Alexandra G
Reviewed: 4 months ago
5/5
We just came back from this resort and are already planning our next vacation at the same place. ||We stayed for two weeks in a standard beach villa and liked everything, the most important for us being the house reef. ||The house reef: simply outstanding, daily encounters with the sharks, turtles, whole families of the eagle rays, porcupine and boxfish, moray eels and so on. We enjoyed snorkeling at least twice a day and were never disappointed.||The food : simple but good, with Italian influence. One could find pizzas and pasta at a daily basis (pasta with speck and safran sauce is my favorite). Every day the resort changes the theme of the diner, my favorite being Maldivian, we had it twice during our stay. Live barbecue with meat and fish, live naan station (just excellent) as well as other dishes from all around the world. We also booked the lobster dinner, while being a bit too expensive, it was one of the best we had so far. The Chef prepared an excellent lemon butter sauce that was just perfect for the lobster, highlighting its delicate taste. Thanks to the General manager Jaco we also had one diner at the a la carte water villa restaurant, we liked a lot the romantic setting, lounge music, service and of course the food. ||The excursions: we went on a whale shark excursion and were lucky to see two different of them. In our sixth’s time in Maldives it was the first encounter, what a beautiful experience ! We also went on the night sharks snorkeling and had seen at least 30 friendly nurse sharks of different size, it was impressive and beautiful. Finally, we went on manta safari and unfortunately haven’t seen any, but we will try again the next year. ||The resort also organizes the house reef snorkeling excursions twice a day (free of charge) with the marine’s biologists. If you are not a confident swimmer and/or would like to know better the marine’s life, I highly recommend to give it a try. ||The shop: I loved this shop. While being quite expensive, which is usual for the Maldives, it offers very original and colorful clothes and don’t forget that there is a professional dressmaker that can make them to your size from the fabric you select. What I particularly liked is that no one is forcing you into buying, but everyone is always available for help. ||Animation: not very loud, which we like. We had a couple of karaoke nights, marine quiz, music quiz, couple of aperitifs with the management. Gabriela, that also works for an Italian travel agent, is an excellent singer, we found her on YouTube and Spotify and sincerely wish her the best of success. ||Service : everyone was very nice, starting from reception, restaurant, spa, water sports, shop, cleaning personnel. I first wanted to mention particular names but it would be unfair for the rest of the team.||General atmosphere : we met very nice people from Austria, Italy, Poland and had a great time. ||Thank you so much, Athuruga, and we hope to see you next year!
