Reviews of Fihalhohi Island Resort, Male Atoll

After reading several unpleasant reviews about this resort we were a little nervous about taking our 2 week honeymoon here. What a pleasant surprise when we arrived!



We booked with Eclipse (the cheaper online sister company of First Choice) and paid extra for additional leg room. The flight was good with the option to pay £5 for additional films and the "On Demand" service which you get with the Star Class Premier.



On arrival, we went through customs with no trouble, met the rep, and were directed to a cafe outside the airport where we could get a drink whilst waiting for everyone else. About 20 minutes later we were taken to our taxi (speed boat!) and swept off to the island.



We were met with fruit cocktails and cool towel and our luggage was taken to our rooms whilst we checked in. The staff were very helpful and keen to do anything they could for you.



The rooms were cleaned twice a day with fresh towels each time (in the morning they would change the bathroom towels and in the evening they would change the beach towels).



If you're after 5 star luxury rooms then you may be a bit disappointed but if you're a normal person then the rooms are great.



The food was excellent with a huge variety of different options in a buffet style. If you wanted to eat nothing but English food you could (they even had cottage pie!) but if you fancied trying something a little different then that was also possible. You're assigned a waiter when you first eat and he is then your waiter for the holiday. Ahmed was great and decorated our table a couple of times and by the 3rd day had our drinks waiting for us when we sat down (we must have been predictable!).



The snorkelling was amazing with trips to reefs going twice a day. Puffer fish, giant moray eels, rays were common sights and we even found Nemo! I also highly recommend doing the scuba diving resort course. The team there are really friendly and good at their jobs!



On waking up in the morning you'd look out the window to see a very happy looking man raking up the palm leaves from the beach (these were used in the restaurant to weave little animal/fish figures which were then put on your table!) and in general I would highly recommend this place. There weren't loads of activities to do, no squash courts, no sauna, gym or anything like that which was totally perfect for a relaxing holiday on an island.



I would definitely go again!

Fihalhohi Island is very pretty with a good barrier reef, and lots of tropical fishes.



Unfortunately the atmosphere wasn't as good as we thought. The non-motorised sport were not included in the package.



The comfort rooms weren't quite so comfortable (a lot of the rooms like ours had a lot of humidity coming through the walls).



The food was very repetitive and not fresh, so quite a few people had tummy bugs at some point on holiday.



While we accept that it was a budget resort, I didn't expect to have all these problems.



A couple of days before departure we asked to see a summary of our itemised bill. The statement was produced, and when we started to go through it we realised that it

must have been some mistake, as we had been overcharged on several occasions!



The resort had a happy hour for cocktails during 6 and 8pm, and a promotion on Australian wines during the first week of our stay.



However on the final bill they always charged us the standard rate, rather than the promotional rate. This made quite a difference to our final bill!



During the stay we weren't given any receipts, occasionally we were asked to signed for goods consumed, but not always. So we were unable to take the matter any further without any bill copy proof.



When we queried the statement and asked to see the bill, they were very slow to produce the bills, in-fact it took them days. Eventually the day before departure they showed us some bills.



At that point we knew we had been incorrectly charged and we had no choice but to pay the additional unreasonable charges! The extra charges amounted approx to $100 or so for the two of us.



The day before departure the First Choice Rep got in touch with us, and I explained the situation to her. She said she was sorry to hear about the overcharging incident but unfortunately this had nothing to do with First Choice.



This is not our first holiday to the Maldives, we have been to Holiday Island and Kuramati Island previously and we loved both Islands.



Needless to say, we will not consider or recommend anyone we know a holiday at Fihalhohi Island resort.

It all started with a chance sighting of a special offer, in First Choice holiday shop window, of a discounted holiday to the Maldives. Having visited there before, we went in and made enquiries and found it was 2 weeks all inclusive to Club Faru.



I tried to find any reviews or remarks of the resort on the internet but found it to be very difficult. It apparently had been previously called Club Med and had been badly damaged in the Tsunami and had been closed until December 2005 to be refurbished and brought back to standard.



I can't say the alarm bells had started to ring but I do like to read customer feedback where ever possible. However we need not have worried because our Club Faru experience was terrific.



Everything about the resort was wonderful, it was very clean, the accommodation is in blocks of 8 (4 on the ground floor and 4 on the 1st floor) and only a few feet from the resort lagoon. The rooms are large and airy and kept very clean.



The food was excellent and plentiful and the staff and bar staff were very happy to serve you. It is a resort that we would certainly have no worries about recommending to anyone.



My one and only personal comment about Club Faru, is that it's very closeness to Male the capital and the airport, plus some other islands (i.e. Bandos and Paradise island etc) took away the remoteness of being on an Island in the middle of the Indian Ocean which you get when you are on say Meerufefushi where we have stayed before. That though may not bother some people it is just a personal preference.



If it is going to be your first holiday to the Maldives, then enjoy, you will NOT be disappointed.

The Fihalhohi resort is amazing. It is better than the book suggests. On arriving at Male airport, our speedboat was waiting which took about an hour to reach the island.



On arrival, it was like something out of a dream, sea the colour of swimming pools and the sand was whiter than I have ever seen. Fihalhohi was supposedly a budget island out of the Maldive islands, but it was in no way budget.



We were treated like royalty by the locals and made very welcome. I don't want to go anywhere else now, except maybe another of the Maldive islands to compare.