Just stayed for four nights. It was paradise!
Nice, hot weather. It rained on one day and overnight twice but I found this very relaxing.
I booked the Stay and Dine package. We don’t eat a great deal so a decent breakfast buffet in the morning and a starter, main and desert in the evening, combined with the Club Intercontinental afternoon tea, poolside bar beverages and Happy Hour did us just fine.
Flew to Male, we were greeted on arrival by a manager who escorted us to a lovely IC liveried Mercedes Vito, complete with wifi and bottled water to whisk us and our luggage to the seaplane terminal. That building consisted of many lounges, cold refreshments and drinks were available in the IC lounge. We were the only passengers there, and we did not have to wait long at all before our seaplane was ready.
The seaplane was about half full. A neck fan and earplugs were provided, I would recommend taking noise cancelling headphones and sitting nearer to the back as it is quite loud. We landed at a remote platform near the resort and were taken by speedboat (also IC liveried) to the island.
We were very warmly greeted by a host of staff, drums and the General Manager and were soon on an electric buggy for a tour of the island before being taken to our villa. We downloaded the Staytus app, which contained information on daily activities and excursions and allowed us to communicate with our curator on live chat, who was always very responsive and helpful with things like booking dinner reservations, excursions, buggies to get across the island and even helping to source Aloe Vera gel.
I am a Diamond Ambassador and booked a 1 Bedroom Lagoon Pool Villa. This was upgraded to a Sunset Lagoon Pool Villa ahead of our arrival. Status was duly recognised.
The villa was terrific! Spotless, spacious and well maintained. No complaints here. We were given a bottle of Moet and a cake as a gift, as well as a fruit platter and some personalised greeting messages around the villa. His and hers bikes were also provided, with our initials in wooden boards placed at the front.
We were happy with the food and drink, Cafe Umi was favourite for dinner. We had a great balance of relaxation, pool time and activities. We travelled by speedboat to Kendhoo Island to get a glimpse of local life and got treatments at the Avi Spa. We did snorkelling and jet skis and even a pizza making experience.
Honestly, cannot fault the service and politeness of the staff, it was nice to see the General Manager around and checking in on us - I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels and never encountered a GM before. They seem to have thought of everything to make the service attentive and make the stay special. There was no sense whatsoever of nickel and diming, the staff were extremely happy to help with everything and I felt like we got our money’s worth, so I was quite happy to do some of the paid activities.
Didn’t want to leave, but needs must - we got the farewell drums and the curator, staff and GM saw us onto the speedboat. It was a nice touch at the final dinner that a message was left on the table saying “See you soon.” Back on the speedboat, seaplane then transfer car straight to the terminal. A member of staff accompanied us into the terminal, helping with check-in and security, and with that our experience was concluded.
Delighted with the entire experience, would recommend and would definitely return one day!