Dive Review of Boutique Beach Hotel in
Maldives/Dhigurah, South Ari Atoll

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Boutique Beach Hotel: "Great Liveaboard Alternative for the Maldives", Mar, 2024, by Hugh E Aaron, FL, US ( Top Contributor 30 reports with 30 Helpful votes). Report 12938 has 3 Helpful votes.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This was our first trip to the Maldives. We were told that traditionally most people dive the Maldives on liveaboards or from all inclusive resorts on private islands. Neither of those options really appeals to us. We prefer small hotels that are focused primarily on diving. Our friends, a couple from the UK who now live in France, found the Boutique Beach Hotel online. With about nine rooms and a full service dive operation it fit the bill perfectly. The BBH caters exclusively to diving/snorkeling — they do not accept room reservations without a diving or snorkeling package. While we encountered a few snorkelers, the vast majority of the guests were there to dive. As one might expect, both the staff and guests are an international crowd. Most of the dive staff are British. Most of the other staff are Maldivian, or from Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. The majority of the guests during our stay were European. There were very few other Americans. We booked a two week stay that included 28 dives each. I dove every day and ended up purchasing a few extras dives after using up my allotted 28. My wife skipped a few dives and stayed within her allotted 28. All diving is done from BBH’s custom built dive boat. The boat is very roomy with plenty of space for a full complement of divers and their gear. The main seating areas are fully covered but there is also plenty of open deck for those seeking sun. There are two open air showers. Each guest is assigned a bin for gear storage. The crew takes care of setting up, breaking down, storing and cleaning the gear. Nitrox was included with our package. The guests are assigned a dive guide for their duration of their stay. There are no more than four guests per guide. The operation is very safety oriented. BBH requires all guests, no matter how experienced, to complete a checkout dive during which the guests are required to demonstrate basic safety skills such as clearing their mask and buddy breathing. Our guide was Mette, a Danish woman who obviously loves to dive and is very professional. Initially we thought Mette was “managing” us a bit too much given our experience. However, as we got to know her and she got to know us, everyone relaxed. We quickly learned to appreciate Mette’s focus on making the dives both safe and enjoyable. Each evening before dinner, the dive staff does a briefing for the next day’s dives. The departure time varies based on the dive plan. But don’t come to BBH expecting to sleep in. The dive staff likes to get on the water early, sometimes very early, especially on days when three dives are planned, The staff tries to offer a nice variety of dive type/sites with a heavy focus in finding “cool stuff.” They made sure that we saw plenty of mantas and sharks. Whale sharks are more rare, but the crew tries really hard to find them. We saw them on three different days. The staff also did a great job of avoiding duplicating dive sites. The boat leaves from the island’s harbor, which is a pleasant walk of a half mile or so walk from the hotel. The hotel offers a shuttle service both ways for those who prefer to walk. We have, unfortunately, come to expect stressed reefs and struggling marine life in many places. That was not the case in the Maldives. The reefs all seem to be holding up to climate change quite well, at least for the time being. We were impressed with both the health of the reefs and the health and variety of marine life, both small and large. Dhigurah is not a private island. We were told that about 650 local people live on the island. There are a handful of hotels and restaurants, numerous guest houses, several small grocery stores, a few other shops and a small hospital with a pharmacy. There is no crime, no alcohol, and there are no paved roads. The local people are reserved, but friendly. The beaches are spectacularly beautiful and pristine. All in all, a delightful place. Our second floor room was very large. It had a king size bed, a couch, a comfortable chair and a desk with a desk chair. The air conditioning kept the room cool and dry. The room also had a separate, very large open air bathroom and a small balcony. The wifi was mostly reliable and fast enough for everything we wanted to do, including uploading photos. BBH bookings include three meals daily. Breakfast and lunch were served either in the ground floor dining room or on the dive boat, depending on the day’s diving schedule. Dinner was served buffet style either in the open air roof top dining area or the beach. Both venues are delightful. The chef offered a good variety of fish, beef and chicken with plenty of salads and fresh fruit. Everything was delicious. One day I casually mentioned that I missed pizza. The next day we had pizza as an appetizer. BBH has been in operation for about 10 years and they pretty much have it down to science. The were only a couple of minor things that I thought could be improved. First, we would have enjoyed some comfortable outdoor lounge chairs for relaxing in the afternoons. There are plenty of outdoor chairs but they are more dining chairs than loungers. There are also hammocks but I do not find hammocks to be all that comfortable. We ended up spending our afternoons lounging in our air conditioned room (which was very comfortable) or walking on the beach or around the island. Second, the indoor lounge area where everyone gathers for diving briefs and to watch the day’s dive videos can feel crowded when the hotel is full. It can also get warm when the breeze dies down as the hotel common areas are not air conditioned. BBH is adding on to the hotel. That may result in some additional lounge space. We suspect that part of the reason that BBH is so well run is the fact that owner, Romney, is on-site most of the time. Romney is Irish but lived in the UK for most of her career. She maintains a flat in England but also has a house next to BBH. Romney now spends most of her time on Dhigurah. She was hands off the hotel and dive operations. She has hired very competent people and she lets them do their jobs. I suppose if a guest ever had a complaint they could not resolve with the staff (that seems unlikely) they could bring it to Romney. We never had any significant complaints but we found Romney a great source of information for learning about Dhigurah and the Maldives. She has lived on Dhigurah since the start of tourism on the island and is a wealth of local knowledge. Romney also dove with us most days. Every night during the video show, I could usually tell which videos Romney had taken as she is a fantastic photographer, especially macro. She gave me a lot of good tips as we have basically the same camera (TG-6/7). For a small operation, there are a lot of staff members. I’m guessing that there is about a one-to-one ratio of staff to guests. Many of the staff members had been with Romney for years. They are all friendly people who work very hard to make sure that the guests are having a great experience. They also seemed to really enjoy their jobs and each other. BBH has a lot of return guests. After two weeks at BBH, we understand why people come back year after year. It is a special place.
Websites	Boutique Beach Hotel
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Virginia, North Carolina, California, Hawaii, Florida, Abaco, Bimini, Exumas, Culebra, USVI, BVI, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Caymans, Dominica, Roatan, Belize, Saba, St, Barths, St Kitts, Nevis, Saint Martin, Bequia, Bonaire, Curacao, Thailand, Australia, Egypt, Bali, Raja Ampat
Closest Airport	Male	Getting There	Tallahassee, Dallas, Doha, Male, Seaplane to South Ari, Short Boat Ride to Dhigurah Island
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	28-29°C / 82-84°F	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	15-30 M / 49-98 Ft
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Stay with guide, back on the surface in 60 +/- minutes.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	> 2
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Our hotel room had a desk and chair that was probably intended for photographers. There were plenty of AC plugs and USB outlets on the wall just above the desk. There was also good overhead lighting. The setup was more than adequate for my TG-7 and housing. For bigger rigs, a bigger desk might be nice. There was no sink in the room with the desk, but the bathroom sink was adequate for rinsing my housing. The room air conditioner had no problem keeping the humidity in check. The boat had no camera facilities other than a soak tank for cameras, computers and lights. The crew was careful to make sure that no one used the tank for other items. There was no table for camera equipment on the boat. There were no AC or USB plugs. So, if someone needed to recharge batteries between dives that would have been a challenge. But it could probably have been done with a portable battery. The crew was careful when taking cameras from divers in the water at the end of the dives. The setup worked fine for me. I probably took 1000 photos. The area was especially good for macro. Mette, who appears to be the most serious photographer on the dive staff, creates a video every afternoon from video clips taken by the guests and dive staff that day. Every night before dinner the guests and dive staff get together to watch Mette's excellent videos. She posts them daily at [youtube.com link]. Mette also offers one-on-one photography classes customized to the student's needs and experience. I took her class to learn more about my new TG-7. She is a good teacher, very knowledgeable and takes a practical approach to photography, which I really found helpful. She saved me from a lot of trial and error learning.

Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Boutique Beach Hotel in Maldives/Dhigurah, South Ari Atoll

Boutique Beach Hotel: "Great Liveaboard Alternative for the Maldives", Mar, 2024,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Boutique Beach Hotel in
Maldives/Dhigurah, South Ari Atoll