Thoddoo

Thoddoo is an isolated inhabited island that administratively belongs to North Ari atoll, Maldives. It's quite large by Maldivian standards, it will take about an hour to circumvent it.

Understand

Thoddoo Island is surrounded by a wonderful beach. The locals are very friendly and very welcoming, but due to Muslim restrictions you can only swim at the designated tourist beach which sometimes is called the bikini beach. While outside the tourist beach it advisable to wear beach clothing rather than bikinis or swimming slips.

The film Ghosts Can’t Do It was filmed the Island of Thoddoo. The cast stayed at tents on the beach.

This island is a farm Island Mainly Passion fruits and Papayas are grown, and they are one of the tastiest and freshest you can eat. Mangoes, watermelon, eggplants, zucchinis, tomatoes, lettuce are grown very limited.

Get in

Island can be reached by a fast boat from Malé everyday at 16:00, trip takes 1 hour and costs 30-35 USD (as of Jan 2017). In the opposite direction to Male it leaves at 7:00am. This schedule is not very reliable so it's better to check with your guesthouse in Thoddoo for the timing and pricing. Companies operating on this rote:

• Relax Speed
• Ramzu Express

Three times weekly (at 7:00 on Sat, Mon and Wed) there is a public ferry to Rasdhoo, trip takes 1 hours 15 min, costs 21 MVR. The boat then proceeds to Ukulhas, departing at 13:00, trip takes 55 min and costs 21 MVR. And other islands of North Ari Atoll: Bodufulhadhoo (trip takes 1 hour 30 min from Rasdhoo), Mathiveri (2 hours), Feridhoo (3 hours), Maalhos (3 hours 30 min) and Himandhoo (4 hours).

🌍 Ferry dock. It doesn't have a building or anything of that sort. Just a marine with handful of boats. (updated Nov 2016)

See

You can see the Fresh fruit farms

Do

• 🌍 Bikini Beach. (updated Jan 2017)
• Snorkeling; just swim few meters off the beach and you will encounter wonderful underwater views. If you swim around 100 meters you can reach the outer reef as well. Bear in mind that when swimming to the outer reef, there may be strong a currents. During the full Moon there will be a low tied and you can walk halfway to the outer reef.
• Fishing; you can do morning and night fishing with boat. It is not easy catch fish off shore. After fishing ask your guest house for BBQ.
• Diving. Contact the Thoddoo diving center.

Buy

Lots of grocery shops with very extensive range of products, big variety of fruits and vegetables.

There are no ATMs or banks. It also worth to note that any place on the island will readily accept US dollars as a payment, but not credit cards.

There are a few souvenir shops in the island

Eat

Some guest houses allow you to use their kitchen.

Budget

• 🌍 Thin Ari. One of the most cheapest and yet quite decent places to eat. Although don't go to their toilet - there lives huge (fist size) spider. The place itself overlooks the harbour and in spite of all other restaurants is not fenced with a high wall. Fried rice and noodles 50-90 MVR, short eats 3-8 MVR, tea 5 MVR. (updated Nov 2016)
• 🌍 Coco Mero, ☎ [phone]. Cook is Bangladeshi and thus can prepare delicious and best on the island chicken briyani, fried rice is OK, western food is better to avoid as they have very vague idea of how it should be cooked, spaghetti should be avoided at all costs. Briyani 65 MVR, rice dishes 50-90 MVR, juices 30-50 MVR. (updated Nov 2016)
• 🌍 Sunrise Cornet. Average food that costs substantially more than in other places. Long waiting time. Rice dishes 60-120 MVR, briyani 150 MVR + 9% taxes. (updated Nov 2016)
• 🌍 Mint Garden. The food is average, every dish comes with tons of tomato sauce on top. Although menu is quite big which allows to pick something eatable. They make good brewed coffee. Also this is the only restaurant on Thodoo that has WiFi but yet they refuse to share its WiFi password. 60-90 MVR. (updated Nov 2016)

Mid-range

• 🌍 Black Salt. 12pm-5:30pm, dinner buffet 19pm-21pm. Restaurant with perhaps the best food on the island and yet with the prices two times more than in other places. The owners call it "the only European restaurant on the island" and in general it's a truth. Food are of very good quality, if one orders fried fish - he gets real fried fish and not fried canned tuna as it happens in Maldives. Portions are quite large. 8-14 USD per dish +22% taxes, dinner buffet 11 USD. (updated Nov 2016)

Sleep

About twenty of accommodation options exist, most of them are very simple guesthouses. Price range is roughly 50-80 USD (2016), it gets much cheaper during off season and doubles during peak season.

• Resten Inn, Huraveemagu, ☎ [phone]. A family run wonderful guesthouse. Very comfortable beds and you can use the free bicycles to get around the island and to the beach. Has air conditioning, fan fridge and safe. (updated Jan 2017)

Connect

Both mobile operators (Dhiraagu and Ooredoo) operate on the island and offer LTE connection.

Guesthouses tend to have WiFi with a very slow and sometimes nonexistent Internet. While restaurants either don't have WiFi or refuse to share their WiFi passwords with customers not staying at their hotel.

Go next

• Rasdhoo — capital of the North Ari atoll and the closest inhabited island accessible by ferry
• Ukulhas, Bodufulhadhoo, Mathiveri, Feridhoo, Maalhos, Himandhoo — all of these Atif atoll islands can be reached by ferry from Thoddoo