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| Holiday-Truth Readers Reports |
Lynn and Joe from Kent travelled to Fihalhohi Island Resort with
First Choice
on a singles holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 04 2007 | rated the Fihalhohi Island Resort as follows:| Cleanliness |  | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food |  | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: We have just returned from our two week stay at Fihaholi island and can only say what a fantastic island.
We stayed in a water bungalow and our first words as we entered were wow! it was fantastic, plenty of space, tea and coffee making facilities,a large four poster bed, dressing room, bath and shower. The outside decking had a table and four chairs and two sunloungers with steps straight into the sea. At night it had lights so you could see the fishes and sometimes rays swim by.
The food was very good better than we expected with a good choice and a different theme every night. The surf cafe also serve some great lunches if you fancy a change
The reef is fantastic for snorkeling and you will be amazed at what you see, something new every day.
The entertainment is limited but they do try with different things we had crab racing, a live band, disco etc. I celebrated my 50th birthday while we were out there with a champagne breakfast on our deck, and a meal on the beach in the evening at which the waiters had decorated the table and had a birthday banner behind my chair and a birthday cake with my name on. When we went back to the room the bed had been decorated with flowers it was amazing they all made it a birthday to remember.
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B Hinchcliffe from Preston travelled to Fihalhohi Island Resort with
First choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 1 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 05 2006 | rated the Fihalhohi Island Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: Flew with First choice which was excellent, would find it hard to fly with anyone else now.
Once we got to the Male airport we were last off the plane and last to get our hotel details off our rep which meant more time in an air conditioned airport rather than the heat outside so only had 5 minutes to wait for our speed boat transfer. This only took aprox 50 minutes but a very enjoyable trip.
Once we arrived at the resort a warm welcome and cool towels were given to us and after check in we were shown our room. We had booked a comfort room on the north side of the island and what a lovely room it was too. Very spacious (even with an extra bed), clean and light.
Lovely clean modern bathrooms and plenty of clothes hangers in the wardrobe. There’s a front door and a door leading on to a veranda with chairs and a table, at the front door there’s a tap to wash the sand of your feet and at the veranda door a terracotta container for the same thing.
The island is nice and small with only one main restaurant which all meals are buffet. Now I'm a fussy eater and I don't eat fish, my daughter would live off chicken nuggets everyday if we let her but we both still found plenty of food for us to eat. What we had we certainly enjoyed, my husband eats anything and everything and loved it all. We did eat lunch at the surf cafe on the odd occasion, they served toasties, burgers, pizzas etc at very very reasonable prices, you can also treat yourself to a walls ice cream if you want to.
We didn't do many of the excursions in fact the only one we did was the dolphin trip which was brilliant, our daughter said it was the funnest day of her life! (her words!) We saw literally 100's of dolphins who put on a spectacular show for us and an added bonus was that we say 4 very large manta rays. The only other things we did were hire a catamaran which took us to a sand bank or should I call it the rubbish tip! unfortunately a lot of the rubbish washes up on these banks but the ride itself was great and again we saw dolphins. The island has it's own glass bottom boat which we rented for $40 it took us all around the island and it was a good way for our daughter to see the different fish as she's not confident enough to go out snorkelling very far.
Entertainment is very low key but that’s how we like it. We joined in some of the things like crab racing, bingo and watched the underwater video.
The entertainment staff are great, they were very few children on the island and they made my daughter feel very much at home, they always greeted her by name and made a big fuss of her every time they saw her. In fact I cannot single them out as all the staff on the island are brilliant, you will not find friendlier people anywhere.
The room boy always put flowers in our room from the lovely plants that grow on the island and he also brought us coconuts split and ready to eat and beach towels were changed every other day.
We tipped our waiter and room boy $15 for the first week and then $20 for the second week because we appreciated the service, we also tipped the waiters at the surf bar at the end of the holiday because of the service and yes there is a 10% charge on every thing you buy but that’s not a great deal and it’s mainly for the staff that work hard on the island but you don’t really see, such as the kitchen staff, the men who rake the sand every morning and the man who goes around the island spraying the trees etc.
It does annoy me a little when people moan about this measly 10%. When the sad time comes when you have to leave the island you will not find a fonder farewell, They shook our hands, kissed and hugged our daughter and then they all stood on the dock waving us all off. A perfect end to a perfect holiday!
We are now looking forward to going back to Fihalhohi next year for 3 weeks, as 2 weeks were not long enough.
My only worry is that one day in the future like so many islands this lovely resort will be taken over and made into a 5 star resort with 5 star prices, in my eyes it is already a 5 star resort but with reasonable prices.
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Jane from Conwy travelled to Fihalhohi Island Resort with
First Choice
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 03 2006 | rated the Fihalhohi Island Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: We stayed at Fihalhohi from 08/03 - 22/03. This was our second visit to Fihalhohi. We booked and flew with First Choice. This was a much improved service from our flight in September 2005 with Monarch. Wider seats, bigger seat pitch, seat-back TV, infact exactly what they say on their website. We departed a few minutes late but made this time up enroute. Arrived at Male airport, queued to see our rep (only 15mins or so) and were soon on our way to Fihalhohi.
The transfer by boat took about 50mins. From leaving your luggage with the boatcrew you will not have to carry your luggae again till back at the airport. The crossing was pretty smooth and no problems. When we arrived at Fihalhohi it wasas if we hadn't been away - everything was exactly as we remembered it. We checked in with reception and got our keys, identified our luggage to be taken to our rooms and were on our way.
It is customary to tip $1 per case taken to room. This time we were staying in th mid-range, comfort room. Our particular room was in a block of four (2x2). We were on the 1st floor. The room has a/c, ceiling fan,
fridge, safe, bathrooms (shower over bath), balcony. The biggest difference to the Classic room which we stayed in last time was the inclusion of a/c in the price. The room was clean on arrival, towels provided (including beach towels) and everything worked.
Fihalhohi is classed as a 'budget' resort - three stars. It certainly is not plush (except for the waterbungalows) but it has everything you need for a comfortable holiday.
The first five days of the holiday my partner completed with OpenWater Diving course (ISS). He had 1:1 tutition as no-one else was starting the same time as him, however we met other guests who had completed the course during their holiday. I had not previously dived before this holiday and decided to try the Island's 'resort course' which is aimed at complete beginners. You see a video, go through shallow water skills (this is done in the lagoon as Fihalhohi does not have a swimming pool) and then go out for a dive. There is never more than four students to one memebr of dive staff. On this occasion the ratio was 2:1.
After my partner had completed his OW course we went on a further three dives together. The housereef is literally a couple of steps in the ocean from the beach, so even though i was limited to 12m depth, the experience was fantastic. The dive staff were patient, helpful, always close by but also gave you space to learn. If it takes 10+ attempts to do a mask clearance in shallow water skills (resort course) then that is fine. We would personally highly recommend the dive centre on the island. We saw plenty of fish and other sea creatures including giant moray eels (three live in the housereef), sharks (nurse shark from boat dive, grey & black tip reef sharks in house reef) lion fish, trigger clown fish, blue fin trevelly, squid, octupus, stingray, eagle ray and hundreds of pretty little fish.
The food a Fihalhohi is generally good. We were on Half board basis. Every meal at the resturant is buffet basis, however the Blue Lagoon bar also does food which is an additional cost. Breakfast is OK. We tended to have cereals, toast/breads/pastries, cheese, fruit and whatever was being cooked at the grill. This changed daily, eggs, waffles, pancakes. As pork products are illegal, the sausages and 'bacon' are beef based and were something that i couldn't get a taste for. We occasionally missed breakfast (07:30 - 09:30) so had lunch at the Surf cafe. For $4 each you could have toast, pastries, muffins, tea/coffee and juice. Breakfasts went up to about $7:50. Lunch we had at the Surf cafe and generally had toastie and chips though occasionally had the 'special'. For $3.50 you could have a toastie, chips and coleslaw salad whic persnally we thought was great value. Food here was very good. Other foods were burgers chips and colslaw from $5, pizza (from $4), salads (from $3). Each meal was cooked to order. Drinks are reasonable:- 1.5 lt water $3.50, mug of beer $3.50, 330ml soft drink $2, milkshake (made with icecream) $3. Fruit cocktails from $3.50 and alcoholic cocktails around $6. Don't forget there is a 10% service charge on these.
Dinner was again buffet style and was theme. Somtimes the food did look a bit 'samey' but it was usually pretty good and hot. There was always salads, soups, breads, rices, pasta, meat, fish, grill, fruits, deserts. We also had a candlelight dinner on the beach but unfortunately we never made it on the beach due to bad weather. Nevertheless the food was fantastic. I had the seafood platter (saltbeef & cucumber roll, vegtable soup & bread, seafood platter which included half lobster, giant prawns, calamari, fish, salad, fries, fresh fruit, tea/coffee for $36) my partner had the fillet steak (seafood cocktail, carrot soup and breads, fillet steak, salad, fries, tea/coffee for $24) Excellent vaalue in our opinion.
The evening entertainment generally passed us by as we had seen it all before, so mainly sat in theFisherman's bar chatting. The entertainment is low key.
The coral cove does snacks if you are peckish which was mainly hot savoury pastries from $0.80 to $2 like chicken sausage roll, prawn puff and tuna bun. They also have a fab range of cake which again i think are reasonably priced from $1.50 - $3. The portions are big!
In terms of 'bugs' the main creatures you will see are ants, some of which are really quite big but they are harmless and important for the island. We saw two cockroaches which were dealt with swiftly. There are
also snails. Other animal life includes, fruit bats, crows, gekkos and herons.
We did a couple of excursions. Sunset fishing, Island hopping and Guraidhoo. As always the sunset fishing was great (went 4 times last visit). The boat crew remembered us (infact all the staff did) and could not have been more friendly. We specifically wanted to return to guraidhoo to see how the post-tsunami work was going. Things are improving but very slowly. Only eight houses built since our last visit in September. We took a couple of footballs with us from home for the kids but to be honest I found the experience quite upsetting. The desperation of the show owners comes across. Most of the shops sell exactly te same things. Our group split up so most of the shops were visited at least once.
At Fihalhohi you have two sunloungers that are marked with your room number so others shouldn't use them, however on two occasions i had to hunt mine down on the beach but that's not the resorts fault. The beach is very good and quite wide in some places and whilst the island was fully booked when we were there there was still plenty of room. There is a lot of broken / dead coral so aqua soes can be useful.
Overall we feel that Fihalhohi is great value for money. What you pay for two people on this island wouldn't cover one person on many other islands (£1500 for 2). We did spend quite a bit on the island around £1200 whilst we were there, but half of this was diving courses and additional dives. I also had three treatments at the Spa.
We are planning to return in September 2006. We love Fihalhohi, service is great, friendly and relaxed and has everything we want in a holiday. The new FCA are a bonus!
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Hayley Smith & Dave Downs from West Mids travelled to Fihalhohi Island Resort with
First Choice
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2005 | rated the Fihalhohi Island Resort as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: The Journey
We flew with Monarch Airlines…if you’re going to Fiha, don’t! The amount of problems this airline manifested was ridiculous, including delays, inhumane seating room and actually flying us to Manchester to drop all of 5 passengers off before flying to Gatwick, our chosen airport, without informing us. This was a nice little surprise. Unfortunately I think that this is the only UK airline to fly into Malé, but I could be wrong? The flight out was 10 hours 35 minutes.
Arrival at Malé was smooth and easy. The locals are very grateful if both sexes cover their shoulders and knees whilst in Malé due to their Muslim religion, this isn’t required at Fihalhohi.
After collecting your luggage, you look for your rep, who will tick you off their list and explain that your boat will be leaving shortly and would you please wait outside. So off you go outside and sit down in a chair, which actually belongs to a very cleverly placed café. A bloke then comes along and asks you what you would like, well now your sitting there you can’t exactly say “Nothing mate, just your chair.” So you order a drink….a can of coke say….for $3! (£1.74) Eventually you’re called for your boat.
Please take a travel sickness pill even if you believe you’ll be ok, because you probably won’t, it was very choppy – honestly our bellies kept flipping over, like when you go over a bridge in a car.
Arriving at Fiha will take your breath away, it is paradise to look at, every picture you take will look like a postcard. Once off the boat you’re greeted with a cold face towel, a coconut with a straw to reception.
Whilst there you will fill out a form giving your details etc and the staff will then give you your room key, get two bag boys and lead you to your room. Tipping is customary in the Maldives and for bag boys it's $1 per bag. You will also be asked to attend a welcome meeting later in the evening, if you’re too jet lagged and tired honestly don’t bother going. All the information they give, though essential, is provided for you in your room in a handbook.
All of the staff speak English, however some are more fluent than others. It’s best if you speak slowly and clearly to avoid confusion.
The Room
We stayed in the cheapest type of room, a “Classic”, which was massive. Inside it had two beds, a desk with a chair, two comfy chairs with a coffee table, a vanity table with mirror and stool, a mini wardrobe room with plenty of space, and a bathroom with shower, toilet and sink. Also a vase of flowers was provided along with 2 small bottles of water.
The room also contains a telephone, (incoming calls only), an umbrella, hairdryer, fridge, free safe, ceiling fan and an air conditioning system. The air conditioning isn’t turned on in a classic room but can be for $10 a night. If you’re a light sleeper like me then you must take ear plugs. If you could sleep with a helicopter at your window then you’ll be fine…the fan is a little loud to say the least and the air con, if you choose to pay the expensive $10 per night, is even louder. If you choose not to have the air con the first few nights won’t be nice, it really is just too hot to sleep….PJ’s? Don’t even waste the suitcase space! Knickers, that’s all you’ll need for night time, even the thin sheet on the bed is too much at first, but once your body gets used to it you’ll be okay.
Strangely, the room doesn’t have a clock, which is difficult when you need to know when to get ready for dinner, etc, though if you want an alarm call in the morning just ask at reception.
The plug sockets are actually English, so no worries about taking anything electrical.
Although the island doesn’t have any mosquitoes, the government there is very strict about keeping them and therefore malaria out of the atoll and so each room is fitted with a mosquito ball and refill tablets, which the room boys will change daily.
The room also contains a handbook with information about the island, local customs, and prices of treatments at the health centre, writing paper, envelopes and fax paper.
Outside of your room is a veranda. This contains two plastic chairs, a coffee type table, washing line, rack (for shoes?) and brilliantly a tap to wash the sand off your feet. Leave your veranda light on when you go to dinner; else you will have trouble finding your room on the way back!
The resort provides you with 2 beach towels with your room number on, 2 bath towels, 2 hand towels and 2 face cloths. If you want your bath towels changing then leave them on the floor for the room boys. Despite this you must take at least 2 more towels with you because you wake up, have a shower each, then at 12.30 it's dinner time, but you're all sticky from the sun so you have another shower. After dinner you go back into the sun, get sweaty again and have another shower before evening meal - all with one towel. Also nothing dries quickly on the island because it’s quite humid, so the towels from the morning won’t dry in time for the evening. Likewise, if you wash any clothes; my knickers took 3 days to properly dry on the line. As nothing dries here it’s probably best to take spray deodorant rather than cream/gel.
Talking of water, the shower curtain in our room was about 60cm off the floor which meant the whole floor in the room got soaked every time we had a shower, so we used the room as a ‘wet room’. Don’t know whether this was just specifically ours (no. 44).
The room boys will come as often as you want them too. You’re advised to tip them $5-10 per week, so we left a dollar a day on the bed. They change your sheets, towels if you wish, the mosquito tablet and swept/mop the whole room. Your room door will have a tag on, red and green. If you don’t want them in your room after they have cleaned for the day then put the tag on red, as one day we took the tag off all together and they came in anyway, (our valuables were out, etc., though nothing was taken.)
Outside of your veranda there will be two beach loungers with your room number on the back, which is good, no getting up early to reserve a chair.
The Beach
The beach is amazing. The water is crystal clear, the sand pure white and gorgeous tall palm trees everywhere. It’s honestly more beautiful than anything I've ever seen. It’s also impeccably clean.
The heat is intensive and unfortunately the island has no parasols. As a result under every palm tree you will find 5 people crammed together desperate to get out the sun but maintain a view of the gorgeous scenery.
If you think that something is crawling up your leg then chances are there is something crawling up your leg. There are giant ants everywhere, they are completely harmless though.
The snorkelling is amazing here. If you don’t have any gear then the diving school rents out, though to be honest it would be cheaper to buy your own before you go and take it with you. There were 6 baby black tip reef sharks patrolling the shore line in 1ft of water the whole time we were there. The diving centre explained when I asked that they were harmless and wouldn’t bother you; but it was still a bit daunting at first, swimming along and coming face to face with a shark. We humans are scared of them for a reason, it’s in our genes. Wait until it’s extremely sunny and the tide is out before taking underwater pictures, else they won’t come out very well.
The staff at the diving centre are friendly, very helpful and multi-lingual.
If you’re a bit iffy about swimming with fish all around like my boyfriend was, then take a walk on the runway to the water bungalows. They are directly above the reef and you can see clearly loads of fish. If you choose to go to Fiha mid-summer you are almost guaranteed that a water bungalow will be available, though this comes at an additional $80 per night.
Just off from the beach, are the ‘gardens’. Basically hundreds of palm trees, etc., on most palm trees you will find either a hammock or swing, both of which are usually out of the sun, which is nice if it gets too hot.
The island feels extremely safe and people just leave their beach bags on their loungers whilst they snorkel, etc. However, you need to hide anything that is quite small, especially keys because the island has hundreds of back large birds which are, lets just say playful. They enjoy picking things up, playing with them and then dropping them somewhere else. They other wildlife includes a few fruit bats which are funny to watch interesting and large.
Restaurant/bar
When you first go into the restaurant you will be allocated to a seat which then becomes yours for the duration of your stay, along with whichever waiter runs that table. If you can, grab a seat marked ‘Mohammed’, his tables are right next to the door. He is by far the best waiter there, polite, excellent English and funny. We had no idea how much we were meant to tip the waiter as it does not say anywhere. We tipped $1 per meal, which was $3 a day. Have no idea whether this is generous or stingy?!
The food unfortunately was the biggest let down of the holiday. Let’s hope you love fish and spicy curry type foods! Although there is a buffet selection, it's all cooked very similar and so everything has a very Indian taste to it, therefore if, like me, you have blander taste buds there isn’t much you can do.
Ideally they need to provide something standard every night for those who don’t like the food, something like chips or potatoes, things that everyone likes. There were a few meals that I skipped because I just didn’t like anything. We stayed full board and we recommend that you don’t. Half board would be best. There is a bar/a la carté restaurant over the other side of the island called the Blue Lagoon. The food here is excellent and reasonably priced; more westernized - chips, burgers, hot dogs, etc.
The milkshakes here are amazing, the best I've ever tasted. If you fancy a drink in the day it's best to come here as the view is gorgeous.
The main bar holds a massive list of cocktails, I've never seen so many different types on offer. They are roughly $6 each.
For everything that you purchase at Fiha you have to remember to add a 10% service charge to the cost. This goes towards the people who work on the island that you have no contact with, like the chefs/gardeners, for example. Although this doesn’t sound like much it really does start to add up, especially when you count the tips. This is what makes the island so expensive. As an example, this is how much my boyfriend and I spent every day.
Breakfast – 1 bottle of water (to last the day) $3
- 1 bottle of apple juice $4
- 1 coke $2 (300ml…a can)
- $0.90 service charge
- $1 tip for the waiter
Lunch – 2 cokes $4
- $0.40 service charge
- $1 tip for the waiter
Dinner – 2 cokes $4
- $0.40 service charge
- $1 tip for the waiter
Bar – 1 cocktail $6
- $0.60 service charge
- $1 tip for bar staff
Room boys - $1
That’s $30 a day. The above isn’t exactly extravagant either.
If you order something, you don’t pay with cash, you sign it to the room. Therefore please check everything that you sign for as it’s so easy to say “Room 88”, leave and let room 88 sign the bill. This signing business sounds like a good idea - you're in your swimsuit all day so you can't carry money so it’s best that you sign. However you might as well carry money, because if you do order something you have to leave a tip, which is money! Because of the tipping business, you will have to visit the cashier every now and then to exchange larger notes for $1 bills.
You settle your bill the day before you depart at the cashier’s desk. He will provide you with everything that was charged and signed to your room plus 10% service charge. This can be settled in cash, traveller’s cheques or by credit card.
Entertainment
Is extremely limited: karaoke, bingo, crab racing, etc. They did screen a F1 race in the bar at one point. The bingo night is a big scam. A guy will approach you and shove 5 tickets in your hand explaining that they are the price of a beer. What he doesn’t explain well is that he means each. So one ticket is $3.50 plus 10% service charge, so the 5 tickets would cost $19.25.
Facilities
The Island offers a telephone at $5 per minute plus 10% service charge.
Billiards is available at $3.50 for 30 minutes plus service charge.
The internet is available. $5 for 30 minutes or $8 for 1 hour, plus service charge.
Both ping pong and badminton are free. Ask at reception for the rackets, etc.
There is also a herbal centre.
The island also provides many excursions, i.e., island hopping, banana boats, water skiing, diving expeditions, etc.; all of these are highly priced though, on average about $80 per person.
Although First Choice does have a rep, he is the rep for 11 islands, meaning he only visits your island once every 11 days. This is not good, though he can be contacted via phone…at $5 per minute.
A laundry service is also available: $1 for a T-shirt type prices, remember that service charge too...
The Weather
We went June/July which is classed as monsoon season, however when we got there the staff assured us that it hadn’t rained in 4 months. It did rain twice whilst we were there, but both times it was during the night. Everyday was intensive sunshine, though often with a few clouds which in the heat were greatly appreciated.
Girls
Just a quick section for the girls:
Topless bathing is strictly prohibited throughout the Maldives, as is all forms of pornography.
If you wear fake tan, be aware that as soon as you go into the salt water it will come off in big patches and look awful. I had to exfoliate and reapply every night.
Water resistant mascara – don’t bother, the sea just melts it all down your face.
Sort out the time that you take your pill before you go. Fiha is 5 hours ahead of England which can be a pain if you take yours at 11pm UK time 'cause that’s 4am Fiha time.
Conclusion
The Island is beautiful, the snorkelling is awesome and the sun is scorching. Unfortunately the food, hidden expenses and lack of stuff to do lets the holiday down. Literally, unless you are a sun worshipper/snorkelling fanatic you will at some point be bored. I know it seems hard to believe considering the stunning scenery, but there is only so much time looking at it takes up. Would recommend 10 days as holiday duration, one week isn’t enough but 2 weeks is just that few too many days.
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