The Top 17 Hotels Near LUX South Ari Atoll
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A seaplane drops you onto a private islet in the South Ari Atoll, which is about as dramatic a check-in as resorts get. LUX* South Ari Atoll is an all-inclusive beach resort with 193 villas designed by a Thai studio with a knack for whitewashed walls and blue nautical details that blur the line between indoors and the lagoon outside. Hammocks hang over the water, an egg chair swings in the palms, and the whole place holds a Forbes Five Star.
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Overwater villas on stilts above one of the larger lagoons in the Maldives, with private pools and hammocks for anyone who finds the ocean insufficiently horizontal. This Forbes Four Star resort sits on a small private island where the main daily dilemma is water sport selection: windsurfing, jet skiing, and wakeboarding are all on offer, and the on-site dive center runs PADI courses from beginner to rescue level if you'd like structure with your snorkeling.
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Kuda Huraa sits on a coral-fringed island in the North Malé Atoll, and it holds the Maldives' first dedicated spa island, reached by boat. This Forbes Five Star resort leans into Maldivian craft and thatched architecture rather than cold minimalism, with overwater suites, an adults-only pool, and a sea turtle conservation sanctuary that children find more exciting than any water slide. Couples and families share the place without much friction, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.
- Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
- Michelin Guide Selected Hotels
- 50 Best 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award
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The glass floors in the spa's treatment pavilions look straight down into the Indian Ocean, which sets the tone for this Forbes Five Star resort spread across three private islands in the Maldives. Eleven restaurants range from a treetop perch to a wine cellar cave, and the villas blur the line between indoors and the water surrounding them. The whole place is built around the premise that the ocean is the amenity.
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Forty-eight thatched villas ring a small circular island in North Male Atoll, which means the ratio of plunge pool to guest stays pleasingly high at this Forbes Four Star resort. The onsite marine lab and PADI dive center give the reef a name and a face, and the overwater dining feels less like a gimmick than it usually does. Arrival comes with drums and cocktails, which sets a tone most hotels only promise.
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A house reef that rings the entire island means you can slip into the water from almost anywhere, with parrotfish, butterfly fish, and blacktip reef sharks on the regular rotation. This low-key, chic Maldives resort draws a crowd that skews heavily toward honeymooners, who actually seem to want to be seen together, which is its own thing. A swimable shipwreck sits just offshore, and the dive center runs a coral sponsorship program that emails you progress photos of your reef frame.
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The surf break just offshore is called Chickens, named for the poultry farm that occupied this island before someone decided a luxury resort made more sense. Kuda Villingili is a private-island resort spread across a main island and three connected satellites, with local textiles and natural materials woven through the villas and a 150-meter pool at its center. The kind of place where the water in front of you is either that pool or the Indian Ocean, and both are very blue.
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A Forbes Five Star resort spread across 109 acres of a shaped private island in North Malé Atoll, with 3.7 miles of coastline divided into 12 separate beaches so no villa has to share its strip of sand. A small bridge splits the island in two; the channel beneath it is famously calm and famously photographed. You arrive by seaplane in twenty minutes or, if you have the sense to, by the resort's 56-foot yacht in forty-five.
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The circular overwater villas here break from every thatched-roof cliché in the Maldives, arranged in an oval around a ring-shaped spa, with retractable floor-to-ceiling windows that dissolve the line between room and lagoon. This Forbes Five Star resort skips the waterslides and glass-bottomed novelties in favor of a clean, modern look, with private butler service and sparkling turquoise water doing the heavy lifting.
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James Turrell installed one of his open-ceilinged sky chambers here, which tells you what kind of resort this is before you've even unpacked. Patina Maldives is a Forbes Five Star property spread across the Fari Islands archipelago, with 90 villas and studios designed by Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan in earthy palettes and natural materials. Twelve restaurants and bars, a spa, and overwater or palm-shaded villas make it easy to stay indefinitely.
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A twenty-minute seaplane hop east of Malé lands you on a sliver of sand where a hundred overwater villas somehow never feel crowded. The stilted rooms come with teak ceiling fans, glass floor panels looking straight down into the reef, and steps off the deck into snorkeling water. Three restaurants cover everything from buffets on sand floors to fine dining under a fishbone sculpture. Personal assistants field requests by WhatsApp, which feels either very futuristic or very millennial depending on your age.
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The waters around this private island resort in North Ari Atoll shift from pale turquoise to deep navy before you've finished your coffee. With 86 thatched-roof villas, each with a plunge pool and high wooden ceilings, Constance Halaveli earns its Forbes Four Star rating by keeping things genuinely remote without making you feel like you've roughed it. Whale sharks patrol the nearby dive sites, which helps explain why half the guests have fins in their luggage.