Kagi Maldives Resort & Spa — Hotel in Malé Atoll

We had planned our honeymoon and first wedding anniversary to the Maldives and set our eyes on Kagi after a rough research. During the one year intense research, we opened our options to more resorts but eventually felt Kagi offered exactly what we wanted.||Reasons we chose Kagi:||1) No kids club|2) Small island size of 50 villas|3) No parties|4) Each villa has private pool|5) Far enough from Male|6) Option of both speedboat and seaplane to experience both|7) Presence of house reef|8) More couples-oriented after research|9) Generally quiet|10) consistent good reviews gave us confidence||Upon arrival, we were picked up from the airport and whisked to the seaplane terminal immediately. The waiting time was 1h15min which was reasonable. We were sent to the lounge for snacks and drinks while waiting.||Watching the seaplanes from the balcony made me excited for my first ever seaplane ride.|Soon it was time and we were sent to the boarding area for an epic start of our trip to paradise.||As expected, the seaplane was not the most comfortable mode of transport. We were aware that's why we chose Kagi just to experience the short flight. The flight time took 15mins, excluding taxiing. Awed by the view of many different islands and still felt surreal to be in the Maldives. We then completed the last part of the journey by a short speedboat ride. We opted for speedboat for the return journey and preferred it for the ventilation.||We were welcomed by the staff at the arrival jetty. Our island host, Yaseen, took us around the island before bringing us to our beach villa.||Yaseen was a busy, confident and knowledgeable guy. He often checked on us to make sure we were enjoying ourselves.||We split the stay between beach and ocean villa and preferred the beach villa for its quietness. However it also felt amazing to step right into the indian ocean from your ocean villa deck, with the sea teeming with abundant marine life on the house reef. We read that the ocean villas could be noisy but we only got the loud noise of crashing waves on our very last night.|Aircon was hit or miss during the day however it was cooling throughout the night.||We went on The Big 5 Safari and to be honest, found the price too expensive. Suggest to try the house reef first before deciding whether to join the trip.||We snorkelled on the house reef later on and found this more than sufficient and enjoyable. However be aware that some parts (near kagi heart and the spa) were way too shallow to swim through and we got cuts from the rocks. Advise to study the snorkel map and stay in deeper blue waters. We saw so many types of fish, a turtle and octopus near our ocean villa!||We enjoyed the complimentary photoshoot and bought the Bronze package later on. The photographer (Hilman) captured our memories on this beautiful island.||The blissful sensation sunset cruise was short but we were happy to see dolphins!||The staff were mostly friendly. Maria, the spa lady, remembered the exact date of our anniversary and came to wish us over breakfast. She noticed we were doing a photoshoot and came to fix my hair!||We were on BB package and alternated dinners between Ke-Un and Nonna. We found the menu a bit repetitive after dining at Ke-Un for 3 nights. Aware of the other dinner options but we are not big eaters so we stuck to the ala carte restaurants. We appreciated that tables in restaurants are far apart, giving privacy.||Things we hoped could be improved:||1) quicker delivery of items to villa|2) someone to answer 24/7 or villa attendant line|3) quicker service during meal times|4) more lights around the resort|5) an area map at certain points would be useful|6) some lights at the beach area of the beach villa|7) brighter lights on the outside walls ocean villa that is shining into the sea|8) a shower at the deck of the ocean villa||One disappointing thing was seeing the crystal clear waters of the beach being littered with a few plastic bottles, plastic bags and even a toothbrush, probably done by guests.||Overall, we are very pleased with Kagi and glad we chose this resort for our celebration in paradise. The quietness often felt like we were the only guests and the size of the island was perfect for our duration of stay. Many thanks to Yaseen who took great care of us! This was a trip of a lifetime with many new experiences that could not be found near home and finally, I checked Maldives off my bucket list! The memories of Kagi will stay in our hearts and I hope to...

Where do I start with a description of something which needs to be experienced to really understand how amazing Kagi Maldives was. This was our 3rd visit to the Maldives and we wanted to combine the hospitality experience of our 1st visit with the reef experience of our 2nd visit. I can categorically say that Kagi did that for us. Sorry this review will be a little long because of our amazing time. ||Our only hiccup was when we landed at Male as we had booked a speedboat to the resort. We were only informed there that we had been upgraded to a seaplane as the boat was having maintenance that day. Given we had specifically booked the boat we were disappointed that we had not been told in advance of our arrival. Despite this we arrived by seaplane to a pontoon and were then met by a boat which took us into the resort. ||The island is tiny, and shown Shinan (our ambassador who was great) told us it would only take 3-4 minutes to walk around I did not believe him. Well we did walk it and it took about 4 minutes just showing how intimate the resort is. ||We were taken on a short walking tour of the facilities on the resort and then straight to our ocean pool villa, where we then worked through the check-in process all via the resorts app. It was a breeze but I recommend having a photo on your phone/device of your passport photo page as it makes the uploading so much easier. ||The villa was fab, straight into the sea and about a minute of swimming before I was on the reef, and our housekeeper (Aliham sorry if this is spelt incorrectly) was brilliant and such a friendly young man. He was a credit to the resort with his professionalism and approach to assisting guests. We know he was due to visit his Mum during our stay and he is a credit to her as well.||The bar, the selection of and making of cocktails (we were on premium all inclusive) was great and Bee who remembered our names after our first night was brilliant. We enjoyed a cocktail (or 2 or 3) every night before dinner and it set the evening up and with the views of the sunset over the pool it was magical.||The food in the Noo Faru was so lovely with lots to suit a range of tastes. We got to know the executive chef Michael during our stay and he really has got the team working seamlessly and to a really high standard. With live cooking stations throughout breakfast. lunch and dinner there was a great range to choose from. The omelettes at breakfast were fantastic and the lovely chef cooking them (huge apologies I can't recall his name - who we affectionately named the egg man!!) started our days off in a way that ensured I could spend hours in the sea snorkelling each day.||The italian (Nonna's) was fantastic, we had one meal there as part of our package and sitting on the balcony under the stars made the evening so very special.||I had a few treatments in the Spa and Julia (one of the team) was amazing, she had incredibly strong hands which worked out quite a few of my knots!!||I snorkelled every day and the reef was superb with eagle rays, black-tipped reef sharks, turtles (I saw 4 different ones), white-tipped reef sharks, puffer fish, swathes of multi-coloured fish, long-fin batfish, nurse sharks, various sweetlips, lots of varieties of trigger fish, and my personal favourites unicorn fish. I joined a night snorkel which was straight from the beach one evening. The chance to see sleeping turtles in and around the reef was fabulous and something I will not forget. ||I have heard that the resort if due for refurbishment this summer and I really hope they keep the ethos of small, intimate boutique nature of the resort and no motorised water sports at the heart of theirs works. The reef is brilliant and I truly hope nothing is done that could effect it in any way. Thank you to all of the amazing team beyond those named who made sure our holiday was incredible and we really hope to visit again and enjoy the wonders of...

Choosing a resort from the many in the Maldives is so difficult - but Kagi Maldives Resort and Spa ticked all the right boxes for us during our 8 night couples visit in mid-March.

The non-negotiable requirement was a good, easily accessible house reef for snorkeling. Big tick! It could be accessed both from the beach and the steps from our ocean villa and there was a good range of sealife, including turtles, sharks and many different types of reef fish. We also thoroughly enjoyed our dives with the dive centre pros who were so professional and fun to spend time with. They took us through a number of skill checks at the start of the requisite initial dive on the house reef. After that, we enjoyed a number of dives on the very spacious dive boat. Drinks and plentiful snacks were available between dives. The degree of professionalism shown by the pros would make Kagi a great place to learn to dive or upskill. Indeed, the dive pros encouraged us to study for a new qualification (enriched air course) during our stay, so we can now dive with Nitrox.

We wanted a peaceful resort and Kagi did not disappoint. Although you can arrive by seaplane, they land at a small pontoon about 5 minutes away by boat so there is no disturbance from the planes themselves. The island is very small and you can walk around it in less than 10 minutes. There are only 50 rooms and while we were told it was quite full when we arrived, it never really felt it. And 8 days later, it had emptied out considerably.

The price difference between the beach villas and overwater villas is noticeably less here than at other resorts which let us achieve one of our nice-to-haves - the quintessential Maldivian overwater villa. The room was well presented and equipped with functioning air conditioning, plenty of storage space and surfaces, a comfortable sofa and a well-stocked minibar which was replenished daily. Both the indoor and outdoor bathrooms were very spacious. But my favourite spot was probably the deck, with its private sunbeds, plunge pool and steps down to the ocean as well as lovely sunset views - just perfect for a sundowner beer from the mini-bar.

I also wanted a resort with good quality food, ideally with options apart from just a buffet and, again, Kagi delivered. Just to be clear though, the buffet here was very good quality and, and despite the small size, offered a number of different cooking stations so that items could be cooked to order at all mealtimes. The buffet offerings varied each day for lunch and dinner and there were some noticeably lighter offerings at lunchtime. An alternative at lunchtime is the poolside bar menu or the spa corner (though we didn't try the latter). We were also able to use the 2 à la carte restaurants for dinner a couple of times each (they can each be booked once for every 3 night stay). The Italian was fine although on our second visit, the service could have been quicker. The Pacific Rim restaurant was fantastic - the dishes were beautifully presented and tasted delicious, and we thoroughly enjoyed our meals there. We booked the all inclusive (AI) package and the drinks list was quite extensive, including a good range of cocktails and named wines. Our AI package also included a sunset cruise and one afternoon high-tea. The à la carte restaurants and activities could all be easily booked via an app.

We really enjoyed our time at Kagi. The staff were friendly, the service was largely excellent and everything just worked as it should do. This was our first visit to the Maldives and I have no doubt there will be more to come. But now I'm torn between going elsewhere and returning to Kagi as it just suited us so well. Maybe we'll just have to do...