General: Maldives > Reviews > Places to see before you die.....Maldives!

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around
Family Friendly

Advantages:	Idyllic beautiful island, amazing weather, amazing sea life
Disadvantages:	none !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Sun Island is one of several Maldivian island resorts run by the Villa Hotels chain. Our holiday was for 2 weeks at the 4.5 star rated Sun Island in the South Ari Atoll, 2 1/2 hours by boat from Male. This resort was only 3 years old when we went.

The island was beautiful, exactly as you see in the brochures, coral white soft sands, turquoise seas, palm trees, amazing fish and sea life.

We took the boat from Male (Airport) to Sun Island. Transfers can also be made by sea plane, though this costs more. This was a nice trip, calm seas when we were in the shelter of the atolls, but a bit rougher in the open sea!

Arrival - We were greeted by members of staff with damp towels to refresh ourselves with. In the lobby we were given chilled coconuts to drink whilst we registered. As we did this the staff unloaded our cases from the boat into the reception. There were then small vans that took you and your luggage to your room.

Money - No cash is carried on the island, all drinks, food, etc you sign for and is added to your bill, to be paid at the end of your holiday. There was a tv in the rooms which we could use to look at our bill. (We found this useful just to keep track of finances) as we were all-inclusive there weren't many things we had to pay for, obviously any excursions you take, bike hire etc

All of the accommodation was in the form of bungalows which have been very well laid out so as not to make the island appear overcrowded. There were three grades of accommodation:

1, Standard bungalows - We stayed in one of these, described as a 'deluxe' in the brochure. Accommodation was simple but good. The room was a good size with a massive bed! No bath, but a powerful shower. We also had a tap just outside for us to wash sand off our feet before going indoors.

2, Deluxe bunglows - Like above but included features such as an outdoor shower and a bath inside.

3, Water bungalows - The island had two 'jettys', one that the boat docks at, and one on the other side of the island that had about 70 water bugalows attached. These are the most deluxe rooms, on stilts in the sea.

Restaurant & Staff - Food is served on a buffet style basis, and was excellent. At the start of your holiday you are assigned a table and a waiter, which you keep for the duration of your stay. There was a wide range of dishes each day, and some absolutely fantastic deserts! Drinks are brought to you by your waiter.
There were several restaurants; The main one at the 'front' of the island, a chinese at the end of the water bungalows jetty, and an Italian at the end of the other jetty. The one slight criticism we had was that we had booked an all inclusive holiday, but found that only the main restaurant was included in the package. We could eat the others, and would recieve a 20% discount but still thought this was a bit of a cheat by the hotel!
In addition to the above, the resort also runs beach bbq's and other such events, but these are not part of the all-inclusive package, and we found the food was not that different from the normal restaurant.

Bar staff - As above with the restaurants situation, there were several bars around, but we could only drink at the main bar, pool bar and beach bar. Be careful to check where you are drinking and if it is included in your package. Additionally, be careful what you are drinking - some brand name drinks were all inclusive, others were not. There was a list at the bar.
One downside to the main bar was the staff - they were 'not very fast'! You sat at a table and a waiter was meant to take your order and bring your drinks. Simple as this sounds, they did not manage to do this very well - one evening we waited 45 minutes for drinks after the waiter took our order. When we got up to leave, the horrified waiter rushed over with our drinks. When we said we didn't want them, he eventually explained that if we did not sign for them, he would have to pay for the round!

As we had been warned by the Travel agent using the telephones to phone home was very expensive (up to $5/minute). Our rep pointed out that on our island there was a 'Business Centre' where we could access the internet and send e-mails. This costed only $1 for 15 minutes and was alot more reliable than using the phone.

The weather was on the whole excellent, we only had one full day of rain. On that note Sun Island was good in that it had other facilities we could use such as Badminton courts, table tennis.

Sun Island is surrounded by a reef that extends approx 1km from the beach. we wandered out to the edge one day which was very strage being only waist deep that far out! Sadly storms have destroyed alot of the coral but it is growing back and there were still many fantastic types of fish to be seen. We spent most of the holiday snorkelling and even saw some sharks!

This holiday really was the paradise everyone says it is, we would thoroughly recommend it. We will be returning to the Maldives. Just one point if you are going to spend the money in getting out to the Maldives we would recommend that you do go for an all inclusive package (ours cost ~£1100 pp), the island only has the one hotel on it so there is nowhere else to get food and we felt that the restaurants were quite expensive. It seems pointless to pay the bulk of the holiday costs to get there only to worry about the cost of the food and drinks, when for another £200/300 you can go all inclusive.

We are actually going to back to the Maldives again in October - we are going to Paradise Island which will hopefully be as nice as it sounds!! This is another of the Villa Hotels Chain - i'll report back!