The hotel is set on a small atoll and has 79 rooms. Roughly half of these are over-the-water villas several 100 yards off-shore and only accessible by boat. I opted to stay in a beach villa. I did not want to feel isolated and I think this was a wise choice.
I booked on an all-inclusive basis and was led to believe I could eat at all restaurants without additional charge. This was not the case. I could only eat in the main restaurant or pool bar. There was an additional charge for the two alternative restaurants. Speaking to other guests they were hugely expensive and not very good. Friends I met were charged $50 for a starter of a single prawn with a garnish of a slice of cucumber. Badly done indeed.
The atoll is tiny. I walked around it in 10 minutes and kayaked around in 30 and I was not rushing. Consequently it very quickly became quite a boring place to be with very few activities. I was so pleased to be diving. I think I would have gone stir crazy without that. One of the nice things on the island were the lovebirds which were very beautiful. They were fed twice daily and guests were given seeds in their hands. It could be quite an onslaught. At one stage I had 12 birds on my arm!
The main restaurant was actually fine. There was a buffet every night and also a cooking station, offering different food styles each night. The restaurant was partially inside, on decking and spilled over onto the beach.
My complaint would be that almost every dish contained chilli. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like chilli but there is a limit to how much I can consume. I do not want it in every single dish and after a couple of days I found it really difficult to swallow. Wine burnt when it went down and initially I was worried about what might be wrong with me. I took to drinking sparkling water for a couple of days and cut out all chilli, which meant I mainly ate at the beach bar and not the restaurant. This meant my diet became salad, burgers or pasta. There really should have been more variety and there is no way the food was 5 star. There were no gourmet dishes and no waiter service, apart from plate clearing and drinks. The restaurant was 3 star at best.
The pool bar and food was very good and the bar staff made extremely good cocktails. Often all-inclusive hotels skimp on the quality of the drinks and cocktails. This was not the case here. I spent a good deal of time sitting at the bar in the vain hope I would find someone to talk to, so this was a big bonus. The daiquiris and cosmopolitans were spot on.
I felt the reception staff should have been better trained and I was under-whelmed by their helpfulness and attention to detail. I appreciate that times have been hard due to covid and am sure this contributed to the issues. I would hope that things have improved significantly now. When I checked in, I was given no orientation paperwork for restaurant times, water sports, diving etc. I assumed there would be something in the room but there was nothing. When I went to dinner I stopped at reception and told them. They said they had a WhatsApp group with all the information and they would add me to it. A very good idea but it should have been done on check-in. I had a drink at the bar on my own and dinner on my own. I was seriously out of my comfort zone and feeling that booking such a romantic resort was a huge mistake. Anyway, ever the optimist I strolled back to my room knowing that tomorrow could only improve once I’d signed up for diving.
My phone pinged and there was a message from reception with the link to the WhatsApp group. The problem was it was addressed to Mr & Mrs and as I was widowed four years ago this was the last straw. I shed a few tears then thought I’d browse Facebook to distract myself. It was most uncanny as the photo below popped up.
It’s a photo of Chris after we’d just qualified as Master Scuba Divers in 2014. I took it as a sign that he was saying. It’s OK, you’ve done the right thing. Enjoy the diving. Strangely from then on the holiday was good. I made new friends and enjoyed the diving despite the sites being a little uninspiring. I did tell reception in the morning that I was unimpressed by their letter to Mr & Mrs. In fairness they took it very seriously and I expect the person responsible did receive a reprimand.
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