Hanifaru Transit Inn

Our stay at the Hanifaru Transit Inn was amazing. The staff are wonderful and extremely helpful. The manager (owner) Ahmed met us at the airport and even arranged a car to take our luggage to the Inn. The town is tiny and very safe. From the Inn you can walk just about anywhere in 5 minutes and we felt comfortable walking any of the streets well into the evening. Hanifaru Transit Inn is a bit off the main streets but it was not an issue since we don’t mind walking the 3-5 minutes to get to a restaurant or the harbour. I would recommend having them arrange your plane fare in and out of Dharavandhoo as they can save you some money even if you are transferring to a resort afterwards. We made the mistake of letting the resort arrange the water taxi from Dharavandhoo and Ahmed explained he could have arranged a boat for much less. Plus we wouldn’t be at the whim of the resorts time table. I would also recommend booking Hanifaru Transit Inn’s snorkelling trips. They are very reasonably priced and go to all the popular reefs. They have a small boat that allows them to take 2-4 people out at a time. It is much nicer to have a small group in the water then one of the bigger boats were your have people everywhere. Ahmed was even able to take us to a spot to see 15-20 Manta’s when there was none at the Hanifaru Bay Bio Reserve. It was truly an amazing experience to be 1 of only 3 people in the water with that many Manta’s. Later in our trip we went to Hanifaru Bay and it was a bit crazy with so many different resorts showing up and what seemed like hundreds of people in the water. Almost all my pictures and videos from that trip has fins and arms from tourists. I cannot thank Ahmed for taking us to that secluded reef to see the Manta’s by ourselves. The food was tasty even though we only had breakfast included we did dine there on 2 evenings. The grilled fish was great and the curry’s were very nice and spiced well for our western palates. If I ever come back to the Maldives I will probably spend my whole time in Dharavandhoo staying at the Hanifaru Transit Inn.

perfect location, beautiful garden, room with everything you need, very friendly staff, very good chef, it almost seemed to be in Italy, the pasta was so good and everything else too. The owner super nice, I felt like home, I wanted to go to see the mantas a second time and he went out of his way to accommodate me. I will definitely be back in a few years. Thanks for everything Ahmed. Alessandra

We had the most amazing stay here! The manager and the staff went to great lengths to ensure our family had the most unforgettable and fantastic stay while at Dharavandhoo. We were met at the port as our boat arrived and from that moment we were in good hands. The service we were met with was fantastic through out our 3 nights/4 days stay. Highlights include the standard of the rooms and cleanliness but special mention goes to the food. As a family of 5 with very specific and individualised needs and expectations I was positively surprised to learn how all our needs, vegetarians/meat eaters/kids/adults were catered for. At each meal we had more than enough of very well prepared and varied food, and especially the evening dinners were very varied, healthy and tasteful making all meals something to look forward to with a high degree of expectation. And it was even possible for us to also make special orders for our kids. At our arrival we were informed of the basics of the island etc. and we were equipped with a telephone, which should come in VERY handy later, as it turned out. We were here off season and had been told that due to the low season we could not be certain to see Mantas; the week before only very few mantas had been spotted by the rangers... but on our second day we had an urgent call from Ahmed (the manager) - the call we had all been excitedly looking forward to! Manta Rays had been spotted at Hanifaru Bay, and many of them! At the phone call we agreed to be at the harbour asap and were met by Ahmed, his boatman and a guide and off we went. On the way to the bay we passed a few other boats and arrived as the first in the area. We quickly went in the water and followed the guide's instruction for an amazing session with around 50 manta rays !! As each individual only has 45 minutes in the water and there is a limitation to the total amount of people who can be in the water at the same time (due to the UNESCO status) its important to be there as early as possible. The Mantas come when the food is there (due to the currents) and they leave when the food 'leaves' - a window of opportunity of around 60-90 minutes. Afterwards we learned that not all other people had been able to get a 45 minute session with the gentle giants, so we felt even more lucky to have been with Ahmed. Also, Ahmed took due care of our 6 year old during this session so she and also the rest of the family got the most out of this once-in-a-life time encounter ! A special mention also goes to the Shark Reef Trip we went on. After breakfast we set out on a 10=15 minutes trip to the reef where we had long snorkelling session along the reef. We saw many friendly sharks, a turtle and it the reef it self was also really nice. Having snorkelling/diving experiences from Indonesia, Borneo, Great Barrier Reef and Thailand this reef ranks among the better snorkeling experiences. We are so grateful we chose to stay Hanifaru Transit Inn with Ahmed and his team, certainl