We’ve never been to the Maldives before and this was a special trip for a special occasion so I really looked around before I choose Canareef as our ever first Maldives holiday. It was by far a million % the best choice. The island is bigger than the rest but definitely not crowded. It has such beautiful rooms, which are large and spacious. We had the sunset villa with the jacuzzi in the back garden and outside we had our own walkway to what felt like our own private beach with pure white sands and amazing turquoise waters. The bathroom had his and hers sinks and outdoor shower was simply amazing. We also had our own hot tub which was very cleverly timed, so the water was colder during the day so you can use it as a cooling pool and then it heated itself at night time, although the change in weather temperature wasn’t a lot. Nighttime only dropping by a few degrees.
We had an amazing welcome with staff playing the drums to a tune on the jetty, whilst we walked on our luggage was taken care off. We were welcomed into reception and everything was very well explained. The staff go all out to make you feel special and had amazing welcome drinks, lots of little touches, even down to the floor design in the sand. Due to the size of the island, which you can actually walk if you enjoy walking, however if you don’t you are offered of a lift from your room to the beach/ reception/ restaurant etc. this was always available with a simple call or even asking the restaurant etc. you also have the option to use one of the free bicycles during your stay if you didn’t want to walk etc. we often did walk and enjoyed all our surroundings and all the species of the island, like geckos, fruit bats, dragonflies, lizards, millions of different hermit crabs as well as ghost crabs and brown mud crabs to name a few.
The hospitality of this island and all the staff has been an amazing experience and although we have traveled to many places this has beaten them all.
Before we left England I got in touch with the island and then started a conversation with Mr Aloy who is the catering and organisational manager. We wanted to renew our wedding vows on the beach during our stay on the same day we got married 20 years ago. He was on the ball 24/7 even with the 5 hour difference he was always answering all my questions and arranging everything before we even left England. When we arrived it felt like home funnily enough. He always kept us informed and sent us pictures videos etc to try and give us as much information as possible. We had a few requests along the way and I must say that there was nothing that they couldn’t accommodate. From the moment we arrived Jasmine was our wedding co-ordinator along Mr Aloy. Jasmine was simply amazing, and went above and beyond for us and especially me. She helped me with my hair and my dress and many others things.
Mr Aloy was exceptional too. They both were the most significant members of staff we had direct contact with in organising our special day. However there were many others, like the team that build the entire wedding set up on the beach, the photographer and videographer, all the bridesmaids and team that played the drums for us, the carriage driver, the officiator, the team that set up our romantic wedding dinner on the beach, the lovely waitress that personally served us, the kitchen staff that cooked us a delicious meal and wedding cake(it was way too big, we asked for it to be dished out to everyone) all the little touches like, the wooden wedding bands, the wooden wedding signage they trimmed down so we could take it home (we didn’t even ask) they did it all for us.
Taking the vow renewal aside, we had 4 days before the wedding day and 4 days afterwards that were simply amazing, we loved every minute of it and can’t wait to return.
Every evening they feed the fish on the jetty, this was a great way of seeing lots of speices you wouldn’t normally see. We saw lemon shark, black tip shark, white tip shark, jack fish, stingrays, turtles to name just a few.
We made friends from a distance of the jetty with Tina the turtle who lives under the jetty most of the time, then on our last day we seen Trevor the other turtle which is huge ! He was like 3/4 times of Tina, who wasn’t actually that small. It was a very special treat to see them in their own natural habitat, very humbling experience.
We seen a Moray Eel on a few occasions, even baby black tip sharks swimming in broad day light on the shallow waters of the Baracuda beach/ bar, where it seems to be the best spot for snorkelling. Oh my the amount of fish I seen here is unreal, even a huge lobster type creature under a coral. Several puffer fish of various sizes and colours, million fishes and all free and you can stay however long you want to snorkel for. I must have been there for hours as got a burnt back and bum lol. Definitely bring factor 50 sun cream! We never burn and we did this time and even with sun cream we tanned really well.
There are a few bars open in the evening offering different activities, pool tables, darts, movie watching, bands, disco, and even crab racing. They have a white night, and a beach cocktail party. Which unfortunately for us it rained that afternoon however it was set up inside due to this so although we didn’t get the full experience we didn’t miss out. Nobody can control the weather. However any rain during the day is very short lived and everything is dry within minutes. The staff are really good at working out when this happens, the clouds shift very quickly and it could rain in one spot and not the spot that is 2 meters away.
The very short spots of rain were never an issue for us, the temperature never really dropped even during the rain and even at night time it only dropped by no more than 1/2 degrees. So air con was welcomed during the night sleep.
We did the lucky dolphins trip and seen a vast amount of dolphins, the most we have ever seen when abroad. It was a great morning out. So much so that we wanted to take a private tour and also do some snorkelling. We booked this and Didy was amazing, we started off in the morning around 9.30am, we went on the hunt for spotting the dolphins, we eventually found them and ohh my gosh! What an experience, we have ridiculous amounts of videos of these amazing creatures, playing, swimming with the current of the boat at the front, simply just being there. Priceless ! We then went off to a snorkelling spot. Again Didy and his driver took us to an amazing spot, and off we went snorkelling in the Indian Ocean! As soon as we got in the water, we spotted a white tip shark, hundreds of tropical fish, lots of Nemos, big fish, little fish etc can’t remember all their names & then I look back to check if my husband was ok, and to my total surprise I spotted an Eagle Ray !!! Oh my goodness! I was so excited but couldn’t scream under water ! He was simply beautiful, quite big too and simply amazing. Just when we thought this couldn’t get any better, off we went to see some more sharks. This time they were nurse sharks, which we haven’t seen before. We stopped in what it felt like in the middle of the Indian Ocean and out of the blue the boat was surrounded by at least 20 nurse Sharks that varied in size from the smallest nurse shark being around 4ft to the biggest estimated at 12ft, possibly bigger. They stayed with us for ages, swam under the boat and greeted us from both sides of the boat. When we were leaving they were following the boat, which was amazing as we didn’t entice them with any food. It was an exceptional experience and a fantastic one to have on our last day. So if you would like to have a private tour book this as soon as you get there. Didy is an excellent, informative and knowledgeable individual and made our last day there incredibly memorable and very special. When we left all the staff sent us off just as friendly and welcoming as on our arrival was. Even on their day off they were still working, both Jasmine and Mr Aloy. The staff came out and gave us a warm send off with a lovely banner expressing well wishes and a happy return. Jasmine was on her day off but went out of her way to come and say goodbye to myself and my husband. It was incredibly emotional. Just as Mr Aloy arranged and was present all day on his day off on our wedding day ensuring it all went to plan without a hiccup. Even when it came to the weather! ( we wanted to do it on the original day ).
We are forever going to be incredibly grateful to them, Me Aloy, Jasmine, Didy and all the rest of the team for making our holiday incredibly special. The staff here work 24/7 to make every moment special and as pleasant as it can be for everyone, housekeeping cleaned our room twice a day, they filled up the drinking water, even the foot water if your coming off the beach. 99.9% they didn’t bother you if you had the DND sign outside your villa. It’s almost like they knew when you weren’t there and swooped in to sort out your room. We had an issue with the air con, which we reported and went out, when we got back it was all sorted and it was nice and cool.
The food was great, lots of options and choice. However if you’re after chips, chicken nuggets and burgers then this isn’t the place for you. All meals were freshly cooked and very tasty, a lot of very nice curries, rice, meats, potatoes, spices and fish options, I really loved the tuna sushi. Breakfast choices were really good with a omelette cooking station, as well as eggs Benedict, fresh fruits, cereals etc. Lunch was similar in respect of lots of choice. If you love food that’s not chips then you will love this. However if you did want chips and a burger then you did have this option at other bars, I did on a day at the Barracuda Bar,even though this was payable it was definitely worth the extra payment. We went all inclusive, some items were expensive, for example we had orange juice in our room( I need a glass every morning when I wake up) this was $10 plus tax. But this wasn’t an issue as prices as displayed clearly before you order so there were no unexpected surprises.
You have the option of adding a romantic dinner in various places with a vast choice of different dishes, this is optional and payable should you want a special treat/ occasion. For us it was definitely worth it on our wedding day, it felt like the entire world disappeared and it was just the two of us. Which is exactly what we wanted. We had a nice set of pictures and video of our special day. The only addition things I would suggest is that the photos should include the dinner and the first dance. However in fairness we didn’t ask for this. ( I got swept away on the day and the actual ceremony and forgot about this part), I’m sure the team and staff would have been more than happy to accommodate us but I didn’t think and forgot about it until it happened. This was my error and not the staff. So if you’re going don’t forget this part. The cutting of the cake happens straight after the ceremony and the signing your certificates, a very nice touch as this was on the beach. We didn’t expect this, so would have been a tad helpful to know in advance however it was a lovely surprise. The buggy that took us from our rooms to the beach/ ceremony isn’t actually a buggy but an electric carriage with no horses ( being on an island etc ) which was actually really unexpected and incredibly nice. The bridesmaids were incredibly helpful, dressed in traditional Maldivian outfits, as were the drum players and everyone involved. The effort that was made for the entire ceremony was exceptional! We felt incredibly fortunate and special. The flowers and button hole were exactly what we wanted and I was given the choice of many different flowers that are authentic to the island. They even printed our own vows on special paper that we kept in addition to the officiators words/ vows. I wanted to know what these were and Mr Aloy was more than obliging and sent me these in advance of the day. We didn’t even realise that we would be planting a tree in commemorative of our day, which is an incredibly personal touch, so when we go back we can see how much it has grown over time. This was planted by us in a special area with our own plaque for ease of location in future years. It was a very special day, made so by the wonderful team.
Our entire stay was simply amazing, peaceful, with the option of many excursions, busy if you wanted to be involved, secluded if you wanted time out and on your own. Good wi-fi in most of the resort, which we didn’t know prior to arrival, so we got a Maldivian SIM card as we needed to stay in touch with the UK in case of emergencies and responsibilities back home. The wi-fi was pretty good in most areas and not singled out to room usage only.
The only thing I will say is that the adult pool only should be made more clearer to adult only and enforced more to those that decide to bring screaming babies/ kids to it.
There are many pools/ beaches to cater for families with children, even clearly defined play areas, however when your leaving your own at home, you really don’t want to listen too and be surrounded by others kids/babies after paying all that money and travelling all that way for some relaxing time out. Not everyone can afford to bring their kids to the Maldives! So respect others, these areas and spaces. Therefore these areas should be clearly marked/ provided, advised upon arrival, and all guests informed of these areas and restrictions. Even in the restaurant which many of them are very large, there should be designated areas for adults only/ or even families so the option is there. People need to respect others time out and yes the island dosent cater for adults only, which is perfectly fine as long as certain areas are designated and enforced as such, just as some choose to go half board/ all inclusive etc. We personally didn’t have a lot of issues with this however on 1 occasion we attended the adult pool only, and experienced a family with a screaming baby in the area where they shouldn’t have been in. Luckily eventually they left as the baby would just not stop crying, possibly because it was far too hot environment it found itself in.
This island and its staff was brilliant for us, they did everything we needed plus more. The very minor issues were resolved and the incident with the baby was on our last day so we didn’t mention it. The only reason I am now is for future reference and Information as constructive info. We are looking forward to returning hopefully next year during the same period. Tip : take factor 50 for sun cream, cash for tips if you want to give any, nobody asked for any, but they appreciate it as they work really hard and non stop.
