Brennia Kottefaru

We had an amazing stay at Brennia Kottefaru, Maldives! The resort was absolutely beautiful, the food was delicious with a great variety, and the entire little island felt like paradise. Everything was so beautiful, peaceful and almost unreal. The stunning nature, crystal-clear turquoise water, white sandy beaches and breathtaking surroundings made the whole experience truly magical. But what made our holiday truly unforgettable was the incredible staff and their outstanding hospitality. A very special thank you to Yassine at the front desk. He deserves special recognition because he was always there whenever we needed assistance. No matter what questions we had or what we needed help with, he was always approachable, patient, professional and incredibly friendly. He always welcomed us with a smile and made sure we felt comfortable and well taken care of. His positive attitude, kindness and willingness to help made a real difference during our stay. It's people like Yassine who make guests feel genuinely welcome and turn a beautiful holiday into an unforgettable experience. A big thank you as well to Mohammad Iqbal and Annu, our wonderful waiters. Both were incredibly friendly, kind-hearted and attentive. They always welcomed us with a smile and made us feel comfortable and appreciated. Their excellent service made every meal even more enjoyable. We also want to give a special mention to our water villa room-service attendant. He was an incredibly hardworking person who always made sure our villa was clean, tidy and well taken care of. He consistently made sure we had fresh water and everything we needed. His dedication and hard work did not go unnoticed, and we truly appreciated his efforts every day. We also want to thank the entire bar team. Every member of the staff was welcoming, friendly and always ready to make our time enjoyable. The food throughout our stay was also very good, with delicious meals and plenty of variety. We truly enjoyed the dining experience. And of course, the island itself deserves a special mention. This little piece of paradise is simply unreal. Every corner is beautiful, the atmosphere is wonderful, and the natural surroundings make you feel like you are dreaming. The water villas, the beaches and the breathtaking ocean views made our stay even more special. People like these make a holiday unforgettable. Their kindness, dedication, hospitality and positive energy made us feel truly welcome. Thank you, Yassine, Mohammad Iqbal, Annu, our room-service attendant and the entire bar team for making our stay so special. We will remember you all and hopefully come back one day! Highly recommended! ❤️🌴☀️ Danijela and Raul

From the moment we stepped off the plane in Male the resort was brilliant. We had our bags weighed and taken to the seaplane by staff, and I can say the seaplane was such a fun experience. We landed to unbelievable weather and greeted by the staff at the deck before being taken to our villa. The water villas were excellent and we seen a host of amazing wildlife from our deck, including a turtle, sharks, rays, including one monster. Loads of fish straight off the steps included our friend, mr triggerfish! The food suprised me, and almost everything was delicious. I thought I would struggle, but I found more to eat here, than I did at our 5 star family holiday in Turkey in August, and that had 2 huge dinning areas that were probably bigger the restaurant its self at Brennia. The staff were excellent and looked after you well. The one evening it rained, they collected us from our room and took us directly to the restaurant. The drinks were varied, although a little strong. There was always room by the pool, and plenty of sun loungers. It was great watching the fruit bat swoop all day and once it got a little hotter, the water was crystal clear and a wonderful experience. We had an amazing snorkeling guide who took us out to the house reef, she took our gopro down to areas we couldn't get to and brought back some amazing shots. The island was clean, very little rubbish about. There was always someone cleaning our villa steps, picking up bits from the beach, or maintenance round the decks. I did fish a bin bag out of the water one morning, and binned it in our room, but that appeared to have floated in on the tide. I know a few people are not keen on BK and yes it has its flaws, a few tiles missing from the pool, the composite decking has warped under the heat in places, and it would definitely benefit from a snack bar, and air con in the main restaurant. Overall I think its a brilliant island and I think most people won't go wrong with a visit. I am sure that far better islands are avaliable, but if you would like a slice of paradise without needing to sell a kidney, I think most people would be very happy to spend a week here.

We stayed at a water villa for , 7days even though 3days were complimentary from the management,rooms were always clean linen changed regularly,refills also regularly,staff friendly and always attending to our needs

This is our second visit to the Maldives. Last year we stayed at the Dhigufaru Resort in the Baa Atoll. This resort is about twice the size, having over 150 villas. THE ARRIVAL. Our arrival was in the pouring rain which didn’t help, but after we were checked in, we were not taken personally to our Deluxe Overwater Pool Villa and shown it by the staff member, just given the key card and dropped off outside the villa to find out by ourselves. ACCOMMODATION. The villa itself is very nice, spacious and well designed. It’s actually the best part of the resort. Our villa was on the left side of the pontoon about halfway along, so overlooking the platform where the seaplanes tie up to disembark and take on passengers. This platform is only about 60 yards/metres from the villas, so every time a plane lands or takes off, the noise from the engines and stink from the aircraft fuel was awful. I asked the reception to change our villa after three days of this, but my wife didn’t want the bother of packing and moving mid-holiday, so we endured it. The bathroom is well designed, with an outdoor and indoor shower, but as the whole area is open it does get hot in there. I had to walk back into the room to dry off after showering because it was making me sweat in there. The villas are kept clean and bed linen changed every day. The young Thai chap “July” who serviced our room was excellent. The mini bar is stocked with wine, soft drinks and beer and replaced each day as required. RESTAURANTS. There are three restaurants on the island. Two a-la-carte restaurants that are not included in the All-Inclusuve package, and a very large main buffet restaurant. At other resorts we’ve stayed at, you’ve been allowed to eat at the a-la-carte restaurants at least once during your stay without incurring extra cost. But that’s not the case here. Consequently, these restaurants were hardly used and we only ever saw two or three couples in them at most during our 12 night stay. The main restaurant was disappointing. The variety and quality of dishes offered was definitely not 5-Star! Starters, salad options and desserts were all lacking in variety and quality. As for the fruits, they had a guy cutting up and serving fruit at every meal, but the variety of fruit offered would have shamed a Wetherspoons pub. Also, even though the island was cluttered with coconut trees, all laden with fruit, they charged $9 for one at the bar. Ice cream was apparently treated as an “emergency” item here. If you requested it, they’d bring you a small portion. But other than that the only ice cream served was at lunchtime when a guy made it from a mixed solution of powder and water on a freezing disc. This wasn’t proper ice cream though and tasted powdery. They have different theme nights at the buffet including Asian, seafood, barbecue, Mediterranean and Arabic nights. The Asian night was probably the best of a bad bunch. The barbecue night was very disappointing. I’ve had more interesting barbecues in my back garden. The one good thing about the restaurant though was one particular staff member. His name is Didarul. We made sure we sat in the area where he worked, and he was a proper 5-star waiter. Totally wasted at this place though. He made our experience as special as he could and when he had a day off it really showed. The majority of the other staff there just weren’t up to his standard. My last comment about the restaurant is the pesky black crows that come into the restaurant through the open doors during breakfast and lunch and steal food off the tables. They are a menace and need controlling somehow. BARS. Ok, so on paper you have 3 bars. The main bar which is in between the reception and the restaurant, the Beach Bar on the east side of the island, and the Sunset Bar, which is on the south-west side of the island, ideally placed to watch the setting sun. So let’s take the main bar first. La Pella is huge and crammed with what looks like garden furniture. There are so many chairs, sofas and tables in this bar, it’s more like a discount furniture store than a relaxing Maldives bar. There is entertainment each night ranging from Karaoke to Quiz nights and live music. But apart from Sunday nights when the singer playing acoustic guitar is very chilled and has a great voice, at other nights the atmosphere is more like a butlins holiday camp or a 3-star hotel in Benidorm. It’s loud, raucous and not at all what we were expecting from our Maldives experience. Furthermore, although the drinks available on the AI package are quite good, a lot of the cocktails can’t be made (or made correctly) because there are so many ingredients missing. We tried to find a nice spot to sit and have a drink while watch the sun set and listening to the sound of the sea. But that just isn’t possible here. There are no quiet places you can have a drink. This is the only bar open in the evening and you can’t get far enough away from the loud music/noise in the bar to enjoy any peaceful experience. To add to the frustration, the sunsets are obscured completely from view by the huge Diving centre building, so people were having to leave their seats outside the bar and walk down along the beach to see it. It’s a design flaw that could so easily have been done differently, and for us, it was just one more detail that ruined our holiday. Ok so now we come to the Beach bar. This is a nice, small bar on the east side of the island which closes at 6.00pm. No food or snacks are available here, and the drinks availability is limited, but it’s quite nice. Lastly there’s the “Sunset Grill & Bar” which is a complete joke as it doesn’t operate as a bar at all, despite the fact it’s perfectly placed to watch the sun set, and as is stated on their website has “an amazing view of the sun setting against the horizon.” Well, yes it does, but it isn’t a bar, and is only open for diners as a restaurant after the sun has long since set at 7.30pm! This would be funny if it wasn’t tragic. It reminds me of the old Red Rock Cider commercials: “It’s not red and there are no rocks in it!” Well, this Sunset Grill and Bar is not a bar and you cannot watch the sun set from it. Not unless you sit outside alone when it’s closed, that is. THE ISLAND EXPERIENCE The island has white sand all around, but is softer on one side of the island. It’s great for bathing on the South and West side, but not so good on the North and East sides. Snorkelling isn’t that good straight off the beach but they do snorkelling trips if you want to pay for those. I’d advise you to bring your own snorkelling equipment though, as the stuff they lend you here is so badly maintained it’s probably dangerous. Also it’s only available between 10am and 4.30pm so no good for early morning or late afternoon snorkelling. We never tried the Spa so can’t comment on that. In the interior of the island there’s a games room/gym but they look a bit dark and barren. Again we weren’t impressed so didn’t use them. The pathways through the island are in good condition but a bit dodgy at night as a lot of the lamps don’t work. Also the condition of the timber boardwalk leading out to our villa was rotting and lifting in places, making it a bit dangerous at night. CONCLUSION If you’re looking for a romantic getaway island paradise, I think you should keep looking. This island is geared up for families as much as for couples, and as such there are quite a few large groups and families with young children here. A lot of the facilities and activities are more like those you’d find in a big family hotel in Spain or the Canary Islands and are more 3/4 star. This definitely doesn’t meet our expectations as a 5-star couples Maldives resort and we would definitely not recommend it to anyone we liked.

A magnificent stay in paradise, everything was perfect. Jalal took excellent care of our room and was very friendly to us. Always smiling and cheerful, a real ray of sunshine 😃 And the extraordinary dives: sharks, manta rays, dolphins… every day with great guides, Sharko, Richard… thank you!