Farheen Khan
Kandima is a very beautiful property with all necessary amenities in the premises itself. The staff there are rockstars and take care of you like a family.
Their spa services are magical. It's impossible to review or share feedback on everything they have in the resort but yes, if you are scared of lizards this place might creep you out.
Overall a great place and i would totally recommend it for a luxury leisure stay.
Dhianesh Sivakumar
Truly a paradise. The ocean with waves on one end and the serene blue water beach on the other side of Kandima makes it a unique experience. The room size and the view it offers are truly magnanimous, especially the ocean pool villa.
Hospitality was great. Our trip got delayed due to connecting flight issue and we happened to miss our booking. The reception staff Anwar went his way beyond to get us go with our original intended booking without any hindrance and as a step ahead he even helped us upgrade to an even better villa.
Overall a heavenly experience. Kandima will stay in our memories forever.
Thanks,
Dhianesh.
Navonil Mukherjee
Exceptional establishment. Went on our honeymoon and couldn't be more impressed. From immaculate cleanliness to the delectable cuisine, everything was top notch. The icing on the cake was the superb service we received from the staff. Ankita at the front desk was very welcoming and aided us with a smooth check-in experience. This five star property won't disappoint. Highly recommended!
Bryana Cope
Incredible experience, from the moment we landed at the airport there were staff to help guide us to our domestic flight, and insure we arrived to the island smoothly. They made my birthday extra special by decorating our bed, our dinner table and bringing out a special dessert! The food is incredible, there was vegan options at every venue but dinners were the best at all three restaurants. I highly recommend Sea Dragon, Edam made sure we had the best dinners, including customized spicy drinks! And the view of the stars from the outside seating was unmatched.
Staying in the aqua villas is a must! Being able to swim off the deck was one of our favorite parts of the trip. The sunset from there was breathtaking! The activities were amazing, we did the sunset cruise, dolphin and turtle quest, as well as snorkeling at the house reef and kayaking.
Definitely don't skip the spa! They made sure I was comfortable throughout the massages and I left feeling more relaxed than I thought possible!
Overall an incredible experience staying here!
Andrey Chk
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 throughout the day.