Diamonds Athuruga Maldives Resort & Spa ★★★★★

Great friendly staff

Certain options where not communicated to us upon our arrival and we found out towards the end of our stay such as private dinners.

Reef, diving center, nice stuff!

Great location. Good house reef. Food lovely. Staff very friendly and helpful.

Decoration is a bit tired and needs some maintenance. Not much to do when it rains and can’t snorkel or do any water sports.

South Atol with access via 25min seaplane from Male. Stunning location, surrounded by a gorgeous beach with perfect wide sand, beautifully clear sea and a reef that is perfect for snorkelling/exploring. With two accommodation options, we were fortunate to be upgraded to a water villa, which was just everything you would expect in terms of exclusivity and service. Both restaurants we experienced were excellent- The water villa à la carte restaurant, with table service and excellent menu choices & the main buffet restaurant with an amazing choice of freshly prepared/individuality cooked dishes & fruit juices. Plenty of excursions to choose from and the service from all the staff were so friendly, offering advice and genuinely wanting to make our holiday an amazing experience.

Nothing.

Staff were amazing, food was also amazing. Snorkelling over the reef was like being in a huge aquarium, just magic. We had an overwater villa, so comfortable, clean and loved waking up to our water view and coffee on the balcony.

Nothing

We just came back from this resort and are already planning our next vacation at the same place. We stayed for two weeks in a standard beach villa and liked everything, the most important for us being the house reef. The house reef: simply outstanding, daily encounters with the sharks, turtles, whole families of the eagle rays, porcupine and boxfish, moray eels and so on. We enjoyed snorkeling at least twice a day and were never disappointed. The food : simple but good, with Italian influence. One could find pizzas and pasta at a daily basis (pasta with speck and safran sauce is my favorite). Every day the resort changes the theme of the diner, my favorite being Maldivian, we had it twice during our stay. Live barbecue with meat and fish, live naan station (just excellent) as well as other dishes from all around the world. We also booked the lobster dinner, while being a bit too expensive, it was one of the best we had so far. The Chef prepared an excellent lemon butter sauce that was just perfect for the lobster, highlighting its delicate taste. Thanks to the General manager Jaco we also had one diner at the a la carte water villa restaurant, we liked a lot the romantic setting, lounge music, service and of course the food. The excursions: we went on a whale shark excursion and were lucky to see two different of them. In our sixth’s time in Maldives it was the first encounter, what a beautiful experience ! We also went on the night sharks snorkeling and had seen at least 30 friendly nurse sharks of different size, it was impressive and beautiful. Finally, we went on manta safari and unfortunately haven’t seen any, but we will try again the next year. The resort also organizes the house reef snorkeling excursions twice a day (free of charge) with the marine’s biologists. If you are not a confident swimmer and/or would like to know better the marine’s life, I highly recommend to give it a try. The shop: I loved this shop.

We liked everything.

Everything from beginning was exceptional, very beautiful island and underwater world.

None.

Meals are quite expensive. Service by staff is superior.

Location require sea plane for a very expensive cost plus extra payment for luggage that internationally are included. Day / Night activites were boring. No animation team. Sport center guardians are irrgent and not very cooperative.

We loved everything! From the staff, to the location, the marine life, the beautiful beaches and the unbelievable food. What a wonderful experience! Huge shoutout to Titu, Malik and Naish, who made this extra special.

It’s my 7th resort in Maldives, and Diamonds defenitely is the best one for price/quality ratio.

Covid restrictions limited the buffet style breakfast and dinner, but the food was really good. The chefs are excellent and go out of their way to meet your requirements

The island is very small and limited in activities. We stayed for 14 day, I think it would be perfect for a 5-7 day stay

Right from the plush white water villa to the crystal blue ocean around it- our stay at diamonds was nothing less than magical! Silvia made it extra special by arranging beautiful proposal nights for our friends- making our holiday even more remarkable. We got snorkels to keep at our villa for the duration of our stay, ensuring that we could walk into the blue and explore the stunning marine life around. Reef sharks, sting rays and even an eagle ray swam across our villa area! The interiors, cleanliness and service is great. Special mention to Silvia, Ranju and Jerry for making our stay truly heavenly!

The food had slightly limited options especially for non-fish eaters but the moment we informed them about it, they added special vegetarian dishes for us, and we always left the table happy with our bellies full!

Stunning water villas, amazing service, super f&b. Incredible clear water. Housekeeping fantastic. ALL staff highly professional.

Leaving! Very sad to go back home!

Location

No internet or TV in the villa Expensive water sports activities

Water villa, food and hospitality - all were great! We were going on dive trips with a boat every day - enjoyed the fantastic water world!

Everything ! It was my first trip to the Maldives and loved it. Everyone was very nice and helpful, the resort and the island are amazing and all was catered for. There were a number of COVID safety measures in place that transmitted confidence. I was sad to leave and would recommend this resort to everyone.

Nothing really.

The island is a small paradise, we stayed both on beach and water villas, water villas are larger with a big terrace and breakfasts & dinners in à la carte restaurant are included. The staff is very helpful and kind, resort manager Chris, Victor from water sports and all the cooks and waiters make you feel really great. Ideal location for couples - very calm and relaxed. Highly recommended. Everyday tours for snorkeling to other reefs, fishing, whale sharks and rays. Home reef: lots of fish, turtles and sharks (friendly ones so don’t worry) but corals suffered from 2016 warming and are slowly recovering. To see lots of corals the hotel organizes tours to the other reefs (40 min by boat). Food is great.

The staff was always friendly and helpful. I have not experienced a single incidence where a staff member was grumpy or not willing to help. I would like to point out a really remarkable example of how customer oriented the resort is: As the resort is only accessible by an inland sea-plane flight from Male airport, I was worried that I would have a long stay over at the Male airport before the connecting flight. I communicated this clearly with the resort beforehand. The resort organized a flight wich departed only 1,5 hours after my arrival. The plane took me to an neighbouring island from where I was picked up by one of the resort-boats. So the first day of my say was not at all lost. On arrival I was greeted by Silvia and it took me not long to shake off all my worries and uneasiness which I brought from dark and cold Euorope. In fact only a look from the pier into the clear water was enough to get me into holiday mood (as I saw squids swimming casually about). On the day of my departure my international flight form Male to Doha was departing at like 9 pm. So I was again worried to arrive too early at the airport in Male. But here again the resort staff organized the latest possible flight for me. (4 pm) So I was able to enjoy the last day of departure with full service, I was even allowed to stay in my room as long as I liked to. To me this was an unusually generous gesture. I really need to mention though that Athuruga is running a unique project. The resort supports a German Biologist: Inga. She is researching the growth of corals and works out ways to help recover the corals which were lost during the El Ninjos 2015/2016. If you get lucky enough to chat with her you will quickly notice that she is determined to make a difference. And it is good to see that those people are still around. And that the resort is providing a great base for her research. Really this is outstanding.

What a resort. The main highlights for us were: 1. the size of the water villa and terrace, massive walk in wardrobe, comfortable seating areas, massive rain and waterfall shower, good AC; 2. the food was excellent, homemade mousse and ice cream every lunch! Did not have one bad meal, all excellent quality. Also very nice that we could have breakfast on our terrace each morning and the quality didn't drop; 3. the staff, every single person was great, friendly and helpful. Special mention to Shahir, Titu, Moti, all the barmen, Vitkor, Inga, Hussain, Saliim all ably led by Sylvia and Kris. From the moment we stepped off the seaplane to the moment we stepped back on it, the service was great. Really liked how Kris the manager welcomed us as soon as we landed and was the final person to say goodbye, he was always accessible and nothing was too small to involve him. 4. the house reef is SUPERB. Every time we snorkelled we saw turtles, reef sharks (both black and white tip) and all manner of colourful fish, anemones and corals (Inga doing a great job bringing the reef back); 5. Excursions - as the weather wasn't great our first 4-5 days, Viktor made a point of arranging the three excursions we wanted to do for the final three days, and we are so grateful he did. The whale sharks were great to see, the snorkelling to two different reefs both really good (lots of turtles) and then the manta rays was hands down the best experience I have ever had, it was superb.

The wifi could be better, but a very minor point. The spa was good but perhaps could be improved.

We stayed in WV n.1, which we really recommend for the view on the island, the seaside “swimming pool style” and the convenience to the WV restaurant. The food was fantastic, with raw fish almost everyday and the grilled fish being the one you will remember for long time. The Villa is bright, huge, with comfortable bed and even if doesn’t have any pool or bath, you don’t miss them thanks to the unique microclimate of the island (perfect mix between light wind and water temperature).

We had to wait on the first day before taking our flight from male airport to the island, but we were happy the resort balanced out this inconvenience in the many other ways during our stay.