Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu

What People are saying

Amazing experience!

Mahdiyya S on 07/02/2018 18:43

Was really impressed by the resort and the facilities available on site.
My husband and I went to Coco Palm for our honeymoon. He wanted to sit on a beach and read, I was nervous because I am used to more adventurous holidays, I did not want to get bored. But what a pleasant surprise!
There was a sports and diving centre, as well as a turtle conservation centre. The sports centre rent you snorkelling equipment free of charge for the whole of your stay. Plenty to keep you busy.
The resort had a whole list of activities as extras, we partook in a trip to a local fishing island to see how the locals lived and a snorkelling trip to two different islands.
There were movie nights and BBqs on the beach, the bar offered food all day as well as Shisha.
The spa experience was to die for, highly recommend getting a treatment there.
The restaurant was larger than expected, with several different cuisines available to cater for everyone. The food was changed everyday and the chefs were extremely talented an skilled. The breakfast buffet! Drooool.
The staff and service was lovely. Everybody was so nice from housekeeping to reception. They were extremely helpful and willing to go out of their way for you.
And just the Island itself, clear waters, white sands, beautiful weather. What more could you want?

The Paradise

Nicola_Crosta on 04/02/2018 21:46

Paradise in Earth!
Impeccable service, wonderful views over and below the water, stunning rooms and breathtaking views from any perspective.

Be over the Top!!

Ci rivedremo molto presto, ci avete rapito il cuore; quando ci salutavate dal pontile mi avete fatto emozionare.

Pure love, simply amazing!!

Nicola Crosta

Paradise re-visited

Jayne N on 03/02/2018 10:58

After a six year gap my daughter and I returned to this Atoll and it was just as lovely as before - lovely sea and sand, great villa close to the beach, delicious food and very friendly staff. Truly relaxing and exhilarating at the same time.

Disappointing management & policies

TheDashingDiner on 14/01/2018 07:28

We visited Coco Palm for the second week of a two-week Maldives holiday, the first week having been spent at Kuredu. Since we found Kuredu’s customer service superior to Coco Palm’s in many ways, this is a comparative review of Coco Palm, and where the differences cannot be justified merely on the basis of any environmental agenda, I shall point these out. Both are listed as four-star resorts. But Kuredu aspires to five-star service. Given that we paid significantly more for our “ocean front villa” at Coco Palm than we paid for our over-water villa at Kuredu, I feel perfectly justified in comparing.

First, the welcome. Coco Palm doesn’t have a large jetty so you disembark the seaplane onto a floating platform some distance out to sea and are taken immediately onto a waiting boat. The boat staff are efficient and helpful. Simple life vests are handed out before leaving the platform. The staff take care of the big bags. Once at the small jetty, the management team are there to welcome everyone. From there it’s a short walk to the reception area, a beautiful large open pavilion of wooden construction on an aggregate base with a sandy floor. We were seated on a sofa and presented with cold towels and a small sweet iced tea. All comparable to Kuredu up to this point, but alas no further. Then a smart young man came to welcome us, explaining a few things about the resort and guiding us to our villa, number 38 on the north side of the island. It turned out on the long walk he’d only been there a month, and this could explain why we had to go in search of some bits of missing information we hadn’t been told, or hadn’t been told clearly, and which weren’t apparently written down anywhere.

Which restaurant is which? Cornus, Cowrie, Conch are lovely names and lyrically alliterative, but unhelpful when you’re new here. What’s that all-inclusive $45 credit all about, and why is it applied as a discount even to a buffet dinner when we’re all-inclusive, like Coco Palm is doing us a big favour? When are mealtimes? How much do excursions cost? All unclear, until you find the right bit of text on the right piece of paper out of the several poorly designed documents presented. And even then, unclear. There’s a lot of words expended on telling guests what they can’t or shouldn’t do, which comes across as prescriptive and officious. But very little that’s helpful. And absolutely nothing about the ecology or the wildlife species found on the island.

This was a theme repeated many times. Information at Coco Palm needs to be richer and clearer, presented with good design rather than just thrown together. This is something Kuredu does with aplomb. For example, when we went to explore the excursion options, we found a summary sheet in our room with no prices. (Later we found the prices on a different, unrelated piece of paper). Then we went to the excursions office at reception to book and were immediately offered the next day rather than asked which day we’d like, and we weren’t told any details about the trip or even the price before we were booked in. Everything we wanted to know was a secret until we asked to know it. This is not information. Suggestion for management: try the welcome process and all customer interactions from the point of view of a new customer. Then stay at Kuredu. You may be shocked and surprised at how poorly you’re doing. Later in our trip, the lack of information became even more of a problem for everyone, as Tropical Cyclone Ockhi rose from a depression in the Bay of Bengal, challenging and stretching the inadequate management team and their guests… of which more later.

We did have cause to deal with another member of excursions staff who’d only been there a month, and he gave us the first good service we’d had in four days. Because of weather, our complementary sunset cruise has been cancelled, so he suggested that our morning dolphin watching trip should be free of charge. But then he used to work in a different quality resort, and it shows. Unfortunately due to the Cyclone we never did get our complementary cruise.

Environmental policy at Coco Palm seems oddly hypocritical, and the resort’s claims to ecological enlightenment are entirely false apart from some coral seeding efforts and hosting the excellent Olive Ridley Project. Disposable plastic straws are routinely used in the bars and restaurants, though they’re claimed to be biodegradable, if such a thing truly exists. And I don’t even want to think how sewerage and wastewater might be handled.

Light bulbs in our room were mostly incandescent or halogen, with one compact fluorescent. This is odd in a resort where guests are encouraged to save electricity and other resources. Modern LED bulbs could save 90% of the electricity used by incandescents. No opportunities seem to have been taken to generate electricity from photovoltaics or wind or any other renewables. The desalination plant that makes the resort’s water is entirely driven by diesel, and I suspect the electricity generation too. One time we walked down the wrong path by accident and the smell of diesel fumes was almost overpowering. This is terrible when the main threat to the Maldives is sea level rise due to human activity related climate change, caused by emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.

On our first walk along the beach I retrieved two empty plastic bottles from the wave margin within a couple of minutes. Provision of refillable bottles could prevent this. Snorkelling around the beach there was a lot of rubbish floating around, most containing plastic. I removed what I could but someone should attend to this. There is no marine biologist resident at Coco Palm at the time of writing, the last having left months ago, though the resort has actively advertised the position recently.

As others have said, all inclusive at Coco Palm doesn’t feel like all inclusive at all, even though it’s a very expensive option. The mini bar isn’t included, whereas at Kuredu we got bottles of still red and white wine as well as iced coffee, iced tea and sodas all included in our room mini bar. At Coco Palm it’s just a bottle of water each per day and everything else in the room costs a lot extra (generally around 4 times more than normal high-end prices). This is clearly not for environmental reasons when there’s canisters of Pringles and disposable plastic bowls of instant noodles on offer too. Tea and coffee supplies are replenished every day, but with just four foil-top plastic jiggers of UHT milk substitute which is neither generous nor quality conscious nor environmentally friendly. Kuredu gave us a carton of milk in our mini bar. Even better from an eco point of view would have been a sterile reusable glass milk bottle. The tea is in polypropylene teabags in metallised plastic foil wrappers which is just about the least environmentally sound way to drink tea. Eco credentials in 2017 should mean so much more than this.

You can’t even take a drink from the bar back to your room. If (and here I’m trying to find justification on behalf of Coco Palm)… if this is to prevent broken glass on sandy barefoot paths, it’s an excellent policy, but only if an in-room alternative is provided, or bars are at both ends of the island instead of at the opposite end. Kuredu also provided us with optional reusable aluminium bottles for $5 each to carry around with us, refillable at all bars and restaurants, further reinforcing their commitment to keeping guests hydrated - Coco Palm take note. More about water later.

Coco Palm’s bar snacks in the afternoon are way superior to those available at Kuredu, with delicious items such as fish goujons, chicken samosas and vegetable sushi tempura available along with some sweet goodies, and all on the all inclusive package. The cocktails are really good but from a small selection. Bar staff are friendly but reluctant to come and take your drinks order. Each time I had to approach the bar, at which point one of them would approach me from behind the bar and take my order as if to say “I was on my way, honest”. And we weren’t the only guests similarly affected. However this did change after we complained to management. The large bar menus (in three versions depending which package you’re on) were all stacked at the rear of the bar and we had to ask for one, as did other couples. It might be better to distribute them around the numerous tables instead, as it felt slightly like this was a Special Book of Secrets being closely guarded than a menu of offerings. Maybe make them a bit smaller so they fit on tables. Maybe have one small menu for everyone with clear indications as to who gets what.

Wi-fi - both Coco Palm and Kuredu have free Wi-fi, with a broadband internet connection that’s fast and high quality. Both islands have Wi-fi in the rooms and pretty much everywhere. But at Kuredu it’s limited to 500Mb per day per guest, making it a scarce resource and a cause of stress, and at Coco Palm it’s apparently unlimited, which is excellent and very welcome. I was able to look up wildlife species as I spotted them. Kuredu should learn from this.

As it happened, the free Wi-Fi at Coco Palm made it much easier to get good information when Tropical Cyclone Ockhi struck, because there certainly wasn’t any information coming from the resort management. Nada. Not a word. Not even a reassuring note in the room, let alone a regular update. Luckily misery loves company, so we managed to talk to many other English and French speaking guests. People were left feeling scared and isolated, in a situation of unknown dangers, and transport delays, utterly without leadership. Most people remarked how the Resort General Manager Brendan Corcoran was absent or invisible for most of the time the crisis was on. Certainly when I made my complaints he left it to his deputy Jaufar to sit down with me to listen to the details, and that was even before the Cyclone. Once the Cyclone started making it impossible to get guests sent out to go home, management really showed how useless they are at information dissemination. I understand that both managers have now left, having been there for just five and six months respectively.

Good management should treat crises as an opportunity to shine. This lot crumbled. The result was frustrated, scared and ultimately angry guests. It could have been handled so much better. The opportunity for massive PR win turned into “never again” for all the ones we spoke to. But what was absolutely unforgivable was an abortive morning attempt to get rid of some of the delayed departures by boat to the nearest airport, on the morning Ockhi was upgraded to a category one tropical cyclone. That really shook up the victims, among whom was a pregnant woman. Eyewitnesses spoke of being genuinely scared as the boat floundered in heavy seas and had to turn back, with the engine fumes as sickening as the motion. This should never have happened, and was a terrible decision. No injuries apart from bruises, nobody died, but a wild ride on a boat in stormy seas isn’t what you want at the end of a “luxury” holiday in paradise.

Food: the buffet food at Coco Palm is of a reasonable standard and some variety, but the cooked-to-order items are sometimes a bit pointless and gimmicky. The food generally at Kuredu was far superior in every way, although Coco Palm’s pastries and cakes are better than Kuredu’s. Everything on the buffet at Coco Palm is a bit too fancy, leaving us yearning for something that feels like home cooking rather than something trying and failing to be gourmet, whereas at Kuredu there truly was something for everyone. At Coco Palm the food was inconsistent in theme, with nothing feeling like it went thematically with anything else even on Maldivian night, whereas Kuredu always tried to have a large selection conforming to a theme cuisine of the day. Worst of all, the food was all lukewarm, from the salads to the hot dishes. These things were all noticed by several other couples we spoke to.

The waiting staff at Coco Palm seem to lack a certain enthusiasm and energy which we loved at Kuredu - trudging round a bit down at heel instead of looking pleased to serve. A waiter always took our drinks order pretty soon after we took our table, but then it seemed really difficult to order any subsequent drinks, whereas at Kuredu our waiter would notice our empty glasses within minutes and be right there asking if we wanted another. And where’s the water? The first thing our dear regular waiter at Kuredu did every time we appeared at breakfast, lunch or dinner was to fill our glasses with chilled water. At Coco Palm, no water at breakfast, and a grudging bottle at lunch & dinner - however this did all change after we complained. Water here is treated like it’s the most expensive resource on earth… and whilst that may indeed be the case, it’s also necessary for life, especially in a hot humid environment. So use rainwater harvesting, or condense it from the humid air. Make it solar powered and plentiful, not something produced by burning diesel and sold to non all-inclusive guests at a whopping $3.50 per bottle!

A word of warning - if you arrive at lunch towards the end of service you’ll be disappointed. By 14:30 there’s no more food, it’s all been cleared away. It’s a similar story at breakfast and dinner. I would suggest management tells the restaurant staff that the buffet should be replenished throughout service and only cleared down after closing time. Don’t make people feel pressured at mealtimes on their holiday, or deprive them of choice just because they arrive at 14:15 when lunch runs until 14:30.

Bed - although a reasonable king size bed at Coco Palm, Kuredu wins again, hands down. Kuredu provides a firm mattress with a thick mattress pad, a top sheet as well as a duvet, and two sizes of really excellent pillows - real luxury, and this is a key point, comparable with what we and most other people these days have at home. At Coco Palm there’s no top sheet, and no mattress pad on top of a firm mattress. The horrible springy foam pillows not only feel cheap, they’re encased in unpressed, creased pillowcases. After the first night and all subsequent nights at Kuredu I felt great - at Coco Palm I felt back pain. How can this happen? In what universe can you welcome guests accustomed to the finest Ikea/John Lewis/Debenhams/George at ASDA bed luxury at home, and subject them to something inferior in their “luxury” hotel room, and feel you’ve done a good job? Is this environmental policy at work again? No. Just cheapness, lack of empathy, research failure, or management laziness.

The washbasin had a broken tap fitting so the mixer tap was hard to use and the pop up plug was impossible to keep down. Clearly this had been the case for some time. We reported this and asked for it to be fixed, which it was next day in a multiple-personnel procedure lasting three hours. At the same time they replaced our dodgy door lock. In a luxury resort this kind of thing shouldn’t be spotted and reported by guests, it should be discovered by the room staff and reported back to maintenance. This is either a training failure or a procedural failure - either way it’s a management failure.

Our ocean front villa was actually set back into the jungle, without an ocean view, with a short narrow path leading to the beach and our two sun loungers under a parasol. The open bathroom was pleasant and clean. Our exclusive sun loungers were a bit useless because every time we lay out there we ended up getting thirsty and wanting a drink, then having to decamp to the bar at the other end of the island (a 1km round trip walking on sand) to have one because of the stupid mean tight fisted miserly “all inclusive” policy.

Wildlife - there’s a lot more dense jungle cover on Dhuni Kolhu than on Kuredu, and hence more indigenous wildlife. Walking along the sandy paths is a joy by day or night. Lots of characterful birds noisily (or quietly) go about their lives. Hermit crabs are literally everywhere, with their cute “you didn’t see me” hiding behaviour - just look for pristine mollusc shells too far away from the beach that appear to move out of the corner of your eye and then settle to the ground as soon as you look at them. In and around our villa, a population of cute little geckos helped keep us free of insects, though huge biting ants and a few cockroaches did manage to penetrate the defences. The Olive Ridley Project does fantastic work trying to save turtles and rehabilitate them, and is worthy of a highly educational visit at feeding time, and everyone’s support.

Dhuni Kolhu is a beautiful island with the wildlife, jungle environment and the beaches being the main attraction. But that’s not unique in the Maldives. Will we return to Coco Palm? No. No way. Not unless we get a letter explaining how everything has changed with a whole host of major improvements to customer service and facilities. We wish we’d spent our second week at Kuredu too, where we felt wanted and cared for and helped by staff who seemed to take pleasure from their efforts ensuring we didn’t have to think about anything, where nothing was too much trouble, and where our every need was not only served but cleverly anticipated too. Kuredu even managed to demonstrate more eco-friendly energy and water generation than the so called eco resort of Coco Palm.

Heaven on Earth ❤️

islandesa on 07/01/2018 19:04

We are so grateful for our days at this beautiful resort. It was really wonderful and relaxing. We stayed in a Lagoon Villa nr. 97 with half board and it was very nice. The food was very good, a lot of varieties , something new everyday. The staff is very helpful and kind. We went to the Spa and we rate it superb as well as the snorkeling tour which was amazing. We also tried scuba diving but it was very difficult to walk into the ocean with all the equipment and it wasn’t as good as diving from a boat. I have tried scuba diving 4 times before and this wasn’t as pleasant as usual.