One & Only Kanuhura Review

Good Points
Beautiful setting
Service impeccable
Having second island a big bonus and lunching there is a must but book well in advance as lunch places limited
Beach Villa ours set near watersports end was perfect as quieter side and beach viewed from bed
Own beach station outside villa

Bad Points
Inter Staff communication poor prone to error
Restaurant option arrangement not satisfactory
Not a particularly good house reef and the reefs we went to on the daily snorkelling boat were poor.

General Comments
This is my 3rd visit to Maldives. 1st trip was 20 years ago and 2nd trip was 3 years ago. Each island has offered fantastic beaches and beautiful setting but each has been different. The One & Only Kanahura was a great holiday as the setting was perfect and the size of island to occupiers meant that it never seemed busy despite full occupancy.

We opted for Bed & Breakfast as wherever we go we prefer to have choice. At Kanahura we soon decided that the buffet was not of a standard that suited us. The difficulty was to get into an A La Carte restaurant. I felt those booking B&B should be given priority booking for the 2 A La Carte restaurants as we found ourselves not able to book the Veli Beach Grill at all and managed to eat 3 times in the Olive Tree in our 7 day stay.

The buffet was $50 per person my wife had tummy upset for 3 days therefore begrudged paying $50 for a buffet choosing a small salad and drinking water. At least A La Carte she could have eaten and paid for a small salad only.

The other problem was the booking system we booked several things during our stay and came into the habit of rechecking and reconfirming the bookings because often they did not get confirmed at the destination ie water sports or actual restaurants. On the final occasion our friends with whom we travelled arranged direct with the Manager Mr Sousha who personally reserved our table in the olive tree we took the precaution of checking the reservation at reception later in the afternoon. It was confirmed but when we arrived to eat we were told no booking had been made. They made us a table up indoors away from the beautifully lit pool and the evening sky. Shame as it was our last night there. The A La Carte food in the olive tree was fantastic as were the Poole side pizzas.

The rooms were spotless and very well finished.

There was a great choice of activities and water sports, having said that it was extremely windy and 2 of our boat trips were cancelled. My advice to anyone going to Kanahura is that they book their itinary including meals in advance. The Veli Cafe is supposed to be fantastic seafood grill and we could only claim jealousy when our daughter was taken to eat there by another family.

Next time we go to the maldives I will do a little more homework on the island reefs as the reefs round the island were only considered satisfactory they were not as nice as those of other islands i have stayed at or been to on day excursions. It is always nice to have a beautiful reef on your doorstep rather than depend on organized excursions. I spent approx 1 to 1 1/2 hours a day on the islands reef as opposed to 3 to 4 hours a day i would normally spend had the reef been more interesting. The Veyoge Spa was first class and the Balinese Massage was perfect.Incidentally our previous vacation was to Full Moon resort had a great reef great choice of restaurants all with availability was much cheaper to stay at but rooms were bunched together and the resort was too near the Capital and the airport the resort also felt crowded. At Kanahura the night brought a feeling of island seclusion away from it all.

As a family we enjoyed our holiday and will continue to return to the Maldives