Our stay at Niyama Maldives, a surreal week in paradise
Sep 1, 2025 BajaBlastFreeze
It’s been a little over a month now since we got back from our trip to Niyama. Unfortunately, real life has made it difficult for us to get around to writing our review of our week in paradise — which is truly how to describe any trip to an all-inclusive resort island like Niyama — but we are ready to make good on our promise to our Thakuru, Ammi,…
Read more
It’s been a little over a month now since we got back from our trip to Niyama. Unfortunately, real life has made it difficult for us to get around to writing our review of our week in paradise — which is truly how to describe any trip to an all-inclusive resort island like Niyama — but we are ready to make good on our promise to our Thakuru, Ammi, who was always one text or call away no matter what time of the day.
Ammi was there the second we landed on the island after our first-ever seaplane ride from Malé International directly to Niyama, which was a great convenience to only have to worry about a single transfer between airport and island. Immediately after stepping onto the island from our plane, we were greeted by Ammi as well as a few other island staff, accompanied by the island’s manager, Laurent, who was also lovely. It was amazing hearing his story about his journey to becoming an island manager after starting as a scuba instructor in the industry!
After being greeted and gifted welcome drinks to refresh us from our long journey from the UK, Ammi offered to give us a quick tour of the island before taking us to our overwater villa #76, which was the first of two villas we stayed in during our 7-night stay. Ammi gave us a quick run-down on how to operate the electronics in the villa and shared with us his WhatsApp number. After confirming a time for dinner that night, he left us to be in awe of our new home for the next week. I mean it when I say there is no feeling like waking up to the sunrise over a vast, bright-blue ocean with nothing but water in front of your eyes and sea life swimming directly under you. The visual clarity of the water is surreal — you can see individual rocks and shells from above the surface. It’s the kind of experience that makes you think about how to achieve something like this every day.
One thing we didn’t catch until our last day, unfortunately, was that we were not given the welcome-gift champagne that was meant to be included — only macarons, candy, and three apples — which was not what we were expecting from other photos or the description of our inclusion. This oversight did not ruin our trip by any means.
Our villa #76 is located on Chill Island along with all the other overwater villas, including the special Pavilions found at The Crescent. Niyama is comprised of two separate islands connected via a bridge: Chill Island and Play Island. The islands are intended to differentiate activities and villa types: family beach villas are on Play Island and all ocean villas are on Chill Island. Both islands have their own primary restaurants — Blu (on Play Island) and Epicure/Dune (on Chill Island) — where you’ll find buffet breakfasts and à la carte lunches; dinners are buffet-style with à la carte options. Both restaurants also include a public pool. Epicure/Dune is a more complex setup: Epicure hosts buffet breakfast and dinner inside the main building, which also hosts a rooftop bar named Fahrenheit that opens after 5:30 p.m., while Dune Bar and lunch are set up directly outside on the beach where Epicure is located.
Niyama has five other main restaurants that each follow a cultural theme. Tribal is Niyama’s African restaurant serving traditional African and Central/South American cuisines — come here if you want to try exotic cuts such as ostrich, crocodile, kudu, and blesbok! Nest is the island’s Asian restaurant with a fantastical treetop setup; you can sit in serenity eating a savory katsu curry or reserve a teppanyaki spot downstairs for a performance-based meal with their chef (I wish I remembered his name — he was amazing and had only just started, I believe!). After teppanyaki, you get the chance to write anything you want on a tree-ring piece that will be hung on their wall — a little piece of you left on the island forever.
There is The Deli, where they serve ready-to-eat pastries, small bites, made-to-order sandwiches, and ice cream. We didn’t try The Deli because it sounded the least interesting to us, but the interior is lovely and cozy and I’m sure the food is as good as everything else — even the buffet breakfasts tasted phenomenal. You wouldn’t feel dissatisfied if you only ate at Blu or Epicure/Dune; the variety and quality at the buffets genuinely impressed us.
One place I didn’t add as part of the five main dining areas is the Surf Shack truck near the island’s surfing point on Play Island. Funny enough, the Surf Shack menu items were a major deciding factor for me when we chose Niyama, and I have no shame in admitting that! I was desperately craving a resort where we could eat Mexican street-style tacos. Although they unfortunately use hard shells for their tacos, the guacamole sauce and mini beef empanadas reinforced my feeling that we had picked the perfect place for our first trip to the Maldives — they gave just enough of that Mexican-American flavor I wanted. Don’t get me wrong: those hard-shell tacos might’ve been the best hard-shell tacos I’ve ever had. Chef Pradeep, if you see this, please consider bringing classic soft-shell Mexican street tacos to the island’s menu somewhere — haha.
The final two restaurants, Edge and Subsix, go hand in hand: one kitchen serves both. Edge is the above-water fine-dining experience where you can share drinks and look out into the ocean while enjoying caviar, wagyu, and sea urchin; cross the bridge and go down the steps into Subsix, which — as the name suggests — sits six meters below the surface. Dining there, watching fish speed past the glass walls and coral reefs, while enjoying a set menu with sake pairings, was genuinely one of the most unique experiences we will ever have.
Niyama also offers other destination dining experiences, and we took advantage of the private sandbank picnic, which advertises a serene, peaceful lunch on a sandbank away from the island for three hours where you’re meant to be away from the world and have ultimate privacy and tranquility. Unfortunately, our picnic wasn’t picture perfect, but it didn’t spoil the experience — we still enjoyed almost every second of it.
To start with what was good: we arrived at the arrival dock around 11:00 a.m. for our departure to the sandbank, where Ammi was waiting with the boat along with our boat captain and crew. We set off and arrived no longer than 10–15 minutes later, with our beanbags set up, an umbrella pitched to keep us from being cooked in the Maldivian sun, and two coolers filled with our picnic feast and complimentary drinks. Everything started amazingly. We set up our first of two picnic platters filled with fruit, meat skewers, cheeses, and more — it all tasted wonderful and was too much to finish! We enjoyed light snorkeling around the bank and walked the whole length. Unfortunately, we scheduled the experience early in our trip and hadn’t conquered our fear of the ocean at the Blue Hole yet, so we didn’t swim much and chose to mainly listen to music and lounge in the serenity of the scenery.
Being a three-hour experience in the low season, we weren’t able to avoid the occasional rain shower. There was a 20–30 minute section where we were stranded on the bank in a heavy downpour; a group of jetskiers from a neighboring resort took refuge on the sandbank until it stopped — which we completely understood, and we were not upset. The issue was that the guests later came back to the sandbank after the storm to take pictures, which made us uncomfortable and feel as if we were not given the exclusive experience we expected; we had not been warned that guests from other resorts might be brought to the same sandbank during someone else’s scheduled experience. That said, it was not the end of the world — we even got an offer to take pictures with the jet skis, which we accepted. In a perfect world, it would have been nice if Niyama had informed us of this possibility or reimbursed us with more than a complimentary bottle of champagne (which we later learned should have been included on arrival anyway). Still, considering everything else, this was among the worst things we experienced — and that’s a positive sign!
There’s so much more I’d love to write about, but this review has already taken almost an hour. I’m sure you’ll find many other people talking about the island’s diverse staff from around the world, including the island’s coconut guru, Imran — one of the most memorable people on the island — who is originally from Bangladesh and had no idea how to climb a tree before getting his job! Or Ruslan, who comes from a Russian city near Serbia where the temperatures are similar but negative! Everyone on the island is amazing and genuinely cares about the guests they serve. We hope to have the chance to see you all again soon!
A tip for anyone who gets to the end of this review: if you love crabs, take a detour to the left of the bridge entrance to the ocean villas. There’s conveniently enough space to park your bikes and you’ll find a hammock tied to two trees on the coastline where you’ll see genuinely hundreds of hermit and ghost crabs. We loved coming to this little spot at night after dinner or in the morning before breakfast to watch the tiny crabs going about their lives — it’s genuinely a little Crab Treasure Trove!
And before ending this review entirely, we want to thank as many people from the island as we can remember (forgive us if we miss anyone). You all made our stay so wonderful — Zoe was bawling waiting on our seaplane back to Malé because of how much she was going to miss this place, and I will too! Here’s to hoping for another trip back as soon as possible :)
Ammi — Thank you so much for always doing your best to accommodate us with anything we needed, for responding even at the latest hours of the night, and for making sure we got last-minute dinner reservations when we were indecisive — haha. We wish you the best!
Pradeep — Thank you for the opportunity to see behind the scenes of how island kitchens in the Maldives operate and for personal tours of the many kitchen spaces and the chefs’ garden. As someone who works in the food industry (I’m a dishwasher), it was phenomenal to meet your teams and thank the dishwasher — that meant a lot. I hope we’ll see you again — maybe one day for a job, who knows!
Akil — You brought a warm presence to every food service you were involved with. We’re so grateful to have received such amazing service from you and your coworkers — your generosity is noticed instantly!
Jackie — Although we didn’t indulge in much wine, we enjoyed every small conversation and greeting with you. Maybe next time we’ll learn more about the wines offered on the island!
Shamai — Every time we saw you and Ibaash serving us, we were so happy. You both come off as genuine and happy, and being closer in age made us feel friendly toward you. You show the exact qualities every server/host should aspire to — thank you!
Ibaash — Apologies if the spelling isn’t correct. You and Shamai both showed what it means to be great servers/hosts and how to make guests feel truly cared for. The simple desire to say goodbye to us before you left the island shows your character — thank you for that!
Hery — Thank you for being proactive in making sure every guest got the experience they desired. Greeting us at breakfast and checking how we were felt like true care — thank you.
Reima — Your eggs were always lovely; cooking them at home just isn’t the same. You have such a warm and authentic presence — we hope to have your eggs again soon!
Moses — Your cooking is amazing. The passion in your voice when you speak of your food gives guests the best experience, and we appreciated learning the history and culture behind your dishes. Thank you!
Kaisa — The warmth you bring to the restaurant in the morning is unmatched. Being greeted with health shots was an unmatched morning experience — thank you for your hospitality.
Boni — You and Anne were always happy faces when we dined, and you made our Subsix experience feel like being served by a friend — we appreciate you!
Anne — Like Boni, your service at Tribal felt welcoming and friendly. We talked about the service as much as the food — thank you.
Rakish — You respected our room and belongings better than we do at times. Your friendliness and communication about cleaning were unparalleled, and we were so happy to see you responded to the note we left you. I hope you run one of these islands one day, friend!
Imran — I already spoke about you, but you go above and beyond. You appeared at the right times to gift us fresh coconuts and brought a radiant happiness to the island. Your backstory of becoming the coconut guru is inspiring. We will always cherish the shell you gave us — Zoe still has it on her desk. We appreciate you, Imran!
Read less
