We really enjoyed our 7 night stay at Holiday Inn Kandooma over Christmas 2011, our first trip to the Maldives.

Arrival – Greeted by Holiday Inn staff at the airport, we waited 20mins for another flight to arrive but were impressed with the late night collection from the airport. On arrival at the resort we were taken via the reception very quickly to our villa loaded up with information on trips, dining options etc.

Beaches – Great resort with a 3 or 4 beaches to choose from. The beach in front of the pool and restaurant is the busiest but has more choice of bean bags and loungers. There are a couple of small beaches scattered around, one near the over water villas which was always quiet and one near The Kitchen Restaurant. We stayed in beach villa no 11 which was located on the best beach, in our opinion. This beach was good to swim from. The beaches do have broken bits of coral on them but are really well maintained and I only used my reef shoes whilst snorkelling near the over water villas. We had no problem over the busy Christmas period securing a sun bed each day. Sun beds are more style over function but the beach towels provided are so huge that you can really spread out.

Accommodation – we stayed in Beach Villa 11, we loved the villa and the location. Villas further round the island would get more of a breeze as they are facing the edge of the atoll. Villas 154 to 160 also looked nice to me, quieter but still with a little beach and not far from the restaurants and jetty etc. The bed was decorated with rose petals on arrival, really nice touch! It was spotlessly clean and well equipped. I would have liked a bath as well as a shower but that would be my only negative comment and we did have two showers. There is lots of storage space, really nice and comfortable bed, wonderful fresh leaf tea and coffee with little cartons of UHT milk provided each day. This is a really nice touch!

I also found that I could access Wi-fi easily from the beach in front of our villa. We really enjoyed the concept of having a downstairs, semi-open living room. On the only raining day I spent all day reading on the massive day bed. There is also lots of space to leave your sand covered items and an outside shower so you could clean yourself up before you entered the room upstairs. The only negative comment would be that you get 2 bottles of water only per day; you are expected to purchase more water, bear in mind that you need to use bottled water for tea and coffee. During the day there is a water dispenser placed near the pool so you need to walk to gain a free glass of water.

Dining and Drinks – We were room only so we paid for all meals and drinks. Wine is pretty reasonably priced for a resort in the Maldives, $40 for a bottle. We found that breakfast was so fantastic that we rarely ate lunch and saved ourselves for dinner. Most people eat dinner early too, guess this is common on Resort Islands and there is not much else to do anyway.

For breakfast there was the usual hot western savouries, bacon, sausages etc, Danish pastries, salad, cheeses, cold meats, fruit (loads of variety and gorgeous!), fantastic bircher style yoghurt, toast and breads, Oriental breakfast which did vary and daily specials like ‘Eggs Benedict’. Tea and coffee cam e in your own pot which was great for us as we find it really annoying when you have to keep asking for more tea or coffee with breakfast.
For dinner we only ate at the buffet once, it was fine but we really don’t enjoy buffets for dinner. We ate at the pool side café which cost less than the buffet, we had fresh fish and some local style dishes – all really nice but the food did take a while to arrive. The pool bar offered a fish market style buffet one evening and beach barbeque on the beach in front of our villa. Both looked well attended and really nice.

We ate one night at the Rooftop Bar on top of The Kitchen Restaurant (the al a carte restaurant), the roof top bar offers a Tapas menu. Some the dishes were not very Spanish in origin but we really enjoyed our wine and food curled up on the lovely day beds. The roof top bar was not used much whilst we were there, only really by people at sunset but we were never dressed for dinner this early! The roof top bar is really nice though, nice breeze, looking out to sea where we spotted rays swimming.

Over Christmas there is two compulsory dinners, Xmas Eve and Xmas Day. We discovered that The Kitchen was offering a tasting menu for only $20 more than the Xmas buffet. We ate both evenings at The Kitchen and really loved it. On both nights we had tables overlooking the beach, fantastic service and food! The taster menus included an amuse bouche, starter, soup, sorbet, main course, sweet and a chocolate/candy. On Xmas Eve we had lamb which was to die for and the honey spiked butternut squash soup really was the best soup I’ve ever tasted. The advantage of the Holiday Inn Kandooma is that it is large enough to offer more dining options which caters for different types of holiday guests. The assistant Manager from Kerlia in India really looked after us – thank you!

We enjoyed cocktails on the Roof bar and the lounge bar seemed popular with a small group of people later on in the evening as most entertainment in the evening was based around the lounge bar, close to the reception area.

Swimming pool – busy with kids most of the day (Hey it was Xmas!) but early morning or at 6pm you could really get some great swimming in. I swim a lot, it took me 32 strokes to cross the pool, this means the pool is wonderfully LARGE!

Trips – As the island has no house reef we went on the free afternoon snorkelling trip aimed at intermediate swimmers. This was a good feature, snorkelling was pretty good. The free morning trip is aimed at beginners who can have more intense instruction in the swimming pool before you set off which is a good idea if you have not snorkelled before or are a poor swimmer.

We paid to go on the Turtle Point trip, we were due to set off at 9am but departed at 9.20am as we were stood waiting for a large family to roll up, it would have been better customer care if the sports team let us know that we were waiting for some late guests. This is probably more of a niggle to us as we tend to get up late so having to get myself out of bed to wait 20mins was frustrating for us! We were rewarded though by seeing and swimming with a huge turtle, only the one but boy was it worth it! The trip staff really looked after you and were very informative and friendly. One of the girls made a temporary fix on my snorkel for me, taking it away and attempting to fix it. This was my snorkel and not the hotels, a really nice touch.

You could also snorkel around the over water villas, just get the tide right, not too low or too high. We saw rays in this area as well as some pretty fish.

Location – the island is spitting distance from an island inhabited by Sea Gypsies and local Maldive’s people, some of which work in the resort. You are not encouraged to swim/wade across; I am guessing that they want to ensure you do not offend them by being inappropriately dressed but also because they sell a trip to the island. We don’t often stay in resorts, we also travelled around Sri Lanka and Thailand on this holiday so a week was enough for us. It would have been nice if the trip to the local island was complimentary so guests could experience a local village and put some currency straight back into the community – probably stocking up on mineral water!

Departure – bill accurate and processed efficiently. We walked over to the jetty with a Sri Lankan Manager so it was nice to discuss his recommendations for Sri Lanka. We were the only two on our return speed boat journey so we felt like VIPs!, If you suffer from sea sickness take some medication! On arrival back at Male it was nice to be met by a Holiday Inn member of staff who escorted us into departures making the transfer process idiot proof.

nothing more to say - amazing ! food great - service immpecable - pool great - choose a duplex if you can numbers 11 - 18 are in the best location - daily snorkling trip additive ! dolhin cruise breathtaking - even the live music 3 times aweek was really good

don't hesitate - go

We stayed in Kandooma 5 nights around Christmas and we had a nice overwater villa. We really enjoyed our time there and we were impressed how well the resort was managed.

All personnel was very friendly and efficient. One of us is on a glutenfree diet and the chef did his utmost to serve us with tasteful, delicious food. A very big thank you. All food was very good and prices for the Maldives were OK. Of course, it is not cheap, though it is reasonable.

Also, the resort is very well maintained. The sunset bar on top of the Kitchen restaurant is wonderful.

A bit disappointing is that the island does not have a home reef. This means that you need to take the boat which is every day leaving at 3 pm and which is for free. It is a nice excursion to a beautiful reef.

The overwater villa is nice, though not offering its full potential because you cannot go down in the water from your villa. The water is not deep enough to swim and at low tide, all water is gone and your overwater villa will be more like an overstone villa. Though the villa itself is very nice with Jacuzzi, beautiful bathroom, etc.

Overall, a very well managed resort with some limitations.

My husband and I stayed in Kandooma Holiday Inn resort for the first week in January this year. We have been to the Maldives before, and have always had a fabulous time. This holiday didn't disappoint us either.

We stayed in a beach villa around 5 minutes walk from the main reception and dining area. It was delightfully quiet, The room was spacious, and the outdoor bathroom was also large. We had been there for 24 hours before we discovered another shower.

We were on the all inclusive tarrif, and the food and drinks menu was extensive. We were never bored with the buffet style dining, the themed nights were lovely with a big fire pit adding to the sense of occassion.

Compared to the other islands that we have been to in the Maldives, there is more going on, there was entertainment every night, there were more families with children than other resorts we have been to.

The dive centre was brilliant and well set up by Eurodivers. There were some good current dives and we saw some big reef sharks pretty close up.

All the staff were friendly and accommodating. It was a shame that we had only booked for one week.