Siyam World Maldives — Hotel in Dhigurah

||My wife and I had a wonderful holiday at 5* Siyam World Resort, Maldives at the end of December. It was the best holiday we have ever had. This great resort is about 199 km north of Male. It is the largest resort in the Maldives and it can be reached by a 45- minute seaplane or a domestic flight plus a boat transfer. ||I had booked two other resorts before , which I cancelled. I finally decided on this resort, and I was not disappointed. It was actually recommended by a tour agent in Dubai, who I am very grateful to for his recommendation. ||The Transfer: ||We arrived at Velana airport before 5:00 am. Frankly I was worried about the transfer and the time we would have to wait at the airport till we met the resort representative. From previous contacts with the resort I was informed that the airplane schedule would be decided only the day before the arrival at Male. Fortunately, our fears were dispelled when we met the resort representative who  smoothly led us to the domestic check in counter of Trans Maldivian Airways . Promptly, our bags were weighed and our boarding passes were issued. Then we were taken by bus with our luggage to a building, about 10 minutes away, which houses many resort lounges.|Siyam World Resort lounge is well designed and comfortable. It has a beautiful terrace that overlooks the seaplanes jetty. There we had a small buffet breakfast while waiting for our seaplane. At 7:00 am we boarded the seaplane and headed towards the resort. It was really a breathtaking experience! We enjoyed the view of the maldives islands from above. ||Arrival : ||After 45 minutes we arrived at Siyam World Resort. After we showed the staff our baggage, we were taken by a buggy to the reception. We were greeted with a welcome drink and our ambassador, Muna Limbo, who was very helpful and accommodating. She also kept in touch with us through WhatsApp to inquire about us and inform us of the various activities that were taking place in the resort. Thank you very much Muna for your great help during our holiday at Siyam World! ||After she had explained the Wow all inclusive plan and answered our questions, she took us by buggy to our water villa (we booked a watervilla  with a pool and a slide.) ||The Villa: ||The villa is great. It is spacious and modern. There is a mini bar stocked with juices, soft drinks and 2 bars of chocolate ( I requested the alcoholic drinks to be removed). It is replenished daily. There is also an iniesta nespresso machine and coffee capsules and 2 big bottles of water. The furniture is in immaculate condition. The bed is large and very comfortable. The|Bathroom is very spacious and modern. The vast wooden terrace has two wooden chaises longues, a wooden table and two wooden chairs, a small pool and a slide. Just as I entered the villa, I put on my swimsuit and slid into the water. What an experience! This was  my first swim in the gorgeous limpid  turquoise sea water of the Maldives. The most remarkable thing about the room service is that they clean the room twice a day. I have never experienced this in my previous trips. Kudos for the great service of Pubudu! He was always ready to help. ||The Restaurants and Bars: ||There are 2 main restaurants for breakfast, Tempo and Barabaru. Lunch and dinner are served at Tempo restaurant. We preferred Barabaru for breakfast as it is not crowded and it has a laid-back atmosphere.|For lunch and dinner guests may savour the buffet display at Tempo restaurant, or a la carte menu at any of the 6 bars scattered across the island. The menu at the bars comprises only snacks. We mostly had lunch and dinner at Tempo restaurant. The staff there were very accommodating, offering the best service I have ever seen. The chefs, notably chef Ben who always greeted me with "saha saha" whenever he saw me, which is an informal greeting in my country. I would also like to extend my greetings to chef Hassan and all the staff at Tempo restaurant who went the extra mile. Kudos for your great service! |We only had drinks and coffee at the bars. Our favourites are  Together and Jungali. All the bars have large pools that overlook the beach, except Jungali, which is inside a "jungle".|However, for dinner, guests may also try other restaurants spread across the island. There is aThai restaurant, a Japanese restaurant exclusively free for beach villas guests; other guests are offered 50% discount, a Spanish Restaurant, an Indian restaurant, a grills restaurant, Whoo restaurant, which is the only restaurant we tried. I would like to thank Mr. Mohamed Swares. for accommodating us at Whoo restaurant. ||Wow All Inclusive ||The Wow All Inclusive plan included breakfast, lunch and dinner, all day drinks, nonmotorised watered sports, villa minibar and one excursion. Breakfast can be either at Tempo or Barabaru restaurants ( buffet). |Lunch can be at Tempo or any of the 6 bars ( snacks).|Dinner can be at Tempo or any of the 6 a la carte specialty restaurants ( Indian, Spanish, Grills, Japanese ( free for beach villa guests, 50 % discount for other guests), and a Thai restaurant.|If you opt to dine at any of these a la carte restaurants, you will have only one drink, one salad or soup, a main course and a desrt. If you order more, you will have to pay. Moreover, not all the dishes in the menu are included. At Whoo restaurant, for example, seafood is not included. I think that all dishes should be included owing to the price people pay to stay at a resort in the Maldives. |If I travel to the Maldives again, I would not opt for All inclusive plan. Full board will be enough. All Inclusive is beneficial for people who drink alcohol. Obviously, there should be 2 All Inclusive plans: a premium all inclusive plan for people who drink alcohol and a soft all inclusive plan for people who don't drink alcohol. Additionally, the buffet at tempo, though copious and palatable, it mostly caters for Asians. Seafood dishes were missing. ||Excursions and Water Sports ||Wow All inclusive includes 1 excursion (one has to choose only 1 excursion from these: a visit to a local village, a sunset cruise, or a snorkeling trip. We opted for the latter excursion.|It lasted about 2 hours only. It would be much better to include more than 1 free excursion.|There are also payable excursions, which we found very expensive. Instead we took these excursions when we were  in Maafushi island afterwards, where they are much cheaper.|A guest is also entitled to 1 hour kayaking, which we enjoyed, and other nonmotorised water activities, which we did not try.|I tried half an hour diving at Jungali pool. The trainers, Wang Chuang and|Hussco from Dive Temple were very professional and helpful.|Kids and adults as well can enjoy the water park in front of Tempo restaurant. ||It is advisable to book the activities and the a la carte restaurants on the application in advance, otherwise they might be fully booked. ||Getting Around ||The resort spreads across the island and the restaurants, the bars, the different activities are spread across the island. There are free electric buses that roam the island around the clock. You simple hop on and off where you want. The waiting time is less than 5 minutes. The drivers are very helpful and amiable. They quite offen stop to ask people if they want a ride. Another aspect of the resort we appreciated greatly is the fact that there are umbrellas everywhere. ||The Cost: ||If you are for luxury, the Maldives resorts are not cheap. You have to add transfer and taxes to the room rate. We had an excellent offer which included free seaplane transfer for both of us, and we are awfully thanful to the agent who booked the resort for us. There is another tax called green tax which you have to pay at the resort. It used to be 6 $ per person per night. Starting from 1st January it has increased to 12 $. ||Overall: ||We really had a wonderful holiday at Siyam World Resort and felt we were treated by the amiable staff as royalties. They went the extra mile to make our experience a memorable one. I highly recommend it to everyone planning to visit...

It all starts we a seaplane journey, that’s about 50 minutes and already you are drawn in to the beauty of the Maldives. Note: take the earplugs when offered them, it gets loud.||When you arrive, you are greeted by some staff, playing various instruments, you are then adorned with a reed necklace and then you are assigned an Ambassador (I’ll come back to this) and told to wait in a building at the end of the jetty if you want air con, or outside if you don’t. Already you are blown away by this place.||Next your Ambassador takes you to reception, where you are offered champagne and assigned a room, your luggage miraculously appears before you get there. ||I think it’s now best I break the review down in case some of you want to skip to certain sections.||Room –|We paid more for a Beach Suite with pool – as these rooms have a bigger pool and a separate room for kids, with two beds tucked in to alcoves on either side. This was priceless to us to have an area away from the kids.|We totally lucked out with Room 116, as we ended up with a double width private beach and uninterrupted views of the ocean (I’ll post a photo), with our pool off to the side. Virtually no other same tier rooms had this, most others were tucked back with a very narrow outside space and no views of the ocean. This alone would make it hard for us to return, as it would be disappointing if we didn’t get 116 again!|The rooms are great – the photos on the website don’t do them justice, plenty of space, lots of storage, a sofa at the end of your bed(that I believe turns in to a double bed, but we never needed it as we were in a suite with the extra beds) a stunning outside bathroom(that gets very hot), but I wouldn’t change it for the world, showering under the stars is a thing of beauty.|Outside you have a small terrace with table & chairs, a day bed, large pool, two sun loungers and in 116 case – around 300 square meters of private beach. The only negative I can find is that the mattress was incredibly hard, rock solid in fact, we both got sore backs.||Cleaning is very good and happens around twice a day, including a turn down service and towels that are replaced twice daily.||Mini bar – |Has unlimited water, 2 bottles of wine, 4 beers, cokes, and juices, 3 x mini Toblerone’s and a very measly one bag of crisps....for 4 people!!!!. This all gets gets restocked every day – only if you have used it.||Staff –| I feel like I should mention them separately. They are fantastic, some of the best I have encountered anywhere in the world. Super friendly and helpful. A special mention to Hari the bus driver, Mohamed who we think was a catering manager who appeared everywhere, breakfast, lunch, A la carte restaurants, he was everywhere. Too many good staff to mention and they all work some serious shifts, breakfast through to dinner.||The Resort -|Is spotless, incredibly well maintained, staff constantly keeping it clean, brushing the sand, picking up leaves. Full credit to the level and standard of this.|It takes approx. 40 minutes to walk the full island on the sand, and it’s something that I highly recommend as the sun is setting.|The island has 5 pools – 4 family and one adults only. Together and Shipwrecked were our favourites and both have stunning sea views, but the kids loved Jungali – which as the name suggests in the middle of the island, but we didn’t enjoy the mosquito attention in that one. The Orchid is the smaller of the 4 and we didn’t like it the one time we went there, it was grubbier than the rest and the people there on that day were rude and stubbing out cigarettes on the side of the pool, so we didn't return||The wifi is pretty poor and for a 5 star luxury resort that relies on guests to use their app to book things and look at menus, it’s a bit frustrating when it didn't work. But you are on a remote island I suppose.||Food – |Breakfast is at either Tempo until 10am or Baraburu until 10:30am, they both close too early in my opinion, but they both serve a very extensive buffet selection, that’s pretty good. Again, the service is on point.||Lunch is either at Tempo – again for a buffet, big selection and the food is ok, we are not buffet fans, but the kids liked it. It’s not terrible by any means, but when you have had buffets in Dubai, everything else is disappointing and I think the quality of food could be higher here.|The same goes for the snacks around the pool, they are ok, but mostly burgers and sandwiches and if you’re healthier eaters like we are, the choice is a bit poor and gets a bit repetitive.||High Tea is served at Together every afternoon and is average at best.||Dinner is either buffet at Tempo – again it's ok, but the standard should be higher.|The A la cartes are all pretty good and the staff again are lovely.|Kurry Leaf – Indian, Takrai – Thai, Wahoo Grill were our standouts and all very good and all with stunning views to sea. Delware is also very good and do a good pizza. Andulucia had the best atmosphere and its right on the beach, the food was pretty good too, although certainly not the best paella weve ever eaten. |The inclusive drinks were pretty good on the whole, the bottles of wine were all fairly decent – we googled a lot of them and they would be around the £7 to £10 mark in a UK supermarket. You were always offered a bottle over a glass, which we liked, and we have never had that an all-inclusive before. The cocktails were pretty poor, so we didn’t bother with those, spirits and beers were of a decent level. Worth noting we are not huge drinkers anyway.||You get assigned an Ambassador who’s supposed to look after you during our stay. Ours was Vitalii and he was ok, but never really seemed interested, and speaking to other guests that we met who said they were getting a more personal service from their ones. |Vitalii is Russian, and was very cold and lacked any personal touch and warmth – where all the others seemed to be either Sri Lankan or Indian and they appeared to offer a much more warm and friendly service. Honestly a tip to the resort, Vitalii should be left to the Russian guests. He’s not warm enough for English speakers and the not understanding simple questions made us not want to talk to him, even on our last day, he was supposed to come and see us off and he never turned up after saying he would and on the few times we did try and get his help, he was useless if I’m being brutally honest. He was the one big let down of the whole stay||We fell in love with the place, it’s perfect for kids. It got a little busy for a couple of days over NYE and the service dipped a little. Some other guests are darn right rude and toward the end of our stay I would guess 50% of the guests were Russian, but overall a very good mix of people with kids and we exchanged daily pleasantries with various familiar families||NYE Gala dinner was ok, but we expected more. Just a pumped-up buffet with a live band, it lacked any true atmosphere. The entertainment was terrible after dinner and they played this god awful euro trash dance music and at an ungodly level. And to top if off they requested you pay a minimum of $800 for a bottle of champagne you get for free if you wanted a table in front of the stage. |Other night time entertainment was similar, terrible music turned up way too loud.|The Kids Carnival was very good – various stalls where kids win prizes. ||The football pitches were a massive hit with ou5 football mad 6 year old.||Some of the water sports and other extras, were very overpriced, for example a 20 min jet ski ride was around $180!!!||Would we return – the answer is probably yes, . We agonised for months before opting for Siyam World and 100% think we made the right decision. It really has been magical, as I sit and type this on our last night overlooking the sea, listening to the waves, and drinking a glass of red, I don’t regret a...

A thorough review of our entire holiday, traveling as a family of 2 adults and a teenager.|From the UK to Male airport we travelled approximately 15 hours (with a layover in Doha). We unfortunately missed our seaplane slot as we missed our interconnecting flight in Doha (due to the airline being delayed). We were escorted to the siyam waiting lobby. It was air conditioned and provided refreshments and snacks. We had to wait approximately 3 hours before we boarded the seaplane (this did quickly become very boring). The seaplane was a wonderful experience, yes it’s loud but what wonderful views. When we arrived at Siyam world we were welcomed with music, clapping, towels and a necklace which was a lovely touch. We were taken to the WOW lounge by our ambassador. We had a 30/40 minute in-depth discussion regarding the island, facilities, all-inclusive package etc. We were all extremely tired at this point and probably didn’t absorb the information as we should have. We took a ride on a buggy to our water villa by our ambassador. You communicate with your ambassador via WhatsApp. We stayed in a water villa with a slide and plunge pool. The villas have high ceilings with air conditioning and a fan. The free standing bath was a wonderful touch with the view of the ocean. The only down side to the villa we stayed in was the walls had patchy paintwork (I think it’s touch-up from the humidity) and we had an extremely hard mattresses for our liking (we were given a mattress topper by our ambassador). You can walk around the island but it’s best to wait for the buses (it’s quite a large island), they are around every 10 minutes and each bus stop has a TV screen with bus location. You can however flag a bus if you are not at a bus stop. One of the drivers went above and beyond to accommodate our family, he was amazing.||WEATHER|It was a consistent 29/30 degrees when we visited. We were anticipating some rain in August but in the two weeks we stayed it only rained one day. It’s quite humid and we were badly bitten by mosquitoes even though we were wearing deet spray everyday.||ROOM SERVICE|You have your room cleaned twice a day, you get fresh towels, dressing gowns and new bedding ever day. The mini bar is re-stocked everyday. The room service team are extremely polite, helpful and do a wonderful job.||RESTAURANTS/FOOD SERVICE|Download the APP in advance to pre-book restaurants and activities. We didn’t realise until we got there, so we were unable to book any of the restaurants for the first three days. You have to give your room number every time you order food or drinks. You get a bill in the restaurants which you have to sign (we got one for $845) it is part of your inclusive package but this worried us the first time. They do mark on the menus what is not included in the inclusive package (so just be aware). ||Tempo is a buffet style restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and themed dinner evenings. We personally loved Tempo, we found they had a good variety of Asian and European food. The staff are extremely polite and helpful.||Baarabaru only served breakfast and stays open a little later than tempo (if you are running a little late). Almost identical to tempo.||Kurry Leaf is an Indian styled cuisine that serves dinner only and needs to be pre-booked. This was one of our favourite restaurants.||Takrai is a Thai style restaurant that serves dinner only and has to be pre-booked. We enjoyed the food here but it was really dark at night to eat your food. The chef came out to talk to us and was very passionate about Thai food (which was lovely). ||Andalucia was a Spanish style restaurant that serves dinner only and has to be pre-booked. The restaurant seems to attract a lot of cats and kittens. This definitely didn’t bother us as we are animal lovers but some guests did complain.||The wahoo grill is a steak and seafood restaurant that serves dinner only and has to be pre-booked. We had high expectations here but this was our least favourite restaurant (didn’t enjoy the steak). ||Shipwrecked serves lunch and dinner. We only had to pre-book dinner. Shipwrecked also has a family friendly infinity pool and located by the beach.|We loved shipwrecked, it’s an Italian style cuisine (I had delicious gnocchi here). The staff gave this restaurant a fun but professional vibe, they are really talkative and friendly.||Together bar serves lunch but we did not like the menu (the mince chicken burger is awful) but we enjoyed the drinks. Together bar has a large two tier pool by the beach. The majority of the night time entertainment is held here. We loved the LED light show and the evening pool party. The evening team here were amazing.||Jungali serves lunch and snacks but is the same menu as together (so not for us). Jungali is an inland bar and pool. It’s one of the larger pools and has all the daytime entertainment (pool party, DJ, pool games) and swim-up bar. The pool has black tiles, which makes it look really dark, it’s a bit different but we liked it.||We didn’t go to the non-inclusive restaurants so can’t really comment on them. ||BARS|The sports bar is the only air-conditioned bar and is the only bar that opens 24/7. They also have a fridge with snacks and you can watch sports. They also have a pool table, table tennis and gym. You can hire bikes here. We hired bikes and it was definitely worth it, they have dedicated bike parking spaces and you are given bike locks. The sand paths are easy to ride on and the island is quite flat. ||They have the Orchid bar with a pool and serve wonderful drinks, this was one of our favourites. The mint bar is adults only and has a pool table and pool. I believe they arrange adult only pool parties here. Good vibrations bar is by the activity centre and has swing seats. ||ACTIVITIES|The paid activities are expensive, we found the majority of the inclusive activities met our needs just fine. |We loved the inflatable water park, paddle boarding and we had a group wind surfing lesson (part of the in-inclusive but you have to pre-book). ||You do receive a complimentary trip. We choose the snorkeling safari and we saw sharks and a turtle. The guides make you feel really safe and it was truly an amazing experience. We took our own snorkels and flippers but you can hire them free of charge. I do believe if they get damaged though the cost to replace them is very expensive. ||We joined one of the football matches, which includes guests and staff. We were certainly exhausted in the heat but great fun. We also had a game of badminton on one of the courts. ||Make sure you visit the ranch, we got to pet some baby goats and it was so much fun. The horses are beautiful and seemed well cared for. The bats on the island are huge and are so interesting to see up close. The island seems to be home to lizards and chickens too. ||I think if you are a family or a couple looking for more activities this is the island for you. We would return in a heartbeat. We will hopefully be returning next year. It’s breathtaking and a...