Atmosphere Kanifushi Maldives

The whole Island is just awesome and the Food are very delicious.Very Beautiful Place and we will come back.Azuham our Personal Contact is a exordinary Kind Person.Azuham take care very well of us and he is a very cool guy!👍 Thank you to the whole Team💯💯💯

A stunning location - which I guess is typical of The Maldives - but honestly a first rate hotel and not one person was anything other than pleasant and accommodating. Is there a downside? So no immediate diving experience and you have to take a boat a short distance, but surely that’s part of the fun? Then I personally have an issue with being charged $65 for breakfast in my room when every is otherwise included - this on a day where it was pissing down and every shuttle buggy that passed my room was full, so I gave up. Hansi, my primary contact point, was superb. Nothing she wouldn’t organise for me even though I’m low maintenance. Courteous, always recognised me and genuinely wanted to make sure I had the best experience here. I also single out Renu(shri) in Sunset. Always had a smile, great English and just the right level of ‘attentive’. Lovely girl and I hope she progresses well - she deserves to do so. Would I come back? Absolutely.

After a busy year, we wanted some down time to relax and recuperate - and Atmosphere Kanifushi was absolutely the right place to do just that. You'll judge from the length of this review that we had an amazing time. We booked through Virgin, which meant we benefitted from a direct flight of 10 hours rather than a stopover in the Middle East. We were met at the arrivals gate by one of the hotel's staff, who guided us through the busy airport to the serene Coral Lounge in the seaplane terminal. It was then a 45-minute seaplane ride over the fabulous atolls before we arrived at the hotel's pier. We don't want to spoil surprises, but there's a lovely welcome, hosted by your personal Guest Relations Officer (wonderful Kencho in our case) who will help you download their app and their shuttle tracker, to keep you fully informed about what's going on, to help you make bookings and to answer any specific questions you've got. It's a brilliant system that proved super helpful when we received a message about the security team finding a hatched nest of baby turtles, and being able to take part in their release into the ocean early one morning. Then it's off for an electric buggy tour of the island so you can orientate yourself and start to decide how to spend your time. We stayed in an over-water villa, with partial glass floors in the living and bathrooms, really effective air-conditioning (essential on some very humid days) and a really well-stocked mini bar with snacks, all included in the package. There are little sets of toiletries including sun cream, lip balm and insect repellent - mossies are around the island, but the resort fogs the area evening and morning. There are Elemis toiletries in the bathroom, along with thoughtful umbrellas, pac a macs and life vests to keep you safe and dry whatever you're choosing to do. The thing that makes Kanifushi so special is the team of staff who work there. They are, without exception, at the top of their game in the hospitality sector. Every welcome is authentic, their attention of service (low-key, understated, watchful but not ever present - just how we really love it) is unparalleled. Communication between all the team members is absolutely fabulous, their memory of their guests likes and preferences is effortless. You can choose to do a lot or a little at Kanifushi. There are motorised and non-motorised water sports and a range of excursions and spa options (again included in the Virgin holidays package). We did the Sunset Fishing Trip - didn't catch anything, honestly didn't matter because it was tranquil and amazing; trip to Turtle Sanctuary - brilliant to see the work they do; snorkelling trip (with really helpful dive guides who completely understood that some people might need more support at beginner level!!) and many more. We could snorkel every day from stairs directly from our room, and saw more than 50 varieties of reef fish of all sizes, plus turtles, reef sharks and rays. The food in all the restaurant outlets was absolutely delicious, with lots of Asian dishes with amazing spicing, fresh fruit and seafood. The chefs start work at 2.30am to get your 7am breakfast ready - and it really shows. The restaurant staff are amazing (watch the crows - they're super clever!!) and we'd especially like to shout out to Immaculate in Liquid, and Christy, Gopal, Gebriyel, Yaz in Spice and Ammu on the boat trip to the island. For days you might want to be indoors, there are table tennis tables, billiards (staff are very happy to enter into friendly competition) and darts, along with a gym with Technogym and Cybex equipment and a fully-equipped five a side football pitch and a Padel court. There are spa treatments included in Virgin's package - we had a couples massage and a fabulous facial. There is some construction work going on at the resort, with a crane audible throughout our stay, developing some of the facilities. We assumed this was happening in time for the busy Christmas rush. One note of caution - the process at the airport on your return journey isn't lovely. It took us literally three hours to get through six security check points. Your bags are scanned before you get to the check-in desks, you go through immigration checks, then another bag scan and body check and then another passport check, a random bag and drugs swipe test as you reach the boarding gate and then the usual passport and boarding card check. Not sure why there are so many levels of check in place, but you're queuing in very hot temperatures with sporadic air-conditioning. The airport staff are all lovely and courteous, but we've never been so glad to get onto a plane and sit down for the journey back. The flight back's a little longer, at 11 hours 15 minutes, but Virgin's extensive entertainment package meant we could catch up on TV we'd missed. Wonderful experience all round - if you're seeing an idyllic island in the sun, Kanifushi is where we found our paradise island. Thank you to everyone who made our stay so memorable.