LUX* South Ari Atoll Hotel & Resort, Maldives

LUX* South Ari Atoll has been through a number of incarnations: formerly LUX* Maldives, Diva Maldives, before that White Sands, and some of us remember the humble Ari Beach. It is now a modern, stylish, hip and trendy resort offering bright and airy villas, a wide range of high quality dining options, plenty of activities and thoughtful touches synonymous with the excellent Mauritian LUX* brand.


It's an unusual island shape - a strip of land 1800m long but only 100m wide - which means that there is plenty of space for facilities, without the resort feeling in any way cramped or over-developed, and it's an enjoyable bike ride from one end to the other. There are relaxed pools and bars, a well-equipped and extended gym, a top class spa, and excellent kids and teens clubs.

On top of the normal meal plans, LUX* offers one of the better All Inclusive deals for this class of resort in the Maldives. Menus in all the five bars and eight restaurants are clearly marked with which drinks and dishes are available as part of your meal plan, and which come at an additional cost. Foodies will be delighted with the variety on offer. We were most impressed with the Asian street food inspired East Market and the brilliant Teppanyaki table at Umami, but service and dining is consistently good throughout the resort, with a notably welcome range of plant-based dishes on menus.

The only real criticism we can really level is that the snorkelling directly off the beach is not that great. However, frequent and flexible Dhoni trips can take you to the best spots, so unless you 'must' have a house reef yards from the shoreline then LUX* pretty much ticks all the boxes...