Firstly I have to say WOW! Havodda is just stunning! A piece of paradise that we’ve been dreaming about since coming home. It was every bit as good as we hoped and more!
We stayed 9 nights (Nov 8-17), flew direct in economy with BA from Heathrow. Our package was full board but were upgraded to all Inclusive by Trailfinders for booking early. We got a decent deal that sadly we probably won’t get close to again because of Covid times.
Our first time in The Maldives, so bear in mind although we’re well traveled we have nothing to compare this to in these parts. I consider us middle of the road travellers, usually go for cosy 3-4 star hotels and definitely aren’t “butler types”.
The journey: As others have already said it’s a mission getting here, but is it worth it? 100% absolutely! Taking us roughly 16 hours after taking off on the way out and 18 hours on the way back.
But first let’s talk about Male International Airport. This place is awful, one of the worst airports we’ve been to. Expect queues, chaos, pushing in, people kicking off about it and staff just to shrugging their shoulders and that’s even before getting into the terminal.
I realise there’s security risks here but it can be done much better than THIS because we’ve seen it. This is a luxury destination but this airport is anything but. Just prepare yourselves.
Right, that’s my only moan out of the way (Obviously nothing to do with Amari though).
Make sure you fill in the online UMIGA declaration within 96 hours of your flight both directions and have the QR Code handy on your phone (I did a screen grab) they will ask to see it at passport control. We also had our NHS Covid pass but weren’t interested in that. Don’t stress about the visa on arrival (if you’re from The UK) it’s just a passport stamp, doesn’t cost anything, and nobody even mentions it.
Once we collected our bags there was an Amari staff member waiting for us, we had to wait 5 mins for another couple to turn up. Then we were taken to check-in for the next flight and had it all handled for us, a nice touch.
Sadly this was not the case on the way back when we were basically dumped at a queue, with no other info. Another couple who were from Amari went straight through but we ended up drawing the short straw and queueing for an hour to get into the building. Amari management take note; this part of the holiday experience needs some work, it’s still part of our stay until we’re actually on the international flight, so I am judging this as so.
Back to the journey in. We were taken to the lounge, there were free drinks and food but by the time we changed into shorts and freshened up in the toilets we were literally told our flight was boarding. So with a quick sip of our diet cokes we were off again.
Our next flight was 1hr 10m on a much smaller plane. Great views of many islands the whole way. When we landed it we were told it was the first of two stops, luckily this was Havodda’s.
Into the tiny terminal building and there was another Amari staff member waiting for us. He directed us to a golf buggy, we didn’t collect our luggage, they took care of it. There was some waiting around because there were 16 people going on the speed boat to the island and it took two buggies to get everyone there. Life jackets were given out which was good to see.
Check in: We arrived on Havodda after a very speedy 15 min boat ride, in heavy rain which was a shame but it still looked like paradise. After a refreshing drink and a cold towel we filled in a couple of bits on a form. Then we were taken to our room in a golf buggy, I’m not sure if this still happens if it’s not raining but saved us getting wet. It was all so easy. Ayaz our host gave us the room tour.
Our room: WOW! This was honestly the nicest room we’ve ever stayed in. Absolutely superb. Large luxurious bedroom with a spectacular outside bathroom. And this was a standard beach villa without a pool. We needed nothing else and we slept so well here.
After exploring the whole island we realised our Beach villa 322 was in a fastastic location (for us) right next door to the Dive Centre and very private (and quiet), with a bush covered walkway down to a superb stretch of beach.
You have your own sunbeds on the villa terrace (which you can position as you please) which means nobody needs to get up early to reserve them… although unbelievably people still do that around the pool. No idea why.
There’s plenty of USB and British plug sockets in the room. No need for adapters if coming from the Uk.
We were on the Sunrise side, which is much the better side of the island in our opinion. If you’re going for a beach villa make sure you get one on The Sunrise side. The Sunset side is suffering from sea erosion. And in places there’s hardly any beach at all, with quite a few sandbags to tackle this sea erosion. The sea is rougher on that side too and for the 9 days we were there there was only one day calm enough to snorkel on that side, the red flag was almost ever present and it was generally pretty breezy too. I’m sure the water villas are great but I wouldn’t have enjoyed snorkelling off the steps there at this time.
The staff: Without exception absolutely lovely, everyone has a “hello!” or “morning!” in passing and they honestly can’t do enough for you. Also compared to other hotels we’ve been there seems to be enough staff and you’ll never wait more than a minute or two for anything. The service across the board was first class. Unobtrusive but was there as soon as you needed it. Just how we like it.
Food: The best all inclusive food we’ve had anywhere. I’ve seen comments on here about the food being bland. I just can’t understand how anyone could think that! It’s just not that type of food. And even if it’s not spicey enough there’s always all manner of chillis, sauces and condiments to spice it up or give it some extra flavour. The selection is decent without being huge, but is high quality food. Theres a heavily slanted Asian feel (unsurprising considering where it is) We never got bored of it once and always looked forward to meal times.
There were always curries, usually noodles, soups, several meats, fish, breads, potatoes of some kind, vegetables, salad, cakes, pastries and fruit. There’s several cooking stations which changed daily and there was usually a loose theme (without it ever being formally announced). Everything was clearly labelled.
Bar / drinks: A good selection of drinks overall for standard all inclusive, a couple of beers Carlsberg or Lion (which is Sri Lankan). A fair few cocktails and spirits. We were never refused anything and were happy with our choice.
If you’re debating about whether it’s worth going all inclusive over full board, it all depends how much alcohol you’ll drink and how much the upgrade would cost. On our first night we accidentally ordered the bill, thinking we had to sign for the drinks and our 3 small beers and two glasses of sparkling wine came to us$51 which is pretty expensive and would’ve soon added up for us if we were full board.
There’s also a Premium All Inclusive and from what we could tell there was a free cooking lesson with that (the people we spoke to raved about it to be fair) we didn’t think it would be worth paying the extra for us. After our first day, nobody asked for our room number in the bar(s) or the restaurant, they just seemed to know.
Weather: Hot and humid. For sun worshipers the weather wasn’t always the best. It’ll soon become clear why it’s all so lush and green and why the humidity is high. Personally I didn’t mind the frequent heavy downpours, it was good for some snorkelling time too. We had to wait until our third night to actually see a sunset from Thari bar which was a superb experience and highly recommended going there when you can. The weather improved as the week went on, in the last few days I don’t think we had any rain at all.
The island: I’ve seen my fair share of spectacular beaches but this will be the benchmark for all future holidays. Absolutely pristine / stunning and despite the number of people of the island it felt verging empty most of the time. I’m not sure where everyone went during the day! Everything was just so well kept. You just can’t stop taking photos, it’s so photogenic!
The other guests: A real mix, old, young, couples, a few families (the minority really). Lots of Germans, Brits, Scandinavians, Asians and a few Russians but not many. It was actually a really nice mix and everyone was there to chill out. This is a very low key island so any rowdy behaviour would really be noticed. But there was none of that at all.
Wildlife: Mainly birds, lizards, insects and crabs, nothing at all to worry about. There were also some huge fruit bats flying around the trees, very interesting to watch. Weirdly this time I got badly bitten by mosquitoes, I’m not usually bothered by them, I think this was because of the vegetation at the back of our villa. Best to deet up! I was also fascinated by crabs around the villa pathway and around the island in general.
Sealife: I’ll be honest, I’m a nervous swimmer, I can swim but I’ve spent my life avoiding going in the sea in case there’s sharks lurking. So swimming in the sea where there’s 26 types of shark didn’t feel me with confidence. But I have to say I loved it! I just took it easy, the reef starts in the shallows just a few meters off the beach, so there’s no reason to even go out of your depth but you’ll still see loads.
I was in the sea at least a couple of hours a day and nothing caused me (or my girlfriend) any problems. Stay out the way of the Triggerfish if you can though, they don’t seem to realise how small they are, or how big you are in comparison. I’d best describe them as irritable and over confident. You’ll see what I mean. By the way, the sharks completely avoid you, so don’t worry about them at all. Just make sure you take some water shoes with you.
We saw lots of Black tip reef sharks, a couple of Grey Reef Sharks, a baby Manta Ray, a couple of Eagle Rays, a turtle, an octopus, many many fish including a puffer fish, trigger fish and a large aggressive fish that darts out of the at other fish and scares the living daylights out of you when you’re snorkelling, but they do you no harm. Turtles were in short supply contrary to what we’d heard, but there seems to be one living off to the left of the arrival jetty as you face the sea. Even if you don’t snorkel you will still see loads from the beach or jetty’s, so don’t worry at all, you won’t miss out on anything if you don’t swim.
Spa: My girlfriend went to the spa a couple of times and said the treatments were among the best she’s ever had, she came out buzzing after the second one. Not sure what treatments she had but her message to everyone is; go for it it’s worth the money. Apparently if you go in the morning you get more time for your money too.
Tipping: if you want to change for tips at reception, they were happy to change my twenties for $1s. There didn’t seem to be any expectation of tips but I found staff really appreciated them and nice things tended to happen when you did. That wasn’t the reason to tip though, these guys work so hard and absolutely deserve it. It didn’t affect service one way or another, which was always first class. But we tipped Shabnaz “our room boy” who was awesome, and he left us a lovely floral surprise one day, including a bottle of Cava. Was so so nice of him. We also tipped the guys at the bars, there’s a tip box there that I gave them money for.
Overall: Congrats if you’ve made it this far, i never meant this to go on for so long but there’s so much to say about this fantastic island. This is luxury without being over the top. Absolute bliss away from everything. By day 2 you’ll stop bothering with shoes, day 3 you’ll forget what day it is altogether. And like us you’ll probably be dreaming of Havodda the moment you leave this little paradise. We will never forget this place and will definitely return given half the chance. Absolutely awesome on every level. Just book it, you won’t regret it.
Iain, London.
