Adaaran Select Meedhupparu Maldives Review: Praying Beneath Giant Mantas

Why Adaaran Select Meedhupparu Wins Gold for Care

I’ll tell you where Meedhupparu is in a minute. First, let me tell you why you should go.

Meedhupparu looks after you as if caring were an Olympic sport and every member of staff had come home with gold. Is it better to have been cared for at this level and lost it than never to have been cared for like this at all? Answer as you like. Either way, you will miss them when you leave. Taking alcohol off a Maldivian resort island is against the law, and I discovered the same principle applies to people. You cannot take May (our concierge) and her team home with you. That would be kidnapping, which is illegal, though I admit the thought crossed my mind more than once.

May is rather like your mother looking after her favourite child, if your mother happened to be a beauty queen. The whole team takes a quiet pride in looking after you more thoroughly than seems humanly possible. There is no bowing and scraping. They simply want to be the best at what they do, from the chefs to the island guides and the storytellers.

The Best Dive Centre and Water Sports Centre in the Maldives

The same spirit runs straight into the sea. Finding one exceptional team at a resort is a stroke of luck. Meedhupparu has two. In my view it has the finest dive centre and the finest water sports centre in the Maldives, a pairing so rare it borders on the impossible. Both are run by the friendliest, most helpful and most professional people I have met anywhere, and I missed them the moment the seaplane lifted off.

Here is a trailer of what was coming. I knelt in prayer beneath giant manta rays and swam with a swarm of nurse sharks. I jet skied, flyboarded à la Iron Man and Seabobbed along a reef wall. I windsurfed (and was taught better turns in seconds) and dived an overhanging reef. Their enthusiasm turned every thrill up to eleven, and the thrills were starting from a very high number.

How to Get to Meedhupparu by Seaplane

Right, where is it. Meedhupparu sits in Raa Atoll in the north of the Maldives, about 45 minutes by seaplane from Velana International Airport in Malé. The airport and the seaplane terminal are both relatively new and very smart. They have lost some of the old-world chaos and bustle that once made international travel such an adventure, and it is now all lovely shops and air conditioning. Never mind. Plus ça change, Yves, move with the times. A ten-minute transfer takes you to the seaplane lounge, which has complimentary food and drinks and, mercifully, showers for anyone who needs to rinse off a long-haul flight.

The view from the seaplane is thrilling. You fly over mountains of coral that peak at sea level. Some sit just beneath the surface, some are completely submerged, some show only a tiny sandbank, and the tallest form desert islands with palm trees and some of the finest sand beaches in the world. It is an odd thought that the Maldives is essentially a nation living on the backs of tiny animals that grew up from the depths of the ocean.

A Welcome Fit for Returning Royal Crusaders

We were met with the kind of fanfare normally reserved for royalty returning from a crusade. As we stepped off the seaplane, we found our personal welcome written by hand on a stone arch on the jetty. There were drums and necklaces, with tiaras for the ladies and crowns for the men. Then came champagne on the beach with delicious Maldivian hors d’oeuvres while a local guitarist played Don’t Worry Be Happy. I took his advice.

My Deluxe Beach Villa had my name etched into a wooden plaque. This was useful, because I am perfectly capable of getting lost on a desert island 750 metres long, and would you believe it, Meedhupparu is exactly that length. A stroll right round it takes about 25 minutes, and every inch is paradise. The resort has 221 villas in all. Ten of them are Family Beach Villas with bunk beds for the children, a brilliant idea that lets a family of six spread across just two villas. I wanted a bunk bed. I am not proud. But the giant king-size bed was far too fabulously comfortable to give up.

If you want even greater opulence, the Meedhupparu Residence is the island’s top address. A fenced-off private estate right in the centre of the island, with the bedroom upstairs, a lounge downstairs and its own garden with an infinity pool.

Sufura Restaurant and the Art of the Perfect Naan

First I swam out to the drop-off via the water swings to get to know the local fish. Then I had lunch at Sufura Restaurant and ate some of them. Sufura is the island’s Indian restaurant and a gorgeous one. It has wooden rafters and low open walls, chefs working tandoor ovens and giant copper urn ovens, and a calm garden of tropical trees and white wooden columns. The Indian food here is superb. The naans, tandoori chicken and fish are all soft and succulent.

Island Time and a Sunset Ceremony

Next came the traditional sunset ceremony. There were drums, coconut torches, Maldivians in traditional dress, a traditional dhoni and dancing. One of the cleverest things about the island is that it runs an hour ahead of Malé, purely to give guests more daylight and a later sunset. I fully support this. Every nation should be allowed to move the sun when it suits them. A sundowner at Sunset Bar is the natural place to watch them do it.

Dinner on the Beach at Thavaa Restaurant

Dinner was at Thavaa Restaurant, next to Sunset Bar and the dive centre, at a table on the sand with chef Kavindra. We started with snapper tartare. Then came a superb flaming platter of king prawns, barramundi, salmon and lobster, with a properly buttery mash to soak up the evidence.

DivePoint Meedhupparu Is My Favourite Dive Centre Ever

That evening I met Andy, who manages DivePoint Meedhupparu, Jakub, a master diver who runs it day to day, and Marie, who would be my dive buddy. They were extraordinarily welcoming and helpful, but I still had no idea how exceptional the dives would be. DivePoint is an SSI Diamond centre with more than 35 dive sites across Raa Atoll, and it won the SATA Best Dive Resort award every year from 2019 to 2023. None of that prepared me for what happened next.

Giant Manta Rays That Blotted Out the Sun

We did two scuba dives. On the first, two giant reef mantas circled a cleaning station, where little fish rise up to pick parasites off their skin. Every so often a fish nibbled too keenly, and the manta flinched and wheeled away like a duchess who has been pinched. They were enormous, whale-sized to my astonished eyes, and they curled around the cleaning station and around us less than two metres overhead. I knelt on the sandy floor as if in prayer, completely transfixed. Their wings rippled above me and their head fins swayed to steer them around a towering pillar of rock teeming with fish and living coral. It was electrifying, heart-pounding and strangely serene all at once, a slow pas de deux on a scale that makes you feel very small and very lucky. Marie filmed me gazing up in open-mouthed wonder. I have watched it rather a lot since. Manta Ray Video.

Seasoned divers and nervous beginners alike must do this. It is one of my favourite moments ever, and I will treasure that memory.

Lunch in the Vegetable Garden

Lunch was in the resort’s vegetable garden, at our own table among the beds that grow the kitchens’ vegetables and chillies. They use every leaf and fruit. We started with a shooter of dew plum juice from a tree in the garden, with mint. Then came curry leaf chutney and a thebu leaf salad. The chef assured me thebu leaves are good for blood pressure, which I took as permission for a second helping. Then came prawns, with a mocktail of passion fruit, lemongrass and lime leaf that I would happily have ordered again and again.

Chef introduced each dish through boava, which he explained is the Maldivian word for storytelling. It also means octopus, which delighted me. He has cooked at many of the great hotels of the East but says he learnt most from his mother in Sri Lanka. This is a superb, must-do experience.

Mandara Spa Beneath a Giant Banyan Tree

Then I had a signature massage at Mandara Spa with Lara, who was fantastic. Her hands stroke as well as knead, so your skin feels wonderful while your muscles quietly surrender. The spa is a tropical garden built around a giant banyan tree, with calm pools of water dotted about. It is so relaxing that you almost forget how to walk on the way in. Fresh floral scents and soft Balinese-inspired music do the rest. There are Elemis facials, a steam room and sauna, and a manicure and pedicure area for the full overhaul.

Afterwards I snorkelled more of the reef, including the cliff drop we had dived that morning, which plunges to 30 metres beneath a dramatic overhang.

Jet Ski Thrills and the Shark That Got Away

Then came the jet ski, on which I played about like an idiot, a role I was born for. Toby gave us a tour of the island. It’s an unusual name for a Maldivian, I grant you. He is brilliant, looks after everyone and lives for water sports. Next was the Seabob with Nappe, a sleek underwater scooter that hauled me along the reef wall in a rush of bubbles. It felt like a fighter jet and was in fact rather more modest. Exhilarating does not begin to cover it.

Then we went line fishing from a lovely old classic dhoni, out beyond the atoll into deeper water. We fed the hand line down 25 metres, passing it out hand over hand, with a weight and chum and the hook a metre from the weight. Nothing much happened at first. Then my line went berserk. I pulled. It pulled harder. It was heavier than me and quite determined to take me overboard. Eventually it tore free as the line burned through my woollen gloves. It was a very large shark, and it bit clean through the line on its way out. That was my lot: zip, nada, nul points. This was awkward, as chef was waiting to prepare our catch. Luckily one of the crew, Samir, who grew up on neighbouring Meedhu, landed a fish. So it was sashimi for lunch after all, and my dignity was quietly buried at sea.

A Moonlit Beach Dinner by the Water Villas

That evening we had a romantic dinner on the beach by the water villas. We ate lobster thermidor at a table sunk into the sand, framed by a carved palm tree strung with lights. The trees were on one side, and the sea and the glowing water villas on the other, all under a waxing moon. We finished by dancing to the band at Halaboli Bar, the island’s main bar, where there is a different show every night.

A Windsurfing Lesson Worth Crossing Oceans For

The next morning I took the Seabob out again, because I was not going to let it go. Then I had a windsurfing lesson with Toby, a master instructor who is as gifted a teacher as he is a windsurfer. He improved my tacks and gybes immensely in minutes. He is the best windsurf teacher I have ever had, and I have had some very patient ones.

Lunch at Café Mass With the Best View on the Island

Lunch was at Café Mass, which does comfort food, burgers and the like. It also has the best tables and sea views on the island: you sit under a white canopy on wooden pillars right on the beach. It is open around the clock, should a burger emergency strike at 3am.

Reflexology Bliss at the Chinese Reflexology Centre

Then Candy gave me a foot and calf reflexology session at the Chinese Reflexology Centre. Foot massages are by far my favourite, and this was the full hour and a half. I have never felt so relaxed, and that night j’ai dormi comme un ange.

Visiting Meedhoo Island With Samir

Next we visited Meedhoo with Samir. Meedhupparu means “reef of Meedhoo”, and the local island is a 7 to 10 minute boat ride away. It is about 825 metres long and home to around 2,000 people, who all know one another and share family ties. They work in tourism, fishing, the local shops, and health and wellness. Meedhoo has a remarkable school that goes all the way to university level, and medical care is free for everyone. There is also an Audi TT cruising about, which confused me. How fast can a TT go in 800 metres?

Boats are still built by traditional methods, from huge dhonis to fibreglass speedboats. The Old Friday Mosque, built from coral stone around 300 years ago, is extraordinary. It has low ceilings, dark rectangular columns and an atmosphere of total calm, and it is on UNESCO’s tentative list among the Maldives’ coral stone mosques.

The culture reminded me of a small Spanish fishing village. It is like stepping back fifty years, except with full internet, wifi and shops selling the latest phones and gadgets. Samir even took us to his home, where he lives with his mother and father, his brother and the children, and they all greeted us with great warmth.

Island Bars and 101 Cocktails at Albino Bar

Back on Meedhupparu, I had a drink at Halaboli Bar and a swim in the big pool with its swim-up Pool Bar, where everyone gathers to socialise. If you prefer privacy, you can go your whole stay without meeting a soul, and how they manage both is a minor miracle. For the indecisive, Albino Bar has a menu of 101 cocktails. By my arithmetic that is roughly fourteen a day across a week, a challenge I declined, mostly.

Boava: A Maldivian Time Machine

Dinner that evening was Boava (octopus), a traditional dining experience with a chef and a storyteller. The dishes are prepared at your table while the local traditions are recounted with real poetry. It is ocean to table. It begins with a kurumba (young coconut) drink in joali chairs, the traditional coconut-rope seats on wooden frames. Anwar and his beautifully dressed ladies curate the whole affair, from hanging our shoes on a wooden tree to dressing us in sarongs.

The theme is how a traditional Maldivian family would cook and dress, with clay coolers on the ground, a fire pit and oil lamps. You wash your hands before every course, using a coconut ladle over a copper bowl. Everything is coconut based, and there are four Maldivian words for a coconut depending on its age. The lobster is incredibly tender, and so is the aromatic octopus (Khuli Boava). Everything is locally sourced and nothing is processed, and the lighting and cooking methods are utterly authentic. It is like being on the set of an Indiana Jones film, with flaming torches flickering all around you and mercifully no snakes.

Anwar explains that the Maldives is essentially a scattering of little villages separated by water, each specialising in its own trade and inviting the others over to share their food and hospitality. We ended with shisha, which the older generation still smoke.

I’ll leave the last word on the evening to the chef. Everything, he says, has to be cooked with love and care. And indeed, that is the way to do everything on the island.

Beach Villa or Prestige Water Villa? Always Do Both

Next we moved to a water villa. Our butlers, Bharat and Niyaz, welcomed us for check-in at the Water Villa Restaurant & Lounge. The 20 Prestige Water Villas are adults only, a hideaway within the hideaway, and you can have breakfast in the restaurant or in your villa.

The water villa is the epitome of luxury. The king-size bed looks straight out to the horizon. Outside is a teak terrace with a glass floor panel, a double sun lounger, a jacuzzi and a breakfast table. Inside it is all warm teak, calm tones and soft furnishings, with twin marble sinks and a generous shower. And bien sûr, a wooden ladder runs down from your balcony into the sea. You can swim out to the house reef in minutes and snorkel with stingrays, countless fish and the odd shark cruising off the reef against the current. My advice: put the children in a beach villa and take a water villa for yourself and your partner.

Snorkelling With Nurse Sharks in Raa Atoll

We spent an hour heading out to the edge of the atoll in a beautiful blue dhoni, sitting on the roof, tanning and listening to music. Then, at a shallow spot, we jumped off the boat into a dozen large nurse sharks. The number seemed to grow to thirty as they came to see who had arrived for dinner. The sensible advice was to keep your hands in. Naturally we ignored it and pushed our cameras into the sharks’ faces. Well, it’s worth an arm for the right shot.

These nurse sharks are bigger than I am. They swarm, dive beneath you, nose around you and shove you out of the way. It is wild, pulse-racing and utterly mind-blowing, and you cannot believe you are really there. Another once-in-a-lifetime memory, and I am rapidly running out of lifetimes.

Flyboarding With Azzute and Jumal

Then came the flyboard. You strap on the boots, connect to the back of the jet ski and guide it out yourself. You are effectively the driver, and the jet ski follows you as you skim along the surface into deeper water. Then you tilt your feet back and soar out of the sea and into the sky, like Aquaman bursting from the waves. The more comfortable you become, the higher you go: ten metres, then twenty. It is pure adrenaline and the most exhilarating thing I have done on, or above, water. The secret is to lock your ankles back, lean forward slightly and turn with your hips and a gentle bend of the knee. It is l’appel du vide turned upside down: instead of the urge to jump, you feel the urge to fly.

Afterwards Azzute showed me how it is properly done. He twisted through full circles in the air, dived down into the water and burst out again like a dolphin catapulted from the sea.

The water sports team are fantastic, and they share my “best ever” title with the dive centre. Both are simply the finest I have encountered. They are friends and consummate professionals who want to share their love of this country and its waters with you.

Adults Only Dinner at the Water Villa Restaurant & Lounge

Dinner was at the adults-only Water Villa Restaurant & Lounge. Chef Nuwan prepared a lobster smorgasbord and a chef’s surprise seafood platter with real passion, and the service was exquisite. The passion fruit sorbet palate cleanser tells you all you need to know. This is how to do it all right.

The Verdict: Gold Medals All Round

Housekeeping is immaculate. They clean your villa twice a day, so it stays pristine however much sand your adventures drag in. Our concierge May was incredible, appearing everywhere to collect us and often seeming to be in two places at once. I joked that she must be a twin. She confessed that she was, but that her twin was not on the island. Oui, bien sûr.

Watching the mantas is without doubt one of the best experiences of my life. The service, the butlers and the personal care on this island are the best there is. The balance between flawless service and genuine, friendly warmth is at its pinnacle here. Someone once moaned to me that there was not much to do on a Maldivian island. I pitied them and hid my contempt. I did not manage to sit still for ten seconds, and I still did barely half of what I wanted. The activities are exceptional, and the dive centre and water sports are the best I have known.

If you want the ultimate Maldivian experience of a lifetime, come here. Meedhupparu offers Olympic-level care and a gold medal double of diving and water sports, with butlers who look after you like gods. Royalty can sit this one out. According to the resort, 100 or more of the guests at any one time are returning visitors, and I can see why. Au revoir, Meedhupparu. Certainly not adieu.

Adaaran Select Meedhupparu Maldives

DivePoint Maldives

DivePoint Meedhupparu Maldives

Frequently Asked Questions About Adaaran Select Meedhupparu

Where is Adaaran Select Meedhupparu?
It has its own private island in Raa Atoll, in the northern Maldives. It was the first resort to open in Raa Atoll.

How do you get to Adaaran Select Meedhupparu from Malé?
The seaplane from Velana International Airport takes about 45 minutes. The alternative is a domestic flight of about 20 minutes followed by roughly 45 minutes by speedboat. Seaplanes fly only in daylight, so international flights need to land by mid-afternoon Malé time to connect the same day.

Is Adaaran Select Meedhupparu all inclusive?
Yes. Its 24-hour Premium All Inclusive plan includes dining around the resort’s restaurants, premium drinks and a stocked minibar. Some special dinners, dishes and drinks may carry a charge.

What restaurants and bars are there?
There are five restaurants:

• Jaafaiy Restaurant, the main international buffet, with live cooking stations
• Sufura Restaurant, which serves Indian food
• Thavaa Restaurant, with Mediterranean dishes, tapas and lighter food, next to Sunset Bar
• Café Mass, a casual beachfront spot open 24 hours
• Water Villa Restaurant & Lounge, adults only

There are four bars:

• Halaboli Bar, the main bar, with nightly entertainment
• Pool Bar, a swim-up bar
• Sunset Bar
• Albino Bar, known for its menu of 101 cocktails

Is the diving good at Meedhupparu?
Yes. DivePoint Meedhupparu is an SSI Diamond dive centre with more than 35 dive sites in Raa Atoll. It won the SATA Best Dive Resort award every year from 2019 to 2023. It runs daily boat dives and courses for beginners upwards, and Nitrox is free for certified Nitrox divers.

When can you see manta rays near Meedhupparu?
DivePoint reports manta sightings all year round. The island sits in the middle of the atoll, so dive boats can reach both the east and west sides. Manta cleaning stations such as Vandhoo Wall are most active from roughly June to November.

What water sports are available?
Jet skiing, flyboarding, Seabob underwater scooters and windsurfing lessons are on offer. There are also snorkelling excursions such as nurse shark trips. Non-motorised water sports are included when you book direct with the resort.

Are the water villas adults only?
Yes. The 20 Prestige Water Villas form an adults-only enclave with their own restaurant and lounge.

Is Meedhupparu good for families?
Yes. There is a kids club, plus ten one-bedroom Family Beach Villas with a king bed and bunk beds. There are also 14 Two-Bedroom Family Beach Villas and three Two-Bedroom Deluxe Family Beach Villas.

How many villas does the resort have?
There are 221 villas across ten categories, from Beach Villas to the single Meedhupparu Residence with Pool, a 158 square metre villa with its own pool.

What time zone does Meedhupparu use?
The resort runs on island time, one hour ahead of Malé. Seaplane schedules are set on Malé time.

Can you visit a local island?
Yes. Meedhoo is a 7 to 10 minute boat ride away. It is about 825 metres long and has roughly 1,900 residents (2022 census). Its coral stone Old Friday Mosque dates from around 1705 and is on UNESCO’s tentative World Heritage list.

Is there a spa?
Yes. Mandara Spa is set in a tropical garden around a giant banyan tree, and there is also a separate Chinese Reflexology Centre.

Adaaran Select Meedhupparu Maldives

DivePoint Maldives

DivePoint Meedhupparu Maldives