Kanuhura Maldives

I'd like to preface this review by saying that we were at this resort during COVID and at 30% capacity, which may have affected our experience. My wife and I stayed at Kanuhura during the second week of our honeymoon after staying at a smaller Maldivian island resort. In comparison this one was much more expensive and we were excited to experience a higher level of luxury. Unfortunately, we were left somewhat disappointed. The resort and its 2 neighboring islands Januhura and Masleggihuraa are absolutely stunning. The reefs and lagoons are teeming with life, and corals, which makes staying in a water villa an almost magical experience. While riding your bike to dinner over the boardwalk you may just spot a shark, stingray, or turtle. The food is mostly delicious. The buffet-style A Mano usually has a really really impressive level of quality, and the Asian-style restaurant Veli was our favorite. Bottega, the Italian-style restaurant, has incredible desserts, but the rest of the food was not all that great in my opinion. The staff is super friendly and call you by your names (shoutout to Vel at A Mano restaurant and our host Sonieta, they were incredible). Emily, the marine biologist on staff, enhanced our stay by teaching us about the struggles of environmental protection in the Maldives and the efforts they've implemented to try and make a difference. That being said I was truly shocked to find out the resort had undergone a full renovation in 2016, because it feels dated. Areas of the resort are starting to fall into disrepair. A lot of the beach furniture is mismatched and rusting. On the secondary islands plastic garbage is starting to buildup from the tides and it’s becoming an eye sore. Overall, maintenance could be tighter. The laidback beach vibe of the hotel is bordering closer to sleepy boredom and there are some strange design choices. There are very few activities scheduled for guests and they're not very well themed or advertised, leaving very little to actually do in between meals. The pool is elevated so that it has an infinity edge and prevents sand from the beach getting in, but they didn't elevate any of the area around the pool so theres nowhere to sit around the pool. The main beach is also the same area where the sea planes land, making the water not very inviting to swim in. There’s no music to speak of, there’s no waiter service at the beach or pool, and overall the vibe is kind of disjointed. There are a ton of cool animals around like the fruit bats seen daily, why not have placards or someone around to talk more about the ecology of the area? Something! Our package included full board, but there’s only one choice for lunch each day. The lunch at the beach bar is not included, and we didn’t particularly love the food at the lunch restaurant Bottega, so that was disappointing. Our package also included a sunset cruise once during the stay. In 7 days the wind didn’t once allow us to take that cruise. We completely understand no one controls the weather, but when asking management if there was something they can do to reimburse us all they had to offer was their condolences and a bottle of champagne. All in all, for the price I believe there are better options in the Maldives. My wife and I both expected something more. I understand the hotel is under new management, maybe they can implement the needed changes and updates to justify the cost.

We spent 12 wonderful days on what for me is the most beautiful Maldives Island - Kanuhura. With only 80 villas and the most amazing sandy beaches all around the island (kept alive with sand-pumps and lots of effort) it offers the typical barefoot, laid-back and relaxed setting for a Maldives dream holiday. No wave-breakers, no sandbags to protect against erosion like in many other Maldives resorts, just beautiful beaches, fantastic swimming in the lagoon and original, dense vegetation all around. Great dive sites only minutes away. Natural beauty is the true asset of this island! The villas date back to a time when Maldive accomodations were smaller and more densely packed than in some of the newer resorts but they are very comfy, although slowly falling apart….more on that below. If you want maximum privacy there are better islands to visit, unless you spring for one of the larger units with pool and walls towards the neighbouring villa. Housekeeping is really great, super flexible and keeps everything clean even during Monsoon storms. Staff in general was lovely but with significant fluctuations between individuals. It is fair to say, that the entire team on the island makes a huge effort to deliver attentive and professional service, which is all the more commendable as many of them have not been able to leave the island since November 2020 to see their families due to Covid restrictions. Most will treat you with a reserved professionalism but will happily open up when they detect interest for a chat in their guests, no-one more than Vel in the restaurant :) We did however get the distinct feeling that the island is flying on autopilot and while the guest experience is being delivered in a solid and consistent fashion it lacks a collective vision on what to stand for and how to surprise the guests. Professional, functional, slightly complacent, but not inspiring. Perhaps this somewhat lacklustre approach suits the all-inclusive Eastern European families frequenting the island these days in large numbers but we felt there is still lots of room to wow and tempt the guests with individualised experiences. The villa host could play a role here but choses not to. Same is true for the culinary offerings. Well prepared, consistently good, slightly repetitive and presented in a functional yet uninspiring fashion. One of the rare cases were the main restaurant buffet was consistently better than the Asian/Italian specialty restaurants. Now for the really disappointing part and the reason why we don’t plan to come back for some time: The resort aims for a laid-back vintage style (dubbed “Gypset”) but there is a thin line between Gypsy-style and decay, and the property has firmly crossed that line in many areas. The resort was completely renovated only in 2016, converting it from the dark woods of its earlier One & Only days to a more modern, white-washed vintage look with a dominant grey/beige color pallet, jazzed up with a few colourful accents here and there. Sadly, previous management seems to have lost interest after that renovation and let things fall into disrepair. The beach furniture is probably the most striking (but by far not the only) example. Old and new pieces of beach furniture are haphazardly strewn around the island, many of them broken, few with pillows (although their design and basic expectations of comfort demand them) and some apparently just stored along the beach for lack of a better idea where to keep them. Where pillows and covers are provided, they look worn and stained, having gone through many wet/dry cycles. All hammocks are either completely torn or overstretched to the floor (but if you like, you can get that sinking hammock feeling on the couches in the main bar). It looks nice and “Gypsy” from afar but rotten and uninviting from up close. Same story with separations between villas, with the completely tangled and stained rain shades in the restaurants and bars, with the maintenance and access hatches, with the water villas in general and pretty much anything else that is not in the direct line of sight of the guests. The “Chef’s garden” was an overgrown eyesore that has thankfully been levelled while we visited. This island is a long way away from offering “behind-the-house” tours that wouldn’t send the visitors screaming and packing. “Gypset” needs more than fancy (and working) beach furniture, it needs to become a mindset, expressed through behaviour, special events, customized offerings, actively tempting the guests to try something new - “you will find all information you need on your TV in the room” works in the airport Marriott but should not be the standard of service in a five star dream resort. We are hopeful that the new owner HPL Hotels & Resorts who acquired the property in May 21 and the new General Manager, who was onboarding while we vacationed there, will help Kanuhura to reinvent itself one more time and prevent the island from slipping into all-inclusive mediocrity. If and when that happens we will be back to enjoy the natural beauty Kanuhura has to offer.

Excellent stay , our second stay in Kanuhura, great staff and management, remember your name , especially in dining room and a great butler service, personal care. Food very good, less choices in covid times , however very good quality. Spa is good and more expensiv than on the other islands. For myself , there are 3 groups of 5 stars resorts in Maldives: casual, luxury and super luxury. Kanuhura belongs to luxury group. The island needs more technical and maintenance attention, villas are clean and decent size. Kanuhura Lounge at TMA terminal available with possibility of shower and little refreshments before your seaplane departure. Kanuhura celebrated 20th anniversary during our stay and hosted lovely party with great food...

The experience was absolutely amazing! The best part of Kanuhura is its staff! Arshad, Fariz, Abdul, Magga, Vel... all of them made our stay the perfect honeymoon in these covid times. We were especially impressed by the quality of the food in all of the restaurants. Snorkelling was also one of the best parts, we saw sharks, stingrays, turtles, dolphins, all types of fishes... couldn't have asked for more!

We have been home almost a week and we keep talking about how much fun we had in the Maldives! Kanuhura is special because it's really wild and beautiful and super kid-friendly. We loved that everyone rode bikes on the island, my kids loved the game room, and the food was really good- especially Asian. The vibe is very laid back with beautiful, beachy rooms, and I think they do a good job with having fun little gifts in the room. I would say a downside was the house reef can only be reached by a short boat ride which is offered every other day. As snorkelers, we like a closer reef that we can swim to from shore. We also booked an excursion to snorkel and they took us to another resort reef- which was amazing- and we saw hundreds of dolphins. We had great housekeeping and our room was super clean- plus great coordination for our PCR tests and departure. After staying at another resort in South Atoll, this north Atoll location was much less humid and easy to enjoy. We had a couple of times with a slow response to requests, but after speaking with our host about it, he really delivered the last 2 days. I can see why people return- we had some really nice service- especially from Khan, Ameen, Aakeem, Inoka, sorry if I am spelling names wrong. It's hard to see these nametags! Thank you!