Detailed review of Holiday inn Kandooma
Outstanding points:
* The food at this resort is incredible. Huge compliments to the chefs, every meal was perfect everywhere we ate
* Scenery/beach/hotel/pool area is absolutely stunning. Very tropical and authentic feel.
* Amazing service from all the workers, all very kind, hard working and polite. Cannot give them enough credit. Special shoutouts to Dewi the waitress, Dean the social media manager , Darwed? We think his name was, the young man in the water activities centre who came on our boat trip and the young man waiter who has just came over from Hyderabad I don’t think we caught his name. These 4 took great care of us the whole stay and they definitely deserve huge recognition for their work. They worked so hard for us and the other guests, Dewi in particular was outstanding and such a lovely young lady who the Holiday inn should be proud to have. She remembered our favourite orders and really went the extra mile for us every single day
Good points:
Great drinks (although cocktails were quite strong for me), great DJs and singers, plenty of watersports, gorgeous rooms which are decorated on your arrival, efficient pickup from the airport as well as drinks on arrival, very quick check in, buggy service, plenty of storage space in the rooms, kids pool park and club looked really good, pillow menu, amazing, thick, striped beach towels provided and replaced every day, definitely the best we have ever seen at a hotel, WiFi was a bit on and off in some places but great when it worked. We had an incredible stay and the island is beautiful, amazing for a family holiday. Bonus points for being so close to the airport. Luxury resort which ticks nearly all the boxes.
Bad points, mostly small bitty things which won’t impact your trip much but are things to be noted:
The biggest issues for us personally:
- All inclusive drinks not starting until 11AM, only a small selection of soft drinks available
- No sun loungers by the pool!!! Beach only and no cushioning on almost all of the sun beds
- “Beach villas” on the surf beach with no actual beach access, a fence and pure rocks. These ones should be sold as sea view.
Very expensive excursions but we have heard this is just what the Maldives is like, minibar in the room is not part of the all inclusive, there’s no actual walk way around the resort the whole thing is sand; the only place with no sand is your room and the restaurants which gets very annoying, not a huge selection in the buffet, the construction is an absolute eyesore especially if you’re in one of the water villas directly facing them so be very careful when booking a water villas, no full body length mirror in the beach villa and lastly no all inclusive wrist bands.
*NOTHING TO DO WITH THE HOTEL OR THE STAFF , JUST A PSA FOR BRITISH PEOPLE COMING TO THE MALDIVES* if you’re a British person please brace yourself for the other guests here; they are incredibly rude specifically to the British and absolutely racist to white and black people.
