Diamonds Athuruga Maldives Resort & SPA

25 years after our honeymoon we decided to return to Athuruga. This is just an amazing experience to visit this beautiful island, you get a transfer from Male Airport via seaplane where you get views from above of islands dotted about in the Indian Ocean on your way to the South Ari Attol where Athuruga is located. From the minute you step onto this island you’ll realise you are in paradise!! You are treated exceptionally by all the friendly staff from the moment you step off your seaplane where you are met by your welcome team ( we were met by Gabrielle who was fantastic with us throughout our whole stay) right through to management, chefs, waiters, bar staff, water sports team and entertainment staff ( Jadda has the most amazing singing voice). The accommodation we had was a beach bungalow with private outside shower, personal sunloungers to use on beach or at the waters edge if you wish? The room is immaculate and maintained twice daily, mini bar is replenished daily also with water, soft drinks and beer. We stayed in a water bungalow on our last 2 days where we had our own steps into the blue crystal water only a couple of metres away from the beautiful Coral Reef where you can snorkel with clown fish (Nemo) needle fish, angel fish among many others, black tipped sharks, eagle rays and turtles. The quality of the water bungalow experience is very high and you can enjoy breakfast delivered and set up at your own table on your private decking. The water sports range from paddle boarding, canoeing, catamaran sailing, wind surfing, guided snorkelling round the island reef and scuba diving centre, all run by knowledgable/friendly instructors. The food is very varied with a different theme every night ranging from Italian, Chinese, BBQ, Mexican to Local Maldivian nights. The quality of food whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner is to a very high standard and is delicious and cooked by extremely talented/friendly chefs. Our waiter (now friend!) Mohammed served us for the duration of our stay and was extremely professional and friendly and it was a pleasure to get to know him and chat about our respective families/lifes with each other. Make sure to get up early at least 1 morning to see the sunrise and watch the eagle rays and sharks play at the waters edge feet away from you… it’s breathtaking! Sunsets are just as good! You can make your holiday as relaxing or busy as you want with excursions available to fisherman’s island (free of charge) which is a local Maldivian island you travel to by Dhoni boat where you can purchase some hand crafted gifts to take home! You can also take trips to spot dolphins, manta rays and sharks and even snorkel with them if you wish and you will find these are at a reasonable cost. We must give a special mention to the following people who all made our return experience one we will treasure…. Personal waiter: Mohammed Entertainment/Welcoming: Gabrielle and Jadda Bar: Sabba Scuba Diving Centre: Philip and Jessic

To give this review an accurate account, I would like to point out that my wife and I have been travelling to the Maldives for 29 Years and made 24 visits to 13 different islands, so we have some idea of what to expect. Regarding Athuruga this visit was our seventh, but with a 20 yr gap between our last visit and this one. Yes things change over 20 years and people change too. But Athuruga was always our happy island and that for our last trip to the Maldives was the reason we chose it. So let’s do the review…..we arrived at the airport and no one from Athuruga was visible, we eventually asked someone if they could contact the island representative which they did and five minutes later someone appeared. Seaplane luggage sorted we were transported to a lounge in the new sea plane terminal, I can’t remember the name I think it was something like Nooni, it was the worst lounge I have ever been in, in the Maldives, not clean and everything had to be bought. Our seaplane flight was relatively quick and we were at Athuruga within 35 minutes. We were taken to our room a junior suite number 41, it was in a position on the beach where we have stayed before but the room had been updated to a suite. We will start with the issues…and our views The room was a bit tired and not really very functional with very few drawers but two wardrobes and not many coat hangers. The flooring was a bit messy and looked unfinished and some of the skirting boards didn’t quite fit correctly leaving holes onto the walls. The loungers on the beach were quite dangerous with the corrosion on them pictures below Our first room boy as not very good, he didn’t clean the room very well and he didn’t change the bedding when he was supposed to after three days but apparently he claimed it was our fault for not asking him to, but the reception staff had stated bedding would be changed every three days. I went to reception and pointed out the bedding hadn’t been changed, they agreed it should have been and made a phone call, we heard nothing then until the next morning when we had a new room boy, no apologies or anything but at least the bedding had been changed. Our major complaint was with regards to the dining room the display of food for breakfast was appalling not very much at all. You could order an omelette with beans and bacon but the omelette was cold because the chef cooked the omelette then put it on a cold plate whilst he warmed the beans up in a frying pan and warmed the pre cooked bacon on the grill, by the time the beans were warm and the bacon the omelette was cold and pretty soon it was all cold. This also applies to lunch and to evening meals everything was cold or at best like warm, the food on display on the boat centre didn’t appear to have heating under them and didn’t always go with one another and very few choices. This was a shame as the cooking stations made very tasty food but it was always cold or luke warm, in 10 days I only had one meal that was warm. Let’s

This is unusual for me, as I'm writing this review whilst still at Arthuruga. The reason being that the weather is unfortunately so bad and I have time on my hands. This is our seventh visit to the Maldives and our 9th resort. Arthuruga is a beautiful island, small intimate,with a real remote feel. No groynes etc to spoil the view. It has many strengths and a couple of weaknesses. The reef here is stunning, the coral is beautiful a real joy to see it so healthy and colourful. A plethora of fish plus Sharks, Rays and Turtles. The food has been outstanding, from the buffet to the over water restaurant, absolutely delicious and so many options. The chef's really go above and beyond and we truly feel that it is incredibly important to them to achieve perfection and they certainly have, Thank you !. The staff !! Well I don't know if it's just luck, but we have always had lovely staff in The Maldives and Arthuruga has been no exception. Everyone has been so polite, so friendly and it's really made our holiday special and although we never like to return to an island, Arthuruga has definitely touched our hearts. I cannot think of the names of all the staff , I have a thing with names !! But from the chef's, wait staff Raushan and Nasoch, I hope I have spelt them correctly , forgive me if not,The bar staff, our wonderful room attendant Nazeer who rescued us on a stormy night and the lovely young man who has driven us in the buggy in the unruly weather, we thank you all, and all the staff who work so hard just maintaining everything, well done you really are a credit to the resort and you definitely make it the special place it is. We are in a water suite, it's very large and has a wonderful panoramic deck, you can see for miles on a good day. The bed is large and comfortable, plenty of closet space. We were hot overnight when we first arrived and mentioned this at the cocktail party to Jaco and his wife and as if by magic a lovely big fan was in our room when we returned, Thank you so much. Arthuruga is not a ultra modern swish resort, there are no TV'S, no super duper technology. The rooms are a bit jaded and yes you can see that it is an older resort and I hope that in time this is brought up to the standard of the overall quality of everything else. Now as I said at the beginning of this review, the reason for me writing it now is unfortunately the weather. We have had literally the worst weather we have ever had and we always visit in June July or August. Obviously the weather is not the resorts fault, it's just a real shame and rather disappointing as we are unable to sit on our beautiful deck of fear of being swept away! I hope tomorrow,our last day is kind and we see the sun and no gale force winds 🤞but I think alas we will be disappointed. But as our time at Arthuruga comes to an end, we have had a truly beautiful time, brilliant sunshine for the first 2 days, a wonderful romantic meal on the beach, which we really appreciated, it was so amazing