JA Manafaru, The Real Maldives - Complimentary Seaplane for 7 nights and more - Stay Period 01 May 2026 to 23 Dec 2026

The staff. Always welcoming and thoughtful. The overwater villas are beautiful and the entire island feels unspoilt. A shout out to Shafik who did amazing housekeeping and Abdu who was endlessly patient and attentive as our guest service attendant with a wealth of knowledge about the island and attentive . Also the pancake/flapjack chef made the kids day every morning at breakfast. We did not want to leave.

The atholl has a beautiful lagoon, probably the best we saw in Maldive. We stayed in beach villa number 103. In front of the villa the beach is spacious and the lagoon beatiful. The reef is not very large - the better part is near the main jetty but we saw many fishes and a lot of nurse sharks. The villas are very nice, more simple that some we found in other more expensive resorts, but with all you need. The island is not big but you have bycicles to go around. The staff is very friendly. We loved them and - for all my life - I’ll remember the tuna sashimi of the fish grill night at Kauni and the fire fish crackers at the white Orchid. In the complex a very good location

We had only some problems cause our butler was ill after some days. But Roberto, the manager, solved the problem.

Stunning remote island far from other resorts, incredible picture postcard beaches, not at all crowded, luxury villas well spaced from others. Top quality service at all times. Choice of four restaurants, v high standard. Not Michelin-style fine dining (not wanted anyway tbh) but excellent and varied cuisine, including exceptional Maldivian and Indian/Asian dishes depending on the night plus high quality western options. Exceptional value for money; experience close to some of the top decile resorts but significantly cheaper- probably due to the distance from Male (75min by seaplane). Well worth it, seaplane hardly a hardship anyway!

Nothing really. If I could compare to other Maldives resorts, I’d say best value across almost all metrics. Only slight thing would be if your primary interest is the reefs, there are better ones out there. But for the average snorkeller, it is still perfectly good plus tons of dolphins around!

It felt private and even though there were kids visiting they had fun without being disruptive. Walking and biking everywhere was quite enjoyable. Loved all the restaurants and pool area. Loved how it felt like a jungle when walking and staying in a water villa was fun. We did the champagne dinner in the wine cellar and it was outstanding! The only thing in hindsight, we would have liked to have met the Chef to tell him how wonderful it was. The staff was great. In particular Teddy, Nazim and Niroshan made our stay fun ! Our group celebrated 2 anniversaries, 2 birthdays and Valentine’s Day while there and it could not have been better.

Only criticism…thought the boardwalks to the villas should have higher guardrails for safety. Even though signs are posted asking people not to bike out there of course they did so anyway which might not have mattered had there been higher rails.