Four Seasons Resort Kuda Huraa

Four Seasons arranged a direct seaplane transfer for us from LG to Kuda Huraa for our 3-night stay. We were greeted by a few staff members, given a similar welcome drink to the one at LG and driven to our room, a Navaranna Water Bungalow. 

Our room was #419 and was positioned on the end of a long row of water bungalows. In all of our travels, weve never booked an over-water bungalow before because they always reminded us of a trailer park. But the Navaranna units (particularly the ones positioned on the end) seemed to answer our need for privacy. Nevermind the fact that they were nearly twice as large as the other water bungalows at 980 sq. ft. of interior space and 592 sq. ft. of outdoor decking, had two lovely marble bathrooms and a panoramic 240-degree lagoon view. With windows on all sides, the views were spectacular, but you could see two other resorts in the not-so-far distance. Still, ours was definitely the most private of the accommodations at Kuda Huraa. There were three other Navaranna Water Bungalows. #319 was the other end unit and was on the sunset side of the island, but the neighboring resorts were even closer to it which would again impinge on privacy. The other types of rooms, except for maybe the Royal Beach Villa, gave the impression of being stacked on top of one another. The rooms on the beach were very narrow and packed tightly together. Yes, there was a wall dividing the units, but there was no privacy facing the beach because the thatched-roof bales that sat in front of each bungalow/villa were lined up very close together. When we were walking by on the main path that runs down the center of the island we could even see into some people's courtyards and see their small pools. We ended up having a great room and a very nice experience here but it's difficult for this property to compete with LG when it comes to base level accomodations because of its size (it's a tiny island) and age.
 

The service at Kuda Huraa was good, but it lacked the polish of Landaa Giravaavaru. When we asked for something, the first response would be something akin to no but then they would get around to fixing it before it became a problem. A good example of this was the dive shop. We asked to borrow fins for a few days, and they said they did not loan them out only to later decide that they would give them to us anyway. We asked to borrow a rash guard shirt and were told that they would be happy to sell us one for $60 (which we declined). Finally, we showed up for our scheduled morning dive, and they didnt have us registered and the boat was already full. But they quickly provided a private boat and dive instructor to make up for it. The buggy service was terrible and it didnt seem to matter whether we had reserved a buggy time or just called when we needed one; we usually got tired of waiting and walked.
 

We were delighted with our spa experience at KH. A small dhoni picked us up at the resort jetty and delivered us to the spa island where we were greeted in a romantically tented pavilion and shown to our private changing suite with both an indoor and outdoor shower. From there, we were escorted to our thatched massage pavilion positioned over the water. During our massage, we were able to watch many fish through a glass floor beneath our massage tables and I could swear I saw some sort of potpourri or dried flowers floating by. We indulged in a Kuda Huraa massage and Vanilla Sandalwood Wrap. 
 

One note about the snorkeling at KH - there was a lot of fish life but because the water was very shallow and some areas had sea grass, it was difficult to snorkel right off the beach or the water bungalows. Its best to take the daily boat to the house reef. KH, like LG also offered a marine biologist for these activities as well as nightly fish talks.