Komandoo Island Resort & Spa

Excellent on every level, the attention to detail ensures you are well looked after. Quality of food and staff is superb. The setting is exactly what you want from the Maldives and the size of this resort gives you a boutique feel. Weather was great. Lots to do and daily snorkelling was enjoyable. Turtles, sharks and dolphins all seen.

My trip to Komandoo was fantastic. This is the best resort that I have been to in my long years of traversing the globe. After what were three gruelling flights we finally arrived at the island that was to be our home for two weeks. You are met at the jetty by the staff playing native drums and swiftly seated in the reception with a welcome arrival drink. After the formalities, which were very quick, we went for lunch as it was that time of day. After lunch we were shown to our room. The room is nice, a large bed, desk, cupboard and a lounger which was to be mine for the two weeks. The bathroom is outside, but was very welcome with a shower, twin sinks, a jacuzzi bath (which we didn’t use) and a very nice touch of a clothes line which had a lot of use. Showering outside took a little getting used to, but was rather pleasant and I’d do it at home if it wasn’t so cold and it might upset the neighbours. The real star of the room was the beach access, the sea is so close you can almost touch it and we made many trips into the sea to swim and cool off. You get your own sun loungers and parasol, but powder white sand to a beautiful warm sea is my idea of heaven. There is an excellent house reef to explore on the sunrise side which is where we were staying. It’s a short swim out to the reef which is marked by tethered rings and we snorkelled the reef most mornings which seemed to be the best time to go. The sea life on the reef is fantastic, I haven’t seen life like this since my scuba days when I used to dive in Egypt, it was that good. We saw turtles, sharks, rays and eels and of course many beautiful fish. The house reef is a real plus for the resort. We weren’t told this upon arrival but you seem to be allocated the same member of staff for your stay who looks after your needs and meals. They are called ‘champions’ and we had Jumaan who was second to none. He poured the wine when we needed it and saw to our needs. He’s an asset to the resort and looked after us well. We ate three times day in the house restaurant which is a buffet for all of the meals. The evening meal changes daily to a theme and we were never disappointed. Not all of the food was to our liking, but there was always something to eat even if we resorted to pasta occasionally. We were honoured with a visit to the kitchens courtesy of the executive chef Alex and this was a real eye opener. Komandoo isn’t a large resort, 65 rooms we were told, but the military style operation that is required to feed everyone is epic. We did eat once in the Aqua restaurant but sadly I didn’t like the food. It was too complicated and sloppy for me. We did talk to the chef and he showed real concern that I wasn’t happy with the meal and I think there will be changes made. We were cooked a Kobe steak dinner the next night as a way of compensation I think and I hope they introduce this meal to Aqua as it was superb. There is a bar which we sat at most evenings overlooking the water. There is ni