Maldives Top Tips

[northwest monkey]

joshcowin said:

Great thanks gents. Travelbag is a website I haven't looked at before either so thanks again!

Sorry for de-railing this thread.

If you're not into diving / snorkelling, then personally I'd go somewhere else unless you just want to say you've been to the Maldives. Alternatively, what about a week Maldives & a week in Sri Lanka?

The OH and I love snorkelling (she can't do diving for medical reasons) and if you choose an island with a good reef you'll be very happy. I honestly think you'd be bored after a week of just sitting around on an island that takes you under an hour to walk around.


For a beach holiday in winter that's (a) exotic and (b) interesting, then what about Goa?

[hyphen]

+1 to either visit two destinations or switch islands within the Maldives halfway.

[Coxey]

We did a week in May at Thudufushi via Kuoni we had a water bungalow, it's a small island but I would certainly recommend it

[joshcowin]

northwest monkey said:

If you're not into diving / snorkelling, then personally I'd go somewhere else unless you just want to say you've been to the Maldives. Alternatively, what about a week Maldives & a week in Sri Lanka?

The OH and I love snorkelling (she can't do diving for medical reasons) and if you choose an island with a good reef you'll be very happy. I honestly think you'd be bored after a week of just sitting around on an island that takes you under an hour to walk around.


For a beach holiday in winter that's (a) exotic and (b) interesting, then what about Goa?

We did Sri Lanka last year, toured for 10 days then relaxed for a week. was a great holiday, not cheap but we really experienced a lot.

I am trying to get my head round spending the same money for just chilling on a beach, rather than being driven around an amazing island experiencing something new every couple of hours!

[jammy-git]

I would fully recommend signing up to the Travelbag email newsletter. It's all long haul (Far East, Indian Ocean, USA, Oceania, Dubai/UAE and Gulf of Mexico). They quite often do an email focusing on one region with some pretty good deals and also split holidays.

[Legend83]

It's been 8 years since we went to Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu for our honeymoon but if it is anything now like it was back then, it was heaven on earth.

https://www.cococollection.com/en/palm_dk

[cymatty]

Has anyone stayed at the Conrad rangali island in a deluxe beach villa, we have been quoted for one but looking online at video walkthroughs the villas seem close together?

I am not sure I want to pay the extra to be at a "higher end" 5* if it is not worth it

[Mark83]

Currently sat on our villa decking in Kuramathi.

Swapped rooms today. We've moved from a Pool Villa (awesome) to Water Villa with pool (also awesome and Mrs B's favourite). We've really enjoyed our own pool and not gone to the other pools on the island. We'd no desire for a jacuzzi.

We're AL but ate at Kobe for sushi and the Benihana style grill which was great. Had the 'Romantic lobster dinner' on the beach last night which wasn't great value for money IMO. The buffet restaurant has been great so far too.

Been here almost a week and leaving Friday. Not been bored as I expected. It's so relaxing. It's been stressful leading up to this and really needed to do nothing. Going on a couple of SCUBA and snorkeling trips this week.

[davek_964]

Interesting - it was expensive, but we really enjoyed the lobster dinner.

[havoc]

p1stonhead said:

krunchkin said:

I think our needs would be:

Over water villa ideally
All inclusive
House reef in good condition and not dead
No kids
Not too big
Not insanely expensive Ultra 5 star, decent 4 star fine

We did vilamendhoo a few years back. Was fantastic. House reef the highlight its miles long.

Water villa was very reasonable it was great.

Cant say I noticed many kids but there may have been some.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g209576...

We did Vilhamendoo back in 2011, in a water-villa, which WAS special.

House reef IS good there, unquestionably, although the surface stuff before the drop-off has all bleached. Good range of sea-life - regularly blacktips and stingrays swimming around under the villas / walkways, plus the odd moray, trigger- and porcupine-fish. Once over the drop-off there's more colour, more fish and the odd turtle.
Also, be careful when borrowing a canoe - don't take it out at low tide, as low tide is right down by the coral.

Food 7 years ago wasn't great - I'll second the comment made on p.1 about buffets. It wasn't bad, don't get me wrong...but it certainly wasn't great, and given where we were (middle of an ocean!) I expected rather better seafood than the generic white fish that we got most days. And it was still a buffet, with all that entails...

Villa location - check whether the island you choose has a mossie issue - when we went there were some reports of people getting bitten badly staying in some of the beach villas.

Also look into the excursions they do - we did 3 - snorkelling with a whale shark, a (short) full-day manta-ray and offshore reef snorkel, and a sunset cruise where they picked up a pod of dolphins.

Here are my photos to give an idea - all pics except manta / whale shark taken at Vilhamendoo...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/48052912@N05/albums/...