Canareef Resort Maldives

Where do I start? Our holidays are adventures, every year we find a new and exciting place to visit. We manage to achieve this with little doubt travelling to places where nature is preserved and the wildlife protected amongst other things. Maybe we are fortunate and maybe the lure of Canareef in the Maldives is too great but again for the sixth year we have found the time for total relaxation in a place we now refer to as our second home. For those who have never been to Canareef I will offer this explanation. When life runs at ninety miles an hour and the children need baby sitters and the grandchildren need you on the school run, all this whilst trying to keep the garden tidy, look after the house and I still work five days a week. Nothing but nothing relieves you of all that stress better than Canareef. The journey from the UK is long especially in low season when there are no direct flights to Male but as you get off the speedboat at the end of your journey you are met by the friendliest and accommodating people you will ever see. Forget the luggage that’s all taken care of, register at reception whilst drinking from a real coconut that has been prepared for you, collect your keys and be driven to your villa where your luggage is awaiting you. Relax in the airconditioned spacious villa with a four poster bed a covered outside shower, toilet and under the stars a whirlpool spa. You can relax out there on your lounger but better to go to the veranda from where you can see the sea and with some villas walk directly onto the soft coral beach. Dinner is served in either the Kilhi restaurant or the Keymaa restaurant depending on which end of this long thin island your villa is situated and from there retire to the Dhoni bar or the Dhoaraa where you can take an evening cocktail whilst watching the sun set over the lagoon. Retire to the coolness of your room sleeping on comfortable beds ready for the morning. Breakfast is served in the same restaurants as dinner and you can walk, cycle on a complimentary bicycle or if the effort for those is too great call a buggy, the electric transport that is on call all day and all night. After breakfast head to the Bar-Kuda beach or if you prefer the solitude of your own company your own beach by your villa. The restaurants serve a mixture of meals created on the basis of an international menu. You can dine on Chinese style food or almost any other style you wish down to toast and marmalade for breakfast to a traditional fry up, remember there is no pork in Muslim countries so bacon is a bit of a compromise. Dinner can be a salad starter and a main course of various meats and vegetables or the far east style meals the choice is yours as all the food is laid out for you to select. A large selection of sweet courses is there from which you can choose there is also plenty of fruit to choose from both prepared and not. One can always resort to the amazing homemade ice cream of course. The island is kept in a beautiful clean and appealing way that you just need to savour, the banks of sand and rock that some comment on are to keep the ocean at bay when it gets a little rough, this is not a swimming area but you can view the ocean in all is splendid power from the restaurants. Insect bites are kept to a minimum buy the resort ‘fogging’ in the evenings which surprises some until they realise the benefit of this operation. Now you can lie in your whirlpool or sit in a bar sipping a cocktail and watching the fruit bats overhead seeking something more to feed on. What better way can you enjoy a warm and pleasant evening? For quiet and solitude, one can retire to the Meeraa bar, our favourite, as we avoid the entertainment often available in the other bars for a night of peace and rest as that is what we come for. Why I am writing this peace I ask myself as it will probably encourage others to sample this magnificent resort and we go for the peace and quiet the solitude and the enjoyment of that. We don’t want a crowded resort and this isn’t but it is the jewel in the crown that is the Maldives. Welcome to paradise on earth!

I recently had the pleasure of joining several wellness sessions, and the experience itself was truly transformative! The sunrise yoga session with Karan was simply amazing starting the day with his expert guidance brought so much clarity and positive energy. The energy healing, chakra healing and sound meditation session that followed was deeply relaxing and restorative, leaving me feeling completely renewed. I also had the chance to join the full moon experience, which was something entirely new for me and felt deeply soulful and special. Karan has a wonderful, grounding presence that makes every session truly memorable. However, the physical setup for the floor work was a letdown. The yoga mats and meditation mattresses are unsupportive and uncomfortable. Trying to lie down on them for a 45-minute session was downright painful and incredibly uncomfortable, which made it hard to fully stay in the meditative state. It will be grat if there will be an opportunity to change them for more comfortable to suite with the rest of environment in a spa which is trully very relaxing, friendly and comfortable.