Huvafen Fushi Review : The Best Luxury Hotel in the Maldives ?
I previously wrote about how to choose the best luxury hotel in the Maldives for your vacation, and I ended up choosing Per Aquum Huvafen Fushi for us.
The real question is whether Huvafen Fushi ended up being the best luxury hotel in the Maldives for us.
I’ll break down our take on Huvafen Fushi with Pros and Cons.
There are more Pros than Cons, but there are definitely some things you should know before you go to Huvafen Fushi and/or the Maldives in general. I’ll get to that shortly.
If you want a great overview of what its like to stay at Per Aquum Huvafen Fushi then check out our Maldives vacation video below.
Per Aquum Huvafen Fushi Pros :
1. The over the water bungalows at Huvafen Fushi are freaking amazing.
The Ocean Bungalow at Huvafen Fushi met our expectations and then some! I have traveled to a lot of fancy places such as Richard Branson’s Necker Island and the Jewel Suite at the New York Palace. Needless to say, I know a good thing when I see it. The Ocean Bungalow at Huvafen Fushi is definitely a good thing!
The Ocean Bungalows at Huvafen Fushi get bonus points for being able to snorkel under the living room glassed floor. One of my personal favorite aspects of the over the water bungalows at Huvafen Fushi was the bath!
2- The House Reef at Huvafen Fushi is literally at your room’s doorstep.
I could post a million pictures, but you really just need to watch our Huvafen Fushi video. You will know how close we were to the house reef after watching it 😉
Speaking of coral reefs, I highly recommend a visit to the Huvafen Fushi underwater spa.
We also booked the Huvafen Fushi night time spa experience with a marine biologist. Basically, you are drinking champagne while viewing the coral reef with a blue light. It was beyond cool.
3- The Food and Service at Huvafen Fushi were some of the best I have experienced.
We were on a complimentary half board plan at Huvafen Fushi, which means breakfast and dinner were included at the complimentary restaurant (Celsius).
If you have been to an all-inclusive resort or cruise, the “complimentary” dining usually sucks. We ate at both the complimentary and up-charge restaurants at Huvafen Fushi, and I honestly liked them equally.
Breakfast at the Celsius restaurant was over the top. I was especially impressed with the honey!
Our personal butler at Huvafen Fushi, Chinee, was very personable and always available if we needed anything. Chinee always met us at dinner to ask what we might want to plan for the next day, and to offer us a golf cart ride back to our Ocean Bungalow.
On the day of our departure, our butler even met us at the airport to say goodbye. Even more impressive, it was his day off! Huvafen Fushi also sends a butler to help you all the way through checking your baggage. Obviously this could never happen in the U.S. because the butler was not ticketed. This was a level service that I had never experienced before, and I liked it!
Per Aquum Huvafen Fushi Cons :
1. The excursions to view the whale sharks and manta rays are overpriced and far away.
If you are going to the Maldives to see the whale sharks, then I would recommend that you choose another resort. The whale sharks are not close to Per Aquum Huvafen Fushi, and it costs a whopping $5,000 to book an excursion to see them. No thanks.
2. The drink prices are shockingly expensive.
I have not stayed anywhere else in the Maldives, so the prices of drinks may be the same everywhere else. I think $25 for mixed drink and $12 for a beer is ridiculous, especially when you have no other options. Remember you are on a private island. Thus, you are either buying it from them or not drinking at all.
I know what your thinking! We should have brought our own wine, beer or liquor. We tried that, but it turns out that its against the law in the Maldives to bring alcohol into the country. Thus, the airport security politely takes it and keeps it until you depart.
I know what your thinking again! We should have just bought it for a reasonable price in Male upon arrival. We tried that as well, but it turns out that alcohol is illegal in Maldives unless you are buying it at a hotel.
I know what you are thinking again! Damn, I’m good. We should have just bought a bottle of liquor from the hotel.
We actually did that, but guess what a fifth of smirnoff costs at Huvafen Fushi ? $3oo.
Even worse, that was their only choice of vodka. Who drinks Smirnoff in the Maldives at a hotel that costs upwards of $2,000 a night? They need to re-think their clientele.
I am interested to find out if other hotels in the Maldives have similar drink and bottle prices, so please comment below!
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Overall, Huvafen Fushi was the best resort in the Maldives for us. The pros definitely outweighed the cons at the hotel. The only reason we would consider another luxury hotel in the Maldives is if we really wanted to see the whales!