Quick facts

Distance from the airport: 25mins by sea plane or 1 hour and 40 minutes by speedboat transfer.

Wifi: yes, but chargeable

Flexibility on room capacity: very flexible. as the rooms mostly have a living room, they can put an additional bed there to fit the needs of the client.

Watersports: free for all non motorized water sports. motorized water sports are chargeable.

Spa services: yes, but only at the spa center.

Kids club: yes, but babysitter is chargeable.

Restaurants and bars: there are 3 restaurants: Azzuri Mare which is an Italian restaurant, Lotus which is a Thai restaurant and Reef which is their main restaurant where breakfast, lunch and dinner are usually served. they also have 2 bars – Coral and Aqua. they do have a DJ playing at Aqua once a week, if i’m not mistaken it should be every Tuesday night.

Unique Features:

the resort offers all-inclusive packages only. they have two types of this package, one is Fully Inclusive – All Inclusive package which allows you to have daily buffet of breakfast, lunch and dinner at Reef restaurant; a one time visit at Lotus restaurant and Azzuri Mare (extra visit will be chargeable); all day softdrinks and mineral water and selected brands of alcoholic drinks. this package EXCLUDES the following: In-villa dining; mini-bar consumption; spa services and dive and snorkeling equipments. the other package is Island Club package which allows you to have access to the island clubhouse; buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner and unlimited dining experience at the other two specialty restaurants; snorkeling equipments and complimentary broadband internet access for 30mins daily.

My personal review:

The rooms in Centara are fresh, unique and vibrant without being pretentious and trying too hard. The combination of white and pastel colors inside their rooms are refreshing for my eyes who have seen mostly dark wood-colored rooms in all the other resorts in Maldives. It has a mediterrenean touch in each of the rooms. Their rooms are spacious and what I like about it more is that they are very flexible and accomodating when it comes to uneven numbers of guests (3 adults, 2 children or 2 adults, 3 children) and are willing to put extra beds in their rooms to satisfy their clients. The Beach suite which is their entry-level room has a living room and full bath and toilet downstairs and the bed is located on the second floor of this loft where another widescreen television and toilet can be found. The downside is, my colleagues who have stayed in this property all had the same comments about these rooms – the walls are probably too thin that they can hear the footsteps of people climbing up and down the stairs in the next suite which is definitely disturbing for the guests who wants to have a good night’s sleep.

Their fully inclusive and island package also offers you very limited choices in terms of alcoholic beverages. I ordered a margarita at the reception and was told that it is chargeable so the waiter gave me a list of cocktails which are included in their package and it has about 15 drinks only.

Another downside for this resort is their limited access of broadband internet. The guests, although paying a good amount of money to avail the island package will only have 30mins per day of free access to the internet which is a bit disapointing for me (facebook addict and blogger is talking).

All in all, if you’re not much of a drinker and would really prefer to be disconnected from the interwebs then Centara is the place for you in Maldives.

Centara Water Villas

the water villas

bunk bed for children

the living room inside the beach suite

Centara

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