Huvafen Fushi — Hotel in Malé Atoll

This was truly a "bucket list" trip of a lifetime, and the Huvafen Fushi property and staff were second to none! Our trip report...||Upon arrival into MLE, we cleared Customs and then found representatives from the Huvafen Fushi resort (a Hilton SLH property) who whisked us into their own private lounge space as we waited for two other couples to arrive so that we could all transfer (via speedboat) on the 30-minute journey to the small island retreat. Everyone we interacted with was so friendly and helpful, we felt so pampered throughout the stay! Luckily the seas were calm, so the boat ride was smooth and uneventful.||Upon arrival to the jetty on the resort island, a contingent of managers and service representatives greeted us and began the introductions of staff and services available on the island. We then met Sidu, who would be our Thakuru (i.e., butler) during our entire stay. He helped coordinate any activities we wished to partake in along with coordinating room servicing, arranging buggy (i.e., golf cart) rides and other special "treats" awaiting us as we celebrated our milestone anniversary. We were then whisked off to our overwater bungalow (number 36) which would be our home for the next week.||To say we were overwhelmed when they opened to the door to our room was an understatement! The space and views were flat-out stunning and we could hardly contain our excitement! We'd been upgraded to a larger suite, situated on the ocean side of the property with a pristine reef just feet from the back steps down into the water. The space consisted of three rooms: living room with glass floor (which lit up at night to watch the sea life swim by), a large bedroom and a spacious bathroom with humongous standup shower, double sinks and a soaking tub facing the ocean / reef. Out back on the deck was our own private plunge pool, two lounge areas with chairs and umbrellas and a private set of steps directly into the water. It was hard to describe the shades of blue in the ocean and the water was crystal clear!||After settling in, we made our way to the main island to get fitted for our complimentary snorkeling gear and then on to the main dining facility called Celsius. This is where we had our daily breakfasts (and a few dinners). We could order off both the regular menu as well as take advantage of a room full of buffet style items which were themed by country (i.e., English, Asian, American) along with fresh breads, fruits, juices, pastries, etc. It was so extensive and decadent! We made sure to try all the other available dining options during our stay including Fogliani’s for wood-fired pizzas / sandwiches and also Salt for Asian-inspired seafood.||While on the island, our main goal was to just chill…and we became pretty good at it! We spent every day in the water either snorkeling the lively reef or in the main (infinity) pool or heavy salt floating pool. Lounging by the water’s edge on our back patio or reading / listening to podcasts or music was also a favorite pastime. Luckily, the weather was very cooperative and we did not experience any rain while there. At night, we dined near dusk and then retreated to our back deck for stargazing and the hopes of seeing a shooting star.||We were also fortunate to be able to take advantage of a few unique experiences during our week at Huvafen Fushi. On Monday night we were one of eight couples invited to partake in a multi-course chef’s tasting menu put on by master chef Setsuo Funahashi. He is a Michelin two-star award winner, and along with his wife they own Nikaku…a famous sushi restaurant in southern Japan. He flew in all of the various fresh ingredients he’d be preparing that evening and between the two of them they prepared and served us an 18-course (that is not a typo!) meal full of artistry and precision that was an absolute joy to watch. The champagne, sake, white wine pairing flight didn’t hurt either. 😉||The next day (Tuesday) we boarded a boat and went out to a remote reef for a guided snorkeling tour. This reef was teeming with sea life, although we really didn’t see anything different (or unusual) than what we were to see right off our own bungalow deck…but it was still a very enjoyable experience.||On Thursday night, we got a “tip” to go out to the jetty and watch the fishing boat come in just after dusk. When we got out there, the entire surrounding water was lit up with bright (underwater) lights and as the vessel pulled into dock we could see a line of sharks following close behind! For those of you with pets…think of walking into the kitchen at mealtime and your faithful sidekick wandering along knowing what was coming next. Not sure if the sharks could smell the fish or knew the motor sounds from this particular craft, but either way they were at the ready! As soon as they shut the motor off and scraps were tossed into the shallow waters, a feeding frenzy ensued! We counted at least ten sharks, mostly black tip reef sharks and one lone nurse shark. Man, that was fun to watch!||On our last full day on the island (Friday), we chose this to be our actual anniversary celebration evening. But before getting to that we had one last trick up our sleeve...an adventure (in their spa) to an underwater treatment space where we’d be getting a couples massage while staring at a reef under the ocean! Supposedly, this is the only underwater spa in the world, so we had to make this part of our bucket list experience. We were ushered out a long walkway to a treatment building with a set of stairs which took us to the bottom of the ocean and our waiting massage beds. The gentle music, fish swimming by and a deep tissue massage made for an incredibly relaxing and thrilling experience. After the treatments, we were given another 20 or so minutes to hang out in a loungey (bed-like) space while we continued our sea life observations while sipping ginger tea and eating a few light snacks. It was heaven on earth.||At dinnertime, we chose to eat once again at Celsius and Sidu came to the bungalow to gather us a last buggy ride to the main island. He accompanied us to the restaurant entrance, but at the last moment directed us away from the main entrance. We were both confused, but quickly understood why…the staff has set-up a romantic beachside table for two, surrounded by candles, and a giant heart and “Happy 30th Anniversary” wish carved in the sand. It was so incredibly thoughtful and special for them to do this for us. Our dinner was lovely with the gentle breeze and the waves lapping just near the table…truly a memorable dining experience!|After dinner, Sidu escorted us back to our bungalow, but there was one last surprise waiting for us. The staff had decorated both our bedroom and the plunge pool with anniversary wishes making for a great ending to one of the most memorable trips we’ve taken together in our married lives.||Our trip back to Male on Saturday morning was bittersweet as we bid farewell to the Huvafen Fushi island and staff. We’ll never forget the hospitality and kindness of everyone we encountered and hope that our paths will once again cross sometime...

My wife and I wrapped up six nights at the Huvafen Fushi earlier this month to celebrate our second anniversary. We had a fantastic time.||First of all to address a recurring theme in reviews, this is an expensive resort, but they are transparent about the costs of everything, including a service charge and government taxes being added to all bills, both as a note at the bottom of each menu/brochure page and ++ next to any price that may be ambiguous, hence the joke in the title, though they’d seriously deserve a sixth star if that was a thing. The menus are available online for all of the restaurants and activities and the pre-arrival team is happy to send copies of whatever you want. I’d encourage anyone concerned about this to use these resources to ensure it’s in line with what they are looking to spend on a vacation. I will add that we felt that the pricing was reflected in the quality of the service and product that we received and would book this trip again in a heartbeat. It also reflects the fact that everything has to be shipped to the island. ||Experience|Starting with the lynchpin of any hospitality operation, the people here are amazing. Everyone at the resort was extremely friendly and seemed genuinely interested in hearing how our day was going, how we slept, how our stay was so far. Writing this, it is the kind of thing that if it seemed perfunctory it would have been exhausting, but everyone was so sincere it added warmth to every interaction. We didn’t run into any issues, but I believe that if we had told anyone from Noel and Ismail, the GM and resort manager who, between the two of them, checked in with us near daily walking around the island or at meals, to the wait staff and housekeepers (Ayaz was the most thorough, efficient, and friendly housekeeper that I’ve ever met) that our stay was anything other than wonderful, the issue would have been promptly resolved to our satisfaction.||Speaking of the experience, I was skeptical of the Thakuru concept going into the trip. Samaah was our Thakuru and was accessible without being overbearing. He facilitated anything we needed at the push of the speed dial on the room phone or by “running into us” around the resort. My wife wanted to go jet skiing, does an hour from now work for her? We are heading out for drinks at the sunset deck and then we’re hoping to have an early night, no problem, housekeeping will be by shortly to turn down the room so it’s ready when we get back. It was like having a concierge but better assigned to us. He took our stay to a next level that we didn’t even know existed. He also helped us get some laundry done on our second to last day and when it didn’t arrive at the originally designated time made a call and got it delivered within 15 minutes, all neatly folded.||Room|We stayed in the “base” room type at the resort, which is a lagoon view overwater bungalow (#24 in our case). Plenty of other reviews accurately describe how excellent the room and its amenities are, so I will just say that the king bed is extremely comfortable, everything in the room works the way it should, and the space is obviously well maintained. Had we not known that the most recent refresh was a couple of years ago, we may have assumed it was just a couple of months ago. Also, the air conditioning in the room worked wonderfully. My favorite part of the whole trip were waking up with the sun and having coffee with my wife on the loungers or in the pool everyday. ||Island|We visited in early June 2025, which was a bit of a gamble weather-wise as it is firmly into the rainy season. But it very much worked out in our favor. We did experience some rain, but it was the tropical variety where it rained for a bit and then blew through quickly enough. It sounds like the week before we arrived it rained quite a lot more. That said, the setting is amazing, the eight minute walk to breakfast each morning from our bungalow turned into a cherished time for us to pause and take in everything around us. We snorkeled in the house reef, found constellations in the sky at night, and loved the pool and beaches around the island.||Airport/Boat Experience|The arrival at Male/Valena was handled as expected. We saw a gentleman with the resort sign once we had collected our bags. We were shown to the resort’s arrival lounge and offered refreshments and a cold washcloth while we were checked in to the hotel. After waiting for someone whose flight arrived twenty minutes after ours, we were shown out to the boat terminal within 30 minutes of collecting our bags. ||The boat ride was quick and we were soon being greeted by the team at the arrivals dock on the island. The arrivals ceremony really set the tone for the rest of our stay. The general manager and resort manager both introduced themselves and members of their team. We were also greeted by our Thakuru who took our backpacks.||The process occurred in reverse with the airport team guiding us and our bags through customs and to the check in counter, leaving us only once our bags were handed off to the airline. The level of service on the way out by the resort porter was unexpected but very appreciated given the semi chaotic state that MLE is in as they prepare for the opening of the new terminal in July 2025. It was certainly reassuring to have him guide us through the terminal.||Activities|My wife enjoyed a spa treatment by Dyan and had nothing but positive things to say. ||From the dive shop, I’d like to express my appreciation for Steve and Navis. My wife and I booked a jet ski excursion, but I was not comfortable with the open water jet skiing. They handled it with grace and good humor, and made sure my wife could continue the excursion once I was back ashore. ||I’d say the only experience that didn’t meet the extremely high level expectations the rest of the trip gave us was the sunset dolphin tour. We did see dolphins, but for the expense we’d have chosen for my wife to have another jet ski trip or massage.||Dining|I don’t know where to start here. The Celsius team for breakfast and dinner is top notch, Chantal, Falaa, and Chifaz were so friendly and welcoming. We had a nice dinner at Salt, definitely an experience, and I thank Anup for recommending the Huvafen Tea Party earlier in the day, it was excellent! The sunset bar was one of our favorite places, the mai tai is...

We spent four nights at Huvafen Fushi in a lagoon bungalow with pool and our stay was pretty near perfect, perfect enough that we’re considering switching our March 2026 trip to stay here again.||We split our stay between Huvafen Fushi and another resort that was within speedboat-distance of Male; our transfer between the two was handled very efficiently. It was a shared transfer, which we knew going in, so I was just hoping that we wouldn’t have to spend a significant amount of time at the airport—and we didn’t. As soon as we got off the boat from the first resort, we were whisked away to Huvanfen’s airport lounge. This was air conditioned, quiet, and we were offered cold water; I wouldn’t want to sit here for hours, but for twenty minutes it was great. We were then taken to the boat and left for Huvafen. When we arrived, our butler Nihan was occupied with other guests, so we were taken to the villa by Sope (spelling?) and met Nihan later that day. Nihan was charming, friendly, and extremely responsive via WhatsApp. We asked for a second yoga mat and some extra water for the bungalow, both of which arrived quickly.||We absolutely loved the bungalow. We had their entry-level room, the lagoon bungalow with pool, and were put in 24. This one was quite far out on the pontoon, which we loved, and had very serene views (no construction). The deck on this bungalow is one of our all-time favorites. There were lounge chairs on a lower level with an umbrella, the private pool was not freezing cold, and the covered Bali bed was absolutely perfect as we’re downright vampiric and need to sit in the shade. The tub in the bathroom was one of the best we’ve experienced—large, but still filled with hot water. Bonus: there were remotes for the shades, which was handy for getting oneself in and out of the tub without flashing the neighbors (there were tremendous lagoon views if you had the curtains up, but on our last day we also had our next door neighbors take up residence right in front of our bathroom so… yay for blinds and a remote control!). There is a very nice separate area with his and her closets and a luggage rack; I love having a place to put the suitcases. There are also Diptyque amenities in the bathroom. My one tip would be to pay attention when your butler explains how to turn all of the lights off—I… did not. I… had many issues getting every single light off when it was time to sleep. The toilet is also far too sophisticated for this American—it had a remote control and it beeped/ran water/made command decisions that had us in gales of laughter.||The food at Huvafen is some of the best we’ve had in the Maldives. We absolutely loved the breakfasts. In addition to a very nice a la carte menu, there was an air-conditioned buffet with a gentleman to cut up fruit for you (he brought me a fruit platter the first morning!), a gorgeous selection of German honeys and jams, hot dishes, and pastries. So, so many pastries. I believe Nihan said Anya was the genius responsible for these; whoever makes the cruffins and the Berliners has my undying gratitude. We also enjoyed lunch at Fogliani’s, although beware that a pizza easily feeds two, there is always a bread basket with little oils and pestos, and it is hot (so snag a seat in front of the fan). We ate three dinners at Celsius and one at Salt; I only wish we’d booked more at Salt. The Italian food at Celsius is superb, which was not something I was expecting (and it was a very pleasant surprise). All of our dinners were by the water’s edge, so we could watch the sharks patrolling as we ate.||Snorkeling… I am a huge fan, but it was quite windy during our stay. I did go on a turtle excursion, which was extremely choppy but good; I also tried snorkeling the drop off from Salt to the pool. It was good, but not great, although it looked like there might be some very nice anemones. Sope warned me not to snorkel off the ocean bungalows as I would go “whoosh” and certainly there was some impressive washing-machine-like action happening there. It was also choppy enough that we did not go into the ocean from our bungalow; there were also quite a few titan triggerfish swimming back and forth there. This is an area that I suspect would be much better in high-season weather… yet another reason to return!||The one area that Huvafen falls a little short in is the beach and walkability. The interior of the island is gorgeous and a manicured jungle (with fruit bats and lizards!) but there are a ton of buggies zipping here, there, and everywhere, making a leisurely walk a bit tricky. We also couldn’t figure out a way to walk around the island on the water’s edge or find a sandy stretch of beach to walk on. There were some patches here and there, but the nicest bit seemed to be in front of the beach villas and it wasn’t overly long. There were some stunning sunsets, however, and we certainly managed to get our ten thousand steps a day in.||The team at Huvafen is lovely, warm, and welcoming. Ikram, our housekeeper, was amazing. We only met him once as he whisked in while we were out to do up the room twice a day. I feel like I should apologize to him for the horrible mess we made each day, but he always put us to rights. The turndown treats at night were also truly a delight—we had macaroons, fresh marshmallows and jellies, and little cookies. Nihan, our butler, was equally great, although he is now legendary in my family circle for his casual “Would you like breakfast delivered to your room before you leave?”… and then he had an enormous spread of fresh juices, pastries, toast, yogurts, bircher, and a fruit platter not only delivered to the room but set up for us at six in the morning. I had had another resort on a previous trip to the Maldives hand me a box with croissants in it, which I thought was nice, but this has set the bar...