Maldives dive-sites

Maldives

Kanifinolhu resort

Kanifinolhu is located in the North-Malé Atoll. Although the brochure states that it's a 90minute transfer by boat from the airport, they have a very nice 40seater fast-boat that can do the journey in about 50minutes. Other resorts further afield can range up to five hours by boat. Highly recommend that you consider a seaplane transfer for those. The extra cost could be well worth it. Kani, as it's affectionately called by the locals is a cigar shaped island about 800m long. You can walk around the island in 15 minutes. Though after you've been there a week and you start to unwind it will probably take you twice as long! It bulges in the middle and this is where the restaurants, main-bars, shop and reception is located. The 160 bungalow style rooms circle the island behind the shade of the palm trees and fauna that are surrounded by the beach. It was 40 paces from our room to the waters edge.
There are three types of room in Kani, standard, superior and deluxe. The Kani website has the full description of the rooms, but basically, you get hot-water & Air-con in the superior and deluxe rooms. We went for the Superior room and were very pleased with it. Only problem we had was that the sophisticated air-con (with a remote control as complicated as the one for your video) wasn't working when we arrived. After some confusion at reception it was repaired on the second day. The did offer us another room but we couldn't be bothered to move. Some others we meet complained about smoke in the room from a nearby bonfire were they burning leafs etc. But otherwise the rooms were very good and cleaned ever day. The Island is very well looked after by the 320 staff, which nearly equals the maximum 330 guests the island can accommodate. They constantly clean the beach and tend the islands vegetation. The staff are made up of both Maldavians and Pakistanis who were all very friendly. Although the resort is German run and German tourists makeup about 65% of the visitors, the first language on the island is English. All the staff speak English and all the menus etc are in English. The staff seem very happy with there lot even though an evenings bar bill can equally several of their weeks wages.
After selecting your island, the next big decision is whether you go for Half, Full Board or all-inclusive. Brochure prices quote going AI at about 44UKP per person/day on top of the half-board price. You do get benefits such as a number of free day trips but the main advantage of AI is the free drinks! If you not already aware, the Maldives is not a cheap place to visit and go drinking! Typical Prices were: 1.5L bottle water USD3.30 Soft drink USD3.30 0.33L Bottle Beer USD3.50 Cocktails USD5-10 On-island drinking water is okay to wash your teeth in and the locals drink it but it takes 4-6 weeks acclimatisation for your system, so its bottled water during your stay. If you are diving they recommend you drink at least an additional 2L of water a day (above what you'd be drinking anyway) to stop dehydration. You don't need to be a mathematician to work out that your drinking water bill alone will be substantial over the two weeks. With your water bill and the bar bill the holiday can start to get expensive. Over the weeks you'd hear various couples discussing, or convincing themselves, how it was either better to go AI or not. Basically, the sums come down to how much alcohol you drink. However, AI does not give free drinks in all the four bars on the island. The main exception is the main bar were all the evening entertainment is held which is a big minus against AI. I suppose you shouldn't be boozing it up if you're diving anyway!
Other facilities on the island included: single shop selling T-Shirts and small souveniours. A Water-sports centre with kayaks, windsurfing, waterskiing and two catamarans A floodlight hard Tennis-Court court and sand-covering Badminton court Beach volley-ball court A small grass football pitch! Billiards room and table-tennis Board games available behind the bar for those rainy afternoons And of course Scuba-divng !
You are allocated (by mother-tongue) to a four-seater table in the main-restaurant for your entire stay. As most visitors are couples, this means sharing you table with strangers for two weeks. They do say you can ask to be moved to another table if you don't get on with your fellow guests. I suppose your worst nightmare would be for the other couple to ask to be moved from your table, but from the buzz of conversation around the restaurant, most people seemed to get on quite well. Most people staggered their mealtimes anyway so you did have some privacy. Restuarant opening times were: Breakfast 0800-1000 Lunch 1200-1400 Evening Meal 2000-2200 The breakfast food was pretty standard buffet style affairs. Plenty of juice, fresh-fruit and hot food such as scrambled egg and grilled bacon etc though the sausages were quite gruesome. There was also a Chef doing omelettes and boiled/fried eggs to order. You also got the previous nights-curried chicken - which isn't my cup of tea in the morning. The evening meals were buffet style again and had salad or soup as a starter, a range of main-meals and a selection of tempting deserts. Twice a week (Mondays and Fridays) the main restaurant had a fixed menu, delivered by your waiter. The choice on these evenings was quite limited and some guests, including us, ate in the other restaurants on these evenings. Overall the restaurant food wasn't bad though it did get a bit repetitive into the second week. There were three other restaurants on the island. The coffee-shop which served a range of snacks all-day including sandwiches, pizza's and pasta dishes. This was the lunchtime haunt of the half-board guests. There was enough on the menu to keep you going over the two weeks and prices weren't that bad ranging from about 3 to 10UKP. They also did a breakfast, which was handy, especially if you had a lie-in and missed the main restaurant breakfast. The other two restaurants opening in the evening consisted of a Steak/Seafood grill and an Indian restaurant. Food in both was very good and I'd recommend them. Even with a small discount in lieu of your evening meal, they were relatively expensive though at about 20UKP per person plus drinks. You needed to watch out for discounts and special evenings in these restaurants were eating off a set menu was very good value.

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