Nika Island Resort

We stayed in a Deluxe Beach Villa next to the Sultan Suite (room 1) on a FB plan. This is our second trip to Nika and our seventh to the Maldives. We typically stay in water villas but we already knew that the Nika water villas had pretty much zero shade so were not for us. Transfers in MLE were a breeze for us as regulars, but some newcomers might be a bit bewildered by the lack of a lounge at the seaplane terminal. We were only there for 15 minutes so we didn’t even go up to the free lounge. A Nika rep met us after customs, but not at the seaplane terminal. But it’s really not that difficult anyway. Our deluxe beach villa was the best place we have stayed in the Maldives, better than places 3 times the price. My reasoning: it’s huge with a private beach, small lagoon and about 10 metres from the reef. There is shade throughout the day and places to sit inside and out in very many different ways. I feel they are vastly superior to Nika’s water villas. The non-deluxe villas are on the other side of the island and many have very poor reef access. Snorkelling the reef is a bit hit and miss. We saw the best fish life near the diving jetty, but the reef and coral is healthiest closer to the beach bar. At the reef’s best it was superb with vibrant coral, sharks, eagle rays and one day a turtle. Some days it was poor with little to see. Watch out for the current along the shore which can be strong enough to be difficult to swim against. Our best snorkels were entering near the dive jetty and exiting at the beach bar where we had a hot chocolate. Food was mostly excellent and the buffet nights such as the Italian buffet and Asian buffet top notch for the Maldives at this level. Some of the à la carte food was not great and a couple of nights we were disappointed. Drink prices for the Maldives are exceptionally good value. A half bottle of red for $17 was our regular and cocktails were typically $12. Most of the cocktails were well made, but it was rather bartender specific. We thought the FB package was good value and not worth the upgrade to AI based on the drinks prices. The resort supplied us with a full price list which I used to choose which package was the best value for us. Scuba is excellent with some world-class sites nearby. Experienced divers MUST request a night dive on Maaya Thila and was just incredible: an open water night dive with sharks and giant trevallys galore. The team is very professional and the rental equipment I saw decent. They split divers into capability groups and exercise the right level of caution when people have problems. The boat is dhoni-style so not the fastest with transfer times to dive sites are typically 30 mins but some are an hour away. It’s easy resort diving with crew to help you with gear, and I spotted a couple of older divers taking off gear before returning to the boat. Picking up on what others have complained about. No, the outside shower is actually fabulous. It’s true the Italians have more engagement from staff, but if you want western-style 5* service in the Maldives, expect to pay $2-3k or more per night. Yes there are seaplanes are they are loud; welcome to the Maldives.