Dhawa Ihuru

Spent a totally at ease wonderful 10 days at Dhawa Ihuru in March 2025. Many, many other reviewers have already stated what I would say - and they are all correct - a wonderful place of peace and tranquility. However, it is the staff which go over and above to deliver exceptional customer service to make the experience 11 out of 10: Mr Simaad as an attentive, engaged GM Hannah receptionist extraordinaire Eni front of house with Adam as star waiter Nish barman personified Sujith the live BBQ chef and Sunil the live breakfast chef As well as all the other staff more behind the scenes such as housekeeping and gardening Congratulations to all on a job well done.

We spent 12 unforgettable days on Dhawa Ihuru. Our room, equipped with a jacuzzi, was beautiful, but I think all the rooms are equally comfortable and well equipped. All the staff were always extremely friendly and helpful, and if there was a problem, it was solved immediately. We would especially like to mention the General Manager Abdulla, who always looked after the well-being of the guests. The island is a true paradise and the house reef is in excellent condition. We were lucky enough to see numerous sharks - from small to large - as well as thousands of fish, a turtle and many other sea creatures. Dhawa Ihuru has everything you need for a relaxed and unforgettable stay. As for the culinary offering: From freshly squeezed fruit juice to individually prepared egg dishes for breakfast to varied buffets and theme nights in the evening - the food was always a delight. All in all, we can only warmly recommend this wonderful island.

We are on our 7th day out of 9 (first week of March 2025), and we can definitely give a full review about Dhawa Ihuru and how amazing it actually is. Let me preface that before every trip we do extensive research and read lots of reviews, with the goal to get the most out of any location we visit. Our priorities for this trip to the Maldives, were beautiful beaches and amazing reef, and we can certainly say that Dhawa Ihuru has it all! The island is very small, we can walk around it in around 10 minutes, and with around 60 villas, you really get that privacy feeling, each villa has its own piece of beach and there is a lot of privacy between each villas. Currently the resort is almost at capacity and honestly it doesn’t feel crowded at all, which is amazing. The reef is so close to the beach, and there is so much to see, black tip sharks, mantas and turtles every day! The resort is super clean, and the staff is amazing, everybody is super friendly and attentive. There is only one restaurant, which does a la cart food 3 days per week, and 4 days it’s buffet, the food is really high quality, we loved sushi night and the fish was super fresh! While researching we read comments about the sister island, Vabbinfaru, being a bit better, for beaches, and there are daily free boats (4minutes to get on the other island) that bring you there to check it out, we honestly think that Dhawa Ihuru is just better, the beach on Vabbinfaru, while being wider, has many many broken corals both on the beach and on the shallow water, making it a bit uncomfortable to walk around, while on Dhawa Ihuru there are no broken corals and the beach is super clean and comfortable to walk on! If you are looking for a beautiful and green island, with amazing ocean color and crystal clear water, and a top notch house reef, this is definitely a resort to consider, and another big plus, only 25 minutes from Male by speedboat! Each room as we already mentioned has its own beach strip with chairs, swings and trees on the side for privacy! We are in room number 5, which is on the sunrise side, and we really liked it! The sunrise has a narrower beach, compared to the sunset one, but for us, nothing is more beautiful than waking up at 06:30, and seeing the sun rise in front of our villas, so beautiful! Finally, we would like to spend some words on the staff working here, everybody is super friendly and nice, and we would like to thank especially the following staff members for making our stay here truly unforgettable: Eni and Adam, they have been the most amazing waiters one could wish for, very attentive and kind, always with a smile and remembering your names from day one, thank you so much! Sujith, he works at the live cooking station and he is such a nice guy, always having nice conversations while cooking for us, and after a couple of breakfast, as soon as he saw us coming, he was already asking if he could start cooking our “usual” egg dishes! Thank you! And finally the bar staff, Nish, Anu and Afraah, you guys are amazing, unfortunately our drink of choice is Gin and Tonic, so I cannot review other drinks, but they were so nice, so attentive, and always looking if we needed more drinks or snacks, after a couple of days that they saw we loved our gin and tonic, as soon as we walked to the bar and they saw us, they would take a gin bottle in their hand, look at us and smile, thank you guys we really appreciated your service! Last but not least, the guy that cleaned our room (twice per day!), unfortunately I dont remember his name, but man, what a nice person! He was so considerate and polite, learned our routine after just a couple of days, so he was always ready to clean the room while we went for breakfast and lunch! Amazing guy and really sorry I don’t remember your name! For us this resort gets a 10 out of 10, and we will definitely consider it again if we come back to the Maldives! Thank you for this amazing experience, you really deserve all positive feedbacks you get! See you soon, hopefully ❤️

This was my third trip to Ihuru and I'm afraid it had slipped a bit in standards. I had considered it to be my paradise on earth but this year it was slightly tarnished. Firstly, it was much busier, with the majority of clients seeming to be Russian. I was sent several texts asking me to fill in electronic forms before I arrived, all of which information they already had. I was given the villa I had requested with a sunset view but the paintwork and furniture is becoming worn. Although sunny and hot, it was very windy and currents in the water were very strong. The weather pattern does seem to be changing, according to the local staff. This meant that I had to ask every time to have a table set on the terrace rather than eating inside the restaurant. The staff said the Russians consider it too windy to eat outside. I felt that the staff found it a bit of a nuisance that a few of us wanted to eat out there - but for me it is a rare pleasure to be able to eat all meals outside by the sea. There is very little live coral left and the reef is smashed, probably by the waves, although there are still plenty of fish. I really noticed a difference from last year. There is also lots of building work visible: new island resorts being formed out of dredged sand. What a shame. So, this is still a beautiful and quiet desert island but not quite as perfect as it used to be.

This was my 5th visit to the Maldives and 1st visit to Dhawa Ihuru. The island is a gem with excellent house reef for snorkelling, great food, great service in a restaurant ( there is even a man dedicated to making a fresh juice of your choice at breakfast). wonderful beach and peaceful atmosphere. I especially appreciated the quick transfer from the airport. I was on the island within 30 min of arrival from Abu Dhabi! I also had very good massages at the Spa. Island is also a home to little “ water hens” birds and bats. The management take all complaints very seriously and resolve issues promptly. I had an issue with the room location and it was resolved to my satisfaction, promptly. I have to mention is that the windy side of the island has almost no beach, just sandbags. If you do not request a room on non windy side then your experience of the island maybe very different. Also , just for the record, there are several “ new” islands being constructed on one side of Dhawa Ihuru. Not disturbing at all, no noise, but not very pretty to look at. Overall, this is a very good value for money resort , close to Male , with excellent snorkelling opportunity , excellent service and management and great food. It is definitely the one to visit again!