Cinnamon Hakuraa Huraa Maldives

We've just returned to the UK after 7 nights at Cinnamon Hakuraa Huraa to celebrate our anniversary, and it honestly feels like a dream. Beach villa Our beach villa on the main island was spacious, clean and had everything we needed. We especially loved the outdoor shower! We requested a quiet room, and were given the second to last villa away from the beach bar area (202), which was perfect for us. Food The food at Hakuraa Huraa is the best I've had at a resort. The local dishes were absolutely fantastic - more curries than you can shake a stick at (the mango was a personal favourite) - and I loved the Sri Lankan kottu roti and Thai pad thai. It is honestly astounding how the hotel is able to serve such a tasty variety of food at such a remote location. Special shout outs to our waiter, Lammaah, for his friendly, quick service, Samma for her smile, and the kitchen staff who work tirelessly to deliver top notch food every day. Ambience One of the main reasons we chose Hakuraa Huraa is because we read reviews saying that it is a quiet, relaxing hotel. Bang on. If you're easily bored and need/want lots of activities and entertainment, this hotel (and most probably the Maldives) is not for you. But if you're looking for peace, tranquility and relaxation, then this is the place. I managed to settle down and finish a book I've been reading for years! Hotel (general) The hotel is laid out in such a way that it felt like there were just a handful of guests, adding to the quiet, spacious vibe. We never had to queue at the beach bar, and there were always plenty of sunbeds. Evening entertainment was pleasant and unobtrusive. We enjoyed the traditional music night and the crab racing, but were usually in bed early. One thing to note - if you're out at the water villas, you will hear a generator for most of the day (from the pier at least, I cannot say how noisy it is in the rooms), especially if you are in the middle section (320-340ish). I think this should come at no surprise - on such a tiny island, you will never be far from a generator or an air conditioning unit or something like that. It is also true what others say about the roof material of all the accomodation units - when it rains, it is indeed quite loud inside. With time I got used to the nightly rain showers and was not disturbed. The hotel supplies earplugs. Despite a recent revamp, there are bits of the hotel that look a bit tired/need maintenance. But everything worked and this hotel's heart is in the right place, with the staff doing a fantastic job keeping it all going, so stuff like this was easily forgiven. Beach The beach is crushed coral and sand, so beach shoes come in handy, especially if you intend to wade out (swimming is difficult, as even at high tide the water level is very low). The beach is kept very clean and tidy - in fact, it is raked every day. The beach/garden team were out all the time making sure everything looked its best. I feel that the little uninhabited island opposite the pool area could do with some TLC though. Wildlife One of the first things I saw was a baby reef shark swimming along the shore. Stand on the pier, and there are fish everywhere. We enjoyed the little guide the hotel provided, and ticked off most of the fish listed! Walking to and fro the restaurant, we also saw big fluffy flying foxes scoffing fruit in the palm trees. Everywhere you look, there is life and it is absolutely beautiful. I went on the dolphin safari excursion and was lucky enough to witness spinner dolphins leaving the atoll. Snorkelling The hotel offers twice daily snorkelling excursions to local reefs, as it does not have its own "house" reef. This was also a major pull, as we were hoping that reefs would be in better condition for not having tourists trample around on them all the time. Although intact, the reefs are sadly quite bleached (true for most of the Maldives). That being said, there is still an abundance of fish, and people we went snorkelling with saw sharks and turtles (we weren't so lucky!). It was also great that we were taken to a few different spots. Staff on the boat were very vigilant, keeping an eye on everyone at all times. Staff On the subject of staff, everyone was so friendly and courteous. We were always greeted with a hello and a smile, wherever we went. Shout out to Rimshad and the rest of the reception team (Wilma, Ushan, Humeiza and Sathish) for their warm welcome and always being on hand to answer questions. Misc - Seaplane transfer: Information on this was limited, so I emailed the info desk at Cinnamon a few days before our arrival and was informed that for the transfer you need to go to desk E3 at Male airport (thank you Rosalind for your prompt replies!). If you find a Tui representative, they will also help you. Note, you can only take a total of 23 kg onto the seaplane (we were fine, but infos like this can easily get lost). A bus takes you from the main airport to a separate seaplane terminal, where there is air conditioning and a little cafe. We had to wait about an hour for our transfer, and the plane made two stops before we got to Hakuraa Huraa (in total, the journey took ~40 min). I thoroughly enjoyed the experience - seeing the islands from above was the perfect way to start our holiday! On the way back, after being dropped off at the main airport by the bus, we had to wait a few minutes at the Arrivals terminal at Male airport for our luggage before we were escorted to Security. All very efficient and seamless! - Weather: Ignore any weather forecasts! We were due to have non stop rain and thunderstorms, and even though we did get a mixed bag, we still got a good dollop of sunshine. To summarise: We had the holiday of a lifetime at Hakuraa Huraa. I think it says it all that I had a little cry on the seaplane back to the airport! Read less

Just back from a 4 night stay in an over water bungalow. The room was spacious, very clean and exceeded our expectations. It had a glass viewing window in the floor, we saw lots of marine life through the window, including sharks at night. We snorkeled in the ocean and the lagoon surrounding bungalow, the current was quite strong on the ocean side. There is a twice daily free snorkeling trip, 5 min boat ride to a reef. We had some great encounters with turtles. Aside from the snorkeling, all other water activities are extra cost and very expensive. I had expected the non motorized activities (kayak, SUP) to be included. The grounds are beautiful and well maintained. Quite a few ‘selfie spots’ which was a nice touch. The staff were all very friendly and attentive. The buffet was excellent, with plenty of choice. It would be nice if breakfast was a later, finished at 9٫30 and they stopped restocking items earlier than that. There are no snacks included during the day if you miss the main meal times. We had an unpleasant encounter with another guest (not the hotels fault), they handled it extremely professionally and moved us to a new table. There is aggressive upselling by one member of staff to the A La Carte (The Crab) restaurant, we found him to be quite rude (sorry can’t remember his name). We did eat at The Crab restaurant one night, be warned that the wine is expensive here but the food is was excellent. They made a birthday cake which was delicious. The all inclusive drinks are somewhat limited and if you like cocktails it may be worth the premium package to get more choice. For example no mojito or Aperol spritz. There is free water in the room but the spirits in the mini bar are extra. We had massages at the spa which were good value under a promotion and the spa girls sang happy birthday and made a birthday decoration which was a lovely touch. We used the laundry service which was very efficient. The transfers via sea plane were well coordinated and definitely preferable to the long boat ride. The things that could be improved are the WiFi, very slow at times and I doubt a video call would be possible, we struggled to complete urgent online work tasks that cropped up. The bath towels could do with being replaced, grey and thin. Beach towels were fine. Would be nice if shower gel/shampoo was available in the pool side showers, especially if you have a late departure. These are all minor points. Overall we totally loved our stay, truly felt like paradise. Read less

Beautiful hotel and beaches as expected! We had a water sunset villa which was the best experience! The food was also good and various healthy options. Compliments to the staff which were very friendly all the time! Special mention to our assigned server in the restaurant, very attentive. Naseer that was sympathic and left us with various surprises in the room and treated us very well in these last days. We’ve booked a massage package that was really worthy! The girls are all from Bali and the massages were great! Special mention to Prita & Willy. Just couple of points to improve: in an island where there’s no where to go and no much to do, I’d expect better choices of entertainment. The activities in the end of the day were reallly poor. Additionally, the few things they offer are extremely expensive and there’s always something trying to sell you the extras which didn’t give us a very good chill holiday sensation. But overall it was a good experience! Read less