Nika Island Resort & Spa, Maldives — Hotel in North Ari Atoll

We were writing this email squeezed between the seats in a plane of a low-coast air company on the overnight flight with all my family getting back home after 10 days which supposed to be a great 5-star family vacation. A great example of a terrible ending which killed the whole experience.||Me and my wife with five kids (15, 13, 8, 6 and 3 years old) have decided to spend a great vacation together in the best available room on a beautiful Maldivian resort – so we booked a Sultan Suite on a Nika Island Resort and Spa. ||It was our second time with Nika during the last 6 months – first time we stayed with three kids in November 2024 and everything was fine so we decided to return.|It’s hard to travel with a number of small kids using connecting flights - so we booked direct ones to Male – a returning and also a flexible ones, just in case something happens and we’ll need to change the flights. The air tickets were around good 40% of the overall cost – to ensure the maximum comfort level. Planned smart but didn’t help in the end.||We arrived as planned and spent a great 10 days – everything was good. ||But then the last day just killed the impression of the whole vacation:||• We received a farewell departure message which said that the flight to Male is scheduled for 13:40 local Nika time (11:40 Male time). Our flight home was at 14:10 Male time so we suggested this could be a great balance to make it to the flight without overspending time at the airport.|• We’ve paid the bill at 12:30 Nika time and were waiting for the flight – on the pier accompanied with a guard there.|• At 13:40 the plane hasn’t appeared so we’ve started to bother – but no one has arrived to the pier with any updates. Not even proposing a water for the kids – nothing.|• At 14:00 I myself (still no initiative from the personnel) went back from the pier to the reception and asked whether the plane is arriving and if we’re still making that to check in for our home flight – the answer was that everything is under control, no need to worry about.|• 14:45 - the personnel finally have come to the pier - when the plane was landing – obviously to meet and greet the arriving tourists. No comments on what shall we do with our flight home. Definitely we would be looking for more attention and thoughts when it was pretty obvious that we’re missing our flight.|• The local flight took off at 14:55 Nika time. At that time, it was still possible to reschedule our flight home for the next day without any extra costs – if someone told us that we’re not making that for the check in. But no one did. |• The crew on the flight from Nika to Male was perfect – they’ve made it very fast even under heavy wind and rain (that’s why it is pretty obvious that so called “bad weather conditions” was not the reason for delay). By the way during the last two days of our stay the weather was even worse in terms of wind and rain and the planes were arriving without any complications.|• Finally, we arrived at Male local airport at 13:30 – five minutes after the check in for our flight was closed. And it was already not possible neither to reschedule no to cancel our expensive flexible tickets. We just lost them.|• The company representative has immediately informed us that we missed our flight. Then he suggested to take another flight at the company’s cost. Good idea.|• The suggestion was to take a connecting flight - but at least with a well known company at least with similar service level to our home air company. So we decided to take an advantage of earlier arrival home even with an overnight connection and further flight.|• However no one has informed us that the second connecting flight was not with a well known airline but rather with low-coaster with obviously much worse general service level (seats, meals etc.) |• The connection in Dubai at night was 4 hours. No one has suggested to provide a lounge or any other opportunity to have rest – at least for the kids.|• Needless to say no one has interested how was our travel when we’re back home.||*||We are still very disappointed and hope no one else would suffer from such an experience on your family vacations.||P.S. We send this email to the hotel – no feedback in 2 months...

We were writing this email squeezed between the seats in a plane of a low-coast air company on the overnight flight with all my family getting back home after 10 days which supposed to be a great 5-star family vacation. A great example of a terrible ending which killed the whole experience.||Me and my wife with five kids (15, 13, 8, 6 and 3 years old) have decided to spend a great vacation together in the best available room on a beautiful Maldivian resort – so we booked a Sultan Suite on a Nika Island Resort and Spa. ||It was our second time with Nika during the last 6 months – first time we stayed with three kids in November 2024 and everything was fine so we decided to return.|It’s hard to travel with a number of small kids using connecting flights - so we booked direct ones to Male – a returning and also a flexible ones, just in case something happens and we’ll need to change the flights. The air tickets were around good 40% of the overall cost – to ensure the maximum comfort level. Planned smart but didn’t help in the end.||We arrived as planned and spent a great 10 days – everything was good. ||But then the last day just killed the impression of the whole vacation:||• We received a farewell departure message which said that the flight to Male is scheduled for 13:40 local Nika time (11:40 Male time). Our flight home was at 14:10 Male time so we suggested this could be a great balance to make it to the flight without overspending time at the airport.|• We’ve paid the bill at 12:30 Nika time and were waiting for the flight – on the pier accompanied with a guard there.|• At 13:40 the plane hasn’t appeared so we’ve started to bother – but no one has arrived to the pier with any updates. Not even proposing a water for the kids – nothing.|• At 14:00 I myself (still no initiative from the personnel) went back from the pier to the reception and asked whether the plane is arriving and if we’re still making that to check in for our home flight – the answer was that everything is under control, no need to worry about.|• 14:45 - the personnel finally have come to the pier - when the plane was landing – obviously to meet and greet the arriving tourists. No comments on what shall we do with our flight home. Definitely we would be looking for more attention and thoughts when it was pretty obvious that we’re missing our flight.|• The local flight took off at 14:55 Nika time. At that time, it was still possible to reschedule our flight home for the next day without any extra costs – if someone told us that we’re not making that for the check in. But no one did. |• The crew on the flight from Nika to Male was perfect – they’ve made it very fast even under heavy wind and rain (that’s why it is pretty obvious that so called “bad weather conditions” was not the reason for delay). By the way during the last two days of our stay the weather was even worse in terms of wind and rain and the planes were arriving without any complications.|• Finally, we arrived at Male local airport at 13:30 – five minutes after the check in for our flight was closed. And it was already not possible neither to reschedule no to cancel our expensive flexible tickets. We just lost them.|• The company representative has immediately informed us that we missed our flight. Then he suggested to take another flight at the company’s cost. Good idea.|• The suggestion was to take a connecting flight - but at least with a well known company at least with similar service level to our home air company. So we decided to take an advantage of earlier arrival home even with an overnight connection and further flight.|• However no one has informed us that the second connecting flight was not with a well known airline but rather with low-coaster with obviously much worse general service level (seats, meals etc.) |• The connection in Dubai at night was 4 hours. No one has suggested to provide a lounge or any other opportunity to have rest – at least for the kids.|• Needless to say no one has interested how was our travel when we’re back home.||*||We are still very disappointed and hope no one else would suffer from such an experience on your family vacations.||P.S. We send this email to the hotel – no feedback in 2 months...

We are frequent travellers to Maldives and recently spent a blissful week at Nika Island for the first time.|And it was incredible…|First, let’s start with the accommodation (we are a couple with their 17 year old daughter) – we booked the deluxe family beach villa (No 4) which is wonderfully rustic, very comfortable and so very peaceful… We had 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms (the master bathroom with an additional outdoor show was just amazing!) and a large living room (The only drawback perhaps could be the seating space in the living room is not one in which you can laze or lounge…but that’s really not where we spent any time.)|The most amazing part is the private stretch of beach we had…truly luxurious to have that! Deck chairs, loungers, swing, hammock and an outdoor hot tub with soft silvery sand and gorgeous water and an amazing reef to swim to just 10 meters or so away.|After 3 days here we moved to the family water villa (No 41) which also had 2 bedrooms—stunning sense of open space where had beautiful views of the water from our bed..so bright and nice. This is smaller compared to the beach villa but still very spacious for 3 of us…lovely! The only drawback is you can hear the soft hum of machines/ or some industrial noise from the local island right across, and the seating in the living room is very inadequate. The reef access from this water villa was wonderful.|||The Food was fantastic!! We were on a Full Board Plan...decent breakfast, incredibly sumptuous lunch (buffet and live pasta / seafood stations) and lovely elegant dinners which you could choose from a set menu...when the weather is good you are seated in a lovely outdoor beach setting. They also offered complimentary snacks from 7pm onwards at the sunset beach…really thoughtful and we enjoyed that immensely.||The island was gorgeous: small, green and surrounded by an incredible house reef which so easy to access right off the beach. Whilst snorkelling off the beach, we saw large sting and eagle rays, sharks, turtles, an incredible array of fish and beautiful coral forests and even 1 eel and a lionfish…truly a marine paradise! (My very frequent exploration of the island’s reef led me to the belief that the best coral formations and snorkelling experiences were opposite Beach villas 6/7 ; Water Villa 37/36 and across the water sports centre close to the first beach villa.)|The gym is small but functions well for holiday maintenance workouts, complimentary sunrise yoga sessions were so rejuvenating and the spa was truly blissful.|A drawback is there is no swimming pool (except for the one in the spa which can only be used with treatments)..But then again...you’re in the Maldives…with the best possible natural pool of shallow turquoise water to swim in all around!|The excursions organised by the dive centre were only available if more than 4-6 guests signed on – hence we were unable to go for the snorkelling-with-nurse sharks one. The dive centre organised a local house reef excursion at a concessional rate of 30 dollars, but it was disappointing- my own independent trips were far more satisfying and I advise you to skip this.||Finally…the service!! Truly an amazing team of people who are warm and friendly and ensure you are well taken care of…The staff at the reception (Stalin and the others who names I’m sorry I forgot), the coffee shop/Bar (Sashi, Ajit), the housekeeping staff (Moosa and Ali and others) that tirelessly cleaned up with a smile, the staff ,chef and especially the sous Chef (Suresh -he was just so incredible – made special dishes for my wife who is a vegetarian) at the resturant, the dive centre team (Nicole) and of course the guest relations officers (Anna looked after us so very well and really ensured our stay was perfect! Luca and Stefano were always smiling and polite).||The resort has a lovely casual, barefoot ethos—and one feels at home right away…||I strongly recommend this island to anyone who wants to experience paradise in a peaceful and almost-homely manner.|I only wish we had stayed at...