COMO Cocoa Island review: nearly perfect, with three clear drawbacks

Context and island

We had the opportunity to visit COMO Cocoa Island in March 2021 as the second stop of a split stay itinerary with Cocoa’s sister property, Maalifushi. This was our first time visiting Cocoa Island, but we have been fortunate enough to visit 9 other distinct islands in the Maldives.

Originally, we were supposed to stay at Cocoa Island for just 7 nights in their 1 Bedroom Villa. However, we ended up spending 12 nights at Cocoa since we left Cocoa’s sister property 5 days early. Maalifushi was regrettably not to our taste (and for anyone reading this wondering whether to pick Maalifushi and Cocoa, please feel free to read my in-depth review of Maalifushi to know more about our experience there and some of the issues we faced).

Cocoa Island is a very small island, even by Maldives standards, and can be reached by a quick 40-minute speedboat ride from Malé. Speedboat transfers in the Maldives are invaluable for those looking to optimize their first and last day at the resort or for those looking to do a short weekend trip from India or the middle east. On our last day we had an 11:45pm departure and we were able to keep our room until around 9pm, which meant an additional full day on site!

We chose to stay at Cocoa largely because we are major lagoon lovers, and cocoa boasts one of the best, most pristine lagoons I’ve ever seen anywhere in the Maldives. I spent countless hours looking at pictures and videos of Cocoa, but nothing prepared me for the sheer beauty of the lagoon. It is jaw dropping in every sense of the word – at first glance, it gave me chills.

Villas

During our stay at Cocoa, we were lucky enough to experience 2 different room categories: the loft villa and the 1-bedroom water villa with pool. The good thing about the loft and 1-bedroom villas at cocoa is that despite the recent renovation (which depending on tastes may or may not represent an actual upgrade compared to the old style of the rooms - beauty is always in the eye of the beholder!), they have kept their true Maldivian roots. Yes, some of the new villas have pools but the villas are largely simplistic with a good old expansive deck, no railings (!), some nice, shaded area, and most importantly access to a beautiful sandy lagoon. That’s really all you need in the Maldives!

We were allocated room 1003 at Cocoa for the majority of our stay, and for Maldives aficionados like myself, it was complete and utter perfection. It provides nearly perfect unobstructed views of the shallow turquoise lagoon and is met with some of the softest, whitest sand I’ve ever seen. The room is also decently located for reef access, which is just a short 5-minute swim or walk from sore. For us, the absolute best feature of the 1-bedroom villa is the wall of windows by the bedroom. While some may be turned off by the lack of privacy this may cause, we found that lying in bed looking at the lagoon was an invaluable experience.

While the 1-bedroom villa is by no means the most modern or best value for money villa in the Maldives (when comparing the actual hardware of the room you can find a lot better for a loss less money), it provides for the quintessential Maldivian experience one should try at least once in their lifetime.

We also stayed 3 nights in Loft villa 802 and while it was nice, I would recommend booking a 1 bed villa as it provides a much more elevated experience.

Food

Since cocoa is such a small island, there is just one restaurant (Ufaa). The restaurant is very barefoot chic, fully made out of wood, with some interesting art and very elaborate tables (which apparently weigh more than 120kg each!).

The menu for lunch and breakfast is the same every day. For breakfast, I would say the menu is decently quite varied (10-12+ entrees) and you can order how little or much your appetite allows. Lunch is slightly more varied, and everything is exquisite.

The dinner menu, on the other hand, changes slightly every day and almost has a complete overhaul every 4-5 days. So, while yes, there is just one restaurant, the menu is extremely varied, and you likely won’t get bored unless you’re a very picky eater. The best way to describe the menu at cocoa would be Asian fusion with a high emphasis on pasta and fish. Everything is prepared with such high attention to detail and the shining star of the show so far has been the wagyu tartare (which is often on the menu). I can say it’s probably one of the best dishes I’ve had in the Maldives. Most entrees will run you in the $40-50++ range and appetizers in the $20-30++ range.

Lunch and dinner also have the added bonus of a Shambalah menu, which features more “healthy” options which are nice for a quick lunch. Entrees for lunch will run you anywhere from $25-45++, aka decently priced for a mid-level 5* property. Water is also chargeable at $3++ for still and $5++ for sparkling although the sparkling house water isn’t great…

Unless HB is included with your room rate (as was the case for us), you're better off going B&B as you're not really likely to spend $140 per person, per day, on dinner which is the cost of the half board plan.

Reef

Another impressive aspect of Cocoa Island was the house reef. The cocoa reef – to my surprise - now ranks #1 out of all the reefs I’ve snorkeled in the Maldives (which is upwards of 15, probably). Turns out you don’t have to go all that far from the capital to experience really nice snokeling!

The reef at cocoa is easily accessible from all the water villas. During high season, the current runs from west to east which makes accessing the reef from the 1 bed and loft villas extremely easy. The current is probably the strongest I’ve ever experienced of any reef I’ve snorkeled, probably because this reef lives on a channel, so you don’t even really need to swim,…. You just float directly into the service jetty by the sunset COMO villa. This makes the reef very easy to snorkel, as long as you’re cautious about the current which can easily drag you in any direction it pleases.

The fish life on this reef is exceptional, and far exceeds that of any reef I’ve ever snorkeled. I saw upwards of 5-6 sharks per snorkel, and the amount of large fish that routinely swim on this channel/pass is amazing. The fish here swim in very large schools and shoals, so the fish life is plentiful at every hour of the day. On one occasion I was also able to glide by a pod of 25 dolphins on my first morning at cocoa which was magical. It is more of a “small fish in large quantity ” than a “large fish in small quantity” reef which is perfectly fine since ther are so many small fish (and watch out for the triggerfish!). Despite this - I can say with confidence that I’ve found my new favorite reef, and despite being a huge fan of the reefs down in gaafu, I prefer the reef at cocoa . The one downside to this reef is that the boat traffic is really very heavy, so you always head boats buzzing in the background.

Coral regrowth is actually very surprisingly not terrible. Don’t get me wrong, the reef is still dead, however there are at least some signs of growth which is more than I could say about some the other reefs I've snorkeled in South Malé which were completely and utterly dead. I also was a huge fan of the overall structure of the reef, which is very varied. The best part of the reef IMO is the “wall” that runs by the drop-off between villas 1003 and 803.

Service

The last piece I wanted to touch on was just how extremely personalized our stay at Cocoa was, and this is in large part due to the best butler we’ve ever had in the Maldives. We were lucky enough to be allocated Binoy who took the BEST care of us from start to finish.

The cocoa concept is interesting in that if you stay in a 1 bed villa, you are allocated a butler who takes care of all you for the duration of your stay AND is your waiter for all meals… so you REALLY develop a good relationship with your butler and they’re most definitely not “just another member of the staff”. Binoy always had a smile on his face and nothing was too much. He knew exactly what my breakfast and lunch orders were every day (I'm very repetitive) and was super prompt in anything and everything we asked of him (for instance, I once asked him for a tour of one of the villas and in a matter of 5 minutes he had the keys in hand, ready to show me the room). Binoy is such a HUGE HGUE asset to your resort, and you should be proud to have such a dedicated, kind and hard working member of your team. Hold onto him!

Three drawbacks

SO, you are now probably asking yourself.. Just WHY isn't this the perfect island? Well there are three reasons for that (two of which the resort can fix):

A. Location: Malé atoll is unfortunately becoming overrun and its very sad to see it become so crowded and overbuilt. The immediate area neighboring Cocoa is no exception this. One one side, you got the Maafushi expansion which is HUGE and sadly will become filled with buildings in the short run. On the other side, you have the guraidhoo expansion which is very clearly visible by nearly every single villa except 1002,1004, and 1003. You simple are missing the robinson crusoe feel and al the nearby islands are sadly a huge eye sore.

B. Sea Grass: Cocoa has probably the single most beautiful lagoon I've ever seen and I'd be surprised if it does not rank in the top 10 lagoons in the Maldives. However, WHY management is letting the lagoon become infested with sea grass is quite literally beyond me. Ok - yes, I understand that recently there has been this “trend” (I call it “laziness”) pioneered by six senses, gili and soneva to #SavetTheSeagrass since it provides a larger ecosystem for turtles - but it is obvious that this sea grass is – to an extent - NOT natural since it has largely only recently started to grow in excessive amounts, presumably due to the elevated water temperates, constant dredging and chemicals being poured into the water from all the expansion occurring in many Maldivian atolls. Looking at older pictures of the Maldives and cocoa especially (!), there is not an ounce of sea grass in sight.

The amount of sea grass infesting the lagoon is getting out of hand and Cocoa is slowly losing its largest Unique Selling Point – there is no other way to put it. The entire lagoon area to the north of rooms 1002 and 1004 is completely filled with sea grass and is starting to turn black/green. I very strongly urge Cocoa to remove the sea grass in the lagoon, and keep that small, closed off “Seagrass Conservation” area by the beach as a substitute. Otherwise, in the next 12-24 months or so given the exponential growth of sea grass, Cocoa will lose its lagoon its in entirety.

C. Privacy wall for the 1-bedroom villas: I strongly urge management to rethink the placement of this privacy wall since it is completely nonsensical, whichever way you put it. The wall provides NO privacy since it is built on the wrong side of the villa. It faces the open ocean, rather than the jetty, and therefore provides nil privacy since there is hardly ever anyone walking in the middle of the ocean! Not only do you have a complete open view of the jetty, but you also have a completely obstructed view of half of the stunning lagoon. All this caused by a privacy wall that coincidentally provides no privacy! Cocoa, please fix this….

Final verdict

Overall - despite these three flaws - we had an absolutely amazing holiday at cocoa and are hoping to return if we have the opportunity to do so, provided that points B and C above are at the very least addressed!