Lux or Finolhu?

[fleurdolease]

I wondered if any MNers had been to Lux South Ari Atoll or Finolhu Baa. Big holiday planned to celebrate a special birthday after a terrible year and really want to get this right and go somewhere special. Thanks for any feedback!

We stayed at Lux but it was quite a few years ago. It was wonderful. Our room was right on the beach, food and service were impeccable. We went after a really difficult couple of years and it was perfect for us just to regroup and be together as a family. We played on the beach each morning, snorkelled before and after lunch. Went to the pool then had cocktails late afternoon. It was perfect. Obviously my knowledge is way out of date though!

Thank you @QualifyingEdition. Were children welcome in the restaurants at Lux? It looks pretty kid friendly from what I can see online. Thanks so much

And that sounds idyllic!

There were loads of children (maybe a third of the rooms). All welcome everywhere. It was a very gentle, family-friendly vibe, with lots of children between toddler to mid-teens. No issues with noise or irritating behaviour at all, though. It was exactly what we needed at the time.

For balance though, there were definitely a fair number of honeymooners, and other holidaying couples!

I think we might go for this one 😀 it just seems to stand out and it looks like they've got plenty of activities for the little ones so hopefully we can relax a bit 🙏🏻😂

No useful contribution to your thread but thought it might make you smile that when I saw the thread title I raised my eyebrows as I thought it was going to be a thread in baby names and not holidays 😆
Enjoy your big birthday and wherever you end up on holiday.

@TheArtfulScreamer1 that's brilliant 😂 no more babies for me but can you imagine

We’ve stayed at South Lux twice, highly recommend.

I haven’t been to either, but as I recall Lux doesn’t have a reef you can access from the beach, you need to go on boat trips for reef snorkelling. Finolhu does sound like it has an accessible house reef. So depends if this is key for you.

On the other hand I’ve heard Lux is great for families, and if you dive, South Ari is the best place to be (also good chance of snorkelling with whale sharks there).

We went to Heritance Aarah in March and it was amazing. Beautiful island. Lovely service and food.

It was paradise.

I have booked Jawakara island for next year as they had a fab deal on.

There are some great deals to be had.

We booked with Destination2 for next year and Kenwood travel this year.

Me too!

I came on to say exactly this 🤣 My preference was going to be Lux, because the child would have a lifetime explaining how to pronounce the other 🤣🤣

For those that have been, would you say a water villa would be ok with a 4 and 6 year old?

I’d go for a beach villa not a water villa, I’ve heard the wind can be quite noisy and disruptive. You also get more shade if you’re staying on the beach.

Finolhu has a lovely kids club they made pizza, cookies, cocktails, mermaid in the pool etc. Inflatable in the sea was a big hit.
Amazing food and the house reef if just off the beach. Haven't been to Lux.

Over water villa was not windy, but with young children beach villas are more practical.

Some operators won’t sell water villas to families with young children.

@Lovethatforyouhun I'm so glad to read this as we ended up going for Finolhu. Lux looks amazing but I was a bit concerned about the kids club being grouped into ages and mine would want to be together and Finolhu just looked a bit more suitable with lots of things for us all to do. We like entertainment in the evening and the kids love to have a little dance so we thought this looked the better option for us. We've gone for a beach villa as I think I'd be too anxious with little ones in a water villa. Hopefully we've made the right choice, can't wait now! Thanks so much for all of the feedback, much appreciated

@fleurdolease fantastic! They have a white night on the sand bank at the Crab Shack so pack some white (ish) outfits. Enjoy!!!!

Oh the kids do a session with the in house marine biologist, very cute!

Most resorts ban under 12s from the water villas anyway.

I've been to Lux but the other island sounds like a good option for you.

@Lovethatforyouhun it sounds amazing, can't wait now and so happy we booked! I've shown the kids some videos of the resort on YouTube and they were so excited. Good tip re the white party, thank you so much!

@eurochick being perfectly honest I was a bit nervous being in a water villa when it was just the 2 of us on honeymoon. Our resort at the time wasn't very well lit up and we were right at the end of the jetty so it felt a bit dicey walking back after a few drinks! I'm glad we did it for the experience but I think the beach villa is definitely the better option