It was our second holiday on unbelievable Maldivian island Robinson club hotel.
Last time me and my husband were here for 10 nights less than a year ago. And we liked this island so much that decided to repeat it at the first opportunity. It turned to be not so easy, because hotel was fully booked for some months ahead. Nevertheless we did it! This time we were here for 12 nights. In the result it turned to be too short for us!
So my review is based on some kind of comparative analysis how the island changed for last 9 months.
Our plan landed in Ibrahim Nasir international airport about 9 o’clock in the morning. We were immediately met by a hotel representative like at the last time. He led us to VIP-lounge where we could get relaxed and wait our domestic flight. This lounge was renovated a little and became even more comfortable. Our flight was scheduled on 10.30, but was delayed for an hour. So now we are in the sky flying to Hovadhoo atoll and what we can see through little windows us makes us a bit anxious. There is an almost eight-eights cloud under us! And its in the driest season! Our concerns were confirmed after landing. The sky was really overcast.
But stop! We go for the positive and do not pay attention to such details!
After baggage claim, we, along with 20 other tourists were set in 2 boats which chased a race with each other towards the island.
Here was everything ready for our reception! Champagne, fruit, smiling staff (some of welcoming ones were familiar us from the last visit) greeted us like old friends. Here was our old friend Azzam, who this time made sure that we were satisfied with our holiday for 200%! :-) Accommodation was rapid, despite the fact that we arrived about an hour of the day, we did not have to wait up to three!
The last time we lived in a Garden Villa, this time in a Beach Villa, so that we had not duplex (house, divided into two halves), but a detached house connected to the neighboring house passage, which certainly gave us more privacy. The location of these houses, as by far the best - close to the restaurant, a bar, a pool and a Reception area. In short, once again thanks to Azzam! :-) The bedroom in this room was slightly smaller than in the Garden Villa, but there was a separate dressing room and bathroom what was three times greater than in the Garden Villa!
In the room were a king size bed with bedside tables, daybed, TV table, television itself. Tip: If you want to watch movies in your native language, take them on a flash drive, which can be connected to the TV. After a decorative partition was a table with large mirror, cabinets and refrigerator. A set of coffee-tea was here.
We really love our huge bathroom, part of which was under the open sky! The bathroom had a shower, toilet, bidet, two toilet tables with sinks, a jacuzzi (under cover) and a rain shower! In addition we had a mini-garden, where grew some low bushes, 2 banana and a coconut palm trees!))) I still remember the noise of their leaves when the wind blew! And the wind, by the way, blew! and it was very strong! On the day of our arrival in heaven was just a haze of clouds, but the real storm began the next day. Strong wind started blowing from the sea, the sky was overcast, and it was raining for several times a day: sometimes small one, sometimes a downpour with thunder. Large puddles formed on the paths. The clouds had gone in a week, once the sun came out, and it continued to grill us mercilessly until the day of our departure, when the sky was once again covered with clouds. And it is considered to be the driest season for Maldives!
Returning to our number, I want to remind some visitors, that if you book a room on the island, you must understand that unwelcome guests - local residents can visit you sometimes. People who get used to be in an artificial environment (the city) is often forget, what is to live among wildlife. You should understand that when a hotel was built on a desert island, it means that people invade the world of animals, and not animals in the human world. So if you see ants or geckos in your bathroom just do not pay any attention to them. They will not touch you! Remember, this is their home, and you come to stay with him only a couple of weeks! :-) And if you couldn’t tolerate small creatures, you should book a water villa.
We only booked it for one night, just to try and find out what it is. Sure, Lagoon villa is also worthy of special description. This type of accommodation is truly the most luxurious of the rooms in the hotel. And so it happened ;-) that our Villa was next to the presidential suite with a gorgeous view of the sea. And though all the water villas have direct access to the sea and to the reef, but our hut was closest to the most spectacular part of the reef! This room is a detached house on stilts. Inside it’s a large bedroom with panoramic windows, the same set of furniture, and the differences are in the fact that here is a four poster bed and part of the floor is glazed, so you can watch the sea life right out of your room! Bathroom is not so big, but there is a huge terrace with sun beds, chairs, table, jacuzzi under a canopy, and some kind of a spherical sunbed, which is called coconut bed, and we called it a chicken egg because of it’s white and looks like an egg! Although now I think it would be better to name it a dinosaur egg for its size!))))))
So. What has changed on the island:
1.
Flies had almost disappeared on the island! The hotel management has revised policy of the removal of garbage bags. Now they are stored at a technical island, and not inside the stuff area, like it was before, and they remove them more often.
2. Mosquitoes were seen! :-) But that was associated exclusively with the rainy weather and the inability to spray the bushes and trees with mosquito reagents. As soon as the sky cleared, the entire island was immediately processed.
3. All the dead trees were cut off, many new plants and shrubs were planted. Every day the gardeners collect all fallen leaves, which was then removed from the island in the big plastic bags. Thanks to their efforts, the island became a much more well-groomed and beautiful. But still, in my opinion, this is not all that could be done. I felt lack of tropical flowers on the island, especially orchids and Plumeria (or frangipani tree). In our climatic conditions, winter is a dull black and white picture, so when you go from winter to summer it’s such necessary to see around us as much color flowers as possible! During our stay new gardener-designer was taken, so, I would like to appeal directly to him: "Please, put as much Plumerias on the island as possible!" A few trees were seen by us near Das EDEL and Dunya SPA. But they are still too young to bloom in full force. On the island we met a German couple. They lived all 12 days in a water villa. And to a certain point they liked it very much. But when they came to visit us and see our bathroom, they were even a little upset and said that their bathroom is not so beautiful! In this connection, Dear Management of the hotel, I have good advice for you. Place a large pot with lotuses or bonsai near to the water villa door and a couple of pots on the terrace, and you will make your guests who stayed at the Water Villa even happier! By the way, on the island we did not notice any of the lotuses! :-( They could be so beautiful on the photographs of Chinese tourists! :-))))))
4. Unfortunately, the paths soured in some places on the island. Bulk sand disappeared, and sometimes it was uncomfortable to walk barefoot.
5. More sea-food was served in the main restaurant. In one form or another, it’s offered almost every lunch and dinner. This is certainly a plus, because almost everyone loves seafood! For us just was not clear a desire of cooks to add chili to many foods, including salads. Words “no spicy” does not mean that, for someone it may seem food is not spicy, but means the fact that it does not COMPLETELY contain any pepper! We are opposed to leave behind or dispose food, but sometimes just had to do it because it was spicy. Therefore, if it’s possible, please, put chili sauce on the counter next to the distribution of black olives and garlic, to give the visitor an opportunity to make a choice, if he needed it or not.
In general, we have very positive experience about the restaurant! You could always find something tasty. Once we saw 146-pound blue marlin was brought to the kitchen! He was left for 20 minutes in full view of tourists, so that everyone had the opportunity to be photographed with it. We also liked the desserts! Thanks to the cook-confectioner! In the end, thanks to the efforts of all the cooks we were both added a couple of kgs in less than two weeks, because just couldn’t resist it! :-)
6. We were unpleasantly surprised by higher prices for night fishing from $ 35 (without taxes), it rose to $ 50. And now to prepare caught fish is not free as before, but for $ 10 per person. Of course, its not a big money if to compare the whole cost of the trip, but still unpleasant. At the same time, everything else remained the same: the same boats, same 2 hours of fishing, absence of guarantee that you will catch anything today, sometimes rusty hooks. Even the fishing line on reels remained the same elongated, and with knots! Dear owners of the Deep and Breeze, please show more respect for the tourists and update the tackle! Good fishing line, such as, Berkley Super Strong Trilene Big Game Fishing Line 1740 yd 100 lb costs about $ 55. And it’s enough for about 30 reels! Or better yet, replace the line on a braid that will not tangle during pulling a fish. Berkley Big Game Hollow Braid 130 lb 500yds saltwater costs about 140 dollars and it will be enough for 10 reels. But the braid is more durable and does not stretch. At night fishing you can catch right from corals at 30-40 meters depth. And if you uncoil the 40 meter line, it becomes almost like a rubber band, and its almost impossible to jerk a fish. And if you use a braid, which is hardly stretches, you will be able to sharply jerk a fish, and eventually the number of caught fishes will increase. If most tourists want to repeat the fishing, all (tourists and owners) will be happy in the end!
At this time we were on a night fishing trip four times. The first two times were ok, third time was frankly waste of money, because almost no tourists caught anything. But for the fourth time luck smiled for us! On the way to the fishing spot (on the house reef fishing is prohibited) we were allowed to unravel the line at 50 meters and drop it into the water with artificial bait on the end. It turned out some sort of trolling! (A small remark. If you see a flock of seagulls over the sea, this means that in the sea close to the surface tuna chasing fish fry, which these gulls pick up). Well, our captain saw a flock of seagulls and turn the boat right through it. Once the bait was among the tunas, we felt a sharp jerk line. By the fact the tuna was fighting, we thought it was at least a meter in length! :-) In fact it was not very big, but this fact does not spoil the impression of it and did not make us less respect for it! :-))) Later this tuna was cut for baits, because there was not enough of them. Again, fishing fish turns into a feeding fish due to the fact that the line stretches and you can’t jerk. This evening we caught a few snappers and even reef shark! Which, however, only seemed a little out of the water, bite the line off and disappeared in the sea. For the remaining six tourists fishing was successful too and the two of them also pulled out the sharks, which were released by a crew member after a photo session, as Shark fishing banned in the Maldives.
We really wanted to try the Big game fishing (trolling). But, unfortunately, we could not find two more companions because of bad weather, and to go just two of us and pay for 4 hours $ 650 (again with no guarantee of catching a really worthy fish), we did not want to.
So what remains the same - it is a wonderful house reef, white sand, friendly and responsive staff. Thanks to everyone who made our holiday really special and unforgettable!
It may seem that we have left a negative impression about the rest, it is not so! We were more than pleased with our vacation and wish to extend it for another week! All the disadvantages of the hotel are primarily for the management, in the hope that they will listen to us and make vacation for future travelers a truly perfect! How it happened after our previous review, when the situation with the removal of garbage has changed in a positive way.
We will definitely return to this island again! Thanks to everyone who was able to finish reading this long review to the end! :-) And I hope you will find some useful information in it.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
