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4.5
#2 of 8 inns in Maafushi Island
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Value
Arora Inn is located on Maafushi Island in Maldives, about 27 km from the city centre. The on-site Arora Café serves both Western and Maldivian cuisines. Free Wi-Fi is provided throughout the property.All rooms come with air conditioning and a minibar. The en suite bathroom has a shower and hairdryer. Room service is available 24 hours.From Male International Airport, guests can take the 1-hour, 30-minute journey by scheduled ferry to Arora Inn. Alternatively, there is also a speedboat transfer service which takes 35 minutes'.Guests can enjoy water sports activities at the beach, or make use of the barbecue facilities. Luggage can be stored at the 24-hour front desk.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Budget
Family
Languages Spoken
English
Location
Rah Vashaa Hingun, 08460
Arora Inn
92 reviews
Getting there
Great for walkers
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
I was warmly welcomed at the pier by Sami when my speedboat arrived in Maafushi without even informing them which time speedboat I would take (via iCom Tours) which was a great start to my stay. Fresh juice was provided on arrival, with information of what tours were available (no pushiness at all, they clearly said their only priority was for guests to have an amazing stay). My room (103) was nice and spacious and the bed and pillows were very comfortable. The shower was water was always very hot and the bathroom had a nice tap and separate mini shower head to clean feet. Aircon for the room is also very good. A few minutes walk from the speedboat & ferry pier. Lots of nice restaurants on Maafushi to choose from. All people are the hotel were always so welcoming and friendly, kindly lending me some superglue when I asked if they knew where I could find some to try fix a wheel on my case. Sami also very kindly helped me with my luggage to my ferry to my next island. This hotel is very good value for money and cannot recommend highly enough! I didn’t manage to get a reply from hotel ahead of my stay about organising my speedboat from airport to maafushi however this wasn’t a problem at all. You can just book directly from iCom Tours website and get the boat from near taxi area at the airport 😊
The plus in the room are also UK style plugs 😊
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Date of stay: November 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled solo
Room Tip:Book your speedboat direct with iCom
Plugs are UK style plugs
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We met the owner, Riffau, when our ferry did not leave when we thought it would, and we had to spend another night on Maafushi. The upstairs room with balcony was light and had good airflow, and was clean, spacious, and comfortable. There was some noise from harbor construction across the road, but that did not continue through the night. The amazing breakfast was at the other Arora location (Arora View) just a short walk away. Riffau and his staff were attentive to our needs.
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Date of stay: July 2023
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Arora is a quaint inn in Maafushi with a few rooms, but it's a nice place to stay, especially if you're on a budget.
Reservations: - Shaffan, the manager, responds to Facebook inquiries immediately. Of all the inns in Maafushi that I messaged, they are the ones who responded to my questions promptly - They allowed me to make a reservation two months prior to my visit through Facebook and did not ask for any sort of advanced payment, which is awesome because I don't have a credit card.
Room/amenities: - The room cost us $55 per night, including all taxes, breakfast, and free bottled water - It is airconditioned, has its own bathroom, a dresser, a cabinet, and two full-sized mattresses put together. The spring mattress is a little hard but not very uncomfortable. - The wifi connection is stable - The refrigerator in room 103 does not work - The water in the bathroom smells/tastes funny (or maybe it has something to do with how their water is treated in Maafushi)
Food: - A refreshing welcome drink is served upon arrival - They have a room service menu, and the options are reasonably priced. I appreciate that they accommodate late-night requests. For instance, we arrived at the inn at around 11pm and were starving. Even though they typically don't serve food so late at night, they chose to make an exception for us. - Breakfast is included in the daily rate. The buffet serves: bread for toasting, butter, jam, fruit, tuna w/ grated coconut and onion (delicious! must try!), rice pancake, french toast. Sausage and omelette are served per person. Drinks include: coffee and juice.
Location: - The inn is a few minutes away from the busy tourist beach and jetty port, so you can sleep peacefully. - It is also located near some convenience stores, where you can buy snacks, or souvenirs. - You can enjoy the serene view of the beach while having breakfast. - A few minutes away from the jetty port, so getting there is easy.
Service: - Shaha is a good butler. He was always checking on us if we were doing ok, and he even bought ferry tickets for us since we didn't know where to buy them. - Shaffan is very accommodating. He booked our resort day tour on our behalf and he personally accompanied us on our full-day activities (snorkeling, etc).
Tip: - Bring a travel adaptor. They have type BF sockets. In case you forget to bring your own, you can buy one from the supermarket for around 40 MVR
How to get there from the airport: - Private boat: $75 per person. We chose this option since our flight arrived at night. Travel time was 30 minutes from the airport to Maafushi jetty port. - Public ferry: From the airport, take the ferry to Male (10 MVR per ticket), then take the public ferry from Villingilli port to Maafushi (30 MVR or $2 per ticket). They only have 3 trips per day (not sure) and the trip takes about 2 hours.
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Date of stay: March 2016
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Refrigerator in room 103 is broken
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
It is very unclean and full of insects. I had to cut my stay short because it was uncomfortable. Our room was tiny and could not fit my friend and I, and our luggage and belongings. The beds were child size so my feet hung off the end, and I am a small woman. The food was the worst part. The staff member cooking even openly admitted to us that he doesn't know how to cook, but just makes it up as he goes. Our room had one tiny window that did not open so it felt like a prison, which by the way, the inn is 100 meters from an actual prison, which is unsettling. They don't clean the rooms, empty the trash, or provide any basic day-to-day services. I messaged online many time over weeks asking them to organise airport transfer and they kept saying they would but never confirmed it, so my friend and I had a challenging time upon arrival. My friend got about 15-20 new mosquito bites each night as she slept. I would not recommend this place to anyone.
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Date of stay: April 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled with friends
Room Tip:Do not pay for food. The food tastes awful. They do not provide coffee or tea with breakfast. ...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Arora inn. What a disappointment. This is more like one star hotel, not two. These are notes based on room 105.
Room: - located inside hotel, so window of room opens to the main door hall/restaurant. -- cannot keep curtains open or open window, everybody is watching inside to room - Window curtains are thin and don't block light, so when there is light on at hall, you room is lit also. - there is no hooks in the room where you can hang you things. If you was you clothes, there is no place to dry them really. - there is only one free electricity socket, in the bathroom, UK model. Socket in the room is occupied by friz - beds and pillows are hard. For 70kg person. Maybe 100+ kg person feels these beds softy.
Walls - Sound insulation don't exist. -- Behind room walls there is reception, kitchen and maintenance area. --- You wake up six o'clock because they start preparing breakfast or somebody uses water and water pump start making it's whining noise. --- You can easily follow somebodys conversation, no matter is it happening in kitchen or lobby.
"Restaurant" -There is "Bufe", except that if you are not first of people in line (or little bit late from opening of bufe) you don't get much... Everything is eaten already. OK maybe it just those Chinese people when they move as a group.The base idea of bufee is that you don't need to rush to it when it's opened to get something to eat.. You can come little bit later. - Their (hotels) idea of "fruit plate" is just apple and orange. If you want more "rich" fruit plate, walk to nearest store (few blocks away) and buy pineapple, mango and bananas. Then ask them to add those to fruit salad. - Prices of soft drinks (because alcohol is forbidden) are HIGH. They ask US$ 4 for bottle. same drink (and better selection) can be found from local shop for US$ 1-2 - Hotels kitchen is more like “joke”, so most of guest go to other restaurants, like “Sunset cove cafe” what is at next door and actually owned by this hotel owner. That place, food and drinks are much cheaper and absolutely more tasteful, maybe because locals are hanging there...
If you are vegetarian or don't like (or cannot eat) fried food, this is not place for you.
Breakfast is more simple than simple. Only few food products. Mainly white bread, fried/scrambled eggs and noodles. Don't bother pay "half board", with that money you can get more and better food from other places from this island. (like in that Sunset cove)
If you are woman and traveling alone... Don't come here. You are not worth of one MVR (it’s 1/15th of US$) in the eyes of locals.
One good thing about thin walls is that wlan signal is strong in the room, but SPEED of wifi is about 256kbit, so you must be patient if you want to do something, especially when there is some one else surfing same time.. Like receptionist.
What comes to that who island? Not nice place! All those hotels and Inn’s are build last three years, so locals are NOT used to tourists and especially WOMEN who are not using burghas, covering herself from tip to toe. TRASH/Rubbish! They have trash problem. Local way is throw your trashes to the ground. West side of island is more clean than east side. They move all trash to east side and then try to burn them. Smell is bad! If you walk on east side, you can see BIG piles of construction trash, plastic, glass, metal…
Oh yeah, DON’T walk bare feeted, not even at the beach (beach front of white shell), there is glass everywhere!
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Date of stay: December 2013
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Try 104, far from noise sources, nobody can watch in from the window. OK, view is not nice but...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Maybe there was a time when Arora was a god place to stay on Maafushi. But with all the new development on the island, Arora is being left in the dust. This would be fine if they lowered the prices, but at the same (if not more) than the newer places, Arora is kidding itself.
The rooms are tiny, dark and dank. Despite the pictures, there are no decorations in the room. They say they provide toiletries and hair dryers, they do not. Only 1 staff member speaks good English. 1 is ok, the others speak very little. The bathroom is so small, you almost have to stand in the toilet to take a shower. Breakfast was an absolute joke. Not recommended at all. Unless they drop their price in half (or less)
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Date of stay: December 2015
Value
Rooms
Service
Trip type: Travelled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I stayed one week in Arora Inn last August. It's a very nice hotel, quiet, clean and cheap (it's incredible in Maldives!). The breakfast was very good and the staff was kind. You can choose also many excursions that are not so expensive. The guy gifted us a free excursion after we booked three of them! We had just a problem with the payment, it worked just VISA, Mastercard didn't work and on the island there is not an ATM, so pay attention! Anyway, I suggest Arora Inn!
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Date of stay: August 2014
Value
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with friends
Room Tip:The hotel has just 5 rooms, book in advance!
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Having stayed at similar value and star rating hotel in Maafushi before, Arora Inn was big disappointment. No TV in the rooms, the Room was so small, bed was small and not comfortable ( I could feel mattress springs on my back) pillows were uncomfortable. Internet was not working. Bathroom is very small and bathroom smelled horrible, we had to keep door closed it was that bad.. (Maybe the drains?) Also no ventilation in the rooms.. There was damp and mould smell in the room. The hotel is 10-15 minute walk from bikini beach. Very close to Maafushi prison.
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Date of stay: February 2016
Value
Cleanliness
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
They are very Friendly and helpful. The guesthouse is very clean and cheap compared to other places. The only negative thing is a bad mattress. They are good babysitters too. They organize excursion according to our wishes and necessities.
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Date of stay: March 2015
Value
Cleanliness
Service
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
A memorable vacation for me & my friends. A great place with good people around. All staffs are kind to us and other guests as well. We really enjoyed each activities we did. Surely we will stay to Arora Inn once we visit Maldives again. Üüü
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Date of stay: October 2015Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
There are more places to choose from in the Maafushi Island area.
PRICE RANGE
RM 260 - RM 321 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
LOCATION
MaldivesKaafu AtollSouth Male AtollMaafushi Island
NUMBER OF ROOMS
12
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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