Medhufushi Island Resort

2 Restaurants & 2 Bars

Two restaurants and two bars, all of them low-key. Malaafaiy is the poolside buffet with live cooking stations and sand underfoot; Alfresco is the à la carte room inside the resort's thatched pyramid, out over the water. Vilu Bar shares that pyramid with a pool table, darts and a library, and a second bar serves the pool deck.

Malaafaiy Restaurant

International

The main buffet, named for the Dhivehi word the resort translates as mermaid, laid out beside the pool with the lagoon behind it. Chefs work live stations at every service, and the cooking travels — Maldivian curries alongside whatever the week's theme night is.

SettingPoolside · Sand floor

Our tipCurry is what the kitchen does best — start at the Maldivian station

All plans

Alfresco Restaurant

International & Asian

The island's one à la carte room, under the coconut thatch of the over-water pyramid with the lagoon on every side. The menu runs international and Asian in parallel — steak and rack of lamb on one page, satay, wanton soup and a Maldivian fish curry on the next.

SettingOverwater pyramid · À la carte

Our tipAsk for a table on the outer rail and time it for sunset

À la carteView menu

Vilu Bar

Cocktails

The social room of the island, under the same lofty thatched roof as Alfresco: spirits, cocktails, wine, beer and a snack menu, with billiards, darts and a shelf of paperbacks along the back. Crab racing and bodu beru drumming happen here too.

SettingOverwater pyramid · Billiards & library

Our tipThe published beverage list tells you what the drinks plan covers

AI DrinksView menu

Pool Bar

Pool Bar

The daytime counter, serving the island's single outdoor pool and the sun loungers around it — the third of the three outlets the resort's own drinks list names. Ten flat hectares, so it is a short walk from anywhere on the island.

SettingPoolside · Between the pool and the beach

Our tipThe pool-deck bar — All-Inclusive drinks are poured here too

AI Drinks

Dining Inclusions

Four tiers — Bed & Breakfast, Half Board, Full Board and All-Inclusive. Every plan meal is served at Malaafaiy, the main buffet restaurant, so Alfresco stays a separate bill on all four. Drinking water is charged for in the restaurants on the three lower tiers.

A 17% government tax and 10% service charge are added to rates, supplements and every bill on the island.

Meal plan prices are a guide only — generally an average across the year. Resorts can change them at any time, they often vary by season, and a plan sold in one season may not be offered in another. We'll confirm what's available and the exact price for your dates.

Your Days on the Island

The dive centre is why a lot of people book: more than 30 sites across Meemu — thilas, channels and caves — with almost no other resort boats working them, and courses taught two students to an instructor. Above water there is a watersports centre, fishing at both ends of the day, island hopping to a local village, and an evening programme that runs seven nights.

House Reef & Underwater

Honest assessment: Medhufushi has no shore reef. The island sits in the middle of one of the largest, shallowest lagoons in the country — glorious to wade out into at sunset, and exactly why there is no coral to swim to from the beach. The resort's own dive centre says it plainly — there is no house reef — and the good snorkelling is a boat ride away: the dive centre runs out to Meemu's thilas and channels, where sharing a site with another resort is rare. Divers do very well here. Snorkellers who expect to step off the sand into coral will not.

Marine life observations sourced from dive logs and guest reports.

Transfer from Malé

Medhufushi is 130 km south of Malé. The seaplane takes about 45 minutes and costs USD 499 per adult return, USD 331 for children under 12. The speedboat is the cheap alternative at USD 220 per adult return, but it runs 2 hours 30 minutes each way on three fixed departures a day.

Resort island map — Medhufushi Island Resort

Who This Resort is For

Reviewed by Tym Lewtak, founder of LuxAtolls ·Updated Oct 04, 2026

Medhufushi is one of the last resorts that still feels like the Maldives of twenty years ago: thatch, sand floors, no pools on the villas, and an atoll so quiet the dive boat rarely meets another. What you are paying for is space and water time, not polish — the rooms are honest four-star and show their age in places. If the reef matters more than the room, and thirty dive sites to yourself beat a bathtub with a view, it is very good value.

Medhufushi Island Resort — FAQ