An Insider's Guide to Alila Kothaifaru

After four days I left Dhigali resort bound for Alila Kothaifaru which was just a 30-minute speedboat ride away. Alila is a brand new 5-star resort that opened in May 2022. Swiss General Manager Alex is very keen on environmental sustainability and explained that they had tried to keep the island as natural as possible and ‘merged’ the resort into the surroundings.

I was booked into a sunset water villa located ten minutes walk from the reception area. Alila operates a ‘butler’ service, whereby a member of staff plus a buggy is assigned to guests for the duration of their stay. Alla, my butler, drove me through the dense undergrowth to my water villa with the most spectacular view. Through the double-width full-size glass windows I could see rolling waves breaking over the shallow reef on the left-hand side, an uninhabited palm fringed island directly in front of Alila’s sandy beach stretching out on the right-hand side. This really was a picture postcard view to die for. The room came equipped with a dunk pool and wooden deck area complete with sofa and loungers, there were also steps leading down to the sea, so I could go snorkelling. All the rooms at Alila have dunk pools and sea views, whilst there is a 30-metre-long swimming pool back at the main complex for guests who want a proper workout. 

Alila has two restaurants and two bars. Seasalt is the main restaurant which serves à la carte breakfast, lunch and dinner. Umami located on the other side of the island serves Japanese Cuisine at dinner time, and the Yakitori bar is the best spot for cocktails, offering some very interesting sake-based drinks. Every day between 3-4 pm the Pibati café serves up a unique tea-making experience, whilst I was here I was allowed to pick the ingredients and make my own special brew! 

Egor Sidorov runs the Euro-Divers dive centre, comprising an office on the beach and an equipment storage area with dunk tanks on the jetty. The dive boat is a classic-looking Dhoni and can comfortably carry 12 divers, and they also have two speedboats that can be used for private hire. There are 30 dive sites on offer, with boat journey times between ten minutes and an hour. Special sites include Lundufushi Thila for leopard shark encounters and Vadhoo Corner for green turtles, whilst there is also a manta cleaning station just ten minutes away.

There are still many undiscovered Thila’s and Egor’s favourite dive sites are Labyrinth and the ‘secret place’. I managed to dive at both sites and the secret Thila was totally unspoilt with huge shoals of snapper, turtles and sharks. As standard, they use 11-litre aluminium cylinders and Nitrox is free of charge.

The dive centre is still finding its feet, but future plans include a resident marine biologist/instructor offering courses on coral reconstruction, mantas and marine life in general. There will also be a diving presentation night held every week at the resort.

Read Stuart's first or final account from his trip to the Maldives. If you are interested in staying at Alila Kothaifaru make sure you get in touch with a member of our team who will be more than happy to help you.