Kandima Maldives — Hotel in South Nilandhe Atoll

This was our dream ‘bucket list’ holiday. Without doubt it was also the most expensive holiday I have ever taken and will probably ever go on, and as such my expectations were very high. To add I have also been to many all-inclusive resorts, and stayed at 5-star hotels before.||I will first start by saying that if you go to the Maldives, then please opt for the sea plane transfer to your hotel. Yes, it is expensive, but the views of the sea, the hotels, the islands are stunning. I doubt that a boat will give you anywhere near this experience. ||On arrival to Kandima after 27 hours of travelling, I encountered my first disappointment. I knew about the restaurants and so I asked the receptionist to make a dinner reservation on the first night. This was declined, and if I wanted to do this, then I had to wait until I got to my room and to call guest services. Then next thing just compounded my initial view of Kandima. My expectation was that we would get a buggy or transportation to our Aqua Villa with Swirl pool. Nope, we had to queue with the other couple that arrived with us for the bus. This was a 15-minute wait and I guess you can say we were lucky in that there was just enough room for us. If there hadn’t been, then it would have been another 15-to-20-minute wait. Come on Kandima, this is not 5-star service when your room is a 25-minute walk away.||Entry to our Aqua Villa is with a wristband fob rather than a key or card. I must say I was impressed with the villa. It was bigger than the YouTube clips I had seen, and it was just stunning. The deck overlooking the sea just made it worth it.||The bathroom had a big shower, with both a rainfall and shower head hose attachment. Usual toilet and single sink setup, and also a very large bathtub (big enough for two) also with a shower hose attachment. Two huge windows, one overlooking the sea, the other the deck area. Both have modesty blinds. The bathroom was stock with body/hand wash, conditioner, body lotion, scrub mitt, and two bath robes. Disappointed that there were no complementary slippers though.||In the main room are a large safe, TV, iron/ironing board, hairdryer, can of bug spray (doesn’t work) a UK plug adapter (not required as all sockets are UK style), a mini bar fridge, kettle and coffee machine. The main bedroom also has a good aircon system with a ceiling fan as well. The room has plenty of storage and had two life jackets if needed for those that are not great swimmers. Also, there are two golfing style umbrellas, and trust me – you will need these.||There is a mini-bar which for those all-inclusive is complementary and should be fully restocked daily. It includes: -||4 cans of Carlsberg|1 small bottle of red wine|1 small bottle of white wine|1 Snickers bar|1 Bounty bar|2 bottles of Coke|2 bottles of Sprite|2 bottles of Fanta|2 bottles juice (mango & orange)||If you consumed all of this each day and had to pay for it, it would cost you $129 dollars a day. This is quite a perk. However, it’s not always replenished or items missed.||Going out on to the upper deck area, you have a small table and two chairs, and your Swirl pool. Note that it is not a hot tub or jacuzzi and will not heat the water. These means that first thing in the morning, the water is cold, until the sun hits it and quickly warms it up. This area has lights (if required) for the evening.||A few steps and you are now on the lower level. Here you have two sun loungers and your swimming pool style steps into the sea. Let’s face it, you go to the Maldives for the sea, and you won’t be disappointed here. It’s warm and crystal clear. I saw dolphins, sharks, turtles, fish, rays, octopus and jelly fish. And on land I saw lizards, crabs and bats. Also in the lake are more fish and huge catfish.||Things Outside Kandima’s Control||Mosquitoes – these will eat you alive. Bring repellent and cover yourself. We did see someone using a fogging machine, but this was only once during our stay.|Weather - don’t look at weather apps as they are all wrong and the weather changes constantly.|Wear sea shoes - dead coral on beach, in the sea and you can’t always see rays.|Rooms on sun rise side - no swimming permitted and sea crashing on shore is very loud.|You are close to the equator, so sun burn is a real danger. Take more sun lotion than you think you will need and use it frequently.|This island has a no drone policy. However, in the 13 nights we were here, I don’t think I have seen so many drones in my life. Be prepared to be filmed and photographed without your consent (especially on your private deck area).|Rubbish – I was surprised at how much rubbish I saw on the beach, in the sea, on the decks. People just don’t clean up after themselves, and the natural beautify is spoilt by a few for everyone.||Issues Reported by Others||I read these issues reported by TripAdvisor reviews and here are my comments: -||Wi-Fi – I found this was a good connection and speed and rarely dropped.|Rats – I didn’t see one rat on the whole of the island.|Hot water – yes it may take a little while to come through, but the water was very hot and in good supply.|Flies & other bugs – didn’t really see these or have issues with them.||Issues Experienced||During my 13-night stay, here is a list of issues I experienced: -||1. Power cut number 1 caused by a faulty fridge. This required an engineer to come out, reset the breaker and replace the fridge.|2. Power cut number 2 caused by something wrong with the Swirl pool. This also required an engineer to reset the breaker.|3. On the first morning while waking up, the large picture frame above the bed fell on my (and my wife’s) heads. When reported to reception to pass on to the General Manager, there wasn’t any response (see photos) which I find bizarre! This could have resulted in a serious injury.|4. Trying to get an alcoholic drink at lunch time at Flavour or Zest is a huge challenge. And when you get the drink its tiny (don’t expect a pint).|5. I planned to walk the length of the island each day (about 3km). No one told me (and it’s not on any website), that about a third of the island is blocked off for construction work and will be for several years.|6. If you call guest services because you have an issue (like a power cut), then expect to be cut off many many times.|7. The bathroom in the afternoon once the sun hits it, becomes an oven and is unbearable. I did report this several times and the only solution was to turn down the aircon in the bedroom, which did nothing in the bathroom.|8. I personally don’t use swimming pools (especially those with swim up bars). Having been a manager of a corporate swimming pool, I know how filthy the water gets. The Beach Bar pool when I arrived was blue in colour (as is the tiling). By day three this was green and murky and you could not see the not very deep bottom. This has got to be a health hazard (see photos).|9. In week 2 the Swirl pool would start on its own. Unfortunately, the pump sounded like a two-stroke engine and made a lot of noise. Engineers came to look at it and fixed it. But then it would restart again. This was never resolved.|10. While the daily cleaning of the room was to a high standard, on many days’ items would not be replenished such as toilet roll, tissues, water or towels.|11. I booked the $60 Turtle Quest with Aquaholics. However, if you book the morning snorkelling trip ($0 and complementary), then you all go together on the same boat and do the same trip. I pointed this out to the Aquaholics team member who just shrugged his shoulders and smirked at me and would not refund me the cost. A blatant rip off.|12. I used the handy Kandima App to report many issues. These would then be closed down as FIXED/CLOSED when no one had done anything.|||Could be Better – Room for Improvement||Kandima App or Smart TV – You can’t book a la carte restaurants on either. You have to phone guest services from your room. |On the Kandima App you can only see the current days bookings. You can’t see any other bookings after this.|You can’t see your bill/invoice on the smart TV or App. You have to go to reception to see this. |Wristbands not used for payment. You have to give your room number for everything which is open to abuse if someone overhears this information. In addition, you cannot lock your room when going into the sea from the rear. Can the wristbands not be used to access sea villas from the sea side?|All inclusive confusion. What is included, what isn’t included, what is an event etc. If its all-inclusive, make it all inclusive, and don’t try to catch people out.|No towel art or personal touches left on the bed for you each day (as many other 5-star resorts do. |For a modern resort, this hotel lacks air conditioning. It’s in the rooms and only in the Sea Dragon/Forbidden Bar, toilets at Zest, toilets by Azure & Flavour, shops, games room, Delhi and coffee shop.|The shops are extortionate. $7 dollars for a coffee, $7 for a single scoop of ice cream, and $88 for sun tan lotion (plus 10% service charge & 16% tax). I know you have a captive audience, but why the need to rip people off?||Buffet Restaurants||Zest and Flavour are where you have breakfast and lunch. And if you cannot get an a la carte booking, this is also where you get your dinner.||Let’s just say in my opinion, that these restaurants are a huge disappointment. I understand they have to cater for a broad spectrum of people, but I just found the food in here boring, bland and tasteless. I can at best describe it as a staff canteen and at worst a motorway service station.||Breakfast is the better option of the three. But in Zest there are just 3 coffee machines servicing the whole restaurant. Most of the time one would be out of action, one would be limited in choice and the other just gives the smallest coffee you could imagine. The toaster machine takes 5 pass throughs to get white bread brown. 2/5 score.||A La Carte Restaurants||First let's start with the jewel in the crown, the combined Sea Dragon restaurant and Forbidden Bar. This air-conditioned palace is just fantastic. The lighting, the decor, the ambiance all set it up for a great location. The staff are attentive and fantastic, the drinks on point, but what you go here for is the food. And the food is perfect in portion size, it's hot, and it's absolutely tasty and delicious. There is nothing negative I can write about this place. And what sets this restaurant above the others is the manager Edam. He will visit each table and make sure you are 100% satisfied. His hands on style should be commended. 5/5 score.||Second favourite is Smoked. Again, the lighting, decor and ambiance at this restaurant are fantastic. Sometimes you are outside on the beach (Maldives weather permitting), otherwise it's indoors. There is no aircon at this location, so for some it may get too hot. But again, the food is spectacular and the staff brilliant. A great selection of steaks, fish and vegetable dishes. 5/5 score.||In last spot its Azure. A Mediterranean feel with a great selection of food. As with Smoked this has no aircon, so for some will find it hot and sticky. My only improvement I would make to Azure is that I found it a little dark with the lighting. But the food is without doubt fantastic. 5/5 score.||Honourable mention also to Breeze Bar. During the day if you order food at the Breeze Bar, then it is cooked in Azure. Whilst this is not part of the all-inclusive deal, the food is of such great quality and taste, that we ate lunch here a number of times, to get away from the canteen style Zest and Flavour (see my full review where I will cover these buffet restaurants).||Personally we had no issues reserving a table at any of the above on any of the 13 nights of our stay. I would imagine though that this is based on hotel occupancy.||Checking Out||We had a 0915 flight out of the international airport, so I knew it would be an early start. However, at 9pm the night before I had still to be advised what time our sea plane was taking off the next day and what time I had to be in reception. I had to chase reception for this information which is not really acceptable.||Although the sea plane was due to take of at 0545 (it didn’t take off until 0615) I was required to be in reception at 0445. Why????? There are no buses until 0600 and no offer again of any transport. It took 25 minutes’ walk to get to reception and it’s still 30 degrees heat, so by the time you arrive you are a sweaty mess. In addition, you are expected to seat in the open-air reception, and I had to ask to sit in the air-conditioned office. I shouldn’t have to ask for this.||Star Players||Manjula - Breeze & Forbidden Bar. Very helpful, very friendly and great service.|Sidath - Breeze & Smoked. Always with a huge smile. Excellent service.|Rosa – Spa. Does a great Indian head massage.|Edam - Sea Dragon & Forbidden Bar Manager. Hands on style and great customer service. |Zest Omelette Guy (sorry I didn’t get his name). Does a killer omelette for breakfast.||Summary||This is 100% not a 5 or a 4-star hotel. It is a 3-star hotel that will cost you 5-star rates. If you are happy to pay a lot of money for a 3-star service, then go to Kandima. If you aren’t happy to pay that then please go elsewhere. Please look at the other terrible/poor/average reviews which are pretty consistent, as I wish I had before I booked...

A very decent resort, with very attentive and caring stuff who will do their best to make your stay impeccable, however carefully consider the below points when entrusting Kandima with you Maldives vacation. We stayed there in Mar as a couple, 35-40 years old, without kids, and this is how it was.

very attentive staff, will go out of their way to attend to your request. With that said, not necessarily all things you ask (reasonable) will be done unless you follow up multiple times, call reception, etc.

Good food – even in the Zest and Flavour, two buffet-style restaurants, one can always find very decent food. We liked fresh and delicious tuna sashimi, variety of Indian cuisine options (meet and seafood curries, naan bread, etc.), fish, meat, pasta, open fire BBQ station, deserts, plenty of fruits and vegetables. Very decent a la carte restaurants, can enjoy table service with waitresses, etc.

Beautiful location, big island to enjoy walks, good facilities – boats, water toys, diving, swimming pools, etc., large area to walk or cycle. We never took a bike, walked all the time as it’s always a beautiful walk either by the beach or central alley covered by natural shade from trees.

Great diving centre and instructors, loved every dive with them. Proper 5 star service. Thanks to Hassan, Adam and Ronaldo.

What we didn’t like is crazy number of kids, 2-5 years old. If you imagine relaxed swim in the pool, sipping pina colada by the pool bar, enjoying the calm of Indian ocean and the views – forget about it. Kids invading the pool entire day – ball games, screams, tears and laughs. Because of this we only been in the pool 2 times. Parents are of course trying to get the most for their own time in Maldives and don’t care much about kids letting them do their crazy kids-stuff. Same goes for restaurants both buffet style and a la carte (Smoke, Sea Dragon, Azure) – running and shouting kids, losing food on the floor, so you walk on the squashed pineapples and fried calamaries. This is very pronounced in buffet restaurants as they are large but also very annoying in some a la carte places e.g. Sea Dragon where we went twice and both times there were lots of kids making the place unbearably noisy.

expect to follow up on your requests multiple times until resolved, don’t be fooled that things got done by the first enquiry with the reception it’s not the Four Seasons type of service. A few times our reservations at restaurants and photo session simply were never properly recorded so we had to rebook it and some things need to be booked 2 days in advance so if you too late before your departure you just don’t get it.

some facilities need attention: only two coffee machines in huge buffet restaurants and they are always broken, I mean always. There wasn’t a single day I didn’t stand in a queue for a coffee only to end up with the machine been broken. Yes, personnel quickly rushes to fix it, nevertheless I didn’t appreciate going through this experience every day. Very often difficult to find an empty plate to get food, again because of big families with kids take unnecessarily big amounts of food, small kids of course don’t understand that and just keep piling on whatever looks good taking all empty plates and coffee mugs which staff struggles to replenish.

At least 70% of guests are Russian speaking, the resort has several Russian-speaking staff and once a week throws in Russian-style food-corner in buffet restaurants. I suppose this is hotel’s strategy and its target market so expect to have overwhelming exposure to Russians for good or bad, matter of personal choice.

Conclusion: within its price range it is a decent resort, not a five star by any metrics but gives you all you need on a very good level. Bear in mind, this is a big resort so lots of people in any place unless of course you are in your private beach or ocean villa etc. Hotel enjoys good food, caring staff, beautiful location. Don’t expect relaxing vacation as it seems parents’ favourite resort – lots of kids...

TL;DR; - My wife and I along with our 9-month old baby boy had our best holiday, and Kandima Maldives ensured that our 6-night stay remains memorable for years to come! No complaints at all!

Now for the longer review: Right from the time we booked our stay at Kandima and they helped us plan for the transfers, the Kandima team had checked all boxes of being the ‘Oh-so-Kool’ team as they like to say.

After what seemed like ages of travelling, getting down from the seaplane and taking a first look at the resort instantly gave away the fact that the pictures we see online do no justice to how beautiful the place actually is! Warm welcome by the Kandima team at the Jetty, welcome drink, check-in process - all absolutely smooth.

We booked an aqua villa with a swirl pool for all 6-nights of our stay, and I cannot describe how lovely the room was! Comfortable bed, a large enough sofa-bed (which ended up being our little one’s territory throughout the stay!), a huge bathroom with a large tub, shower area, all topped by amazing views of the lagoon with direct access to it, this has been the best room we’ve ever stayed in on a holiday. Room Tip: Among aqua villas, the aqua villas with swirl pools are laid out after the regular aqua villas, and so be prepared to walk more if you book the ones with a swirl pool.

We spent a very special week at Kandima, with my wife’s birthday and our wedding anniversary just a few days apart in the same week. And the team ensured they made it special for us by putting up some nice decorations in our room while we were away.

We had most of our meals at “Zest” (primarily because of its proximity to the aqua villas), a few times at “Flavour”, a short dessert break at “Aroma”, and almost all our afternoons at “Breeze Pool Bar”. Both “Zest” and “Flavour” had a lot to offer in terms of variety, with breakfast being the best meal. Eventually, the main buffet items get repetitive, but we seemed to manage well with all our meals. The staff at “Zest” did an amazing job with welcoming the guests and making them feel comfortable. Regular thermal checks, insisting on face masks at the buffet areas was normal routine and they managed really well. Unfortunately, we missed out on asking names, but we really want to give a shout out to the ladies who managed the entry at “Zest”, always welcoming us with a smile, and for making our little one smile! Not to forget, a special mention to the Indian Chef at “Zest”, who made our meals special by making special soups and other stuff that our little one could eat. These things win your heart, and they surely did for us! Out of all restaurants at the resort, the “Breeze Pool Bar” has the best location, with access to the huge pool as well as the beach. We spent most of our afternoons at “Breeze”, sipping away wines and cocktails, splashing away in the pristine waters at Kandima.

They have bike rentals which turned out to be a blessing for us during the latter half of our holiday. They have a few bikes with these cute baby seats and our little one absolutely loved his bike rides!

The buggy service is pretty amazing I would say. Quite opposite to what a few other reviews say, we’ve had no issues trying to get a buggy on time. They generally mention a waiting period of 15-20 for a buggy to arrive, but we did not have to wait for more than 10 minutes ever. And plus, we were on a holiday, so why hurry? A 10-15 minute wait did no harm, even with a baby.

Check-out was absolutely smooth too. The front-desk team was very prompt and did their best to help us out even with the ton of health declaration forms we had to fill before departure. Our seaplane to Male was scheduled pretty early in the morning, but I believe they try to optimise by suiting a major chunk of guests in a single go, based on an average time of departure from the Male airport.

“Kandima”, take a bow. You have won our hearts. This holiday was really special for us and you really made sure it ended...