Canareef Resort Maldives

酒店景色宜人，是極佳看日出日落的好地方，令人身心放鬆。酒店的自助早餐款式豐富多樣，餐廳晚餐水準亦非常高，即使獨自來潛水的我亦可好好享受。職員有禮親切，讓我大推给朋友。

Our journey began at Heathrow – flying with Etihad Airways who were fantastic. We had a short stop over at Abu Dhabi – literally just enough time to make our way to the departure lounge for our flight to Male. We arrived at Male around 2.15 pm and were ‘relieved’ to learn that we had seats on the next domestic flight – 4.45 pm – so we did not experience the ‘long’ waiting time there. Domestic flight with Maldivian Airways was pleasant and we appreciated the snack boxes which they gave us just before landing at Gan Airport. Speed boat ride of 10 minutes was fun in the dark! We were greeted by staff on the jetty and taken directly to Reception. Check-in was swift where we were given a detailed map of the resort and lots of information which was difficult to take in after 24 hours of travelling. We were taken directly to our Villa via buggy but did experience quite a long wait for our luggage. Our room was nicely presented – the air-conditioning was efficient, lots of storage space and hangers too. We did notice that there was a lack of plug sockets so charging phones etc was a little difficult. Checking out the outside bathroom, we found a huge ants’ nest in the shower but this was dealt with swiftly the next morning. We experienced many difficulties with the TV which resulted in IT coming on two consecutive evenings. Cables were changed, batteries were changed and this sorted the problem! The TV offers BBC/CNN/YouTube and Netflix. Our washing line broke too when we went to use it for the first time. Again, this was dealt with quickly and efficiently. The room towels were of a very good quality and were changed every day and our room was kept tidy throughout our stay by the young lad who looked after us. Water, tea, coffee etc was also always topped up. We felt our room location was just perfect – sunset side – in between The Dhoni Bar and The Meera Bar. For this reason, we only used the buggy service on arrival and departure. The decking was lovely to sit out on and the view was very pleasant too. Sunsets were amazing! We did struggle to open and lock our patio doors initially but we soon figured it out. Rather strange to have handles on the outside of these doors but none inside! The door frame had to be used to close them. We have been to The Maldives before (March 2023) but what drew us to this island was the ‘very natural’ vibe; its length; the cycling opportunities and crossing the Equator. The island is beautiful – yes, the sunrise side is full of coral, rocks etc but we knew this before we arrived – hence why we opted for a sunset villa. The plants, blossom, palm trees etc were beautiful and care is taken to look after these. We often saw teams out and about collecting fallen palms and there was constant raking of all the sandy areas around the villas and along the main thorough-fayre. The little ‘island’ gardens along here were also looked after – we loved the furniture made out of fallen tree branches! We were deli

I know this because every day you will 1. Eat and 2. Use a bike and/or 3. Use a buggy and/or 4. Try to get service. Summary: this is a 3 star resort and only gets 3 stars because it’s in the Maldives (beach is average by Maldives standards), the superior rooms with jacuzzis on the sunset side are large and very good (although the beds are hopelessly hard and uncomfortable, maybe ok compared to prison beds but otherwise terrible), and spa massages and service is excellent. 1. Food: If you don’t like curry and/or need protein you will starve to death. There is almost no variety (not even fish on a small island??) and the layout and presentation of the buffet makes school meals look wonderful in comparison. Breakfasts in particular are depressing; they can’t even make a half decent cup of tea despite Sri Lanka and India being the nearest land masses! Wine at dinner is extremely average and warm because they pour glasses in advance and leave them to warm on the bar. Service is provided if you can tackle a staff member before they walk past your table. They are hopeless at clearing tables so finding a set table can be a challenge. Eating is not a pleasure at all, it’s merely a carb based refuelling exercise. 2. Bikes: a good idea completely undermined by un-maintained, massively uncomfortable bikes. They are painful to ride even for short distances. Hint to resort-you are by the sea, so the air contains salt which corrodes metal. Service the bikes for 10 minutes every week and they would be ok. 3. Buggies: already covered at length in other reviews. Even when they sort of run to request, the swapping required at reception is illogical and annoying. When they don’t work to request, we needed 45 minutes to get back from dinner to our room. 4. Service is well below average for this part of the world. They are generally clueless and untrained. Service at the spa is superb. I’ll stop there other than to ask management-have they ever stayed as guests for multiple days at their own resort? The flaws are obvious. I have a list of at least 50 zero or low cost things that could be done to significantly improve the resort, but I’m not going to provide free consultancy here. Just experience what paying guests do and open your eyes.