Kiha Beach

We stopped in Kiha Beach for one night ahead of a liveaboard - we could have happily stayed much longer. The hotel itself is beautiful and opens directly out onto bikini beach with some great snorkelling - our room was spacious, very clean and incredibly comfortable. We slept so well after a long journey and felt really refreshed. Staff are lovely and couldn’t do enough to help including picking us up from the airport and dropping us directly to our dive boat at no extra cost. Food is good and well priced, the spa is great - I had a much needed massage which was also very good value. Highly recommend this place before or after a dive boat or for a longer scuba diving stay. It’s a little slice of paradise.

We loved the stay at KIHA Beach! From the warm welcome, to the always very attentive Service in the Restaurant, the cleanlines in the Hotel, the very good Food, we found nothing to Complain. Special requests for meals like having cooked/grilled a whole Fish were fulfilled. As well before, during, after our stay they were very helpful organizing flight tickets, Transfers, boat transfer to our second destination. We had a Family room which was Perfect for the 3 of us. A really cool thing is their ‚Manta-Alarm‘. When Mantas are seen in the very close Hanifaru Bay, you get a call, hop on a buggy/boat and 30 minutes later you are swimming with Mantas (and we had the luck even with a whale shark!). And everything at a fair Price. No half day tours on the off chance from Resorts far away. If returning to the maldives, a stay on the local Island Dharavandhoo in KIHA Beach Hotel is granted for sure.

You will see from our previous review that this is our second visit to Kiha Beach Hotel. This time we stayed 11 nights. From the start we were welcomed by a hotel agent at Male airport who made our domestic flight arrangements to Dharavandhoo seamless. When we arrived at Dharavandhoo, we were greeted by Saleem who ferried us from the airport to Kiha Beach. We reconnected with all the staff who were attentive to our every need. Ali, the Manager, as usual was directing both the hotel staff and the activities, juggling many balls in the air but still managing to actively engage with everyone. He also went to a lot of effort to provide us with a very memorable 25th wedding anniversary celebration on the beach, including a delicious seafood dinner. And even though Dharavandhoo is a dry island (ie no alcohol), he still managed to source a bottle of non-alcoholic bubbly for us to celebrate with. We completed five manta snorkels during our stay, one of which we were able to see a whale shark. We also did two night-fishing trips where my husband and I caught red snapper on both occasions. Activ and Actif are very knowledgeable fisherman and ensured that the fish we caught were cooked by the chef to our satisfaction, including on our 25th wedding anniversary. Activ and Actif also hosted our manta snorkels and kindly shared their drone/underwater footage with us. Both actively assist with manta research in Hanifaru Bay and the wider Baa Atoll area. We also snorkeled every day on the reef just in front of the Hotel where we saw turtles, reef sharks, eagle rays and many different schools of fish. The best thing about each snorkel was that the diversity and types of fish seen were always different. Some things to be aware of if planning to book a stay at Kiha Beach Hotel: • Please make sure to check Singapore school holidays because there was a large group of school children there for four days of our stay. Ali managed the situation very well but at times it was a bit full on for other guests. • There is also construction being carried out on the new (expanded) hotel next door, but it made us go out and explore other parts of the island that we would not have otherwise. All in all — great staff, great food, great location and Ali’s incredible management skills made for a wonderful holiday. There is a strong possibility we will go there again next year. Thank you Kiha Beach!