Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu

We returned from this resort last week having spent 10 nights in a Beach front deluxe villas 66 & 67. The resort is beautiful, well kept, the staff are amazing and very friendly, especially the waiters Irfan and Adeel they were excellent all credit to them... Sea Plane journey went smoothly didnt have to wait very long in the lounge. It is with sadness that we found a few negatives with this resort mainly because of COVID, we appreciate that most of the resort was closed, they only had one restaurant and bar open which was fine, the restaurant was A La Carte, the staff wore masks and we felt safe, hand sanitiser everywhere and our temperature was checked most of the time.. Our concern was that we had booked this holiday pre COVID in January and paid for the All Inclusive, as a party of 4, we thought the resort was being mean with the food, the A La Carte restaurant had 3 choices of starter, main and dessert however a lot of what was on offer was not to our tastes, I was the only fussy eater in our group, a lot of curries & Asian dishes and the desserts were pretty much made up of the same ingredients just mixed up. When we asked for an alternative to the A La Carte menu, we were told that for lunch we had a $15 supplement and for dinner a $25 supplement and surprise most things on the menu in the bar were over this amount so you would have to pay. As there would have normally been a buffet (appreciate this is not allowed) which would have had quite a vast choice of food which they promote on their website, we thought it was mean of them to charge. We were told that we had to pay for Banana`s, Pineapple etc and the only fruit we could have foc was melon and papaya.. with no exaggeration if you asked for something different other than what was on the a la carte menu you were told it was chargeable.. We complained about this and as a small token of good will, they did a separate menu for us in the bar, they thought they were doing us a favour but in fact the only thing we had extra than everyone else was burger and chips... Like I say we fully appreciate that the buffet was not allowed to be open but as we had paid All inclusive we didnt expect to have to pay for basics... As time went on the resort started to fill up suddenly alternative fruits were no free off charge, however the menu did not change, we then had to eat in the bigger restaurant but they did not increase the amount of staff to cover service, Irfan and Adeel were run off their feet, they couldnt cope, the food was cold or there were a lot of mistakes, not the waiters fault, again the resort were being mean, they had a lot more guests but did not increase the staff to cover. Again it is sad that I have to put a negative slant on this resort, I expect over the years this resort has made a lot of money and profit from it guests, fully understand we are in a very hard situation with COVID but come on Coco stop being so mean, you can cover this bad time with your profits. Apart from the above and hopefully once this COVID is over the resort can get back to normal, we wouldnt return not because we didnt like the resort only because there are so many more resorts to choose from.

Our 10th time to the Maldives, but 1st time to Coco Palm. This has been the best of the 5 islands that we have visited, a truly wonderful place to relax and unwind at a very challenging time all over the world. We travelled against UK FCO advice which meant that we had to take out high risk travel insurance, and go in to quarantine on our return. We decided that Emirates was the best airline for us because our insurance didn’t cover us for covid 19, but Emirates were proving cover for anything covid 19 related, so if you had to quarantine while on holiday they would pay for putting you in a hotel for the period of quarantine. They did change our flights a few times but in the end it worked out better than our original plans. We had to get negative PCR certificates to fly through Dubai, and we felt safer in the knowledge that everyone on our flight had tested negative up to 96 hours before departure which although a person could catch covid after the test, it was better than nobody being tested at all. We used Pure Health which cost £113 each. I had read that some people were using the NHS system, but I think that unless you have symptoms you shouldn’t be trying to book a test with the NHS. Just before our departure the Maldives announced that they would be requiring negative PCR certificates. We also had to complete a Maldives Health Declaration online within 24 hours of departure. Then we also had to pay for our vaccinations because the NHS weren’t doing them. So the travelling wasn’t very straight forward and required a bit more planning than normal. We found Heathrow Airport the least safe place on our journey, where people would sit opposite you with no mask and talking on a phone unaware that they are expelling water droplets and potentially spreading covid! Other places like Dubai and Male people seemed better at following the guidance for preventing the spread of covid. When we arrived at Male we were greeted by a representative of Coco Palm who booked us in for our sea plane and sent us off to the Coco Palm longe. We didn’t have to wait long for the flight which was only about 30 minutes but a wonderful experience as always. Make sure to have your camera handy because they take your hand luggage off you to be placed at the back with the other cases. We arrived at Coco Palm during 60 mph winds, so the sea plane dropped us off on a floating platform close to another island and we transferred to a speedboat. It was quite a rough and bumpy journey to Coco that took about 10 minutes. We were welcomed to the island with a nice cold drink and quickly escorted to our sunset beach villa. We were shown round the room and how to us the safe before being left to settle in. Our bed had been decorated and we had been given a complimentary bottle of Prosecco and fruit skewers. The room was cleaned twice a day. It had a large bed with a mosquito net. We always take 2 4 bar electrical sockets because there are never enough sockets for modern day devices 😊. There was a mini bar with soft drinks (included in the AI), and 2 bottles of water. There was a kettle either coffee and tea. There was a hair dryer that seemed to work well. The shower and toilet were outside in an enclosed area were there was a washing line and a rack to hang towels and wet clothes. Our room boy was wonderful. Our meals were in the Cowrie restaurant, which was a small sand floor open sided structure, but opposite there was an open area with tables and chairs for when it was dry. We had 3 wonderful waiters Irfan, Rasheed and I fail to remember the name of the this waiter who took our temperature every day. We miss the banter that we had with the waiters, so friendly and helpful. Big thank you to them, and the cooks/chefs. They asked if there was any meal that we liked that wasn’t on the menu, and I said that I liked chilli con carne. Next evening I was presented with a delicious chilli con carne. Amazing! The food at all the meals was very good and even though I am a bit fussy I always found something on the menu that I enjoyed. The menu was online so that you could decide what you wanted in advance. The staff all had to wear masks and staff coming on to the island had to quarantine for 14 days. Guests don’t have to wear masks but you only ever see other guests at mealtimes or in the bar. The tables in the restaurant and bar are all well spaced out. You are in a natural bubble here, and feel safe, just watch out for falling coconuts 😊. The bar is called the Conch Bar and you can ale a reservation at reception to eat here, but it not included in the AI. You do get some credit towards a meal here, but we found the AI meals were too good. The bar staff were excellent and quickly got to know our drinking habits 😂. We were able to stroll round the island in about 30 minutes. There is a turtle sanctuary run by a UK charity called Olive Ridley Project. They rescue turtles from all over the Maldives. When we were there they had 5 turtles, and all but 1 was missing a flipper due to ghost nets. A vet was in quarantine and due to perform a procedure on one of the turtles to help it with buoyancy problems (it couldn’t dive because of trapped air). There was a very interesting presentation in the bar about turtles. The GM and head Chef gave us a tour of the Chefs garden where they grow herb, vegetables and fruit. It demonstrates how proud they are but also how they have time for their guests. There were only about 28 gusts on the island but we felt at times that we had the island to ourselves. I had a spinal cord injury in 2016 and suffer from Cauda Equina Syndrome, so I have constant back and nerve pain down both legs to the soles of my feet. I had 2 massages at the spa, the second was a hot stone massage which was amazing and really helped my pain levels. I will definitely have that again, and will look to see if I can get it back here. We are so looking forward to going back here next year. A big thank you to all the staff at Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu you are the best!

This was our second time on the island, and there are a lot of positive things to write about. The look of the island, the rooms and public spaces, is gorgeous. Natural materials, bleached wood, tan-cream-gold colour scheme, asian and oceanic elements, really well styled with a Maledivian feel. The rooms have a good amount of private beach area. The lush greenery of the island and the ecological efforts are also to be applauded. Walking through the middle of the island is like being in a lush tropical forest. The food in the restaurant is amazing. Absolutely perfect. The staff everywhere is wonderful, friendly, helpful. Not all the rooms have a good beach, this has to do with currents, so its not the resorts fault of course, but just be aware that there are sand bags and some bungalows have a lot of bare rock showing. We were given another room because the first bungalow didn't have any beach, but we asked and they kindly gave us a new room. The first time we were on the island it was mainly couples and honeymooners. This time there were a lot of families. For us, this disturbed the peace and quiet, and we preferred it when there were more couples and less families. Especially in the restaurants and the bar, where the noise from families was a problem. For some of the two weeks we were there, there was also noise from families around our stretch of beach and the neighbouring bungalows. This was really unfortunate, because during our first stay it was very quiet, peaceful and relaxing. But all in all, its a gorgeous resort, with wonderful staff, beautiful nature and an excellent restaurant.