Kalaafaanu Retreat♡

Guest review

6.0

After arriving from speedboat from Male (the transfer that I had reserved has not been arranged and after a couple calls to Ali, I was able to get aboard speedboat from Male to the atoll). On arrival I was met by Adam, who was very pleasant and took me to the guesthouse (I actually was assigned to "Sunny Lodge, which is their second property across the street). Pictures in *no way* reflect the actual rooms, which were clean but extremely basic. In my experience there was no 24 hour front desk, there were no manta ray or whale shark excursions on offer (there was not an "excursions board" to be found), there were no BBQ grills, playground, or other amenities which were listed online as present at the guest house. Linens were not changed once during a week-long stay, and aside from when the cook prepared/served meals, no staff onsite. I did have a window...that looked into another room which was the service area, so there was no natural light; lighting was provided by bare glaring compact fluorescent bulbs; the room was pitch black without the lights turned on. On the plus side, air conditioning worked well and shower was with hot water. Additionally, the private beach was beautiful and an excursion was arranged to the picnic island which was gorgeous, and transfer back to Male was without issue. I was there 7 days, which turned out to be 4 days too long. While the tiny atoll itself was beautiful, I found the inhabitants (numbering ~ 700), extremely unfriendly.