Centara Grand Island Resort & Spa

From the moment we were met at the airport to the moment we were dropped back was simply fabulous. The team smoothly guided us through to the seaplane, making the transfer painless. The hotel and the location are stunning, the facilities fantastic, the room both luxourious and comfortable, and the food divine. I loved watching the seaplanes arrive and depart from the back of our overwater villa. My daughter enjoyed her first experience of snorkelling and there were enough activities to keep us all entertained for the week that we stayed. Each member of the hotel greeted us with warmth and smiles, from the greeting at the airport, to their long waves goodbye as our boat departed. The little touches were way above hotels I've stayed at previously - from the welcome message, to the special birthday message made with coconut leaves, to the "see you soon" messages both on our dining table on our last night, and in the sand art in our villa for our last night.

Hard to find anything really. The afternoon tea was the only area that we encountered that could use a revamp. This was part of the all inclusive package. If we had paid extra for this, then we really would have been disappointed. We tried the la carte restaurants and found their choice on the all inclusive package to be too limited. We actually enjoyed the Reef restaurant the most due to the variety of very tasty food on offer which made life easier with kids. Do note that not everything on the drinks and food menus are included in the All Inclusive package. Often the team will point this out when ordering.

Centare resort was our beautiful hideaway for 15 nights. Right after we stepped out of the seaplane our honeymoons have started. The whole team made sure that our dreams came really true. Our first contact was with guest service manager Sveltana. She welcomed us with open heart, welcome drink und very professional at same time. She was always reachable per Whatsapp, if there were some questions or we needed some help. We felt very good served during our whole stay. Our room attendant Samsul did his job on such excellent level. He came many times per day for cleaning up, a little small talk and filling up the water bottles. He got sure that we have all we need. Every time when we came back after his cleaning, the villa looked like brand new! Additionally he has surprised us with many sand drawings (outside the villa) or inside with the towels (elephants, angels). He did his job with passion and perfectionism to the last detail! The staff from the Reef bar did amazing job too. We really enjoyed the excellent services from Habib and Jasim. They knew us very well and have never forgot, what are our favourite drinks. Plus they filled up our ice cube box automatically. When they had time, we did some small talks and they come automatically to the table and asked if we need something. The food itself was just AMAZING!!! The buffets offered a huge choice of food, vegetable, salads, fresh fruits and deserts. The quality of dishes were comparable with very good europeans restaurants. We were many times wondering how its possible to prepare it with such quality on a small island in the middle of Indian ocean! Our side-dish highlight were the fresh made butter garlic naan from Masut! If you like Indian kitchen you gonna love it! What we either appreciated were two a la carte restaurants on the island (italian and thai). Both had very professional staff and delicious dishes.

Part 2 what we liked: Both places are definitely worth to visit more than once and to try many dishes from their menu card! Also we would like to thank to our guides from dive center for the great experience!!!We took trips to snorkel with turtles and mantas. The guides gave their best to find the see animals and that we all can see them live in the ocean. Not to mentioned, that they dive to the animals and take fantastic photos and videos with gopro camera. During the way back every guest got those videos in full quality as memory. The equipment and the ships were clean and looked in very good shape. We had some issues with our whole face masks and therefore we borrowed a separate mask and a snorkel from dive center. Everything was free of charge and in very good condition. During our stay we have met many times the main resort manager and he found time for polite conversations and gave us tips where we can find turtles in our bay. And he was right! We have found ca 70cm big turtle just 30-40metes from our villa. It was just an amazing experience to observe this peaceful and elegant creature eating and diving for like 30minutes alone. The resort crew organized for us the seaplane flights and helped us also at the airport itself. On our way back it was very busy morning and we were worried to miss our flight. The resort attendant accompanied us through the priority line even when we had economy tickets. They knew exactly when which airlines close gates and have departures. After such a great time it was very hard to us to say goodbye, We will come back for sure and recommend this resort to anybody looking for a amazing honeymoon destination!!!

Hospitality by each and very staff in all departments was excellent - Mgmt really got this right. Everyone was friendly, helpful, full of initiative, and take time to engage you & your needs. Special thanks to: Mitchell- who took care of my family at breakfast Jaman- who dropped by after work every other day to play with my 7yo daughter teaching her air hockey & futsul techniques. Huthu- teaching us all sorts of things abt the nurse sharks and stingrays during the daily evening feeding sessions of their house pets Shani - at kids club who engaged the kids in the afternoon with craft activities and mocktail making. Chef Justin & Yassim - at the Italian restaurant (which was our favourite and they can prepare off menu dishes) where food was so good and we could watch the fishes/sharks come by after dinner while Yassim shared with us stories of his Maldivian childhood. Guys at the dive centre (Yash, conq) - who brought us to see the spinner dolphins (amazing!) and whale shark (which we unfortunately couldnt track). House reef was one of the best in terms of accessibility and variety of aquatic life. Corals were still healthy in many parts not like many resorts where coral bleaching is more apparent. Our young kids & us saw reef sharks, plenty variety of fishes, squid, turtles and dolphins! Rooms were extremely clean- cleaned twice a day. Plenty of indoor and outdoor towels.