Filitheyo Island Resort

“Stunning Island and wonderful sunset bar staff”

June 2026 trip for 12 nights, family with 2 adult children, we had 2 rooms on all inclusive and were in water villas. Off season and middle east conflict meant island was v quiet. Maybe around 60 guests only guessing. We have been to the Maldives previously to other 4 star resorts but previously … more

June 2026 trip for 12 nights, family with 2 adult children, we had 2 rooms on all inclusive and were in water villas. Off season and middle east conflict meant island was v quiet. Maybe around 60 guests only guessing. We have been to the Maldives previously to other 4 star resorts but previously as a younger couple or when the kids were young. First time going as all 4 of us as adults. We booked a package holiday through Destination2 (not sure we would use again as they are not ABTA and don't follow UK FCDO advice. They did however change our trip to avoid the middle east at additional cost and had a good offer on the water bungalows). We were looking for a simple rustic island with a good house reef and snorkelling / diving for my daughter on all inclusive and ideally a water bungalow and found it in Filitheyo! There is FREE WiFi on island now! We didn’t know this and had bought tourist esims as all the information we had said it wasn’t free. We purchased directly with Ooredoo $50 or $40 and through Airolo (Dhiraagu network) and both worked fine. It was handy to have esims anyway as you do seem to need to log in quite a lot with the wifi but it’s a great update for the island to include this now. The esim covers for times when you aren’t on wifi. Wifi worked well in our water villas and was limited to 2 devices logged in at a time per room. Landed around 9am on a non stop BA flight. Collected bags and met by hotel rep with sign for the 3 AAA resorts who then takes you to seaplane check in desk and you have all things weighed so don’t go above 25kg for total hand luggage and suitcase. Should be 20kg suitcase and 5kg hand luggage, we tended to have heavier hand luggage and lighter suitcases due to electronics. They then put us on a bus to the seaplane terminal which is very comfortable and modern. Only waited a short time at seaplane and comfortable transfer arriving on island at around 11.50am after about a 35 min flight straight to our island, it was going onto other islands after. The hotel let us straight in rooms at midday which was great. They gave us a really helpful leaflet on the resort with a map and all timings you needed to know on arrival. I had emailed the hotel to ask for adjoining water villas and twin beds in one of them for our adult children. It was fantastic that they provided this for us as it makes such a difference to have rooms next to each other for a family trip. Thanks for this! The island is the perfect size for a relaxed break focussed on beach and snorkelling/diving. It has lots of grenery and rustic buildings with bats, cats and tons of little hermit crabs running around the paths. We thought it was picture perfect pretty on the northern and southern beaches against the turquoise waters. Water bungalows. We loved the water villas! They are stunning. Yes, ok, they are wooden rustic and could do with revarnishing in places but had really large beautiful deck with a table and chairs, swing and 2 sunloungers with amazing water views. Air con worked very well. We loved the large bathroom area too which had separate door to the bedroom area. The room is very open so you need to communicate with room mate if you are having a shower as that’s open too! The toilet was had a separate walled area. Also leave the 'do not disturb' on as the villa door opens straight into the bathroom! We were only given one key per villa which has a large wooden keyring so best to think of what you are going to do with it whilst snorkelling and to avoid locking yourself out. Shampoo, shower gel and body lotion are refilled daily. Bring your own hair conditioner. We found the 2 bottles of water provided daily enough for us as we also had the mini bar drinks and only a short walk to the sunset bar anyway. Our room attendant Shakir was wonderful – always had a smile, came to our room at similar times each day so we knew when he would be there and was great at filling our water bottles, shampoo, tea and mini bar soft drinks. You need to fill out a form if you want the 8 drinks you are are allowed to drink on all inclusive per day to be replaced. At the time we visited they had 2 x diet coke, 2 x coke, 2 x sprite, 2 x fanta per day if wanted on all inclusive. Loved the sunset bar. We went there every evening as it had a lovely view and was breezy. It's very close to the water villas and enroute to dinner. We enjoyed the house wine (served in glasses rather than plastic unless in pool which is nice). It was lovely to watch the sunset and the amazing staff who were extremely friendly and went above and beyond. Thanks in particular to Viraj and Faruk and who were both wonderful and a credit to the resort. The all inclusive selection was limited but fine for us as we mainly drink beer, wine and pina coladas! We were perfectly happy with the house wine. We enjoyed the swimming pool at the sunset bar area too. There are a few stools in the pool so you can sit at the bar if wanted but the waiters also serve you in the pool. The pool has a wonderful view and wasn't crowded during our stay. Food - On all inclusive you go to the main buffet for every meal. it's a pleasant environment covered outdoors and they spaced the guests out amongst the 3 areas. As it was so quiet it was very relaxed for us. Breakfast had an egg station for simple omelettes and fried eggs, pancake/waffle station, fresh fruit salad and other fruit like watermelon and papaya behind a serving station. The buffet had scrambled eggs, baked beans, french toast etc. At lunch and dinner there were lots of curry choices daily accompanied by naan and popadums.. The fish curry and tikka fish were very nice. Lots of vegetarian and fish choices. They usually had a couple of meat stations serving things like kebab, fajitas etc. There was also a small 3 sashimi/sushi roll selection at dinner (3 things). They did a nice Maldivian theme night where the food was great. Plenty of Western offerings - every type of potato on rotation, flans, freshly cooked pasta sauces, a few salads and lots of bread choices. Desserts particularly good! fruit salad offered and some fresh fruit behind a counter you had to ask for. We now need to diet! Waiter was same for whole stay. He did his job well but wasn't overly friendly. We didn't get the impression they wanted guests to linger for long. They brought a drink and glass of water if requested but didn't offer further drinks and just cleared them away. We just instead went to the bars after one drink with the meal as the atmosphere is nice vs the buffet which functions simply for your meal. Meal times are fixed 2 hour slots and they want you out by the finishing time so don't go late. They do offer an afternoon 'tea' in the sunset bar on AI. We only went once to this as there is plenty to eat at lunch and dinner! They had pancakes and usually one or two other savoury snacks if peckish before dinner at 7.30. We stayed well the whole trip and the buffet was clean and well stocked with certain food behind glass cabinets and covered to prevent any insects. I did have salads towards the end of the trip and they were really lovely and looked well prepared and protected. Diving - daughter did 20 dives. It was expensive vs other places she has dived but assume standard for Maldives resort. She did the unlimited package but it was only 2 dives a day with a night dive offered on one day and one other day they did 2 dives from the morning boat so could do 3 dives those days. Most times was just one dive per morning and one dive per afternoon boat trip so spent a lot of time just prepping equipment and out most of day, she didn't have much time in the resort due to this. She had fun and good learning experience with some strong currents and sometimes reduced visibility. She brought her own dive computer and 2.5mm wetsuit, mask & fins. Hired BCD and reg. She prepaid for an unlimited dive package in advance to save a little on the cost but they do add 3.5% cc fee on the prepayment amount. The staff were all really lovely and answered all our questions beforehand and whilst there. The bill took a little bit of time to work out as it is split slightly differently to the listed price list and was a bit higher than expected for some extras but in the end we couldn't be bothered to question it to the dollar. It was off season so can't be compared to better months as less dives offered and weather more unpredictable. She was very lucky to end up with a fab experienced dive buddy for the majority of her dives. The rest of our family snorkelled approx twice a day. Lovely parts of reef on the north side of the island by exits 5-7. Saw lots of sharks, turtles, eels, various rays including groups of devil rays (one time 6 of them at once swimming along the reef drop off). Lots of fish and some bigger shoals. We even saw some very large fish - one massive napoleon wrasse cruising along the drop off between the water bungalows and the northern side, another smaller one seems to hang around near to exit 7. Def need fins due to currents but we didn’t find them that strong. Could get a bit choppy if weather changed quickly as low season. We didn’t find it hard to get to reef on north side of island. You could swim over it quite easily when we went. It wasn’t that deep. Nice mix of a lagoon swimming part and reef if people aren’t that into snorkelling. We also bought cheap snorkelling buoyancy aids as thought they may be useful in case of a current of any difficulties. One lady had gone missing after going snorkelling for a few hours and her family were worried and so saw the hotel jump to action to look for her by boat and staff looking from the beach areas. She was located fine, just enjoying snorkelling the reef but it's a good idea to wear something bright and tell relatives where you are going to be if swimming alone. The hotel recommend you swim with someone else but not always possible. There weren't many kids, mainly couples, not much for kids to do apart from the pool and sea. The food seemed more adult orientated too. I think it's better suited to couples and people who want a rustic experience with snorkelling and diving on AI. We liked the little library. There was a darts board, pool table in the main bar but we didn't use them as had fairly early nights after dinner and the bar. We had a tv in the room and watched some of the football there/used the VPN to dial into UK apps to watch it. They had a large TV screen but most matches were at 2am etc due to time diff. We all got loads of insect bites on day one when we didn’t wear insect repellent walking around the island. We didn't bring enough insect repellent and so purchased some from the shop, it was only $6 so worth getting! Weather stormy overnight some days. Had a few part rainy days. A few bright sunshine days. Mostly a little overcast. Still beautiful.. The clientele is mainly German with some Brits and a few Russians and French we heard whilst there. Smoking is permitted at the bars but everything was outdoors so you can avoid someone smoking near you. I'm assuming not allowed in the restaurant as didn't notice anyone smoking. Bring: insect repellent, allergy tablets, hair conditioner, dry cat food if you like cats…, lots of suncream, sun tops for snorkeling, water shoes, snorkeling gear, casual clothes/flip flops, underwater camera, torch or use phone for paths at night to avoid stepping on hermit crabs!, binoculars? -would have been fun to have in water villa, Would love to come back one day! We were happy for the price we paid (apart from the excess paid to change flights to avoid the middle east due to the conflict!!). Highlights were water bungalow deck and views, accessible lovely reef snorkeling, evenings at the sunset bar/views from there including the pool and the sunset bar staff. My daughter would say the diving but she would also like to try other areas to dive and see larger creatures in the right season. We got good value from the AI package as we did drink soft drinks from the mini bar and had wine/beer with every meal plus wine and cocktails at the sunset bar. My family enjoyed being able to eat and drink whatever they wanted without having to worry about the bills adding up. I did see the prices and they weren't too bad anyway if you don't drink so much and eat lightly. Not many people seemed to be eating at the sunset bar so assume most people on HB or AI etc. Things that would make the stay better: -Labelling of major allergens at buffet – my daughter is allergic to some nuts. It was a bit of an effort to find an English speaking chef who could tell her which dishes had nuts. She had to walk around and be shown if it was nuts or no nuts! In general there aren’t that many options so it would be great to have it labelled – contains cashew nuts or peanuts. She had a few days she felt there was some contamination and had to take allergy tablets. Maybe best to ask for your own dish if you are severely allergic. -Others have commented it seems a bit mean not to have orange juice for breakfast included in AI. There is watermelon juice included at the buffet which is fine, water or basic tea or coffee. You can only have concentrated juice after 10am when the breakfast is already shut. -Boat Trip on all inclusive - it would be great to offer free all inclusive trip sunset cruise or just snorkel trip? We don’t fish so didn’t want to do the fishing trip, the local island trip seemed quite long and too hot for us so would have just preferred a late trip out on boat to snorkel or watch the sunset without missing much time at the resort. -Maybe include eating lunch at the sunset bar once a week instead of just the buffet. -Offering more diet drink options in mini bar (only 2 x diet cokes per day). I didn’t ask if we could have diet drinks as assumed they would say no, but but would prefer that -Slightly later breakfast ending time (even if only continental similar to departure day) would be great to relax on holiday some days - Guests would like to know they care for the cats. Maybe set up a donation box for the cats/cat food and any vet treatment. The cats seemed a bit forlorn and hungry, the staff didn't seem to know if they were fed. The guests grabs them bits to eat and hopefully will continue to do so unless they state they are fed by the hotel. -Seems a bit old fashioned admin for the All Inclusive having to sign zero bills and fill in the mini bar form every day. Give the impression the management are strict and don't trust the workers. Would be nice to just have a wristband. The staff seem very aware who is on AI anyway. Return seaplane: Inbound felt a bit tight for time as they group people together to fill the seaplanes and we would have preferred to have arrived earlier at the airport. We had an 11am flight from Male. Wake up call was 6:15, luggage collected 6:45, they provided a light continental breakfast which was really nice and much appreciated. Left hotel at 7.30 for boat to seaplane platform. Took a while to sort seaplane and passengers, there were 10 of us leaving from the island. The other family had a 1pm flight. We took off around 8.10am from the island’s platform and stopped briefly at another island in south ari atoll on the way to pick up 3 more passengers (2 others on our flight). We took off again at around 8.30am and got to Male seaplane landing area at around 9am. We then had to wait on bus (nobody from hotel directs you, just follow everyone else) for the transfer to the international terminal. At 9.10 we were still filling the bus so I told the driver we had an 11am flight and he then did drive to the international terminal building. We then had to wait for our luggage to arrive on a van which took us to around 9.30am. At that point we were 1.5 hrs before our flight which felt tight as we had luggage to check in. Pretty much everyone else had checked in already for our flight so luckily there wasn’t a long queue and so we were fine. The seaplane guys are very relaxed and obviously plan all this according to what works for them.

less