Nova Maldives

What a great place Nova is! It really does live up to its good vibes tagline and is one of the friendliest resorts we have ever visited! Small and quiet, it was exactly what we wanted - we emailed ahead to request a quiet room and room 123 was perfect, at the southern tip of the island it is most distant from the main facilities, but it suited us perfectly. Rooms are cool, clean and well appointed, the outdoor patio, daybed and egg chair all made for a relaxing setting. The beach is amazing, soft white sand, gorgeous turquoise water and despite the weather not being great (very windy and quite rainy) it was still wonderful to swim and paddle. If you dive/snorkel, this is the place to go. The house reef was in good condition with a thriving ecosystem, coral transplanted frames, reef sharks, so many fish (from clown fish to Moorish Idols, batfish to snapper) - all easily accessible from the jetty. The weather limited our diving, but two beautiful nearby locations revealed amazing shoals of fish, huge variety and hawksbill turtles. Sadly our trip to see manta ended in an aborted boat trip due to rough conditions, but Ali, Ali and Jerry and the dive centre are all great! The food is very good, there is less choice than larger resorts as you would expect, but the quality is great. From pastries, cereal, fruit, cooked options, curry and freshly made eggs and omelettes at breakfast, to a wide range of both cooked and salad options at lunch. Dinners were lightly themed, but always good. I'm gluten free, so my choices were much more limited, but Devi was great and would make me gluten free pancakes/crepes at breakfast, so I didn't feel like I was missing out. Uli was an absolute superstar, so kind, helpful and funny - she would advise me on GF options and make GF stir fry for me too. It was also impressive that on AI you could also visit Flames a la carte restaurant and unlike many other resorts, it wasn't limited to just one visit, although we only went once. The menu is limited for those on AI, but again, far less so than many other resorts. Also, there are a very good range of drinks included in the AI package too. Our only criticism was the the DJ in the bar meant that sometime the music was too loud to chat comfortably and the dance tunes some evenings didn't really fit the chilled vibe! (even our 16 year old daughter agreed!) We were there during a special PADI week and women's dive day which was great, and meeting India, Laura and Chloe and her colleague was great too. This was our 4th Maldivian trip (we've also visited Cocoon and Dhigufaru within the past 6 years) and Nova was one of the best experiences. We're always wary about returning somewhere and it not living up to our memories and expectations, but we definitely think we'd go back (when we've saved up enough!) again!