Avani+ Fares Maldives, 176 rooms, villas and residences on one Baa Atoll island, 35 to 40 minutes by seaplane from Malé
A week here, month by monthAvani+ Fares suits families who want a kids’ club and room to spread out, from $283 for 2 adults for one night taken alone, the lowest any seller showed on Google. For a quiet escape without a flight transfer, I would choose a different kind of island.
Official websiteDoes it suit you?
5 pairs of hotels, and the guide tells you whether this one suits you.
I would ask for an 88 m² Beach Villa for its terrace on the sand; a guest writing in February 2026, on a second stay, recommends including a beach villa.
Read on 12 October 2026, the week of 12–18 November runs $283–$288 for one night taken alone; 30–31 December reaches $3,338. Booked together from 16 November, 7 nights show $347 nightly from both the lowest seller and the resort’s own Google listing.
Allow $65 for an hour of guided house-reef snorkelling, including 10% service and 17% tourism tax. The resort’s published offer rates exclude taxes, service charge and green tax: check the final total before booking.
For the Hanifaru Bay manta trip, ask the dive centre about numbers early: the published excursion requires at least 6 passengers. The dolphin excursion requires at least 4.
Avani+ Fares has Fares to itself, an island on the western edge of Baa Atoll that the resort describes as an old, abandoned coconut plantation. It opened in April 2023 with 176 units in 3 families: rooms and 2-storey pavilions of 47 to 196 m², beach villas of 88 to 131 m², and water villas and residences of 87 to 368 m². It is the first Avani in the Maldives, a brand of the Minor Hotels group, and Travel Trade Maldives named it best dive resort in 2024 and best beach resort in 2025.
You come for the children and the sea. AvaniKids takes children from age 2, with a splash park, a pirate ship and a zip line; teenagers get a room of their own and younger children a restaurant parents cannot enter. The reef, one guest writes, runs along half the island: guests in 2025 and 2026 describe blacktip sharks, eagle rays, turtles and the odd manta seen while swimming, and from May to November the Hanifaru Bay trip puts you among the feeding mantas.
It is an island to choose for what it is: lively, informal and full of families. When it is full the pool loungers go early and dinners are booked ahead through your host. The shore changes round the island, with stretches of rocks and current where reef shoes help, and the calmest water is near Ocean Terrace. The seaplane is $600 per adult return, cocktails are about $20 to $22, and guided house-reef snorkelling costs $65 an hour, service and tax included.
Lumina Guide 2027
Avani+ Fares has the Baa Atoll island of Fares to itself and is built around families: a kids’ club from age 2, a reef a few strokes from the shore and, from May to November, the mantas of Hanifaru Bay.
How we choose the hotelsWhat we found reading the hotel’s own pages, one thing at a time.
An island to itself in Baa’s UNESCO reserve, 35 to 40 minutes by seaplane; Hanifaru’s mantas a boat trip away.
Easy-going and lively, with DJs, a fire show and Bodu Beru drums on Fridays; with 176 units, quiet is scarce.
New and well kept, 47 to 368 m²; a private pool only in some villas and the residences.
7 venues, a buffet with a new theme each night and Charcoal’s grill; dinners are booked through your host.
5 treatment villas, free sauna and steam room, group yoga; treatment prices are not published.
Google: $289 to $628 a night for 2 outside the holidays, taxes included; extras push the bill up.
What do Avani+ Fares’s guests say? They write it in their reviews, even those who only came for a drink or dinner: we read every one and tell the 5 things that matter, from the location to the bill.
9 in 10 guests who mention it are happy with it. Guests return to the reef a few strokes from the shore, with its turtles and sharks, to Hanifaru Bay’s mantas and to the green island you can walk around.
9 in 10 guests who mention it are happy with it. Guests describe new, clean, spacious rooms with comfortable beds, and the lagoon beneath the water villas.
8 in 10 guests who mention it are happy with it. The personal host, a message away for the whole stay, comes up again and again, along with the kids’ club and the clinic with its doctor.
9 in 10 guests who mention it are happy with it. Breakfast is the Ocean Terrace buffet: guests remember the choice, the fresh fruit and the egg and crêpe station.
The family offers let up to 2 children under 12 stay and eat free; the seaplane, the excursions and the cocktails are charged on top.
| What | Score out of 10 | Guests who mention it | Happy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | 8.7 | 85 | 89% |
| Room | 7.8 | 69 | 88% |
| Staff and service | 8.3 | 147 | 81% |
| Breakfast | 7.7 | 30 | 90% |
| Price | – | 32 | 41% |
The scores come from 167 Google reviews with text, left from 9 April 2023 to 3 October 2026. The other hotels are the ones weighed for a stay in Baa Atoll: for each we read its latest 500 Google reviews with text, or all of them where there are fewer, as of 7 October 2026. The score is the average of what they say, from 0 if they speak of it very badly to 10 if they speak of it very well. Where only a few mention something, the score stays close to the guide’s average: a handful of voices does not make a reputation.
The hotels we weigh it against in Baa Atoll:
Price: for two on the night of 2 November 2026, from $283 (seen on Google Hotels on 12 October 2026).
Read on 12 October 2026, one night taken alone costs $283–$288 from 12 to 18 November, against $3,338 on 30 and 31 December. I would compare the whole stay before choosing: 7 nights booked together from 16 November show $347 a night from both the lowest seller and the resort’s own Google listing.
| Period | Dollars a night |
|---|---|
| 13 October to 22 December 2026 | 274–365 |
| 23 December 2026 to 1 January 2027 | 672–3,338 |
| 2 January to 8 January 2027 | 672 every night |
| 9 January to 6 September 2027 | 259–474 |
Lowest seller on Google Hotels for one night searched alone for 2 adults, read on 12 October 2026; no room or meal plan is specified, and the calendar stops on 6 September 2027. The separate high nights are $1,163 on 21 April and $1,144 on 25 April 2027. In the 6 October reading, both the calendar and the resort’s own listing showed $368 for 7 October 2026. Booked as 7 nights from 16 November 2026, the lowest seller Google listed that day asked $347 a night; the resort’s own listing, $347.
Choose Westin for a private pool with every villa; Avani has rooms as well as pool villas. Dhigufaru suits a stay on a smaller island that you can walk round in half an hour.
| Hotel | A night, from |
|---|---|
| Avani+ Fares | $283 |
| Westin Maldives Miriandhoo | $359 |
| Dhigufaru | $381 |
Lowest seller’s price for one night searched alone for 2 adults in the week of 16 November 2026, read on Google on 12 October 2026; not the nightly price of a week booked together.
A grill on the sunset beach, a spa among gardens, the reef on the doorstep and a restaurant where only children eat.
The signature restaurant, bohemian in style, grills seafood and meat over charcoal from 6.30pm to 10pm with the sun going down in front. Beside it are Ocean Terrace’s buffet with live stations and Skipjack by the pool, whose floor lights up at night like a starry sky.
5 treatment villas, each with an outdoor shower and bath, then a sauna and steam room free to use, a relaxation area over the gardens, a nail lounge and a hair salon. It opens from 10am to 8pm; group yoga on the beach or in the studio is free.
The island’s name, the resort says, means «the land on the reef»: turtles, eagle rays, whitetip and blacktip sharks swim a few strokes out. Masks, snorkels and fins are lent free at the dive centre, and the shore in front of Smugglers Shack is named as the best spot.
20 seats, children’s menus and cooking classes for ages 4 to 11, lunch from noon to 1pm and dinner from 6pm to 7pm, booked an hour ahead. It is part of AvaniKids, open from 10am to 6pm.
In Malé you wait for the seaplane in the resort’s lounge: between 2023 and 2026 guests describe waits of 1 to 3 hours. Source: 167 Google reviews read, 9 April 2023 to 3 October 2026
The shared seaplane costs $600 per adult and $300 per child return and flies in daylight only: land in Malé after 3.30pm and you take the domestic flight to Dharavandhoo instead, $500 and $250, with a 30-minute speedboat included, according to the official contact page.
The shore changes round the island. Several guests in 2025 and 2026 found rocks, sharp shells and current along parts of it and suggest reef shoes; the calmest water is near Ocean Terrace, and from the water villas you step straight into the lagoon.
When the island is full, pool loungers go early and dinners are booked through your host, ideally before arrival; between April 2025 and April 2026, 4 Google reviews describe waits for the buggy or for the host’s replies.
All-inclusive covers the listed venues: breakfast and dinner at Ocean Terrace, lunch and dinner from the menu at Skipjack, tapas at Smugglers Shack and Tribe; in-villa dining is not on the list. Official rates exclude taxes, service charge and green tax.
Outside the packages it adds up: guided house-reef snorkelling is $65, big-game fishing $1,160 a boat, service and tax included; guests mention cocktails at $20 to $22.
By seaplane from Velana airport, or by domestic flight to Dharavandhoo and then speedboat
| Seaplane | 35 to 40 minutes each way from Malé, in daylight only, according to the official contact page |
|---|---|
| Domestic flight | 35 minutes to Dharavandhoo airport, then 30 minutes by speedboat at any hour, according to the same page |
| Prices | Seaplane $600 per adult and $300 per child, domestic flight $500 and $250, return; a private seaplane for up to 14 people $14,000 |
| Times | Land in Malé after 3.30pm and you fly to Dharavandhoo; international flights home should leave after 9am, says Booking.com |
From the official contact page, read on 7 October 2026, and Booking.com on 3 October 2026, which gives 35 minutes by seaplane and 25 by domestic flight; the resort asks for at least 3 days’ notice. Offers booked on the official site take 30% off the shared seaplane.
Avani+ Fares Maldives · Baa Atoll
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Take breakfast onto Ocean Terrace’s beach-facing deck, with the buffet and live stations inside.
At AvaniSpa, leave time for the complimentary sauna and steam room around a treatment.
Choose Skipjack for lunch by the pool, then let the afternoon begin.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, overwater guests can raise the flag for a complimentary drink as Ambaa sails past.
Head to Charcoal for grilled meat or seafood as the sun goes down in front of the restaurant.
The platforms’ scores, read on 3 and 6 October 2026, and what guests say about the reef, the children and the service.
On 6 October 2026 Google showed 4.6/5 from 220 ratings. The figures by theme come from the 167 reviews with text written since April 2023, when the resort opened: 137 give 5 stars, in many languages, and many thank their host by name. These are accounts of stays we have not checked.
6 stays described on Google between February 2025 and October 2026.
GoogleIn September 2026 a couple staying 9 nights on full board describe the dive centre’s manta trip: more than 20 of them. On the house reef they saw several kinds of shark, plenty of eagle rays and turtles.
GoogleIn August 2026 a family with a 1-year-old daughter left her at the kids’ club, where staff fed her and put her down for a nap. At meals a high chair was waiting, and the reef was on the doorstep.
GoogleIn September 2026 a guest in a water villa writes that the pool closes before sunset, with guests asked out at 6pm. They found the water sports overpriced, but the marine life under the villa won them over.
GoogleIn January 2026 a family on their seventh Maldives trip found Ocean Terrace crowded and noisy and the buffet ordinary. After 3 days Charcoal joined the half-board plan, and they ate there from then on.
GoogleIn February 2026 a returning guest calls it a 5-star at one of the lowest prices in its class: a natural green island, a living reef, a lagoon for children; and recommends the water villas on the west side, where the current carries the reef life.
GoogleIn February 2025 an Italian couple on all-inclusive describe a health scare: the clinic’s doctor arranged a boat to another island’s hospital within half an hour, all paid by the resort.
What people ask before booking Avani+ Fares, answered from sources read between 3 and 7 October 2026.
A 5-star resort, as Google Hotels and Tripadvisor class it, with 176 units on Fares, a Baa Atoll island with nothing else on it. Avani is a Minor Hotels brand, and the official page calls this the first Avani resort in the region.
The official pages give no opening date: a guest in December 2023 wrote that the resort had been open for 8 months, since April 2023, and the few Google reviews from 2021 and 2022 were written before it opened. The site lists the Travel Trade Maldives awards of 2024 and 2025 and its Green Growth certification.
13 types in 3 families, according to the rooms and pavilions, villas and residences pages. In the 2-storey pavilions: 47 m² ocean-view and 51 m² beachfront rooms, 2-bedroom pavilions of 94 and 102 m², and a 4-bedroom pavilion of 196 m². On the beach: villas of 88 and 108 m², the second with a pool, and 2-bedroom villas of 110 and 131 m². Over the water: villas of 87 and 109 m², the second with an infinity pool, and pool residences of 287 and 368 m².
The site does not say how many units each type has. For the night of 7 October 2026 Google Hotels showed the official site from $368 for the ocean-view room to $3,654 for the 3-bedroom residence, for 2 adults with taxes included.
On the western edge of Baa Atoll, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, a few minutes from Hanifaru Bay, says the official page; Dharavandhoo airport is about 17 miles away as the crow flies, according to Booking.com. Guests walk round the island in 15 to 30 minutes.
Quiet in parts: a Booking.com guest mentions quieter areas and louder bars, Tribe has a DJ until midnight and in April the island hosts the Your Paradise festival. This is a family island, with 176 units and plenty of children.
According to the official contact page, the seaplane takes 35 to 40 minutes each way and costs $600 per adult and $300 per child return; it flies in daylight only. After 3.30pm you take the 35-minute domestic flight to Dharavandhoo, $500 and $250, with the 30-minute speedboat included. A private seaplane for up to 14 people costs $14,000.
Booking.com gives 35 minutes by seaplane and 25 by air, a travel agent 20 minutes’ flying and 35 by boat. Booking direct cuts the shared seaplane by 30%. Many guests describe the welcome in Malé and the resort’s lounge, where you wait for the seaplane: the wait, they write between 2023 and 2026, runs from 1 to 3 hours.
No: Fares is an island reached only by seaplane or by domestic flight and speedboat, as the Booking.com listing also says. Google Hotels lists «Parking» among the amenities, but no source describes any; on the island you walk or call the resort’s buggies, and there are no bicycles.
From the water villas and residences you step straight into the lagoon, says the residences page; from the beach rooms and villas the deck leads onto the sand. The shore varies, though: a travel agent who walked the whole island in 2025 found fine sand in some stretches, coral rubble or stones in others, and water that deepens quickly.
Guests in 2025 and 2026 suggest reef shoes for the stones and shells and mention current in the windy months; the calmest stretch for children is near Ocean Terrace, writes a Brazilian family.
Yes. According to the reef page, turtles, eagle rays, blacktip and whitetip sharks and bannerfish live a splash from the island, among branching and brain corals; Smugglers Shack sits on the best snorkelling spot. The Aquafanatics price list of September 2025 offers guided house-reef snorkelling at $65 an hour, service and tax included.
Guests confirm sharks, rays and turtles within swimming distance. Hanifaru’s manta season runs from May to November, says the price list; the Raa Atoll trip, from November to April, costs $230.
The shared pool is Skipjack’s infinity pool facing the ocean, with its bar and restaurant; a 2026 family describes a section for swimmers and one for non-swimmers. Then the private pools, in the 108 and 131 m² beach villas, the 109 m² water villas and the residences, according to the official room pages, and the AvaniKids splash park.
Google Hotels lists a hot tub no official page describes. When the island is full the loungers round the shared pool go early.
The official pages give no hours or temperature for the shared pool. A guest in September 2026 writes that it closes before sunset, at 6pm; a 2025 family found the water a very pleasant temperature. The villas’ private pools have no hours.
7 venues, says the restaurants page: Ocean Terrace, a buffet with live stations, breakfast 7am to 10.30am, lunch 12.30pm to 2.30pm, dinner 6.30pm to 9.30pm; Charcoal, a grill with a menu, dinner 6.30pm to 10pm; Skipjack by the pool, noon to 10pm; Tribe, cocktails and a DJ, 5.30pm to midnight; Smugglers Shack, with more than 100 rums, noon to 5pm; Hammock, 11am to 4pm; and Petit Bistro for children. In-villa dining runs 24 hours, and Adrift sets up private dinners on request.
Ocean Terrace changes its theme every night and hosts the Maldivian night on Fridays. Guests remember the buffet for its variety and its theme nights; Charcoal is the à la carte grill, open in the evening. Tables are booked through your host, ideally before arrival.
The site sells rates with breakfast, half board with buffet breakfast and dinner at Ocean Terrace, full board and 2 levels of all-inclusive, usually with a 3-night minimum. The all-inclusive plan gives breakfast at Ocean Terrace; for lunch, the Ocean Terrace buffet, 3 courses at Skipjack or 3 tapas at Smugglers Shack; for dinner, the buffet, 3 courses at Skipjack or 3 tapas at Tribe; house drinks and cocktails without limit, a soft minibar every 4 days, group yoga and fitness, snorkelling gear and 10% off the spa.
Premium adds alcohol and snacks in the minibar, one shisha, 15% off the spa and, from 7 nights, a laundry service and a sunset cruise. Booking.com speaks instead of $100 of spa credit and a minibar once per stay. Charcoal is not on the official list, but a guest in January 2026 reports it joined the plans; in 2023 in-villa dining was excluded. The full-board variants also differ in where you can lunch, warns a family in August 2026: ask before booking.
AvaniSpa, says the official page, has 5 private treatment villas with outdoor showers and baths, a sauna and steam room, changing rooms with lockers and showers, a relaxation area over the gardens, a nail lounge, a hair salon and a Malin+Goetz shop. The site gives no floor area.
Signature treatments include a tailored massage, a massage with wine, gin or champagne candles and an oxygen facial; then cupping and singing-bowl sound healing. Guests in 2025 and 2026 praise the therapists.
The sauna and steam room are free to use, says the spa page, while treatments are paid; all-inclusive takes 10% or 15% off, and some offers include a massage. No page publishes a day pass for anyone not staying on the island, which holds only the resort and is reached by seaplane or speedboat.
Daily from 10am to 8pm, according to the official page, which asks you to book treatments; the romance package asks for spa bookings in advance. The gym is open 24 hours, says the activities page.
The site publishes no spa price list. Besides the signature treatments there are private and group yoga, cupping, singing bowls, nails and hair treatments; children can have a spa session with their parents.
The only price we found is a French guest’s in January 2026: a 2-hour de-stress treatment billed at more than $750. The romance and family packages include a 60-minute massage, the winter offer 30 minutes per adult.
Children are who it is built for. According to the family page, AvaniKids takes children from age 2, 10am to 6pm, with indoor play, a TV lounge and a quiet room inside, a splash park, pirate ship and zip line outside, and 2 hours of free babysitting a day up to age 11; the teens’ room, with gaming, karaoke and films, is open 24 hours. From 14 to 17 October 2026 there is a free football camp for children aged 5 to 13.
Booking.com sets no minimum age, charges children from 3 as adults and an extra child $58 a night; the official family offers let up to 2 children under 12 stay and eat free. Guests with 1- and 2-year-olds found a high chair ready.
According to the activities page: the Aquafanatics dive centre, water sports with jet skis, wakeboarding and paddleboards, dolphin and manta trips, a 24-hour gym, outdoor courts for badminton, volleyball and basketball, tennis with a coach, a football pitch, the spa, AvaniKids and the teens’ room.
In the evenings there are DJs, live music, an outdoor cinema and Friday’s Bodu Beru; KOBA, a pedal-powered bar, tours the island 3 times a week. Guests mention a clinic with a doctor, and rabbits and fruit bats on the island.
The offers page, read on 3 October 2026, listed 9: the 10.10 sale, up to 15% off nights booked from 6 to 12 October for stays until 31 March 2027; a longer-stay deal; a winter offer with a massage and champagne; all-inclusive; a summer offer with free lunch; the water residence with a floating breakfast and a photo shoot; a romance package; a family package; and the April festival.
Booking on the site brings 30% off the shared seaplane and a resort credit of $100, $150 or $200 depending on the room, from 3 nights. The romance package includes champagne, a 3-course dinner on the beach, a couples’ massage and a printed photo.
The official site does not publish weddings: no page describes ceremonies, capacities or prices. For couples there is the romance package, with a private beach dinner, and Adrift sets up dinners on your deck or on a sandbank.
Guests describe honeymoons and anniversaries, the dinner inside a heart of lanterns and a proposal in 2023.
The resort celebrates from 20 December to 7 January with Ocean Tribe: island markets, beach nights, a programme for children and teenagers and a barefoot countdown with fireworks, says the festive page. The full programme sits in an online brochure, and the site publishes no menu or price for the dinner.
The offers’ terms mention gala-dinner charges without figures. On Google Hotels, read on 12 October 2026, a night from 30 December to 1 January cost $3,338, against $822 on the nights around it.
No: no official page mentions golf. For sport there are tennis, football, badminton, volleyball and basketball, according to the activities page; the festival page also mentions padel.
All year: the official pages announce no closures, and on Google Hotels, read on 6 October 2026, all 117 nights from 7 October 2026 to 31 January 2027 had a price.
For the sea, the official page gives May to December as the season for mantas and whale sharks in Baa Atoll, the excursions list May to November for Hanifaru. Guests in July and August describe on-and-off rain and wind.
Google Hotels, read on 6 October 2026, for 2 adults and one night, taxes and fees included: $368 on 7 October 2026, $289 on 20 October, $404 on 20 November, $289 on 1 December, $848 on 24 December, $3,366 on 31 December, $506 on 12 January 2027 and $628 on 24 January 2027.
The calendar lists each night as a separate search. In the 12 October 2026 reading, 7 nights booked together from 16 November were $347 a night from both the lowest seller and the resort’s own Google listing. No room or meal plan is specified.
Google gave 4.6 out of 5 from 220 ratings on 6 October 2026; on 3 October Tripadvisor gave 4.9/5 from 1,334, with a 2026 Travellers’ Choice award, and Booking.com 8.9/10 from 132, with comfort at 9.5, location at 9.3, staff at 9.2 and value for money at 8.3. The official site’s 4.9 from 1,334 is Tripadvisor’s.
Of the 167 Google reviews with text since the opening, 137 give 5 stars: the reef, the personal host on WhatsApp, the cleanliness and the kids’ club recur. There is a wait for the seaplane in Malé, dinners are booked through the host and the extras sit outside the packages.
The site’s rates exclude taxes, service charge and green tax, as the offers’ terms repeat. On Google Hotels’ card for 7 October, the link to the official site split the ocean-view room’s $368 into a $267 rate and $101 of taxes and fees.
Transfers, excursions, diving, the spa and drinks outside the packages are extra; the excursions list already includes service and tax. Gala dinners carry a supplement the site does not quantify.
Check-in from 2pm and check-out by noon, according to the official page, which allows early arrival when a room is free and late check-out for a charge. Booking.com asks for photo ID and a credit card on arrival and does not accept cash.
94 bungalows on a small South Ari island with a house reef all round it, half board included and nights from $287
120 overwater and beach villas, 65 with a pool, on an island 20 minutes by speedboat from Malé, with the reef beneath the villas
105 villas on a Baa Atoll island reopened in December 2025, with the reef a swim from the shore and Hanifaru Bay 20 minutes by boat
51 villas and suites with pools on a South Ari island, an NH hotel of Minor Hotels, 25 minutes by seaplane from Malé
A North Malé island renovated in 2025, ringed by its own reef, with 69 villas and studios by the sea and every meal included, 45 minutes by speedboat
150 rooms and 12 Water Villas on a green island in South Malé Atoll, with the reef off the beach, 45 minutes by speedboat from Malé
Beach villas round a green Baa Atoll island, with the reef in front, all-inclusive plans and Hanifaru Bay 25 minutes away
90 bungalows around a freshwater lake on a Baa Atoll island, always on half board, 15 minutes by boat from Hanifaru’s manta rays
146 villas on a South Malé Atoll island, formerly a Holiday Inn, now all-inclusive, 45 minutes by speedboat from Malé
124 adults-only villas on a club’s all-inclusive plan, with the house reef from the beach, in the far south of the Maldives
An all-inclusive Club Med village with a whole island, clubs for children aged 4 to 17 and the Manta overwater suites, 25 minutes by speedboat from Malé
264 rooms on a 24-hour all-inclusive, a reef a few metres off the beach and suites over the water, 45 minutes’ flight from Malé
This guide is written with Lumina, the marketing system for hotels.
