Ja Manafaru
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15 reviews
January 17
Of all the hotels in the Maldives, this one captivated me with the combination of the island's size - high service - modern, really comfortable villas - an interesting choice of cuisine and, oddly enough, for the Maldives as a whole, a pretty good choice of alcohol)
The gym is small, but it overlooks the ocean.
For some reason, this particular hotel had fairly calm neighbors and not noisy))
There were no drunken British, boring Chinese bloggers taking pictures of themselves against the background of dusk to dawn and huge Indian families)
The service and maintenance of the butlers is a bit intrusive, but they try hard and obviously did not go through the most "stuffy" training :)
Many people on this island were bored and had little space - it was perfect for us. As they said in childhood: fewer people - more oxygen)))
In general, of all the hotels in this area, this one is still winning!
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2
March 19, 2024
Hello everyone
There is a heavenly place on earth, I know for sure. This is Manafaru.
The whole island is one hotel with all the buildings and structures. Tropical jungles and snow-white beaches of coral sand with a creamy tint. The Ocean is always warm and almost always calm . Schools of colorful fish, of all sizes and shapes, swim on the reef. And of course, the turquoise water, famous for its crystal purity.
There are two types of villas on the island. Some are located on the island itself and are surrounded by a tropical forest. They have their own territory and access to the beach. Others are located above the reef, on stilts. The second has no territory, but there is a stunning view from the window and a transparent glass floor through which you can see swimming fish. Yes, the villas standing on stilts also have a small pool above the water and a personal descent into the ocean.
The food in the restaurants is excellent. Emphasis on seafood and Asian cuisine. But meat and chicken are also cooked deliciously, in a European way. But there are practically no soups.
The staff at the hotel is very friendly and helpful. Everyone is assigned their own personal guide, who is always in touch and ready to solve any issue. The houses are clean. A complete set of all necessary accessories and, of course, a refillable mini bar.
If you have the opportunity to go to the Maldives, do not hesitate for a second and go on a trip. And let it be Manafaru Island!
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4
July 5, 2024
Dear travelers!
This review is for those who are considering their vacation at the JA Manafaru Hotel on Manafaru Island in Haa Alifu Atoll in the Maldives. This is not our first time in the Maldives wonderful islands, so this review will be from a sophisticated traveler.
A representative of the hotel met us at the exit of the international airport and quickly booked us on a seaplane flight. It took only one hour from the check-in to the departure of the seaplane, which is very fast by Maldivian standards. Three hours after landing in Male, we were already on the island. This is despite the fact that the hotel is located in the farthest north of Male Atoll, there are no further hotels. It takes about 1.5 hours to fly by seaplane. We had a negative experience when we were delayed at the local airport for five hours, with a maximum waiting time of three hours for departure, and we got from Male to the hotel almost all day. Everything was clear and fast here.
The meeting at the hotel was warm. Everyone on the pier was waving at us. The Maldivian was blowing a triton horn into the shell in greeting. The arriving guests were immediately sorted out by butlers and taken to the villas. We got Butler Hassan, a very smiling and friendly Russian-speaking Uzbek, in fact we are very pleased with his work. We thank him very much. The butler system is quite common in the Maldives, which indicates the high level of the hotel and its special attitude towards its guests. The suitcases were already at the villa, as they were marked with tags with the villa number back in Male. The room turned out to be new, with a huge bathroom, good plumbing, a beautiful marble pool, cleaned efficiently, twice a day. The room has a fumitox, slippers, bathrobes, and a coffee machine. But there are no adapters for Maldivian sockets. Take with you adapters for the English type of outlet (for triple rectangular plugs). The hotel provides each villa with numbered free bicycles with wide wheels. There is a bike setup wizard, you can customize them for yourself. There are about 90 villas on the island, 60 of them are water-based, 30 on land. It is undesirable to take villas with rooms from 120 to 125, their beach is washed away by the ocean, and in order to keep the coast from being washed away, it is littered with sandbags and concrete blocks. The other 25 villas have a very nice beach and even a huge white sand and azure ocean, as it should be in the Maldives. All villas are private, neighbors are not visible or heard. Coral fragments come across in the sea, coral slippers are desirable, but you can do without them too. Surprisingly, although India is closest to the Maldives from here, the coast of the island is always clean, apparently all the garbage from India is delayed somewhere else. Cleaners clean and tidy the shore in the morning.
To endure about the reef. We come to the Maldives mostly because of its underwater world, the reef is very important to us. There is a reef on the island, but it is located far enough from the shore. We asked our butler, and he drove us in a buggy to the end of the pier, where the reef began. At the end of the pier there is a ladder for launching into the water. It's a long way to swim to the reef by yourself, walking along the pier in the heat is not very comfortable. There are two piers on opposite sides of the island. The reef is very good. Most of the reefs in the Maldives are already dead and they are gray in color due to ocean warming. Here the reef is alive and beautiful with its colorful corals. We saw corals in the form of large frozen snowflakes of completely different colors: there are dazzling white, cream, lemon, pink, blue, light green, purple. A cacophony of colors. The reef is alive. I haven't seen such a colorful reef for a long time. This is a big plus for the hotel. There are not many fish on the reef, turtles, rays and sharks have not been seen. Sorry. We have a dream to meet manta ray in the Maldives, but we haven't met her yet.
There are four restaurants, three bars and a wine cave on the island. The main restaurant Kakuni - breakfasts, lunches and dinners, dinners are sometimes themed - either fish or Asian, with live music. The Andiamo restaurant, Italian cuisine, is made in Thai style, next to the pool, two waterfalls and two huge Jacuzzis, there are lunches and dinners. In low season, dinners are not served every day. We really liked him. We remembered Thailand at its best.
White Orchid restaurant, dinners on the open ocean at night. Very spicy Asian cuisine, for an amateur.
Ocean Grill restaurant, located on the beach, seafood, it is the most popular among the guests. There are menus everywhere in all languages of the world, including Russian. This is a big plus for the hotel. Not all compatriots know English. Unfortunately, the menu never changes anywhere. You always have to take the same dish you like from the entire menu, and it gets boring.
The hotel belongs to Arabs, so the emphasis on food here is Asian. There is practically no European cuisine, except for the Italian restaurant.
The Veli Bar is open from 16 to 00, where you can watch sunsets and listen to live music from 18 to 22. This is the coolest place on the island. The bar in Andiamo is open from 11 to 21:30. The pool bar (Infiniti Pool bar) is open from 11 to 18. The Wine Cave Cellar (Cellar) works only on a service order, these are expensive wines for a fee. The collection includes about 2,000 bottles. Wine from $150 and $1,000 to $14,000 per bottle. You can also order food here. The cellar consists of two private rooms and is located almost three meters underground. It's cool in here. It is said to be the deepest cave in the Maldives. There is a free guided tour in the Cellar. You can also sign up with your butler for a free blind wine tasting. We guessed one of the wines at the tasting, and won a bottle, but it's very difficult, almost impossible, you either need to be a sommelier, or you need to be well versed in wines. Russian Russians have a Chill zone recreation area on the island, where you can play billiards, table tennis, borrow a book in Russian, watch movies or cartoons in Russian too (if you choose a movie on your computer in a Russian folder), visit two mini-museums, ethnography and the underwater world. Manafaru Island is small, regular in shape, in the form of an ellipse, about 600x300m. I walked around it along the shore in about 20 minutes, there are no shells, hermit crabs either. There are a lot of lizards and geckos running around the island. The island is very green, just surrounded by greenery. There is a mini farm on the island where they grow greens for the table and plant seedlings. Then the seedlings are planted on the island. Well done.
The hotel staff is very friendly. Mark, the director of service from Canada, is always active and attentive to the guests of the hotel. Special respect to Kristina for her work, which is very positive, polite and endearing. She can tell you about the specifics of each dish, knows a lot about the wines served and can advise you on something to choose from. We are grateful to her for her quality work. We are also grateful to all the hotel staff. Waiters in restaurants and bartenders in bars are all set to please you, as if they all conspired.
There is a diving center next to the main restaurant. You can get fins, masks and snorkels there for free, be sure to swim to the local reef.
Our vacation was great, it's a pity it ended quickly. I recommend the hotel, but the choice is always yours. Maldives is a paradise on earth. Have a good trip and new experiences to all!
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