Adaraan Prestige Vadoo lies on a small island which is a brief ride by speedboat from Velana International Airport in Malé, the capital of the Maldives. The transfer is meant to take fifteen minutes, which the crew on our speedboat gleefully reduced to ten minutes.
In any event, the resort is a hop, skip and a jump away from the airport and you will face no lengthy, or at the very least unpredictable, wait at the seaplane terminal in Malé which is essential to reach farther-flung resorts in the Maldives.
Adaraan Prestige Vadoo is not flashy and has a serene vibe and an unpretentious, almost rustic charm. This may because it is part of the old guard of Maldivian resorts which opened in the early days of the Maldivian tourist industry.
Indeed, the resort opened in 1986 as Vadoo Diving Paradise under the ownership of Tokohiko Sakamoto from Japan, itself an island nation. He was certainly a trailblazer because the resort contained the first overwater villa in the Maldives (there are now over 5,000), which reflected the skilful collaboration of Singaporean architects and Japanese engineers.
Thankfully, that first overwater villa is preserved for posterity since it houses the resort’s spa.
Aitken Spence, the Sri Lankan hotel group acquired the resort in 2007 and it opened as a sparkling new luxury resort in 2009 capitalising on its proximity to the capital and its position in the waters of the South Malé Atoll, a sanctuary for marine life.
Following a make-over in 2020, the resort is now a five star, adult only, Premium All-Inclusive resort which offers great restaurants, enthusiastic entertainers and sharks galore.
Overwater Villas
The resort boasts fifty single storey overwater villas, all of which are constructed from teak in light and dark brown hues and covered by neatly thatched roofs.
The resort does not have beach villas, or any other category of accommodation, so no part of the island is off limits to any guest.
All of the overwater villas are excellently sited so as to have panoramic views over the Indian Ocean. Our Sunset Water Villa offered stunning views at both sunrise and sunset and I expect that most of the overwater villas are equally fortunate.
A huge bed dominated the wide living room in our villa, behind which lay the ensuite bathroom and an ocean facing jacuzzi. An open section above the bed permitted light to flood the bathroom and the jacuzzi.
The bathroom was well stocked with Elemis products and the mini-bar contained a good selection of soft drinks and alcohol.
In customary fashion, the living room in the villa overlooked a broad, glass bottom sundeck with an infinity plunge pool at the ocean’s edge.
The ocean could quickly be reached via wooden steps. It was delightful to watch a succession of graceful white terns, who competed for perches near the sundeck, embark upon or return from fishing expeditions in the clear water below.
A butler, an English garden and topography
Whilst each overwater villa has its own butler the small size of the island all but eliminated the need for buggy transportation around the island and our butler provided more a point of contact than a full-on Maldivian butler service.
An immaculate and peaceful English garden lies in the centre of the island near the swimming pool. A clean, wide sandy beach connects the main jetty, the Kandholi Bar, the Farivalhu Restaurant and the Kithajima Restaurant with the diving centre, the house reef and a beachfront restaurant and bar at the other end of the island.
Since the resort is restricted to adults it is a haven of tranquillity all day and all night (fire eating and other live entertainment aside).
A trio of great restaurants
Praveen, the Anglophile Food and Beverage Manager at the resort who used to run a Sri Lankan restaurant in England, oversees three great restaurants with energy and passion.
The fulcrum of these restaurants is the Farivalhu Fine Dining Restaurant which operates a rolling service from breakfast to lunch and finally dinner, with an interlude for high tea. I can assure you that the choice of Arabic, Maldivian and Western breakfasts would set anyone up for the day.
Directly above, is the Kithajima Japanese Restaurant, no doubt preserved as a tribute to the resort’s original Japanese owner. The décor is quintessentially Japanese, with warm, low-level lighting and backlit elements throughout and seating at counters near the kitchen or tatami-style around plain wooden tables.
The restaurant serves a variety of noodle, sashimi, sushi and tempura dishes, and Japanese beer and saké are available (at additional cost to the all-inclusive beverages).
Our favourite restaurant for dinner was the beachfront Kakuni Barefoot Restaurant. It is only open for dinner and reservations are required. It is dedicated to Maldivian style seafood which is served on candlelight tables carefully placed on the sand beneath a thatched roof which is open on all sides.
The seafood platter, which is available at extra cost to the excellent all-inclusive menu, is sensational. The locally sourced giant prawns are truly enormous and the reef fish is simply exquisite.
These three restaurants are attuned to the requirements of guests who are gluten intolerant or allergic to gluten.
The Kandholi Bar – Overwater shark viewing platform
The Kandholi Bar occupies two floors adjacent to the main jetty. The top floor is effectively an overwater viewing platform which has a wonderful view of the Indian Ocean.
Forget the drinks menu, and gaze down into the illuminated water of an evening and you are certain to see a succession of black tip, white tip or nurse sharks leisurely wend their way over the seabed. This is the highest concentration of sharks in one place which I have encountered in the Maldives and is quite a sight.
Stunning house channel reef
The house reef at the resort is one of the best in the South Malé Atoll and the extensive hard and table coral formations near the beach soon give way to a precipitous 500 metre channel which acts as a form of underwater highway and is excellent for diving.
Snorkellers will also not be disappointed, since sharks and eagle rays routinely swim up from the depths of the channel close to the dive centre and a shimmering array of fish dart in and out the coral, including colourful parrot fish which use their strong beaks noisily to excavate coral.
This is the best house reef for snorkelling which I have encountered in the Maldives, and the resort also has a strong reputation for diving, including cave diving.
Dolphin spotting excursion
Dolphins are also attracted to the waters around the resort and we saw at least two pods of dolphins playing in the water on our lovely sunset boat excursion.
The resort has many distinctive features and will be highly attractive for those who seek swift access to an island experience from the airport in Malé, such as expatriates in the Middle East taking a short break or travellers winding down after a busy trip to nearby Sri Lanka.
The resort is open all year. A Premium All-Inclusive Sunset Villa with plunge pool, jacuzzi and speedboat transfers starts from about $1,500 including tax per night during peak season.
Bookings may be made directly with the resort through the website at adaraan.com, by email at [email protected] or by telephone on + 960 6 64 3976.