A little piece of paradise.
Apr 9, 2025 Jimmy r United Kingdom
We’ve just returned from a fantastic 2 weeks in one of the Water Villas at Dhigali.
We’d been to the sister island Kuramathi twice before so we’d had experience of The Maldives already and loved it so much we decided they would again be the perfect destination for a 60th birthday celebration.
We were a bit worried that choosing a different…
Read more
We’ve just returned from a fantastic 2 weeks in one of the Water Villas at Dhigali.
We’d been to the sister island Kuramathi twice before so we’d had experience of The Maldives already and loved it so much we decided they would again be the perfect destination for a 60th birthday celebration.
We were a bit worried that choosing a different island would backfire and it would be a letdown somehow but it exceeded our expectations.
From the restaurants and bars to the staff we couldn’t really find fault and the whole holiday was just one highlight after another.
If you’ve been to any of the islands you’ll know what to expect but the surprise for us was how vibrant the reef was. We literally walked down the steps of our villa into the water and were swimming alongside so many species of fish we didn’t know where to look.
A brief rundown of what we saw ( and this is just the highlight reel ) :-
Spinner Dolphins, Grey Reef Shark, White Tip Reef Shark, Black Tip Reef Shark, Tawny Nurse Shark, Feathertail Stingray, Eagle Ray, Hawksbill Turtle, Giant Moray, Cloudy Moray, Zebra Moray, Peppered Moray, Octopus, Lobster, Camoflague Grouper, Titan Triggerfish etc. etc.
We also took a complementary trip to see a huge pod of dolphins and we did the Manta Ray and Turtle reef trip which was well worth it.
The house reef was like a garden in some places with a lot more colour than we’ve come to expect and to drift down the reef with the current through shoals of beautiful fish never got old.
The island is pretty much encircled by an easy access reef with the only restriction being near the docking area.
I must mention something about the service you can look forward to. We went along to the Meet and Greet the day after we got there and met some of the management team including Chris Sarzo, the General Manager ( who is very visible and hands on in a good way ).
We noticed Dhigali had Screw Pine trees and wondered whether they did Screw Pine ice cream in the restaurants like we’d had in Kuramathi and Chris said they didn’t. We said how nice it was and his reply was “we’ll make some for you”.
Obviously we thought he was joking but on the last day we were sat in Faru’s and we were served Screw Pine ice cream for dessert by Chris and his Head Chef!
He apologized and told us it wasn’t made on site as the fruit wasn’t ripe enough on the island but their Front of House Manager Arshad had gone to Male for work purposes and while he was there bought some for us.
I think they relished the challenge and it was all done with tongue firmly in cheek but it was just another thing done to make our stay as memorable as possible and you can be assured every guest gets this level of attention by the wonderful team at Dhigali.
I could go on and on but suffice to say it was going to be our last time in The Maldives but we’re already having a rethink 😊
Read less