The official page describes an island ringed by a reef full of fish, and the house reef activities have published prices: a 60-minute guided snorkel at $60, a night snorkel at $125, a 30-minute lesson at $50. Masks and fins are free for everyone, according to the FAQs.

Guests get in from the end of the pool water villa jetty or from the beach in front of the main pool, and in 2026 they describe reef and nurse sharks, rays, eagle rays, turtles and octopus. In 2023 and 2025, 2 guests found the coral largely bleached, with a few stretches still beautiful.

One main pool for everyone, on the beach beside Edgewater, and the private pools of the villas that have one, according to the official FAQs: the 2 beach villas with a pool and the 2 water villas with a pool. The sunset villa with a hot tub has a heated tub on its deck.

Expedia also lists an indoor pool, which no official page mentions.

The site gives neither the temperature nor the opening hours of the main pool; Edgewater, the bar beside it, is open daily from 11am to midnight, according to the dining page. The only heated water the site mentions is the hot tub of the sunset villas.

According to the dining page: Cuisine Gallery, the beachside buffet, breakfast from 7.30 to 10am and dinner from 7 to 9.30pm; Moodhu Grill, a grill house with 5 private platforms over the water; Art-I-San, the fine dining room on the island’s highest point; Koto, Japanese fusion with teppanyaki. These 3 serve dinner from 7 to 10pm, by reservation.

Edgewater is open from 11am to midnight, with lunch from 12 to 4pm, and Kofee ’n Chill serves coffee, desserts and ice cream from 11am to 7pm. On request there are floating breakfasts in the pool and private dinners on the beach or on Lonubo.

3, according to the meal plans page: half board gives breakfast and dinner at the Cuisine Gallery buffet; Half Board Plus adds soft drinks, water, coffee, alcohol from noon, wines from the house list and the minibar; Dine Around All Inclusive adds lunch at Edgewater, dinner at any open restaurant and Kofee ’n Chill.

On Dine Around, the sommelier’s wine list and dishes marked with a star are still extra; in the restaurants you choose a starter, a main course and a dessert, and Art-I-San, Moodhu Grill and Koto take tables of up to 4. Everyone in a villa must be on the same plan, which ends at noon on the day of departure.

Navasana Spa has a beauty room, a couples’ suite, 2 couples’ rooms and 2 single rooms, a steam room and a sauna, the gym and the yoga pavilion, according to the activities page; it uses Voya and Yon-Ka products. The site does not give its size.

The official photographs show rooms and hot tubs suspended over the sea, and Expedia and Google describe it as over the water. The spa menu also offers aerial yoga, bungee fit, sound healing and a body composition analysis at $99.

Treatments are extra, with 10% service and 17% tax on top, according to the spa menu; the meal plans give 10% off. Group yoga, on the resort’s schedule, is free. In 2022 one guest wrote that the steam room and sauna could be used only with a booked treatment.

No page publishes a spa day pass for anyone not staying on the island, which is reached by seaplane. On Booking.com, for 15 November 2026, some villa rates included daily spa access for each adult.

From 9am to 8pm, according to the spa menu read on 6 October 2026. You book on extension 4000 from the villa or through your personal host; same-day treatments are taken when there is room.

The menu asks you to arrive 30 minutes early, charges 50% for cancellations with less than 12 hours’ notice and the full price for no-shows; treatments are from age 16, some under parental supervision.

From the spa menu, prices before service and tax: relaxing, energising, deep tissue and Swedish massages at $110 for 60 minutes and $135 for 90, the 75-minute Balinese Bliss at $140, Ayurvedic treatments from $119, Yon-Ka facials from $119 to $139, and a 90-minute hot stone massage at $155.

For couples, the 120-minute Moments to Savor is $340, the 150-minute Perfect Partnership $439 and the 135-minute Couples Delight $449; the 3- and 5-day programmes run from $278 to $499, and the 3-, 5- and 7-night retreats from $499 to $850.

Yes: children of every age are welcome, according to the official FAQs. The Treehouse Kids Retreat takes children from 4 to 12 with a different programme each day from 10am to 6pm; you register on arrival and under-fours need a parent. A babysitter comes to the villa from 7 to 11pm.

There are children’s menus at Art-I-San and Cuisine Gallery, the Bubblemaker for 8- and 9-year-olds at $130 and 50% off excursions for ages 3 to 11. Booking.com charges from age 12 as an adult and gives cots and extra beds free; Expedia says extra beds are not available. Booking.com and Expedia set 18 as the minimum age for checking in.

According to the official page and the activities page: the spa, the gym with its windows on the sea, the PADI dive centre, the water sports centre, the pool, the kids’ club, mini golf, a cinema under the stars, the boutique, paid laundry and a doctor with a clinic. A guest on Tripadvisor also describes a games room with pool, table tennis, table football and darts.

Wi-Fi is free in the villas and in most public areas, according to the FAQs. Kayaks, paddleboards and windsurfers are free, an hour at a time, according to the activities price list, at times the water sports centre sets, as a guest noted in November 2025. There are no cash machines: cash is drawn at reception and charged to the bill.

Read on 6 October 2026 on the offers page: up to 30% off with a free meal plan upgrade when booking direct; a long-stay discount; a honeymoon package; one with the whale shark excursion; and 10% more off for members of the free DISCOVERY programme.

The offers pages give no nightly figure. You can also book by email with the resort’s reservations office, and DISCOVERY members on the higher tiers get upgrades and flexible arrival and departure times.

Not legally: the official FAQs offer vow renewals and make clear they are not a recognised wedding. The packages start at $1,700 for Silver and $3,100 for Platinum, on Edgewater beach, with the arch, the master of ceremonies, the cake, the champagne and bodu beru drums.

Platinum adds a candlelit dinner on the beach and a floating breakfast. A ceremony on Lonubo is $1,500 per couple on top, photography $950 and video $1,000, plus 10% service and 17% tax.

Yes, and it is compulsory. The official FAQs charge $400 per adult from age 12 on New Year’s Eve and $201 per child aged 2 to 12, free under 2, and $277 and $139 on Christmas Eve, taxes included, with vegetarian menus. Booking.com gives different figures: $289.58 per adult on Christmas Eve, free for children, and $643.50 on New Year’s Eve, $321.75 per child.

The 2026 festive programme has not yet been published. The 2024 one closed the year with sunset drinks on Moodhu Beach, a buffet dinner and a party with a DJ.

Only mini golf: the family page describes a course on the island. The official pages mention no golf course and no golf packages.

All year round, as far as the official pages show, and they announce no closures. On Google Hotels, read on 6 October 2026, all 117 nights from 7 October 2026 to 31 January 2027 had a price.

The FAQs describe warm weather all year, with more rain in the monsoon seasons and rare storms. The dive packages run from June to September; at the end of 2025 one guest saw 2 whale sharks over Christmas.

Google Hotels, on 6 October 2026, for 2 adults and one night, taxes and fees included: $496 on 11 October 2026, $525 on 25 October, $592 on 15 November and 11 December, $1,480 on 24 December, $2,416 on 31 December, $936 on 8 January 2027, $830 on 21 January and $708 on 30 January, according to the Google Hotels calendar.

The calendar gives one figure a night, without naming the villa or the meal plan. The nights of 9, 10, 12 and 18 October showed between $1,731 and $1,762, and 7 October $1,768; for that night the card offered the villa at $531, taxes included, on the official site with the free DISCOVERY programme’s code, while the booking sites asked more. The seaplane and the gala dinners are extra.

On 6 October 2026 Google showed 4.8/5 from 349 ratings and Trip.com 4.8/5 from 47; on 3 October Tripadvisor gave 4.9/5 from 1,217, first on the island and Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best 2026, Booking.com 9.6/10 from 55, with the staff at 9.9 and value for money at 8.8, and Expedia 9.6/10 from 87.

In the 200 Google reviews with text written since October 2020, 95% of those discussing the staff are positive, and 95% of those discussing the villas; on price, 15 guests out of 19 are happy. Guests greeted by name, the personal host on WhatsApp, villas made up twice a day and an all-inclusive that opens every restaurant keep coming back. The island is small and quiet in the evening, children of every age are welcome, and on the house reef guests in 2023 and 2025 describe coral that is largely bleached.

Villa rates exclude the 10% service charge and the 17% tourism goods and services tax, according to the official FAQs; the same are added to the spa, excursions and ceremonies. Booking.com adds a $12 green tax per person per night. Google Hotels’ prices for the Maldives already include taxes and fees.

The seaplane, the gala dinners of 24 and 31 December and, depending on the meal plan, drinks, lunches and dinners in the à la carte restaurants are paid separately. On Booking.com the rates put the seaplane transfer in the total; on the official site it is paid separately. Extras are signed to the villa and settled on departure.

Check-in at 2pm and check-out at noon, according to the official FAQs. The real times depend on the seaplane, whose schedule the airline sends the evening before; the meal plan lasts until noon on departure day, and DISCOVERY members on the higher tiers may get more flexible times.