Thudufushi, Maldives 2024

Travel

We hate Heathrow Terminal 5.  We used the excellent Meet and Greet service from MBW – we drop off our car at a particular location in the multistorey car park, and they park it for you.  However, we got lost in the car park and went round three times before finding the right location.  A day or two after we got home after the holiday, we received a demand for £80 from APCOA, who run the car park.  In future we’ll avoid BA from Heathrow if at all possible.  We had also paid extra to use the T5 Plaza Premium Lounge, and it turned out to be the worst lounge we’d ever experienced – crowded, uncomfortable, no 13A socket anywhere near our table, cheap non-upholstered seats….  Did I mention that we hate Heathrow Terminal 5?

The BA 777 flight in premium economy was a couple of hours late, but otherwise acceptable.  The premium economy cabin section was much smaller than the Club/Business cabin section.

A long wait at the carousel for our cases at Male airport, then a swift check-in at the seaplane terminal before the wonderful flight low over the coral atolls, with every shade of blue.  Thudufushi co-manager Carla led a reception committee on the jetty to welcome us back.

On the way home we had an early seaplane flight back to Male, and a long queue to check our bags in.  Another good BA flight on the way home, but a long wait at the carousel for our bags.  MBW had our car waiting for us.

Thudufushi

We love Thudufushi – it was our 11th visit.  See our earlier reports from previous years to hear about the island, the rooms, the diving, the food and drink, etc.  We were anxious to see which beach villas were affected by erosion of the sand this year.  We were initially shown to Junior Suite 21, but there was hardly any beach.  We asked for a better room, and a couple of days later we were moved into Junior Suite 20 next door, which was much better. 

The sand moves around the island with the seasons and over the years.  We were surprised to see no attempt being made to replace the disappearing sand, or to protect the shoreline from the energy of the waves.  In previous years the resort has used sand-pumping machinery to replace the eroded sand.  This meant that from villa 21 right round to villa 40 or so the beach villas had no beach this March – nearly half the rooms.

This is not good for Thudufushi fans.  If you find that your beach villa has no beach, you’re not getting what you paid for, and you are faced, like we were, with several days with no beach, followed by the inconvenience of having to pack your cases for a move to a better room.  A Beach Villa with no Beach is not what you’ve paid for. 

Our Room

Check out our previous reports about the rooms – they are looking their age, but perfectly serviceable – and ours was kept spotless by our room attendant, Adam.

We had a Junior Suite, which means an additional room between bedroom and patio.  Ours had two sofas facing each other, but sometimes there’s a big presentation cabinet and bureau, or an extra bed.  We also get a proper dining table and chairs on the patio as well as the loungers.

Food+Drink

We ate at the main restaurant.  There’s always plenty of choice, with a different main menu with three choices for lunch and dinner every day, cooked from scratch in front of you, and lots of alternatives, including curries, pizzas, pastas, salads, ice-creams and sweet treats, cheese and ham, and of course the BBQ at the rear of the restaurant for freshly grilled fish and meats.  There are themed nights for further variety (eg Vegetarian, Italian, Mexican, Indian, Maldivian, etc.).  On the Maldivian night, the tables are moved outside into the garden (weather permitting).  A massive task, but entertaining.

There’s a pod of dolphins that seem to swim past the restaurant at breakfast each morning – we were lucky enough to see them porpoising past several mornings from our breakfast table.

Chef Tusita ensures high standards in the restaurant, and we enjoyed the food.

Every year, Thudufushi hosts JRE (Jeune Restaurateurs d’Europe), where promising young European chefs spend a week on the island, cooking tasting menus and giving cooking demonstrations.  We were invited along one evening to try the tasting menu in the Water Villa restaurant.  Our Swiss chef’s name was Damien Germanier and we enjoyed the food immensely.

Thudufushi seem to be introducing a two-tier AI deal, where you have to pay extra for certain drinks, such as Drambuie, which have always been All Inclusive.  Withdrawing something that has always been included feels like a step backwards - however we didn’t see any evidence of this new initiative.

We were looking forward to meeting ace barman Kholil again, but were disappointed to find that he’s been posted to sister island Bathala.  We hope that he enjoys it there.  It was good to find that J Ram is still Bar Manager, and Akash is again manning the Beach Bar.

Underwater

Snorkelling

Snorkelling at Thudufushi is great – the coral was recovering well from the last bleaching event, and there’s masses of colourful reef fish to be seen, plus turtles, rays and sharks.  The watersports centre lend you free masks, fins and snorkels, and lead snorkelling trips on the house reef twice a day, pointing out the sights on the house reef.

Diving

The usual fantastic service from IDive dive centre.  Govinda is still Dive Centre Manager, ably backed by Instructors Enrico, Daniella and owner Roberto.  The boat crew are brilliant – you don’t have to lift a finger – they help you on and off the boat, strip your tank after the dive, they look after your kit, ensuring it is rinsed and hung up to dry and then loaded into your crate on the boat the next day.  They provide slices of watermelon and tea or coffee after the dive.

It’s usually a relaxed one-tank dive trip – assemble at 0915 at the dive centre or on the boat for a 0930 departure.  Boat rides are 10 to 60 minutes’ drive, ensuring a return in time for lunch.  They have underwater scooters for hire, which are great fun, and ideal for the fantastic Maavaru Corner dive site, ensuring you can visit the atoll-edge drop-off for stupendous shark numbers, and then motor the couple of hundred metres back to the manta ray cleaning station.

Since Thudufushi is next to the atoll edge, currents are stronger, and this attracts the big stuff.  Expect lots of white-tip, grey and black-tip reef sharks, manta, eagle and sting-rays, turtles, Napoleons, Lobsters, Octopus.  Silvertip and Leopard sharks are frequent visitors, too.  If you want to see Whale sharks, there’s a weekly trip to hotspots further south in South Ari Atoll.  There’s also huge numbers of reef fish of all sizes, shapes and colours.

Advancing age and Covid have impacted my breathing.  I used to be top of the class for air consumption – I’d have loads of air left back on the boat at the end of a dive – more than any other guest divers.  Now, unfortunately, I’m bottom of the class.  I get through my air tank really quickly.  IDive helped me in various ways: by instructors sharing air with me, or by providing a spare instructor to take me back up to the surface when I run out before anyone else, or by giving me a bigger 13L tank with more air, and even by providing me with an extra pony tank full of lots of air, all included in the dive package price.  Thanks Govinda and IDive.

Highlights this trip were the mantas at Maavaru Corner, and the school of 20-30 Mobulas that swam overhead at Warren Thila, / Emmas Thila.

Photos

Each page contains about five to ten pictures, totalling approx two or three MB per page. 

And here is a superb video from fellow guests Paul and Audrey Day – it’s reproduced here with their permission.  They have perfectly captured the corner of paradise at Thudufushi, both on the island and underwater.  The footage of the huge numbers of sharks at the atoll edge at Maavaru Corner is really impressive, and the school of Mobulas at Warren Thila is great.

Conclusion

Another great holiday at Diamonds Thudufushi.  It’s odd that there no longer seems to be any attempt to halt the sand movement round the island which meant that nearly half the beach villas, including ours, had no beach, and we had to repack our cases after a couple of days to move to a better room.  We have one more visit to Thudufushi already booked - we hope things improve.

Our villa(s) were kept spotless by our room attendant, Adam.

The food is good, with plenty of choice, and well presented, with vegan and veggy options.  Disappointing not to see ace barman Kholil behind the bar again after his posting to another island.

We met a great bunch of people in March 2023 (mainly in the bar!), and most of them turned up again in March 2024 for more discussions in the bar after dinner.  We’re all eyeing up Thudufushi again for March 2025!