Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu, Maldives

We returned for our 20th anniversary after visiting originally for our honeymoon in 2006! This time we had our 14 and 11 year olds with us. It was a trip that had been planned for over 2 years but personal circumstances over the proceeding month meant we arrived pretty exhausted and just grateful to be there! The island is beautiful and the staff are incredibly kind and lovely. I will try and give details about the things I was interested in knowing in advance. We were in villas 36 and 37 which had lots of sand for the kids to play in and a beautiful bit of lagoon for them to swim. It also was a good point to enter the water to go to the drop off and snorkel around to re-enter at villa 67 (it depends on the currents). We could see the sunset and also it wasn't too far to go and check out the lagoon between the jetty and overwater villas at high tide to spot turtles and swim with them (our highlight of the trip!) No sandbags in view and the sea wall is underwater and actually provides a great place to snorkel and makes It calmer in the water. The only downside to the location was that it was a bit of a sweaty walk (only 10 mins!) to breakfast, lunch and dinner (compared to rolling out of one of the deluxe villas which we had done on honeymoon) - but that was probably good for us. We got to see all the fruit bats, chickens, water hens, screw pine, coconut trees and other cool vegetation - or herons and the sea view if we took the beach route. There was also less shade at our villa location than on the east side but I just sat inside the air conditioned villa instead if needed - which had gorgeous views. We had people either side and it wasn't as private as the deluxe villas but this didn't bother us, as it was a different type of holiday bringing the family. We did the AI included sunset cruise which was lovely and even saw a reef manta. We paid for only one extra during our week's stay which was the reef hopping excursion and the snorkelling on it was great - the highlight was seeing Maldivian clownfish in sea anenomes and a Hawksbill turtle. I slightly regret not doing the early morning dolphin trip too, but we got up early to try to see the 7am turtle release of Fitri and with the late dinners and lots of snorkelling, the kids needed their sleep! We did get bitten by a few mosquitoes - I got 6 bites over the week - but am generally am bitten alive, so not too bad, but we were putting on deet morning and evening and they were fogging most days in the late afternoon. I was a bit worried about the weather but shouldn't have been - we we're quite grateful for the cloud at times and the occasional downpours were entertaining and extremely short. I do think it was quite choppy for snorkelling which meant the visibility wasn't very good, but we still enjoyed seeing loads of different fish, coral and reef sharks. Snorkelling with turtles was the highlight and the first time it was hard to see them in the water due to visibility but on our last day it was much clearer. We are all strong swimmers so we're quite happy being in the waves. The food, drinks, snacks were all great - my daughter often had a mocktail with her meal and I sometimes had a cocktail and that was included on the AI. We loved the tarts for pudding - much discussion which was the best between chocolate, lemon, strawberry and blueberry! Everyone looked after us really well - I was disappointed to miss the turtle nest hatching on our first day because I don't think I had scanned the right QR code but it's nice to have the video of it, and again we arrived literally as Fitri was being released at 6:52am (advertised time of 7am) and my husband missed it entirely - so I would advise going 15 minutes early to any of such events to avoid this. Also the marine biologist wasn't there which was a bit disappointing as we weren't told about this in advance and it was one of the things that was a draw for us. The turtle talk was on our first evening there and we hadn't slept much the night before on the plane so sadly missed that too so can't comment on it. We didn't got to any entertainment because we took the kids to bed after dinner at 9pm. Other recommendations would be to be careful in the outdoor bathroom as thefloor can be slippy and also with the shampoo etc if you have the heavy pots as they are also very slippy. Definitely go and check out the turtle sanctuary (we took some donations) and the lagoon at high tide for turtles. The kids had long leggings and long sleeves with hoods or hats to snorkel in which were so helpful to save on suncreaming and prevent sunburn (one of them burns quite easily). I ended up wearing my leggings and long sleeved top too. You get free snorkeling gear from the dive centre and return it the day before you leave. We snorkelled every day and then they just played in the sea too. Hope that is helpful to future visitors. Thank you to all the team at Coco Palm for looking after us so well and giving us memories to last a lifetime (or maybe another 20 years)! 🥥🌴

Amazing!! Staff are beyond helpful and thoughtful, best service we’ve had anywhere, think 2 steps ahead of you all the time. Food was so so tasty at breakfast/lunch&dinner. We got to witness turtle nest hatching which was a once in a lifetime experience we will never forget! The island is beautiful, 1.3km walkable all around, snorkelling is so fun, all guests are also nice. Only thing it lacked was good evening entertainment but the chilled vibes were also nice.

The island of Coco Palm is breathtakkingly beautiful. All the staff members were very warm and friendly. The bungalow was very clean and wellequipped. The island paths were beautiful and always well maintained by the gardeners. The food was always very delicious, and the food at the grill stations was absolutely tasty

Beutifull island with great food great rooms, the staff are all so friendly and good at their jobs from management to gardening staff. Will be returning there for our 18th visit to the Maldives.

For some context this was our 28th trip to the Maldives and second to this fantastic little island, which I hope helps knowing we are seasoned Maldives travellers. 🤞 Our holiday build up was rather spoiled by the war in the Middle East and the associated uncertainty but we were so determined to go we cjanged flights to Sri Lankan to guarantee our trip. We arrived into Male about 2.30pm and were swiftly met by the Coco Palm rep to be escorted to the seaplane check in and terminal and after a short wait the 30 minute very scenic seaplane flight to the island. Greeted and checked in, they whisked us off to our room - villa 38 which is on the north of the island it was a fantastic spot that we were over the moon with, tucked away for privacy with allocated sunbeds 2 steps away in the glorious beach. The rooms are spacious, well equipped with plenty of storage space and an outdoor bathroom. Always kept immaculately clean by our superb room guy, the only very minor criticism is that the bathrooms especially could benefit from a refresh but this is only the aesthetics. To contradict myself we do prefer a more rustic and traditional Maldivian style ra5her than a super modern room that could be anywhere and the room was instantly familiar and as we remembered it from our first visit a few years ago. Now the service....our only small negative during our first visit in 2019 was the drinks service in the restaurant, however this time I can only say the service in the restaurant, bar, reception literally everywhere is absolutely impeccable, polite, professional, friendly they genuinely cannot do enough for you. I won't name individual staff members but every single person we contact with was utterly superb....100 out of 10 is the only way you can rate them and thats not exaggerating 😎 The quality of food in the restaurant is also some of the best you will find anywhere, its a buffet set up and the choice is superb but more importantly the quality is outstanding. A little thing but what should be served hot was hot and don't get me started on the desserts - just wow! The weather while good on the island was a little stormy on the horizon so while we had great sunny conditions the sea was a little too choppy for us to do any snorkelling. As we are lazy but interested we couldnt be bothered frankly and were more than happy just chilling out but from our sunbeds we saw dolphins twice a day most days which is always epic to see. I did a mini blog while we were there which may contain some more specific details and the link to that I've copied below: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g293953-i7445-k15526666-Coco_Palm_Dhuni_Kolhu_trip-Maldives.html So in summary what did we think? Well Mrs W rates this island in the top 3 of the ones we've been to which is high praise indeed. 😎 Would we return? Absolutely, definitely, 100% yes. Coco Palm does everything we want out of a Maldives holiday and ticks all of our boxes from the lush jungly interior to the soft sand on the beaches, the service, the food and its not over populated with rooms for the size of island so it's very chilled and relaxing - very close to perfect in fact. Thank you to Coco Palm and all of the wonderful staff that made our holiday utterly superb....we will return! 😎 Shaun