Beautiful Reef, exceptional staff, great food. A little piece of paradise in the Maldives, we had an amazing time even though the weather was not great.Nasoch our waiter went above and beyond, we will miss him and also our lovely waiter at the Buffett restaurant Ramoach ( so sorry about the spelling 😞) everyone was amazing 😍 thank you so very much for making our special holiday so wonderful.

A little dated

We just came back from this resort and are already planning our next vacation at the same place. We stayed for two weeks in a standard beach villa and liked everything, the most important for us being the house reef. The house reef: simply outstanding, daily encounters with the sharks, turtles, whole families of the eagle rays, porcupine and boxfish, moray eels and so on. We enjoyed snorkeling at least twice a day and were never disappointed. The food : simple but good, with Italian influence. One could find pizzas and pasta at a daily basis (pasta with speck and safran sauce is my favorite). Every day the resort changes the theme of the diner, my favorite being Maldivian, we had it twice during our stay. Live barbecue with meat and fish, live naan station (just excellent) as well as other dishes from all around the world. We also booked the lobster dinner, while being a bit too expensive, it was one of the best we had so far. The Chef prepared an excellent lemon butter sauce that was just perfect for the lobster, highlighting its delicate taste. Thanks to the General manager Jaco we also had one diner at the a la carte water villa restaurant, we liked a lot the romantic setting, lounge music, service and of course the food. The excursions: we went on a whale shark excursion and were lucky to see two different of them. In our sixth’s time in Maldives it was the first encounter, what a beautiful experience ! We also went on the night sharks snorkeling and had seen at least 30 friendly nurse sharks of different size, it was impressive and beautiful. Finally, we went on manta safari and unfortunately haven’t seen any, but we will try again the next year. The resort also organizes the house reef snorkeling excursions twice a day (free of charge) with the marine’s biologists. If you are not a confident swimmer and/or would like to know better the marine’s life, I highly recommend to give it a try. The shop: I loved this shop.

We liked everything.

This place was an absolute paradise. The food was amazing. The staff, and people were absolutely amazing, kind, thoughtful, attentive. I have already booked directly with them and not Booking.com as they disclose certain fees that have already complained about

There is not much to dislike about the property. Everything was lovely however the two things I would highlight is that the woke left Maldivian government charge you an extra $12 per day for unnecessary environmental tax, so be wary of that. Secondly the sea plane has a limit of 25 kg inclusive of hand luggage, I was slightly over and had to pay $34 extra which in fairness was for the return journey as well $17 each way. Just be cognisant of that.

The location, facilities and nearly all the staff were wonderful.

A few staff in the dining room did not pay any attention to me until I pointed out that I was being discriminated against. The manager then apologized and got his staff to treat me on par with all the other guests. I appreciated this prompt and positive attention to my concerns.

This our 4th trip to Athuruga and it was wonderful. Generally most staff remembered us. Food is very good, mostly Italian to suit clientel, but with themed nights (e.g. French, Asian, Maldivian). Fresh juice every morning and charcoal live grilling station is A+ (Titu's fish and beef especially). Junior suites has additional day sofa bed in the room and WiFi included (which normal beach villa does not). Rooms also have two wardrobes with lots of hangers which is super nice. Night turndown service is good to change towels and sweep floor sand at end of the day etc. as some other resorts do not provide this. House reef on both sides of the island, but corals have not survived climate change :(, especially compared to last year. But still lots of fish with the potential for eagle, manta and stingrays plus lots of hunting tuna, moray eels and the odd octopus. The marine biology team there are also trying to replenish the corals. Snorkelling gear, kayaking, SUP and daily yoga is all included. Dive centre is amiable to requirements and requests for specific dive sites. Would come back again!

Junior suite layout is inconsistent, one of our rooms had a full day sofa bed and table, the other had 2 sofa chairs only and a coffee table. Bathroom wash basin water was very smelly, especially first use in the morning (although this has never happened before). Snorkelling masks are good, snorkelling fins need an upgrade but still usable. You are at the mercy of TMA for sea plane transfer and can wait between 1-5hrs for your sea plane flight based availability and delays (this is based on multiple trip experiences). Limited variety of non-alcoholic mocktails, would have liked a sweet wine option too. Wish fresh juice was available all day. And need an exhaust fan for charcoal grilling station for the chefs health.

Athuruga was everything we had hoped for an more from start to finish. We stayed in the Junior Suite on the island, as well as the water bungalows over the duration of our stay and both were great accommodations with their own perks. The house reef is very large, with a diversity of wildlife and the marine lab on the island has done a great job at preserving the beautiful coral gardens. We saw lots of fish, nurse, white and black tip reef sharks, rays, turtles, you name it! We went diving a few times and the dove spots the school offer were all amazing, including Shark Thila and Maadu Faru corner, which were something very special. If you like diving, the night dive on the house reef is also not to be missed, the nurse sharks are very friendly! What gives this island it’s ‘extra’ factor is the people. The team are all really wonderful: kind, friendly, helpful, open and authentic. A special thanks to Abdullah and Mohammed from the restaurant for making every meal an occasion for laughter, Marco and Adam from the dive school for such an all around awesome time, all of the reception team for their help and Nivo from the spa for an amaazing massage.

My only recommendations would be to increase the vegetarian options, and to put out tip boxes for the reception / general staff / boat crews etc.

From the welcome to the goodbye, the staff of Thudufushi has been excellent! There were smiles and amazing service all the time. The food is fresh and really good: as most of the guests are Italian, there is pasta and pizza, but I really loved the local cuisine (Maldivian and Sri Lankan). We had a superior beach bungalow, and the open shower was favourite: I kept looking at the sky and palm trees over me when showering... The island is well kept, and the coral and marine life is really good! I also liked the fact that this is not a party island and you really relax and connect with nature. My 3rd time at the Maldives and hopefully not my last.

Unfortunately, in order to reach the island, there is only the Maldivian plane service (MTA if I'm not mistaken). Not only it is expensive, but there is no control over the time for your pick up (on our way back, we arrived back at Malè 6 hours before our flight) and no air conditioning nor working ventilation.

Was beautiful.. a fantastic n spectacular place in the indian ocean. We got to experience hot sunny days to dark stormy surrounds with turquoise blue seas all around. Beach bungalows so lovely with the sounds of light crashing waves a few feet away. Water villas looked almost unreal against the blue seas n sky. Waking up to the seas surrounds we wished we didn't gave to leave LOLZ. It's strange but even when its stormy, it's vista was panoramically lovely. Fantastic house reefs ez swim n snorkel. You can see pikes white tips n nurse sharks sting rays swimming around by the beach. Lots diff n colorful fishes n the turtle always come around the reefs. Special thanks to Upul n Phia for the lovely upgrades. Beautiful rooms comfy soft beds decorated at the jr suite n the welcome champagne fruits were nice. Staff here were courteous polite n displayed excellent attitude in hospitality, esp Phia Upul Sabari Danath Anaz Naish etc most we didn't get their names. The guys at the bar were quick n efficient in making your favorite drinks esp Sabari who'd recommend n explain concoctions. Food was very good with head chef Fernando always smiling n checking that we enjoyed the food. Love the tuna n reef fish sashimi, ceviche n carpaccio. And those juices n tropical fresh fruits were so refreshing. Watersports guys were friendly..had a great snorkeling time with nurse sharks at 8.30pm with Miriam n Erip. Today it's my husband birthday, let's see what they have in store for us😊. I booked a jol in the Maldives to celebrate him😍 Would love to come here again with our girls and their husbands.

Only thing were the towels n robes at water villa looked old n couple of towels were frayed n rough. Definitely not as new fresh n soft as those in beach bungalow. We thought it should have been much better since the water villas cost much more. Juices n cocktails all very good. Except the wines not as good. But then we came fr Australia with fantastic wines..so it could be subjective to diff taste buds LOLZ

Staff were amazing, food was also amazing. Snorkelling over the reef was like being in a huge aquarium, just magic. We had an overwater villa, so comfortable, clean and loved waking up to our water view and coffee on the balcony.

Nothing

It truly is a beautiful, natural, friendly island. Hugely Italian influenced food which I think is a huge win. The pasta options, pizza and other stuff they offer every day, changes of course but is always delicious. Breakfast is amazing too. Fresh fruit drinks. We’ve had so much fresh orange! The sea life is wildly, the reef is still so colorful. The free group snorkeling twice a day, just perfect. We celebrated our baby boys 1st birthday day there and they staff treated him and us so well. As did the guests. It was a perfect holiday. We’ve been since 2002, 5 different islands and we have finally found our go to. Next year 100% we will be back. Once you know the Maldives, you know that the little things make the difference, the natural steps changed the beaches because of seasonal rinds caused some islands to put break waters in. Not this place, it’s truly natural. You can walk the whole way round, in the water in 15 minutes. It’s tiny, no paths really, the paths are just walking through the trees and it’s just perfect in that sense too. I could go on and on. Great little island.

The only negative and they know it and are doing something soon is the rooms could do with a spruce up, but it’s not at all a problem and I personally enjoyed the style. True beach villa retreat with a nice little outside bathroom too.