Best of the Maldives: Sheltered Snorkeling Lagoon – Olhuveli

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Olhuveli - islands

Lots of tropical destinations have islands with dappled blue water surrounding them, but one of the qualities that distinguish the Maldives is the mill pond tranquillity of these waters. The ringed atolls encircle a semi-protected region in the middle of the Indian Ocean which dampens the larger sea currents and swells of the open ocean. Especially, the shallow lagoons whose limited depth further mutes the volatility of the water.

This calmness not only contributes to the destination’s renown for languid relaxation, but also makes for some distinctively easier water enjoyment, especially snorkelling. The problem with snorkelling is that the lagoons are so sheltered that they don’t get the nutrient flow that current normally deliver and in recent years, they have gotten particularly warm both conditions of which impede the growth of coral.

But sometimes coral croppings do emerge which make for excellent beginner snorkeling. Sun Siyam Olhuveli has a sweet spot combination of no just one bur 2 sheltered lagoons with low-depth snorkeling. They are both on par with Kuda Huraa and Canareef that similarly impressed us years ago with their lagoon coral gardens, but Olhuveli has two, they are more sheltered and the one by the arrival jetty does have a drop-off at the end. We had one of our most memorable snorkels ever here on our previous visit with an octopus playing hide-and-seek with us.


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Best of the Maldives: Sandy Water Villa Jetty – Joy Island, sand

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Joy Island - sandy jetty

Two of the distinctive joys of the Maldives are (1) “no shoes, no news” barefoot walking in soft sand everywhere, and (b) getting intimately close to the tranquil seas surrounding you made closest by their iconic water villas. But one first world problem is combining the two when tender bare feet step on the water villa jetties that have been baking in the tropical sun (ouch!). Joy Island has directly combined these two joys in a way that eliminates the first world problem – sand on the jetties!

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Siyam (r)evolution

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Siyam launch event 2

One of the great joys of working on Maldives Complete is the escapism to paradise that it provides me while hunkering down in the grey days of England. And as the days are growing shorter and the winds colder, Sun Siyam brought an evening of Maldivian sunshine to London to announce its brand revamp on the occasion of its 35 year anniversary:

  • “More than a visual refresh, the brand (r)evolution introduces a bold new brand statement anchored in The Home of the Maldivian Spirit, reinforcing the group’s position as one of the Maldives’ most culturally authentic resort operators. The transformation elevates guest journeys with new Signature Experiences introduced across all six resorts and strengthens direct relationships with customers through Siyam Rewards. A single identity now unites the group’s five Maldivian resorts and its Sri Lankan retreat under The House of Siyam. To help guests and partners navigate the portfolio, each property is now grouped under three distinct collections: Luxury, Privé and Lifestyle.”

The positioning makes a lot of sense for a successful player in the Maldives market. If you grow with your success, you have to add new islands as the diminutive land masses contain what you can add to existing properties. If you add new islands, then you risk having your properties competing with each other. So you have to have some differentiation so people can choose your brand for its brand values and reputation (eg. the signature experiences), but choose specific variations based on more targeted price points or vibe.

The London event featured more than just the sunny warmth of Maldivian festivity, but a few special guests. First was Dolores Semeraro, serving as vibrant emcee for the evening, who was one of the first people we met in the Maldives when she was running marketing for LUX South Ari Atoll in 2012. She and her husband, Dominik Ruhl, are part of the early pioneers in the Maldives travel sector and are now leading experts on the sector who have helped me with Maldives Complete on many occasions.

Also, gracing the stage was Aston Merrygold, of the band JLS and “Strictly Come Dancing” fame. A real class act, he and his family are fans of the Siyam resorts. He did more than a token set, but played multiple sets and spend time in between talking with the guests (who took many selfies), and even performed his signature backflip on stage.

Siyam launch event 3

Siyam launch event

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Best of the Maldives: Swim Up Jacuzzi – Olhuveli

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Olhuveli - jacuzzi bar

Swim-up bars and jacuzzis both give pools an extra boost of relaxing in the water. But how about a swim-up bar in a jacuzzi? Well that is just another pool innovation introduced by Sun Siyam Oluveli. So they are not just the proud home of the largest pool in the Maldives, but also (from what I have seen), the largest (and most extravagant) jacuzzi there!

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Best of the Maldives: Largest Overwater Spa – Ayada

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Ayada - overwater spa

When we first started visiting the Maldives, not only were there few spas, but there were few spa services. I remember that Nakatchafushi had an Australian massage therapist on a 6-month contract giving massages on the beach and that seemed like a big step. Now, spas with wide ranging offerings are table stakes for even the value priced properties and they have gotten bigger and bigger over time with more services and amenities. The luxury resorts have distinguished themselves not only with over-water villas, but over-water spas. This move brings the soothing energies of the ocean, often highlighted with glass portals in the treatment room floors, to the treatment facilities themselves. And Ayada boasts the highwater mark over the water with a 3500 square foot complex (which we enjoyed during our stay).

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Best of the Maldives: Transfer Relaxation – Siyam World / Irufushi

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Siyam - transfer relaxation

One of the dividends of the new sea plane terminal is a huge amount of space allocated to resort transfer lounges. Siyam’s lounge for its Siyam World and Sun Siyam Irufushi properties was distinctive for its relaxation optimisation. Just the ticket after a long-haul, often red-eye flight. It wasn’t the only massage-on-arrival we had come across, but it was certainly the best (Lori didn’t want to leave the lounge when our seaplane departure was called). And while I sipped my coffee latte, I had a prime corner window seat with an expansive view of the seaport. The lounge also had an exterior terrace if you wanted to getting started on soaking up the tropical sun.

Siyam - transfer relaxation 2

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Crowd-Sourced Reef Rating

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Crowd-sourced reef rating

One of the more popular parts of Maldives Complete, based on one of its most Frequently Asked Questions, is the House Reef rating. When I introduced this Resort field, I grappled with a number of approaches, but settled on a quite vague set of parameters:

  • 1 = distinctive, ie. there is something distinctive about it which might have been its overall strength or even something as simple as an exciting resident creature or feature.
  • 2 = good, ie. this was a house reef worth snorkeling with most of the basics ticked like good topography and marine life.
  • 3 = problems, ie. this house reef had some consideration-worthy problems like inaccessibility or disappointing marine life, etc.
  • 4 = no information

Given that vast complexity of considerations (cf. The 8 Ds of a Great House Reef – Maldives Complete Blog), any further granularity would, I felt, be putting too fine a point on it.

TripAdvisor Forum contributor “Ventsi” of Bulgaria has taken an initiative on the Forum to create a crowd-sourced Reef Rating for house reefs which has some reasonable legs to it now – Reef rating system, crowdsourced – Maldives Message Board – Tripadvisor (Reefs – Google Sheets)

The approach takes vetted contributor’s ‘ratings’ on a scale of 1-10 and then aggregates them for an average. I tried this with Resort ratings when I first started the site (which is why the field is called “Average Rating”). Years ago, operators all put their own star-ratings down and I aggregated those for an average. I abandoned maintaining the averages because everyone was calling everything “5-star”. I would say don’t take the granularity of Ventsi’s ratings too seriously (ie. Don’’t chose one resort over another because it has a house reef 0.3 points better than another. It would be good for Ventsi to add heat-map conditional formatting to automatically provide a bit of segmentation.), but it can be an effective way to measure general quality based on crowd-input.

The challenge is figuring out what people mean by “reef quality”. Some people like visibility, others fish soup, others special residents, others underwater topography, others coral variety and color. Lots of data should iron out various biases (37 assessors so far) though awareness of it and interest in contributing will introduce a bit of its own self-selection biases. It is great to get lots of people because they see lots of reefs. My personal reviews can provide a consistent perspective (like following a particular film critic whose opinions align with yours or at least you know how to calibrate relative to how you tend assess films), but only for the reefs I can snorkel. Furthermore, reefs aren’t static but change constantly especially over the years. So my observations from a decade ago are likely to be dated in many ways.

Given that the contributors are vetted to a degree, it is sort of a Rotten Tomatoes for house reefs that can provide some helpful input to people researching house reef quality as a major consideration to their Maldives visit.

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Resort Segmentation

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Maldives resort segmentation table

This recent tour made me realise that I really need to consider “Best of the Maldives” posts by price tier. Reethi Rah, Soneva and Velaa may have everything you can imagine, but few of us have the wallets to go there. Now that the sector as tripled in size since Maldives Complete started, you can find just about anything, certainly in the super premium properties. But it remains distinctive when a more modest tiers property offers such a unique or striking feature.

This musing also got me thinking about the core segments that the Maldives resorts have coalesced into. Actually, they are pretty conventional quartiles that you find in many markets (as illustrated in the chart below which compares them to other products):

These price bands play an important role in user reviews like Trip Advisor. Such star-ratings are not based on objective box-ticking criteria like hospitality association ratings (which has a long check-list of requirements for each grading class). Instead, these ratings really reflect performance against expectations. As a result, you can get a budget burger joint getting 5-star ratings because it is the best $3 burger that you have ever had. Conversely, a white-linen, silver setting gourmet establishment can get a 1-star rating if the meat is overcooked and service a bit slow during your $100 meal.

The key to exceeding expectations is (a) tick all of the boxes for your class (the cake), and (b) add a few special bits above the class (treats) that are valued and memorable. For example, Siyam World sits squarely in the Business Class segment, and yet still snared the crown as one of the Top 10 Hotels in the World in Tripadvisor’s 2025 Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best Awards 2025. It sits in the comfortable “business class” of Maldives resorts, but adds enough luxury touches to feel distinctive in that class.

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Best of the Maldives: Silent Beach – Joy Island

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Joy Island - silent beach

Many guests come to the Maldives for its isolated tranquility from the noisy hustle-bustle of their daily life. A number of resorts either limit themselves to adult guests or offer adult-only areas in an effort to further preserve the quietude from the disturbance by over-ebullient youngsters. Joy Island has gone a step further in providing a silent beach where all noise is prohibited. Much like the popular “quiet cars” on British Rail. In a world of blaring mobile devices and tourists getting louder with ever pina colada they consume, the beach is a treasured sanctuary for the quintessential quiet which drew them to this idyllic paradise in the first place.

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