Kanuhura Island Resort Maldives Review
We loved our time at Kanuhura SO much. Overall review of this resort is 10/10. We highly recommend it! Kanuhura is the perfect place to stay for your honeymoon, family trip, or just for any reason. This was our second resort of our honeymoon, given we stayed at two resorts for our honeymoon - Hurawalhi and Kanuhura. Check out our blog How To Stay at Multiple Resorts in The Maldives to learn about how to extend your trip to multiple islands!
Kanuhura has some of the longest and widest beaches in the Maldives. The geography is unique to the Maldives (and very different from our first island, we loved getting some variety). A short boat ride from Kanuhura’s main island there are two small private islands you can easily access. The overwater bungalows are spacious and modern and the food is to die for. You won’t regret a trip here!
Kanuhura is a 40-minute seaplane ride from the Male airport. Be aware that sea planes only fly during the day and the departure times on Trans Maldivian Airways is chosen for you. You may have to spend a night in Male (the capital of the Maldives) if you arrive after dark. We actually took a short 15 minute boat ride from Hurawalhi, a nearby island that we went to for a week before Kanuhura. Again, staying at multiple resorts in the Maldives is not very straightforward but we recommend doing the research to make it happen like we did!
Upon arrival at Kanuhura, we were greeted with water, and taken quickly to our bungalow by “buggy”. Kanuhura is 20 years old, but has been recently renovated and feels so new. Kanuhura has 80 villas - some beachfront and some overwater, and during our stay in July the resort was not even half capacity. We recommend July for a more secluded vacation!
WATER VILLA BUNGALOW
We chose to stay in an overwater bungalow at Kanuhura, the Water Villa. We highly recommend this experience! Everything about the Water Villa was amazing. We especially loved the hammocks that hang over the ocean. This villa was quite spacious, with a sitting area room, a very large walk in closet, a comfortable king bed, an open air bathroom, and a beautiful overwater deck. The open air bathroom with the tub was a romantic treat. We wanted to stay in renovated and fresh bungalows (another reason we chose The Maldives over Bora Bora) and we can say that Kanuhura’s bungalow was definitely that.
THE FOOD
The food at Kanuhura was honestly beyond our expectations. So amazing, that Clark thinks he gained 10 pounds while at Kanuhura. We found the variety here to be amazing. Every meal was delicious. Something that impressed us the most, was the healthy salad options at Cowry Club for lunch. There were TONS of options for these salads and as healthy foodies, we were in heaven. The dinner options were also next level. Our favorite dinner restaurant was Veli. A short bike ride from the overwater villas, the Asian Fusion mix of Indian + Japanese was phenomenal. We got sushi, naan, and an Indian main dish every night we ate there. It was so delicious, and romantic, given it is right in the sand. We also enjoyed Bottega, the Italian restaurant. This was authentic Italian, which is saying a lot given Rachel lived in Italy for a year. Another daily treat we enjoyed was the affogoto at the Cowry Club. Clark got this basically every day for dessert at lunch.
We absolutely loved the food at Kanuhura. We chose the all-inclusive food plan at Kanuhura which included all-you-can-eat at all of the sit down restaurant options, as well as the lunch and dinner buffet.It was literally superb down to the salad dressings. And we are harsh critics!
Activities and Excursions
Private Islands
Kanuhura not only has an amazing large main island but has TWO deserted islands you can take a very short 2 minute boat ride to!
Found a secluded cabana on Jehunuhura
Fresh coconut water on private island Masleggihura
Jehunuhura
Jehunuhura is a beautiful paradise. It is the bigger of the two deserted islands, and even has a restaurant. We loved exploring this paradise as it was even more secluded than the main island. We relaxed in the day beds with no one else around. Quote from Clark about the sunbeds when we got there, “I’m so surprised you don’t have to pay for this.” That’s when you know it’s amazing! Just head to the island, find a spot for you, and relax uninterrupted for as long as you’d like.
Jehunuhura Island in the foreground with Kanuhura Island
Masleggihura Island
We booked this island for a private picnic! Yes, that means we had the whole island to ourselves. We arrived and there was a beautiful and comfy daybed waiting for us. We swam in the private cove and saw stingrays and baby sharks yet again!
Relaxing by ourselves on Masleggihura deserted island, can you spot Rachel?
Later, we had a private island picnic set up by the wonderful Kanuhura team members and it was delicious. We loved swimming in a different part of the islands where the water was shallow. While Rachel was swimming, Clark was flying the drone and captured a shark swimming right by her. Talk about exhilarating! We heard they are nice sharks that don’t hurt humans. We’ll go with that.
Bikes
Each guest has their own beach cruiser bike while at Kanuhura! This was so much fun. We rode our bikes EVERYWHERE and loved it. Given Kanuhura is one of the longest islands in the Maldives, 1.4km long, it was nice to have a bike to get from place to place. We did not have bikes at our first resort which was a much different geography, so this was super fun and we loved the variety.
Snorkeling
If you stay in a Watervilla you can snorkel right off of your bungalow! We saw stingrays in the waters right by the bungalows. At low tide, you can also swim between the two other deserted islands. The atoll surrounding Kanuhura is known as more of a “marsh land” which was much different than the area surrounding our previous island, Kanuhura. Clark would often look for stingrays off the dock by the bungalows and jump in to chase after them. Keep in mind that some areas of the ocean surrounding Kanuhura, specifically on the North end, have fairly strong rip currents and swimming is not advised in these area.
Spa
We highly recommend the spa at Kanuhura. We waited until a rainy day to get a couples massage. Check out our blog about the weather in the Maldives. You are bound to get a little bit of rain at some point during your trip (unless you go in January) and that is the perfect time for a trip to the spa. Actually, any time is the right time for the spa. Anna was an AMAZING massage therapist. So amazing that after Rachel got a massage with Anna, Clark got one too the next day.
There are many other activities offered at Kanuhura but we were having too much fun biking and relaxing!