Emerald Maldives Resort & Spa
A 20-hectare island inside a hundred hectares of lagoon, sold as a proper all-inclusive: four restaurants, two cafés, and dinner à la carte rather than buffet by default. The reef is the weak part, and it is one good spot rather than something you can swim around.
- Getting there
- 40 minSeaplane, or a flight and a boat
- Latest you can land
- 15:30Or take Ifuru, which runs later
- House reef
- 3 / 5One good spot, out and back
- Villas
- 120Sixty on the sand, sixty over the water
- Meals
- Deluxe AIFour restaurants and two cafés
- Minimum stay
- 4 nightsOn the rate we publish
Getting there
Send us your flight times before you buy them. The seaplane cut-off at Velana is 15:30, and the Ifuru route is the answer for a later landing. Getting this wrong means a night in the capital at your own expense.
Return seaplane transfers for two already sit inside every figure on this page.
The villas
| Villa | Size | Pool |
|---|---|---|
| Beach VillaOn the sand, no pool. | 176 m² | No |
| Jacuzzi Beach VillaA 2 by 2 metre jacuzzi rather than a pool. | 176 m² | Jacuzzi only |
| Water VillaOver the lagoon, no pool. | 176 m² | No |
| Jacuzzi Water VillaA 2 by 2 metre jacuzzi rather than a pool. | 176 m² | Jacuzzi only |
| Beach Villa with PoolThe first category with a real pool, 5 by 3 metres. | 187 m² | Yes |
| Marina Garden Villa with PoolGarden setting, 5 by 3 metre pool. | 187 m² | Yes |
| Water Villa with PoolOver the lagoon, 5 by 3 metre pool. | 187 m² | Yes |
| Superior Beach Villa with Pool8 by 3 metre pool. Quoted by hand. | 280 m² | Yes |
| Two Bedroom Family Beach Villa with PoolMaster plus a children’s bedroom with its own bathroom. Quoted by hand. | 280 m² | Yes |
| Superior Water Villa with PoolThe largest one-bedroom over the water. Quoted by hand. | 310 m² | Yes |
| Two Bedroom Presidential Ocean Villa with Pool10 by 4 metre pool. Quoted by hand. | 640 m² | Yes |
| Three Bedroom Royal Beach Villa with PoolOver two floors. Quoted by hand. | 900 m² | Yes |
Four of these twelve categories sit on our booking dropdown, along with three split stays that pair a beach villa with a water villa. Everything else is quoted by hand, so ask rather than assuming the dropdown is the whole island.
A one-bedroom villa takes two adults and two children, or three adults and one child, and no more. If you need more room than that, the Two Bedroom Family Beach Villa is the next step up.
The two 176 sqm categories have no pool, and the jacuzzi versions have a 2 by 2 metre jacuzzi rather than one. The first real pool arrives at 187 sqm.
Eating
Deluxe All-Inclusive covers
- All four restaurants and both cafés
- Unlimited cocktails, premium spirits, beer and wine
- A minibar restocked every day
- Non-motorised water sports, the gym, tennis and padel
Charged on top
- Motorised water sports, jet skis included
- The spa
- Diving
- Excursions beyond the one your rate carries
Four restaurants and two cafés
Aqua is the main room: Mediterranean, with live stations for Japanese, Italian, Chinese and vegetarian cooking and a large indoor buffet. It serves all three meals.
Beach Club Grill does fish, seafood, meat and vegetables on a stone grill at lunch and dinner, with a pizza and pasta station and the beach pool bar beside it. Amazònico is Central and South American at dinner, from an open kitchen. Le Asiatique is Asian at dinner with a teppanyaki grill, set inside the island’s forest.
Sunset Pool Café and Sunrise Café are the two bars, at opposite ends of the day and opposite ends of the island.
What we are still missing
The resort does not publish opening hours, dress codes or reservation rules for any venue, and it has not answered our request for them. We will put them here the day they arrive.
Dinner is à la carte rather than buffet by default, which is worth more than the brochure makes of it. Vegetarian and Indian menus run in every restaurant rather than in one corner of one.
Anything ordered outside the plan is charged, and jet skis are charged whatever plan you are on.
The water
Why we rate it 3 out of 5
One good spot rather than a reef you can circle. The water outside the Aqua restaurant is the place: about twenty metres out, light current, a shallow entry, and fine for a first-time snorkeller. Resident baby sharks and good fish.
Coral took a heavy hit from bleaching and from the building of the resort, and visibility drops when the current stirs the sand.
From the water villas it is an out-and-back rather than a loop. That is the honest shape of it, and it is why the score is three.
What the resort provides
Guided snorkelling runs twice a week and sits inside the plan, with equipment. There is a marine biologist presentation once a week.
Diving is with a PADI five-star centre on the island. Raa Atoll’s diving is largely on submerged reefs known as thilas, which the resort says suit beginners and advanced divers alike.
The resort publishes nothing at all about its house reef. Everything in the column to the left is ours, from what clients report back after they have been. We have asked the resort to check it and it has not yet replied.
Who it suits
What you pay
What the price is built on
One villa, two adults sharing, four nights, Deluxe All-Inclusive, the return seaplane for two, and every Maldivian tax. Indian TCS is the one thing outside the figure, and nothing is added at check-out.
This rate also carries one excursion, your choice of the dolphin trip or the sunset fishing trip. On the standard plan an excursion needs a seven-night stay, so at four nights that is a real addition.
Ways to pay less
Look at the split stays. Two nights on the sand and two over the water is the sensible way into a water villa with a pool without paying for four nights of it.
Travel in the earlier bands. The rate steps up through the autumn.
Bring a child rather than a second adult: one aged 2 to 13.99 sharing with parents in a one-bedroom villa is free on accommodation, paying only the green tax and the seaplane.
Priced by hand
Eight of the twelve villa categories, including both family villas and the presidential and royal villas.
Any stay that is not four nights. Shorter stays and extra nights price at a nightly rate plus the seaplane.
Dates and deadlines
These prices run to 23 December 2026. Indian market, new bookings only, and the resort can revoke or modify the offer at any time. A booking already confirmed stays confirmed.
Payment is tight. The full stay is due at least ten days before arrival, and cancelling inside ten days forfeits all of it.
Things we would rather you heard from us
- The reef is the weak part, and the resort will not talk about it. There is no house reef page on the resort’s own website at all, and it has not answered our questions. What we publish comes from clients: one good spot outside Aqua, twenty metres out, out and back. If the reef is the reason for the trip, this is not the island.
- Payment terms are tighter than most. The full stay is due ten days before arrival and cancelling inside ten days forfeits all of it. Buy the travel insurance at the moment you book rather than later, because there is no soft landing here.
- The seaplane cut-off is 15:30. Land at Velana after that and it will not take you the same day. The Ifuru route flies later and the resort recommends it for evening arrivals, but it is a domestic flight plus a half-hour boat rather than one hop. Send us the flight times before you buy them.
- Twelve villa categories, four on the dropdown. The rest are quoted by hand. If you want a family villa, a superior or the presidential, ask early rather than working from the dropdown and assuming that is everything the island has.
Shall we price it for you?
Tell us your dates, who is travelling and which airport you fly from. We will price two or three villas against the split-stay versions so you can see which one wins, check your flights against both transfer routes, and tell you honestly whether the reef here will disappoint you.