Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas

We spent ten days at Anantara Kihavah to celebrate a big birthday. It was the perfect place to relax and be pampered. We stayed in beach villas with pools, and appreciated the attention to detail in the villas, right down to the pillow menu. The bikes with our names on them added a fun element to getting around the island once we had got the hang of the lack of hand brakes! We went diving with the team at Elements dive centre over 8 days - Ari, our guide, was brilliant, and the underwater world spectacular - the house reef is one of th best we have encountered, and there are lots of dive sites within a 15 minute boat ride from the island. The island also has a resident Marine Biologist, Nicole, who was on hand to provide us with fascinating insights into the behaviours of the sharks, rays and dolphins that can be found around the island. Above water, our family made good use of the well-equipped gym, the padel and tennis courts, a climbing wall, and a Muay Thai boxing ring, which was a new, and sweaty sport to try out. The choice of restaurants on such a small island is impressive. Sea, the underwater restaurant, has the biggest wow factor, while our favourite for the variety of flavours was Spice restaurant. That's not to say the other restaurants were lacking, all provided very high quality food with excellent service, and we have all returned home somewhat heavier than we left! If all this was not enough, the island also boasts the largest telescope in the Maldives, and the resident 'Sky Guru' provided a fascinating introduction to the night sky over the Maldives. Thanks to the brilliant staff, the stunning setting and the wealth of facilities on offer, we will cherish our memories of Anantara Kihavah for many years to come.

We had the best holiday of our life at the anantara kihava. When we left and the staff waved us off I had tears in my eyes. I couldn’t believe how sad I was to be leaving a hotel and going home! I have never felt this emotional and grateful to have stayed somewhere. It was magical and perfect from the first to the last moment. Our villa host Azmeen was incredibly professional and helpful. We never heard the words no to anything and everyone at the resort - in every restaurant , at the kids club, dive centre, pool and beach had a huge smile on their faces. They all knew our names and how we liked what! It was like staying with (very accommodating and luxurious) family. We don’t have a single complaint and will 100% return! The food was 10/10 as well which is so important as it can feel repetitive after some days but it did not feel that way here! Thank you for such amazing days! We hope to come back soon!

Second time in same hotel with our family. Amazing all rounder and a strong plus for those interested in staying active

We had an amazing time at the Anantara! The weather was great, even during “rainy” season. The big highlights for us were: the amazing house reef which is very easy to reach from the beach, the dive center where our 9 year old was able to try diving for the first time, the recreation center where we played a lot of padel and ping pong, and the water villa. The restaurants are very nice too, good food and nice atmosphere. We had an amazing butler, Kiki, which contributed to making everything easy and smooth!

Me, my wife and my adult daughter has just come back from a 5-night trip in Maldives where we stayed at Anantara for first 3 nights (and then another resort nearer airport for 2 nights subsequently). The fantastic experience we have had with Anantara urged me to write and share this review. GOOD, Here below are what impressed all three of us: The fact that every staff know our last name wherever we go even when we first met them. The very relaxed and friendly staff who also work extremely efficiently at the same time. Superb butler service. And also the resort took our pre check in survey with heart and customized things to our needs as much as possible before our arrival. Even my daughter’s preference of a healthy pillow was arranged. The vibe of the resort was excellent, relax, quiet but with very impressive singer at night. The snorkeling excursion was professionally arranged also and the leader took us to see the Manta Ray aggregation successfully. The food was yummy, to my real surprise, the Manzaru restaurant serves top notch Italian food. The Asian food served at SPICE was also surprisingly delicious! Everything are so perfect to be honest including of course the very beautiful sandy beach and lagoon. Sittu - our butler who is superb. Always relax and never felt nervous or busy but he is always available and always on time even late in the evening. This allows us to relax and enjoy the resort to the highest level. All the staff who took us out to the group Manta Ray excursion on 24 May (Sun) were so professional, excellent and super friendly. In particular, Aree, who took great care of us, especially my wife who does not swim too well, and she manages to pull us out to where the Manta Ray aggregates. We had such a wonderful time with life time memory. Aree also helped me taking even more amazing 360 video with her impressive free diving skills. Also the guy who took us out to Turtle Quest (sorry! Forgot his name) at 2pm on 25 May (Mon) was also very good. The Turtle Quest was supposed to be in the morning but this was cancelled due to rough sea condition but was postponed smoothly to the afternoon. We managed to see a few turtles up close who surfaced for a brief breath. That was amazing !!! The housekeeping team was also extremely impressive. We go out at different time in the evenings and every time when we go back, the very messy room (with lots of sands and water on the floor after we came back from snorkeling excursion) has amazingly transformed back to a clean and tidy room. Maya is another stand out staff who always come over to say hello and talk to us wherever she sees us. So was Ricky who was also very friendly and came over to say hello to us. Reservation: When I raised a question via the website the very first time. Putri immediately responded to it even when it was well in the evening hours with good suggestion and details. Putri also impressed me by creating a very clear extra table that summarized the price/offer when I requested for upgrading from half board to full board with non-alcoholic package. Putri is efficient and responsive to my emails. Thumbs up! Room The room is spacious and felt very luxurious with a huge swing chair at the balcony. Bathing at the bath tub with doors that can be fully opened facing an infinity pool was an unforgettable experience. The sea view was widely open with vivid light blue at close and dark blue color at far. NOT SO GOOD And here below a few minor drawbacks and I am very confident thta the management team at Anantara would strive their hardest to make things to the near perfection. Arrival: We had to wait for two hours at the seaplane lounge but unfortunately there was not a lot of choice on the food. Otherwise, the greetings from staff, their help to check us in to the seaplane, the shuttle from International Airport to Manta Air seaplane airport were all good. Departure The timing of the seaplane was so unreliable!!! We wanted to do an one hour house reef excursion from 9am to 10am on the last day before our departure but in the evening before, we were advised the only seaplane available to us was a 10:30am (we could not even take the afternoon seaplane even though we had time to wait) and because of that we had to check out by 9:45am. So we decided to cancel our reservation on the house reef excursion. In the end, we checked out at 9:45am, went over to Plates (buffet breakfast place) for quick breakfast and then be ready for 10:30 seaplane. What happened was the seaplane was late for ONE HOUR + (I believe we did not even board the plane by 11:40am). We could well have finished the house reef excursion at 10am and still had enough time to shower and check out for the 11:30/11:40am seaplane. Everything else, other than the timing of the seaplane were good. Efficient check out. And it was impressive that the management team were there waiving us goodbye including the GM and the FC, both of them spoke with us too. This might not be someone controllable by the resort but it is one critical thing that is dragging the feet of the resort in my opinion. Suffice to say, my daughter even deliberately got up at 6am that morning with an intention to do the house reef snorkeling without guide and on her own (and I talked her out of it because the sea is always rough that early in the morning) and you know how disappointed we were not being able to do the excursion especially now knowing the fact that we could have sufficient time to do should the seaplane company tells the resort the true time of the seaplane is in fact 11:30am Both of the above negatives came directly from the seaplane company which I understand the resort might not have the ultimate control but this is definitely something that has to be dealt with. In fact, I booked us to another resort nearer airport (a 20 mins speedboat ride from the airport) was precisely because I have read reviews from another traveller who went to another resort at Baa Atoll, who did not manage to catch his plane back home because of the chaos on seaplane arrangement and so I played safe by shortening my stay at Anantara. Breakfast While the food for lunch and dinner were superb, their buffet breakfast needs improvement. The western breakfast could be better with better cooked fried eggs, softer sausages and bacon. The sashimi was good but other Asian food weren’t and Chinese food was not good and with very limited varieties. SUMMARY Strongly STRONGLY RECOMMEND !!!! Friendly staff with excellent and efficient service who can call you by your last name every time. Top level Butler service. Top notch Italian food. Great singer in the evening creating a perfect vibe for a get away vacation. Located in Baa Atoll which is ideal for snorkeling including Manta Ray with excursions perfectly managed by the very knowledgeable staff with great leadership. Very luxurious over water Villa overlooking beautiful lagoon plus white sandy beach that you could walk around the island on the beach with ease. And MOST IMPORTANTLY, overall it is the very personal and excellent service that STANDS OUT the most.