Dhawa Ihuru is a small, authentically Maldivian island, with an old school vibe. It’s chilled, quiet, friendly and very beautiful with a well established and beautifully tended interior. We’ve been visiting the Maldives for 20 years and come most years, and it’s one of the prettiest we’ve visited.
This will be a fairly in depth review, as mine always are, so I will break it down into topics so you can skip forward if you want to.
ARRIVAL & CHECK IN
Ihuru is just a short 25 min speed boat transfer from Male, so you can expect to be at the resort fairly quickly after clearing immigration. We were lucky enough to be seated in business class so we were first off the plane and when we entered the immigration hall it was empty, so swiftly through, bags collected and outside with the island rep within about 30 mins of exiting the plane.
He escorted us to the dockside and asked us to wait, while he collected a further two couples.
Ihuru shares much with its sister island Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru, and so once we had everyone on board (a short wait of around 15-20 mins) we headed off to the islands. First stop was Ihuru, where we and another couple disembarked before the boat headed to BTV with the final two passengers.
I had asked my agent (Simply Maldives) to check with the resort whether we would be able to have access to the room, and whether the all inclusive package would start immediately we arrived. Some island are more rigid than others, insisting on the midday to midday rule. Ihuru confirmed that the all inclusive would be active from arrival (perhaps since we would be leaving immediately after breakfast on our final day), but were non-committal about the room availability.
Sure enough, upon arrival (11:30am) we were advised that our room would not be ready until 2pm. I confess, having spent the last 24+ hours awake this was not the news I was hoping for! It would have helped if it had been explained that the reason we couldn’t have access was because they had honoured my request for a room within a particular area (room 9 to 26), and that the allocated room was either still occupied, or uncleaned. Unfortunately the only info that was given was ‘not available until 2pm, but please have a drink and lunch when the restaurant opens’. We were offered a room where we could change, but having already changed into shorts on the plane, and actually really wanting a shower and to unpack, we declined.
After lunch reception informed us that the room was ready and escorted us round.
ROOM
We were allocated room 9, within the range I had requested, and were very happy with its location – thank you Ihuru!
My research had suggested that the better snorkelling was to be had on the East side of the island heading to the North side, and that the erosion would likely be less at this time of year. Indeed the reef was very close to the shore, and the beach was fairly wide and very beautiful. Very happy!
The room was a bit dated. It’s clear that this is an older resort (23 years), although it has been maintained fairly well and is undergoing a soft refurb. It will be another year or so until it is fully complete. The communal areas are fresh, and approximately 1/3 of the rooms have been completed, we understand that a further 1/3 will be completed during low season in 2024, our room was not one of those that had been updated.
The room is fairly large, but pretty dark. The furnishings are dark wood, and some of the colours used are of darker hues. However, for us it’s not about room aesthetics so much as ambience, snorkelling and food (more on that later!). There were a few annoying things about our room, one was that the wardrobe was tiny, just a single one for two people, and the door was both creaky and required a firm shove to persuade it to close fully, which it complained about loudly! If not closed fully it obstructed the front doorway. There were plenty of drawers though.
It took us some searching to find the room safe, again I feel reception fell a little short here, there was no orientation of the room like we’ve experienced on other islands. Of course, how much orientation do you need…?!
The bathroom leads me to the other two rather annoying décor decisions; the door to the bathroom is frosted glass and it’s opposite the wardrobe / dressing area. When a person is using the sink, or the loo, they are clearly visible to anyone standing in this area, albeit as a slightly fuzzy shape. So there is little privacy if this concerns you.
The final annoyance is the shower. Whoever designed this needs their sanity checking! There is a large bamboo pipe angled to deliver a skull rattling stream of water directly to your head. It’s deafening, splashes water ALL over the rest of the bathroom and is pretty useless at actually delivering water that you can clean yourself with. There is a traditional shower head, although it is attached to the side of the shower ‘tower’, thus making it impossible to use in situ, you have to hold it with one hand, whilst single handedly showering – unless you can convince your travel partner to hold it for you.
BEACH
When we arrived we were thrilled with our location. The garden area outside the villas at Ihuru all benefit from a goodly amount of privacy and a view directly out to the ocean. They all have a traditional Maldivian swing, a round canopied double day bed along with two beach loungers. There is no shade for the beach loungers, so if you prefer to sit in the shade (as we do) you need to utilise the shade from the bushes. At room 9 we only had full sun on the loungers for a very short time during the day, so that suited us perfectly. However, needing to sit close to the vegetation puts you within striking distance of all the biting insects that live there – and they can be ferocious! Within 2 days of arriving I was covered in bites from both mosquitoes and sand flies. Take DEET and use it liberally if you favour the shade, and pack some antihistamines because the biters aren’t always stopped by the DEET.
When we arrived we noticed that there were some ongoing works to a couple of villas at the north end of the island, and that some work was being done to the sand-bag groynes; they appeared to be undergoing repair. But, part way through our second week we noticed that two new groynes had appeared along the beach outside some higher numbered rooms (around No15 or so) and then one morning we opened our blinds to find a dozen workmen, a pile of sandbags and various items of tools directly in front of our beach loungers. As you might imagine we were not at all happy about this discovery, and whilst I fully understand their need for them, a simple note under the door to tell us of the work would have taken much of the sting out of it. Thankfully the work was all concluded by lunchtime, and after a complaint from us the hotel did (multiple times) apologise for not communicating with us better. In fact they were very gracious, offering us a choice of complimentary experiences way in excess of the inconvenience caused by a morning’s unannounced construction. We were a little embarrassed to accept any of these ‘gifts’ but ultimately at their insistence we accepted a 60 min couples massage at the spa. Which leads me to…
SPA
The spa is situated in the centre of the island, and was surprisingly large. We were lead past multiple treatment rooms, to the very end one which was a large glass cube in a secluded garden area. The massage was amongst some of the best we’ve had in the Maldives, very serene, relaxing and the ladies (Vita and Clara) were excellent – I really didn’t want to leave the table and resume ‘normal holiday life’! As this was a complimentary treatment I can’t comment on VFM, but it was most enjoyable.
FOOD & BEVERAGES
This is one of the areas where Ihuru excels!
Without exception the teams in the restaurant and bar are excellent and are a credit to the resort. They seamlessly manage the efficiency of service, coupled with a friendly, chatty demeanour which is both warm and genuine.
Food, for this price point, is also really very good. There was always plenty of choice for us on the buffet, highlights for us were the BBQ grilled tuna at lunchtimes, the eggs Benedict / Royale at breakfast, almost all the desserts (especially the baclava) and the Mas Huni at Maldivian BoduBeru night was outstanding! Three times a week there is an a la carte menu, the waiting team will take your order at lunchtime, and it consists of 4 courses, one of which is soup. We found this set up to be the weaker offering, I think perhaps because with everyone seating themselves at approximately the same time, the wait team actually has a lot more to do, both bringing dishes out and clearing plates. With a normal buffet they of course simply clear away and guests help themselves. Whilst it was very nice to have a change and your meals served, we found it quite slow and the food was barely warm at times.
Special mention needs to go to Afaag and Liu, thank you for making our mealtimes something to really look forward to, and for all the giggles along the way.
The bar team are equally great, and the all inclusive menu was fairly good. It’s a very pleasant change to see sparkling wine included, and at Ihuru you can choose between a Cava and a Brazilian Rose, both very enjoyable. The included wines were also good, far better than at some resorts we’ve visited over the years.
I personally found the cocktail list a little limited, that is probably just my personal taste, and I would liked to have seen some kind of digestiv included.
Special mention to Hannan, who always greeted us with a warm smile and a cold glass of something!
In the centre of this island, between the bar and the restaurant, is something called The Nest. It’s a covered area which is open 24/7 where you can grab a machine coffee, tea, small snack or soft drink, and I believe there is some ice available too.
SNORKELLING
I fear this is where I need to deliver some disappointing info…
We, like many others, had picked Dhawa Ihuru expressly because of its reputation for an outstanding reef, and indeed they do have one. There are some great corals which have avoided some of the worst of the bleaching, and some large patches of new growth. The reef is also pretty ‘fishy’, and around exit 4 in particular there was always a large group of red toothed trigger fish and we regularly saw fairly large reef sharks and a turtle.
We were disappointed by the visibility along the north eastern side (better side) of the reef, and initially put this down to seasonal conditions. However, it transpired that a large dredging vessel had started reclaiming sand a month or so earlier, and much of the sediment in the water was caused by that. Indeed on our second day it was clearly visible and looming large on the near horizon. This vessel is working 24/7 for the foreseeable, as there are several lagoons being ‘reclaimed’ into islands in the surrounding area, it was visible to us almost everyday. The visibility was not the only problem with this, the noise of the dredging carries clearly in the water, diving below just a short way it’s incredibly loud! I can’t imagine how this is affecting the larger species, dolphins in particular who rely so much on audible communication. Often we would abandon a snorkel on the eastern side, turn around and snorkel the western side instead. The western side we found less interesting, less fishy, but it was quiet, we could actually hear the fish and the visibility was much better. This will of course change with the tides and the location of the dredger.
We did in fact talk about this dredging with both the GM and the marine & sustainability expert, they are both extremely unhappy about this vessel’s presence, had been included in the consultation period before works commenced. Both voiced their objections and suggested an alternative that would minimise the impact for all surrounding reefs and not just their own. Neither was listened to by the Maldives EPA, and so sadly it remains. The resort is doing some very splendid work in marine conservation, they have a whole programme for farming corals which show better tolerance for higher temperatures, nurturing them and then replanting on both Ihuru’s and Vabbinfaru’s reefs. There are regular clean ups of both reefs, and in fact we didn’t spot one single piece of rubbish on it. Of course the odd thing washes up on the beach occasionally (and is swiftly cleaned away), but the reef itself is spotless; very rare so they are clearly working very diligently on this.
During our chats with the GM he mentioned that he would like us to have the opportunity to see one of the completed refurbished rooms, and in fact true to his word showed us one a day or so before we left. The changes are small, the biggest is the new wardrobe arrangement which is much better. I will include some photos with the review.
ENTERTAINMENT
Entertainment is very low key at Ihuru. At first we really liked this, but in actuality it meant that most folks left the bar by about 9pm so the ambience was a bit lacking at times. A few nights a week there is music or a disco, and of course BoduBeru night, which we always enjoy and the folks at the resort put on a very enthusiastic display. Disco night was quite good fun, the music was chosen well and the volume was loud enough, without being too intrusive. However we didn’t enjoy the live music duo at all. I can’t fault their talent, but the choice of songs needs to include something a bit more lively please!
Apparently there is a talk once a week from the marine biologist and you can also join the reef cleanup team if you want to. However, this was never pointed out to us (another check-in orientation fail) and so we joined neither. As I understand it, the talk is held mid-afternoon, which seems like a daft time to me as everyone is either on the beach or snorkelling.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
Ihuru is a charming island, and there is a great deal to love about it. However its location, the current works which almost surround it and their detrimental effect on snorkelling,
means we will likely not repeat a visit in the near future. The island is one of those rare gems that has a soul that is hard to find in the Maldives, being an older island, its lush and well established and the guest facing staff really make the experience something special. There is an authentic feel to your experience here, which I put down to their continuity of staff, many of whom are Maldivian and not foreign nationals. They are able to provide that special something that only folks ‘at home’ can do. The GM too is Maldivian and his passion for both Ihuru and Vabbinfaru was plain to see.
For those concerned, the wifi is robust around the whole island and reaches well to the beach.
A final note about those who may be adverse to sandbags, groynes and all things sea walls. The method chosen by Ihuru to deal with the ever present shifting of sand, is a reusable system of temporary sand seawalls. They’re a bit on the ugly side, but the method is good I think. Trenches are dug and lined with netting, the sand from the trenches is placed in biodegradable sand bags which are stacked inside the netting, which in turn is ‘knitted’ together to hold the structure in place. These groynes are in place on the eastern side of the island during the high season, then they are dug up, the sand replaced in the trench and the empty bags and netting reused on the western side during low season. So the walls are temporary, there is no longer any degraded strands of plastic on the beach or in the sea, and sand is kept more or less in situ.
I’ve struggled to give this visit an appropriate score from the 5 available with Trip Advisor. Our holiday was somewhat tarnished by the presence of the dredging vessel, but I feel that it’s unfair to mark the resort down for that; they are as unhappy as we were and they can do little about it. What they do control is done well, with the exception of an oversight in communication (which was well recovered) and a bit of a poor orientation on arrival, the resort is a gem with a great F&B offering from both content and staff. I think my personal rating would be ⅗, but a fairer rating would be ⅘. Since TA won’t allow half numbers, we will go with 4!
