На Мальдивах не бывает плохо Nothing bad happens in the Maldives

In November, my husband and I visited the Maldives. We went together for a week, a ticket was issued through the Russian Express tour operator. The company recommended us to choose a new 5* Kandima hotel. I want to leave a review about this hotel because we really liked it there. Of course, the hotel has some minor drawbacks, but in general it is a great option for family holidays, including those with children, and youth holidays.
The hotel is new, opened in March 2017.
My husband and I tried to see the island in as much detail as possible and learn about the different categories of rooms in the hotel.

So, I will state in detail what I know))

The concept of the hotel is very unusual for the Maldives - life style, it seems to reflect the rhythm of the usual life in the city.
You live as if in a residential area, in your villa, and the center of the city, where there is "life", are all public areas concentrated in the central part of the island (bar, restaurant, swimming pool, reception).

Buggy runs around the island every 5-7 minutes in both directions, like buses. There are even special "bus stops" along the road, within walking distance of the villas.
You can relax in a private atmosphere in your villa, and if you want to “go out”, sit on a buggy and come to the “center”, go to a store or sit in a bar, skip a cocktail or another.
There are many shops on the island, souvenir shops, clothing boutiques, including a small grocery market where you can buy light snacks (chips, nuts, waffles), drinks and fruits. There is a coffee shop where you can order cold coffee.
A unique feature of the hotel is the presence of an art studio where you can take drawing lessons and go to the open air. The hotel also has a marine animal research center and a large swimming pool for diving lessons.
The hotel is new, beautiful, has a stylish and modern design.
There are a lot of interesting and creative locations especially for photo shoots - swings in the water, soft zones right in the pool, the hotel logo on the beach and on the pier.
There are different categories of rooms: the minimum category is a beach studio, the rooms are located in two-story bungalows, there are 4 rooms in one bungalow, on the first floor there are rooms with direct access to the sea, on the second floor the rooms have a large balcony with a soft swing, armchairs and a table.
The next category in which we lived - beach villas, separate houses with a pool or jacuzzi, with direct access to the sea. In the part of the island where the beach villas are located, in my opinion, the best beach and sunset, in addition, this is the side where the sun sets, that is, you can enjoy the sunsets.
Water villas, as it turned out, are divided in the same way - the villa has either a jacuzzi or a pool. They are located on the other side of the island. Nearby there is a restaurant, swimming pool. The beach is shared with beach studios, they are located nearby.

The internal content, design, colors of all hotel rooms are almost the same. Everywhere in the interior there is a stylish shade of turquoise, or, as it is now fashionable to call it, Tiffany Blue. The rooms have everything you need: safe, mini bar, hairdryer, kettle, tea / coffee set, etc.
Service and cleaning is quite decent, cleaning was every day. The rooms have special signs with basic requirements and wishes in a playful form, you can move the arrow to the desired one, for example, “my towels and linen are not fresh” and leave it to the cleaner. He will change everything.
The beach is excellent, clean and shady, as there are many palm trees growing along the beach. The hotel has a nice lagoon with fine sandy entry. As such, the hotel does not have a reef, but not far from the hotel, in the ocean, there is a platform from which you can dive and snorkel. Wedding ceremonies are sometimes held there as well.
The platform can be reached free of charge by boat, which departs from the hotel's diving club at certain hours.
The island is long and elongated, on the opposite side there is an open ocean, big waves, swimming is prohibited there. The largest communal pool is 100 meters long, with different depths. The island is green, medium in size.
The hotel has an excellent children's mini club, they accept children from 4 to 6 years old. For children, a children's playground with fountains (there is no pool), the fountains are turned on twice a day at different times. There are various activities for kids: they cook pancakes and various sweets, make decorations and toys with their own hands, study the flora and fauna of the island in a playful way. The mini club has Russian speaking staff.
There are rooms for babies and a babysitter on request - $ 15 / hour (evening $ 20 / hour, night time $ 25 / hour), a babysitter can come to the villa, or the child can be left in the mini club.
The food at the hotel is excellent and varied. There is a main restaurant next to the reception, there are several a la carte restaurants (Sea Dragon - an Asian restaurant, mainly seafood, Smoke - a grill restaurant, etc. ).

For relaxation and leisure: a tennis court, a spa center, a fitness center open around the clock, an air yoga studio, an art studio and much more. We went to the SPA just to look, we didn’t use the services, but we saw that there is a large pool, a jacuzzi, various types of massages and beauty treatments.
In the evenings, the hotel is quite fun: different musical groups often play, there are discos, you can dance, every Friday there is a karaoke evening.
Once a week there are different themed festivals. Most often right on the beach in the central part of the island, where there is a large swimming pool and reception.

There are two ways to get to the hotel:
- from Velana International Airport (Male) by regular domestic flight 30 minutes to Dhaalu Airport, then by speedboat 20 minutes.

- seaplane 45 minutes.

Arrival in both cases at the main pier of the hotel, then buggies deliver to the tourists' rooms and luggage.

Minuses:
- in the place where the water villas and the scourge of the studio are located, the beach is washed away, therefore, a platform is periodically brought there and work is being done to extract sand from the bottom of the ocean and backfill the beach (perhaps this is a temporary phenomenon).

- in all categories of rooms there is no shower, or at least just a container of water for washing your feet after the beach, this is extremely inconvenient, because sand is brought into the room, onto the carpet.

- sometimes buggies have to wait a very long time, because they come to a stop full of people, and there are no places (concerns rush hours: lunch time, for example).

- there is only one sink in the bathroom, in many 5 * hotels they have been doing two for a long time - this is much more convenient.