Review of Holiday Inn Resort Kandooma Maldives - Kids Stay & Eat Free 4*

We hoped for the holiday of a lifetime but maybe we expected too much? One thing I didn’t expect in November was atrocious weather. We didn’t see blue sky for four days, okay it was 30℃ but the wind was ferocious and the rain stinging. The weather put a damper on things for sure, it churned up the sea and even delayed our boat to the island but the two things that really spoiled it for me were some of the other tourists and the rubbish in the water. I went out on two organised and guided snorkelling trips and on both of them our Maldivian guide spent most of his time frantically trying to pull idiots tourists off the coral. They just never got the concept of marine conservation or how standing on the coral reef would cause it permanent damage. They trampled all over it and it seemed the wildlife was just sushi as far as they were concerned. It was dreadful. Back on our island, one of our party saw the them catching the local crabs, they were pulling the legs off and stuffing them into a plastic bag. Every swim I made around Kandooma yielded another item of rubbish from the sea. This included surgical gloves, a credit card, coffee sachets, a can of nuts, even a 10 rupee note. Friends we met on the island had a similar experience and also brought out rubbish on a daily basis. Kandooma was very well run, by some very nice people, they re-used glass bottles for water and gave us fresh oranges to squeeze every morning which was great. We were asked to take our rubbish home with us and staff were doing everything they could to establish new coral reefs to make up for all the damage of the boxing day tsunami. The snorkelling guides showed real concern for the reef but unfortunately a certain section of us had them beat. What really depressed me is that the developing countries have only just begun to venture out as tourists. Only a tiny proportion can yet afford to do so but I really fear for the planet when 1.3 billion of them attain such power and money coupled a with complete disregard for the environment.