Thoddoo · Alif Alif Atoll · Maldives
Twelve rooms above the treeline
A twelve-room boutique hotel on a farming island, three floors above the plantations, a short walk from the harbour and within walking distance of the tourist beach.
A twelve-room boutique hotel on a farming island, three floors above the plantations, a short walk from the harbour and within walking distance of the tourist beach.
Most islands here are sand and palms. Thoddoo is farmland — watermelon, papaya and banana growing right up to the edge of the lagoon, with a village of a few thousand people and a beach kept for visitors at the northern end.
Serene Sea View is a boutique hotel on the Zeyvaru plot, three floors up from the plantations, which is why the balconies look over palms and green fields rather than over the next building. From the top terrace the ocean opens up over the treetops — the view the hotel is named after. Rooms are finished in teak and white stone, with air conditioning, a safe, a fridge and fast wi-fi throughout.
The island is small enough to cross on foot, and bicycles can be rented at the hotel. The tourist beach is about twenty minutes’ walk or a few minutes by bike, and the harbour, shops and cafes are closer still.
Breakfast is served downstairs, and lunch and dinner are cooked to order — Maldivian and international dishes from what the island grows and what the boats bring in that morning. Fish is usually a few hours out of the water.
Thoddoo sits at the top of Ari Atoll, next to some of the best snorkelling and diving water in the Maldives. Trips leave most mornings and we book them for you at reception the evening before.
The reef starts about four hundred metres off the beach and green turtles feed on it most days. Two hours with a guide, gear included.
A boat ride to the cleaning stations off Rasdhoo, where mantas circle slowly enough to swim alongside them.
The full day most guests pick: sharks in the morning, lunch on a sandbank with nothing around it, turtle reef on the way back.
They live in the south of Ari Atoll, so this is a long day on the water — early start, late return, and worth it when they show.
Pods cross this part of the atoll in the late afternoon. Two hours out, back as the light goes.
Hand lines off the boat after dark. Whatever you catch, the kitchen cooks for you the next day.
Arranged with the dive centre on the island — coral walls, grey reef sharks and channels for certified divers.
Watermelon, papaya and banana fields cover the middle of the island. A short walk or ride, and the reason Thoddoo looks nothing like the rest of the Maldives.
Booked at reception for the same day where we can.
Scheduled sessions, open to anyone staying with us.
Masks and fins are there for guests to use, no charge.
By the half day or the day, with or without a skipper.
A table set away from everyone else, cooked by our kitchen.
A private class with our chef — tuna, coconut, curry leaves and what the garden gives.
Small ceremonies on the island, arranged end to end.
A local photographer for an hour or a morning, on the beach or the sandbank.
Boats run on a fixed timetable, so if your flight lands late in the evening you may need a night in Malé. Send us your dates and we will tell you what connects.
Write to us with your dates and the number of guests. We answer within a day, and we hold rooms for travel agencies on request.
Send a booking enquiry