I am very impressed by the management of COMO!! And bewitched by all the lovely fellows on this little island!

I and my friend enjoyed ...oh I should say... indulged ourselves and being spoiled during these 7 nights at the Cocoa Island! Not only because of the stunningly beautiful natural scenery, the FOOD, one could blind-folded their eyes to choose over the menu...every dish was a great adventure to our palates! And the people, every buddy was very knowledgeable, very very pro in what they were explaining, unlike many other so called self-claimed 'stars' outlets, they just went 'dhaaar...' for any query that was outside their training dialogs. We found that every personnel on Cocoa Island would really listern and react precisely and promptly!! They would never say yes when the answer should be no! This meant so much and why they are so differently good!!! Everyone is a beautiful charactor that would remain deep down in our hearts...!!
Please try their massage(s), their signature COMO style and the Thai Massage by Ms. Ayu and Sara...they had helped me fixing my back pain problem that haunted me for years and spending a fortune in healing...I took only 5 sessions and was already 90% released!!
Cocoa Island ... a must go choice for your holidays!!

It's easy to be sceptical about reviews - most people only seem to have an opinion when something isn't right - but Cocoa Island deserves all the praise other visitors have heaped upon it.

The setting, staff and whole atmosphere is first class and the attention to detail is staggering. The speedboat transfer is a great way to start your holiday and comes as a huge relief after a long flight. We stayed in a Dhoni loft suite and it was beautifully appointed and comfortable.

Contrary to another review on TA, we found the island to be scrupulously clean at all times and there always seemed to be some poor soul keeping the beach free of washed-up vegetation and junk.

The food is also wonderful - but a little pricey. Two main courses and two glasses of wine will cost in the region of $130US - so take plenty of spending money! Oh, and save a bit more and have one of the amazing cocktails in the bar.

If you like a bit of nightlife and want somewhere where the kids can play all day – Cocoa Island isn't the place for you. If, however, you want tranquility and the chance to just do nothing - it's perfect.

Just returned from Cocoa Island and the experience was better than I expected.

Rooms/Villas/Resort:
We stayed in the Loft Villa, which was fabulous: great ocean view with a the reef right in front villa, huge bathroom, outdoor shower and a second bathroom in the bedroom on the second floor. The Villa's are somewhat close together, but you do get a sense of privacy, since the outdoor areas are fenced (tastefully) from your neighbors. The one complain I would have is the rooms are not very well insulated from the elements. It was the rainy season, so it was quite windy and rained heavily on occasion, and I was woken up several times by either the wind noise, rain and/or from the waves crashing against the base of our villa. But it's probably like that with most resorts in the Maldives.

We considered the one bedroom villa, which the staff showed us, but the villa was pretty much the same (both in decor & size) the only advantage was that it was more secluded, but my advice, same the money and go for the Loft Villa.

Cocoa Island is one of the smaller islands/resort, it's only 350m long and 100-150m wide. All the Villas/Rooms are over the water. The tress are not as dense as on other islands, which means there are a lot less insects, esp mosquitos.

Apparently the best time to go is from Jan-April, dry season, from May onwards is rainy season, three of the five days was really sunny, one day was partly cloudy and one day cloudy the whole day. Still wasn't that bad since the temperture was quite pleasant with the wind. However will want to come back in the dry season as the water is a lot calmer and clearer for diving.

Service/Food:
The service was not bad, everyone was quite friendly and was quite helpful, but sometime not that attentive or polished when it come to customer service. A for effort but C for execution. But in general did not detract from our stay at all. The one exception was Taka-san our dive master - he was exceptional, extremely friendly, helpful (taught my partner to scuba dive, no easy feat) and by the end of our trip was more like a new friend.

The food is where the biggest surprise was. We often hear how the food in the Maldives was so-so or even bad, since you're stuck on the island and you have to eat what ever stuff the feed you. But to the delight of our palates, the food was very good, an eclectic mix of western, south-east asian, & indian. Oh and the portions were quite generous.

Activities;
Scuba Diving, apparently Cocoa Island is suppose to have one of the best diving areas around maldives. I went on 5 dives, including an area where the manta ray swim around you (getting their gills cleaned by cleaner fishes) and in another dive we were surrounded by 5-7 white tips and one leopard shark.

The snorkeling was pretty decent too, as mentioned there is a reef just about 10 meters from our villa, lots of fishes, occasional black-tip shark and sting-ray, and trutles (one called 'Tripod', because it was missing a flipper).

There was free yoga classes at 5 pm every day and a pretty decent spa (i just went for one massage). And we played beach volley ball with the staff everyday, which was quite fun, despite they were so much better than us). There is also a pool, but i think we were the only people that actually swam in it.

Anyway, I know there a lot of other really nice resorts in the Maldives, but I think we'll likely go back to Cocoa Island since such a great expereince for the both of us.

wow, the Cocoa Island (como hotel) was literally perfection

one advantage of cocoa island is its only a speed boat from male, meaning no one nighters in token forced stop over hotels waiting for a sea plane.

within an hour of landing, youre settling into one of 30 odd over water bungalows on an island no bigger than my palm (ok, so spoons has big hands)

the water is impossible to describe....far better than Mauritius

we had a loft villa which had the bedroom upstairs, a massive light and airy bathroom and a second balcony with an outdoor shower and loads of privacy.

you'll spend most of your time in your bungalow and on the deck so when you choose a hotel in the maldives, make sure you know the balcony has what you want.

its the little touches that make the difference and in the case of Cocoa, it was the double sun lounger bed, the nespresso machine and they were never stingy with water, we always had enough. so you could dehydrate to your hearts content on stong espresso and then rehyrdate in the hot sun with loads of mineral water.

food was stunning and certainly not over priced. in fact, it was cheaper than i expected, much cheaper for drinking than dubai and in line with a good UK or european resort. the main restaurant was quite chic, though no expectation of wearing shoes. the bar nearby provided the perfection solution to the first post sunset beverage of the night (the first you either had at noon or sunset on your balcony)

TIP being a small resort, if you cant quite finish your third bottle of wine, they'll happily tag it and keep it for you. in fact the next night, the waiters will ask "Spoons, would you like to kick off on the shaw & smith Sauvingnon blanc from last nt?" am sure if youre at maldives stage with your partner, she'll forgive you for this semi-doggy bag behaviour....

the menu is fresh and changes regularly...if youre into flavours, you can easily order a couple of dishes and share....theres plenty there and if youre hungry later, the late night club sandwich wont empty your wallet.

The resort is surrounded by a sandbank so you can easily circum navigate on the way to breakfast to work up the appetite. make sure you have a pair of flip flips with you, the boardwork is piping on the way back and it was only the well trained spa ladies that soothed my feet to function level after a day one burning!

so overall, thumbs up Cocoa, one of the best hotels iver EVER stayed in.

Love in travel,
Spoons