[Maldives] Review: Anantara Dhigu Maldives Resort

Touchdown in Maldives! I just came back from a week in paradise and I wanted to share my review of the first resort we stayed at - Anantara Dhigu Maldives Resort! Choosing which resort to stay at in Maldives is the hardest choice you'll have to make because that basically determines what your vacation will be like. For us, we had a few criteria that helped us narrowed down that search:

1) Accessible by speedboat - since our flight from Hong Kong to Maldives via Cathay Pacific arrives at night, we wanted a resort that was accessible by speedboat because seaplanes are only available during day time and we didn't want to spend a night in Male. 

2) Surf breaks - J loves to surf so we were looking for a resort that offered surfing and preferably with a surf break close to the hotel. 

That pretty much helped us narrow our choice down to Anantara and once we decided on that, we had to choose between staying at Anantara Dhigu or Anantara Veli which are sister properties located right next to each other - the biggest difference between the two is that Veli is a couples-only resort while Dhigu is family-friendly. You may think it's a no-brainer for us to choose Veli but after looking at pictures and reviews online, I decided to stay at Dhigu because the overwater villas at Dhigu looked much nicer and once I was there to check it out in person, I was glad that I made that choice. It's not that the villas at Veli wasn't nice but some of the villas there are located really close to the beach and right next to the boat jetty which can be rather noisy and lacks in privacy. At the end of the day it may not matter that much because you are free to roam between the two resorts as you wish so you can enjoy the best of both worlds regardless of where you stay.

We were at Anantara for 4 nights and stayed at two different types of rooms - Beach Villa and Over Water Suite. Although I had low expectations of the Beach Villa, it actually turned out to be surprisingly nice as each villa was quite secluded with lots of trees to separate you from your neighbors. The villas are so spaced out you can basically walk out from your room to enjoy sunbathing on your little private stretch of the beach.

The bathroom in the Beach Villa is worth mentioning as it was located outdoors but covered for the most part. It seems like a cool design at first but I wasn't so sure on doing my business on the toilet outside in the humidity. 

Of course the best part about staying in Maldives is the over water bungalows so we moved to the those after our first night. You can choose between the Sunrise or Sunset Over Water Suite and we opted for the latter (which was more expensive) so we can watch the sunset from our room everyday. 

The resort island itself is pretty big so complimentary bikes are provided for ease of getting around!

When we saw the bathtub in our room we couldn't help but gasped a little - it was like an art piece almost with the endless ocean as the backdrop! The overall design of the villa was really beautiful and we were very impressed and pleased with our room. 

We had our own private deck with loungers and sun umbrella plus stairs that leads straight into the ocean. There's no coral on this side of the island for snorkeling but we did see a sting ray swim right in front of our villa!

For activities besides surfing, you can rent snorkel gear (complimentary) and snorkel at various places around the resort - my favorites were at a little private island close by called Gulhifushi and the area around the over water villas at Veli. You can get to Gulhifushi by boat or kayak which are complimentary for 2 hours only. 

If you're ever tired of swimming in the ocean, you can relax by the pool which is right by the bar Aqua.

I wanted to chill in this hammock ever since I saw it in the brochures but in reality it's actually pretty far away from shore so I settled for one right on the beach.

The food and beverage were probably the biggest disappointment of all though. We were on a Half Board meal plan which covers breakfast and dinner daily. While there were lots of choices for restaurants (6 in total across both Dhigu and Veli), the food was pretty lackluster for the most part - the seafood didn't taste fresh and mostly overcooked. Out of the 3 restaurants we tried including Thai, Seafood and Italian, the Thai restaurant Baan Huraa was probably the best but even then the tom yum gung and curry tasted a little off. The cocktails were also not very good - I'd recommend drinking wine if you want to drink alcohol.

Even though the F&B could have been better, we still had a fabulous time at Anantara as the service and hospitality were excellent and I think I may have left my heart in Maldives!  

  
Yes I'll definitely see you again Maldives!

Check out this video for more of our experience at Anantara!

Anantara Dhigu Maldives Resort

Dhigufinolhu, South Male Atoll Male, Republic of Maldives

Tel: +960 664 4100

http://dhigu-maldives.anantara.com/




Follow me on Facebook! www.facebook.com/supertastermel

Follow me on Instagram! www.instagram.com/supertastermel