This Joali Lounge Review is part of our recent return trip to the Maldives. Interested in discerning the perfect luxury resort in the Maldives? To date, we've stayed at 8 different Maldivian luxury resorts–see our posts tagged Maldives.
Joali is a very new luxury resort in the Maldives, having only opened in October 2018. Its mastermind, Ms. Esin Güral Argat, is known for her family's Gürallar Group, which primarily operates tiling and glassware businesses, but also some resorts, although to date, none as luxurious as Joali.
For the prior posts, see:
Review: The Club at ATL, Atlanta
Review: Qatar 777-300ER Business Class ATL-DOH
Review: Mandarin Oriental Doha
Review: Qatar A320 Economy Class, DOH-MLE
Getting to the Joali Lounge in Male
After arriving in Male Airport (MLE) from your international flight, you'll be met by a Joali representative, who will escort you to Joali's comfortable private SUV and drive you to the Joali lounge in the Male Seaplane Terminal. The drive only takes about 7 minutes. If you arrive from another resort by seaplane, it's a short walk to the Joali Lounge.
Joali Lounge Male Amenities
Joali has just 73 private beach and water villas, so the lounge isn't large; in fact, we were the only guests in it during our entire stay, making it a very private experience.
There were several comfortable sofas and chairs, and also an Apple workstation for those needing to borrow a computer.
We were welcomed with a refreshing welcome drink with a pineapple stirrer.
The welcome drink had some carbonation, which I personally don't care for, so I preferred the chilled Evian water, and my family managed to enjoy most of the entire bottle.
There's WiFi in the lounge, with a password provided, and it worked fine for checking emails and some small file uploads.
For kids, there's a small games room, although it's best for older kids. I didn't see any Lego or Kapla blocks as there were at Cheval Blanc Randheli's lounge.
There was, however, chess, so my husband and son enjoyed a game while we waited.
The Verdict
The meet and greet, check-in for the seaplane, transfer to Joali's lounge, and our modest wait in the lounge all went perfectly smoothly, and the air conditioned, tranquil and nicely appointed lounge was an excellent place to wait for our flight. It even had a great view of the water. The only thing I'd have preferred is better food, as the sandwich we received was very underwhelming. We had much higher quality food in the Cheval Blanc Randheli lounge (savory pastries, yogurt, fruit, pastries), although to be fair, the Velaa Lounge (review forthcoming) and Four Seasons Maldives lounges didn't provide much in the way of food either. It was a good thing that I'd brought a salad with me from Doha, which is what we ate while in the lounge.
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