A Maldives resort is trying to fix the biggest gripe with all-inclusive holidays: that they keep you on a sun lounger instead of getting you into the water. Kandooma Maldives, a 146-villa island in the South Malé Atoll, has rebuilt its all-inclusive package around actual experiences — scuba diving, snorkelling, fishing and spa time now come bundled with the usual unlimited dining and drinks.
The inclusions are generous. Certified divers get one tank a day, which is a big deal here: the resort runs a PADI 5-Star dive centre with 28 dive sites nearby, including the well-known Kandooma Thila just five minutes away by boat. Everyone gets a daily group reef snorkel, a sunrise line-fishing trip where you can try a traditional Maldivian technique that predates the resorts by generations, and one sunset cruise per stay — with the option to lie on the boat's boom net and get soaked as the sky turns gold, or stay dry with a drink in hand.
There's a wellness element too: each adult gets a 30-minute back, neck and shoulder or foot massage at the Kandooma Spa by COMO Shambhala, per stay. Longer stays stack extra benefits, with some inclusions resetting every four nights. The minimum qualifying stay is four nights.
Food is treated with the same flexibility. Kandooma Café runs 24 hours a day, so late airport arrivals and early departures are covered. The new Kandooma Beach Club does à la carte lunches by the sand — plus one included dinner per person per four-night stay — and there's a new gelateria for the ice-cream-inclined. Wine drinkers can upgrade to the Wine Room, where premium bottles are charged to the room. The resort also runs a rotating daily programme of free and bookable activities for both adults and kids.
General manager Andrew Drummond's pitch is simple: no end-of-holiday bill anxiety. Families can say yes to a dive, a fishing trip or a massage without doing mental arithmetic every time. It recently picked up Leading Family Resort at the South Asian Travel Awards, so the family-first focus clearly lands.
Why it matters: Maldives all-inclusives have traditionally been a food-and-drink deal, with watersports and spa extras adding up fast — often hundreds of dollars across a week. If Kandooma's model holds up, it shifts what a package holiday in the atolls can include, and it's genuinely useful for divers and active families who'd otherwise pay per excursion. Not the pick if you want total solitude and nothing scheduled — but for anyone who finds resort holidays repetitive by day three, this is worth a look.
