If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD586.50), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Romance-kindling Alila Kothaifaru lets its covetable co-ords do the talking. A beautifully conserved, natural island is married with low-rise buildings that effortlessly cohere with their leafy surroundings, while low lighting ensures the stargazing remains spectacular. Bath-like ocean awaits, as does your own private pool beside your villa. Opt for stellar snorkelling or Scuba diving, downtime on the beach or ensconced on your hammock. Dip into locally flavoured experiences such as cookery classes and themed soirées, and make time for a treatment or two at the jungle-cocooned spa. Back-to-nature bliss has never felt more indulgent.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A welcome drink each; SilverSmiths also get $50 to spend in resort, as do GoldSmiths, who get a handmade souvenir on top
Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £537.86 ($680), including tax at 16 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional government tax of $6.00 per person per night on check-out and an additional service charge of 11.6% per room per night prior to arrival.
More details
Rates include breakfast (with genuinely, hand-on-heart good coffee).
Also
Unfortunately this rugged island isn’t accessible for wheelchair users.
At the hotel
Watersports and dive centre, library, games room, and boutique. In rooms: private freshwater pool, dedicated island host, WiFi, TV, portable speaker, tea- and coffee-making kit, hairdryer, beach bag, hat, and Alila amenities including sun protection and insect repellent.
Our favourite rooms
The best kind of dilemma: we’d suggest to start in a over-water villa – the postcard-perfect Maldivian idyll, where schools of fish, turtles and rays frequently stop by to say hello – then switch halfway through to a beach villa, for the ultimate in peace and privacy. Beach villas are slightly more spacious, with high-romance alfresco bathrooms and a separate lounge area for, well, lounging.
Poolside
Where the palm-dotted sands taper towards the Indian ocean, you’ll find a teal-tiled infinity pool, edged by parasol-shaded day-beds – and of course there’s your private freshwater pool at your villa – but there’s also the bath-like Maldivian ocean, so…
Spa
Separated from the rest of the island, the spa has been cleverly designed to feel like somewhere else entirely: at this suspended jungle cocoon, each of the treatment rooms is set on stilts with canopy-facing relaxation areas and indoor-outdoor bath tubs to indulge in, post-treatment. Therapists hail from Bhutan, Indonesia and Thailand, and treatments combine contemporary approaches and ancient healing techniques, all while using Alila Living products. There’s a bijou glass-walled gym on the ground-floor of the spa building, too, with Technogym equipment, and an elevated yoga platform for sun salutations.
Packing tips
A film camera, to bring some grainy texture to the sharp design and sleek lines of your holiday photos.
Also
If you want your little Smiths to accompany you in an Overwater Villa, you'll need to sign a disclaimer at check-in.
Children
Welcome: under-12s stay free. Beach villas can be made family-friendly thanks to the lounge area that will sleep up to two children. And there’s a small kids’ club, though we’d say that the overall atmosphere is more adults-focused.
Sustainability efforts
Alila Kothaifaru is, importantly, a natural island – and its current owners have worked hard to conserve over 70 per cent of the vegetation and native trees (including tamanu, banyan and Indian almond). Motorised watersports are banned, in favour of protecting the reef, and the resort uses eco-friendly alternatives to single-use plastics, plus has its own bottling plant on site. Paper products and vegetable waste are converted into fertiliser, and the team makes its own salt and soy sauce on the island – given the heavy use of those ingredients in the restaurants. There’s an organic garden in the middle of the island (which has a chef’s table in the works), and social sustainability is equally well nurtured. Alila is passionate about fostering a sustainable future for locals, and supports the development of neighbouring communities through internship, employment and partnership opportunities.
Toes in the sand on Seasalt’s beach, or the end of the terrace at Yakitori, where there’s nothing in sight bar the ocean.
Dress Code
Vintage silk, sleek silhouettes and muted colours are all encouraged (kimonos might be a step too casual, though).
Hotel restaurant
Seasalt is your spot for all-day dining, serving local and international dishes. Fish is, naturally, a focus – don’t miss the seafood market on Tuesday evenings, where fishermen and their boats nose the shoreline by the restaurant and you can pick your dinner directly from them. The chefs then cook this in front of you on the sand, having checked your preferences on salt, spice and sides. The entire concept is designed to replicate a real local market. Umami is a fine dining, dinner-only restaurant taking inspiration from Japan. The menu features sushi, sashimi, black cod and our favourite(s): the crispy tuna taco with truffle dressing and the Tokyo salad – a moreish mix of cabbage, crispy tortilla and noodles, snow crab, avocado and sesame dressing. For light bites throughout the day head to Pibati, a café-style spot by the beach serving sandwiches, salads, smoothies and barista coffees. There’s also the Shack – the resort’s exclusive private dining experience which can be booked for a picnic-style lunch or a sunset barbecue.
Hotel bar
Hit the Mirus bar for sundowners – this intimate, homey space is inspired by the region’s former spice trade route. We love the martini made with local chilli, or their take on a negroni, which is aged inside a hollowed-out coconut for three days prior to serving. There’s the Yakitori bar, too – open to the ocean with a terrace over the water – and specialising in saké and small bites (try the skewers cooked on the robata grill, and the chicken katsu sando).
Last orders
At Seasalt, breakfast is 7am until 10.30am; lunch, from noon until 5pm and for dinner, it’s 6.30pm until 10.30pm. Light bites are served at Pibati, 10.30am until 6pm. Umami opens 6.30pm until 10.30pm. Both bars serve every evening until midnight.
Room service
Available 24 hours (including photo-worthy floating breakfasts). The all-day menu includes salads, sandwiches, pizzas and curries.
You need a transfer to reach this hotel. For approximate costs, see location information
Alila Kothaifaru is in the peaceful Raa atoll, a region in the north of the archipelago close to the Hanifaru Bay Unesco World Biosphere Reserve – known for its manta rays.
Planes
It’s a 45-minute seaplane journey north from Malé International Airport to Alila Kothifaru; or you can take a domestic flight to Ifuru with onward transfers by speedboat: in both cases, the resort will make arrangements for you. Transfers cost from $655 one-way for an adult; $328 for a child (aged two to 11), and children under two travel for free on an adult’s lap. See below for seaplane schedule details.
Other
Seaplanes only fly between 6.30am and 3.30pm local time: for same-day transfers your international flight will need to touch down in Malé before 3pm, and your departing flight should leave after 9.30am. Where timings don’t align, you’ll need to stay overnight in Malé at your own expense.
Worth getting out of bed for
You needn’t go far – the gorgeous waters and house reef are a simple hop-skip-dive away. Snorkel from the shore near Umami, where the coral and sea life are at their best. Alila Kothaifaru’s privileged position near the Unesco-listed Baa Atoll Biosphere Reserve means you can chart a course here with ease, and swim with its famous manta rays in the unspoiled ocean. Guided tours of the underwater world are available, too, with the chance to see schools of Nemos, Dorys and turtles. Experienced divers can opt for a thila dive, to meet friendly reef sharks and pelagic fish. Come sunset, jump on a traditional Dhoni boat in search of dolphins. And there’s plenty to entertain you on land, too – we’d suggest visiting a local island (in fact, this is one of our favourite activities on offer), where you’ll share a meal with a Maldivian family and learn about their lives. There are cooking classes, cocktail making and spa treatments on offer too; or hit peak endorphin levels with a workshop teaching massage techniques (you can put it into practice later with your partner).
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this eco-friendly island stay in Raa Atoll and shared their dive photos with all-willing audiences, a full account of their castaway adventures will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Alila Kothaifaru in the Maldives…
Remote Maldives hideaway Alila Kothaifaru is quite the head-turner… Not only for its azure waters, thriving house reef and long white beaches, and not just for its ‘natural island’ geology, which means nothing has been reclaimed from the ocean, and that the native flora, which carpets the interior and shrouds already-private beachfront villas, has been here a good while. No, this barefoot-luxury retreat stands out for another reason entirely: its connection to local, taking a unique approach to engaging its guests. Take the Maldivian night, hosted in the main bar every Saturday by local employees who introduce their culture, history, or cuisine; or the chance to visit a nearby island and dine with a Maldivian family; or the weekly seafood market, where you can support local fishermen by choosing your dinner direct from their dhoni. Where other Maldivian stays might rest on their paradisal laurels, Alila Kothaifaru strengthens its allure by celebrating its island’s history and people.
