Oaga Art Resort

A 5-star resort, as Google Hotels and the resort’s own introduction put it, from a Maldivian brand run by a local team, on the island of Maaranfushi in North Malé Atoll. It opened in January 2023, as its opening announcement reported, and that year the TTM Awards named it «Best Design Hotels».

The island is 757 metres long and about 5.43 hectares, according to the 2025 fact sheet, which counted 60 villas and more than 350 murals; 38 local artists show more than 170 works in the Veyoge Gallery Villas. After some months closed, the resort reopened on 1 August 2026 with refreshed Haruge villas, a larger Kaa Kada and new water villas on the way, as its reopening press release explains.

9 types, every one with a private pool, according to the villas page. In the garden, the Veyoge Gallery Pool Villa, 56 m². On the beach, the Haruge Sunset Beach Villa, 156 m² facing the sunset, the Haruge Beach Pool Suite, 180 m² with 2 bedrooms, and the Bodu Haruge Beach Villa, 156 m² facing the sunrise. Over the water, the Odi Water Villa, 166 m² with a slide, the Avi Water Villa, 114 m², the Odi Water Suite, 173 m², the Avi Water Suite, 164 m², and the Radhun Residential Suite, 292 m² with 3 bedrooms.

On 6 October 2026 the water villas were not yet open: the Odi reopening in October, the Avi in October on their own page and in November in the festive press release, the suites and the Radhun from November 2026. The 2025 fact sheet counted 15 Veyoge, 20 Haruge, 15 Bodu Haruge and 10 Odi; the website does not say how many villas the new types have. On 3 October 2026 Booking.com gave the Avi Water Villa a queen bed, where the official page lists a king.

On the island of Maaranfushi, in Maadhunifaru Lagoon, North Malé Atoll, 51 km and 45 minutes by speedboat from Velana airport, according to the contact page and the official fact sheet; the Google listing says only «K, Maaranfushi». The nearest resort, OBLU SELECT Sangeli, is about 4 km away.

The island is lively: Raa Baa has live music and shows every evening, and the FAQ page describes an «open community» of guests and staff. For quiet there are Hoba Deck and the spa, on the west side; the resort bans drones.

By speedboat, about 45 minutes from Velana airport, according to the FAQ page: transfers are shared, timed to the flights and run round the clock, and the offers page warns that the wait can reach 3 hours; a private speedboat costs extra. The return trip is included on the Greatest All-Inclusive; on the Essentials Booking.com gives $100 per person from 12 and $50 from 2 to 11, taxes included.

A representative waits outside arrivals with the resort’s sign, and the speedboat time is sent by the evening before. In Google reviews the crossing took between 50 and 75 minutes.

No: Oaga is an island reached only by speedboat, and on it you go on foot or by the resort’s buggies, as its arrival article describes. The Google Hotels listing includes «Parking» among its amenities, but no page of the resort mentions parking.

From the beach that runs round the island: each villa has its own loungers, but the shore is shared, the beach page explains, and flags warn of currents. From the water villas you step straight into the lagoon, with life jackets for adults and children and a line of buoys around, according to the Odi Water Villa page; the Odi villas also have a slide.

Guests describe 2 different sides: in July 2025, 2 guests preferred the sunset beach, wider and free of breakwaters, and found the sunrise side, held by stone dams and sandbags, more sheltered for snorkelling. On the Greatest All-Inclusive, kayaks and paddleboards are included for 30 minutes a day.

Yes, and it is still being restored. The resort writes that the house reef is reached from the shore, in its water sports article, without saying how far out it begins, and sells a 30-minute guided snorkel at $45 plus taxes, included once on the Greatest All-Inclusive. Since 2018 a nursery run with Coralive has placed 300 frames and more than 7,000 coral fragments, some rescued from the dredging works, to restore the whole reef around the lagoon by 2028, as the sustainability page explains.

In 2025 and 2026 guests describe turtles, blacktip reef sharks and stingrays; in January 2024 one saw few fish, and a guest in 2024 spoke of an artificial lagoon. Further out, Hoara X runs trips to the mantas, $149 per person, and to the turtles at Makunudhoo, $107, plus taxes.

Every villa has its own, in different sizes, the FAQ page says: round and hand-painted at the Haruge, 3 m² at the Bodu Haruge according to their page, a 35.7 m² infinity pool at the Odi, and at the Veyoge a channel linking the villas to Sobi Bar. The shared one is the Raa Baa pool, the largest hand-painted pool in the Maldives, with a map of the islands on its floor, open from 7am to 7pm and extended for the 2026 reopening; Sobi Bar has a small painted pool of its own.

The Google Hotels listing also lists an indoor pool, which no official page mentions; Booking.com counts 2 pools, and a guest in 2025 counted 3, including the villa’s.

The Raa Baa pool is open from 7am to 7pm, according to the Raa Baa page; the website gives no temperature for it or for the villa pools. The only heated pool the resort declares is the Vevu in Hoba Spa’s Fen Vadaa circuit.

Kaa Kada, the main restaurant, cooks to order at its food carts (Asian, pizza and pasta, grill, salads, seafood, South Asian): breakfast from 7.30 to 10am, lunch from 12.30 to 2.30pm, dinner from 7 to 9pm, with no booking; Wednesday is Maldivian night, Saturday the Unscripted Buffet, and Dhan Kada serves food from 11pm to 7am. La Fuh Dan, the Italian on the sunset side, should be booked at least a day ahead, and dishes marked with a star are charged.

Samaasaa stages a Maldivian folk tale over a 5-course dinner on Tuesdays, from 7 to 9pm. Raa Baa serves drinks from 10am to midnight, Sobi Bar from noon to 7pm, closing at 6pm on Tuesdays. In-villa dining comes by tricycle in a tiffin box, from 7am to 11pm according to its own page and until 7pm according to the dining page; on 6 October 2026 the website marked Samaasaa and Sobi Bar «coming soon».

2 all-inclusive plans, according to the offers page. The Essentials, from one night, covers breakfast, lunch and dinner at Kaa Kada, alcoholic and soft drinks from the «AI» menu, high tea, a minibar refilled daily, snorkelling gear, the morning and evening rituals, the gym, the arcade and the shows; the speedboat is extra. The Greatest All-Inclusive, from 3 nights, adds the speedboat, a floating meal and an in-villa meal, a tasting at Sobi Bar, $50 of credit for Samaasaa or a private dinner, a cooking class and a cocktail lesson, beer and wine in the minibar, a sunset cruise and a guided snorkel each, 30 minutes of kayaking a day, 20 minutes on a jet ski, an art session and a music or dance session, and 5 pieces of laundry a day.

Booked on the website, the Greatest also gives 30 minutes of spa for 2 per stay. For diving, the Greatest gives certified divers a free house reef dive, or non-divers 50% off Discover Scuba, for one person per stay, according to the official site, read on 15 October 2026. Excursions, the spa, and dishes and drinks marked with a star stay extra; in February 2025 one guest also paid for fresh juice and bottled water.

Hoba Spa draws on Dhivehi Beys, the old Maldivian medicine: coral-stone walls, thatched roofs and, in the Atharuge, oils and scrubs blended in front of you. The open-air Fen Vadaa hydrotherapy circuit has a rain shower, the heated Vevu pool, the Valhu, a well you bathe from with a ladle, and the Dhumashige, an igloo-shaped sweat lodge with hot stones, according to the spa spaces page.

The treatment rooms have sand underfoot and open-air bathrooms; the Ufaa Lounge has rope swings, and at dawn and dusk the Dhulhaheyo rituals take place on Hoba Deck, above the gym. The website gives neither the spa’s size nor the number of treatment rooms, and swimwear is worn in the Fen Vadaa.

Treatments are paid for, from $75 to $205 plus service and taxes, according to the spa menu. The morning and evening rituals are included on both plans; the Greatest adds one Dhulhaheyo activity each and, for those who book on the website, a 30-minute treatment for 2 per stay. For the Fen Vadaa, arrive at least 30 minutes before your treatment.

No page publishes a spa day pass for people not staying on the island. The reopening press release mentions only a washroom at Raa Baa for guests spending the day there.

The website does not publish treatment hours. It asks you to arrive 10 minutes early, or 30 for the Fen Vadaa, and the Dhulhaheyo rituals run at dawn and dusk on Hoba Deck, to a weekly schedule. Children aged 12 and under come with an adult.

The Hoba Spa menu follows 4 pathways. Among them: the Mushi Milun scrub with salt, sand or coconut, $75 for 30 minutes and $120 for 60; the Hama Hama, Dhivehi Aroma, Hoba Maalis and hot-stone Oye’ Maalis massages, $135 for 60 minutes and $175 for 90; Loabi Bliss with warm crystals, made for couples, at the same rates; the lunar rituals Handhuvaru and Kalhu Foe’, $175 for 90 minutes and $205 for 120; and the Saa’f and Aa’roa facials, $120.

For children aged 4 to 12 there is Kuda Maalis, from $65 for 30 minutes, and Kokko, $200 for a parent and child together. Prices carry 10% service and 17% GST on top, as the Hoara X page states for its own.

Yes: the FAQ page welcomes families with children of every age, and Fiyoh Kid’s Club runs STEM activities, art, cooking, supervised swimming and guided snorkelling, next to Ollie’s Farm with its goats, ducks, chickens and rabbits. The website gives neither the club’s ages nor its hours; in November 2025 a parent left a 2-year-old there for an hour.

On Booking.com guests from 13 pay as adults, a cot is $6 a night and an extra bed $100 for children aged 2 to 11 and $300 from 12. The family villas are the Haruge Beach Pool Suite and the 2 water suites, with a second bedroom; Samaasaa’s dinner theatre gives children of 6 to 12 half price, and the spa has treatments from 4.

According to the official fact sheet: Hoba Spa, the Suvāsthi art studio and gallery, which sells only Maldivian work, Fiyoh Kid’s Club, the farm, the Hoara X dive and excursion centre, a PADI 5-star dive resort, a recording studio, an outdoor gym and a clinic. There are also the indoor gym facing west, the arcade with billiards, table tennis and air hockey, beach volleyball and archery.

Excursions carry published prices, plus taxes, on the Hoara X page: big game fishing $348 per person, the sunset cruise $75, a jet ski from $66 for 15 minutes, the Open Water course $494. Wi-Fi is free throughout, villas and restaurants included.

Read on 6 October 2026: the Early Bird, up to 45% off stays from 1 November 2026 to 30 September 2027, booked at least 60 days ahead, on either plan and not combinable with other promotions; the text of the same page gives the discount «from May to October 2026» instead.

Honeymooners, within a year of the wedding, with the certificate and at least 4 nights, get a candlelit dinner with a bottle of sparkling wine and a special turndown; birthdays bring a cake, anniversaries a cake and sparkling wine, according to the offers page.

The celebrations page offers intimate weddings, vow renewals and corporate gatherings, tailored to order, but publishes no prices or capacities, and does not say whether the ceremony is legally binding. Photography and video, by Loa Ge Photo Studio, are in no plan, and the resort advises arranging everything when you book.

The 2026–2027 festive programme, «Between Two Lights», announced on 19 September 2026 in a press release, begins New Year’s Eve quietly and moves towards midnight into live music, dance and Maldivian art, until the party starts with the new year’s first light; one day goes to a sandbank with the Deserted Day Club. The season’s dinners are Iru Meyzu, a fish feast over open fire, and Handhu Meyzu, by candlelight.

The release gives no prices and leaves the detail to the events calendar; the FAQ page notes that some festive gala dinners are charged extra. On Google Hotels, read on 6 October 2026, the nights from 23 December to 10 January showed no price at all.

Not at Oaga: no official page mentions golf, and among the included activities the Greatest All-Inclusive page lists beach volleyball, archery and beach games.

The resort reopened on 1 August 2026, after some months closed, with its garden and beach villas; the water villas return or open between October and November 2026, according to the villa pages. It had also closed for some months in 2023, reopening in October with the first Odi villas, its press release says. On Google Hotels, read on 6 October 2026, 14 October and the nights from 23 December to 10 January had no price, which does not mean the resort is closed.

The dry season runs from November to April, with more sun and calm seas, the FAQ page says; May to October is the green season, with short bursts of rain and lower prices, according to its honeymoon article.

Google Hotels, read on 6 October 2026, for 2 adults and one night, taxes and fees included: $857 on 7 October 2026, $852 on 16 October, $729 on 30 October, $1,100 on 3 November, $1,124 on 23 November, $935 on 5 December, $935 on 22 December, $1,040 on 11 January 2027, $1,023 on 24 January and $1,040 on 31 January 2027.

The calendar shows the lowest price among the sellers and names neither villa nor plan: for 7 October the $857 was Bluepillow’s, taxes included, and the resort’s own website was not among the sellers. On 14 October and from 23 December to 10 January there was no price at all. On the Essentials the speedboat is extra.

On 3 October 2026 Google showed 4.6/5 from 218 ratings, Tripadvisor 4.8/5 from 453, with a Travellers’ Choice 2026 and 32nd place among 178 hotels in North Malé Atoll, and Booking.com 9.3/10 from 266, with staff and cleanliness at 9.7 and value for money at 9.1.

In the 174 Google reviews with text, 88% of those discussing the location are positive, 83% of those discussing the villas and 86% of those discussing the staff; on value, 61% of those who discuss it are happy, most of all with the Greatest All-Inclusive. The same reviews keep coming back to the shared speedboat, with its wait at the airport and a crossing that took between 50 and 75 minutes, the single main restaurant on long stays, the dark-toned interiors of the Odi villas and the extras the all-inclusive leaves out, such as the spa and anything the menu marks with a star.

Google Hotels prices for the Maldives market include taxes and fees: on 6 October 2026 Bluepillow’s link for 7 October carried $857 in total, taxes included, and Hotels.com’s $992, taxes included. On the island, prices marked «++» carry 10% service and 17% GST on top, as the Hoara X page states.

The 10% service charge is required by law and shared among all the staff, its article on tipping explains; a tip beyond it is optional. No official page read gives the Green Tax, and the Essentials speedboat, $100 per person on Booking.com, is taxes included.

Check-in from 2pm and check-out by noon, according to Google Hotels; Booking.com takes arrivals from 2pm to midnight. Early check-in and late check-out depend on availability and are charged, according to the FAQ page and the terms; more than one guest describes being given a second villa until the evening speedboat.