None - not for people who want the big plush pampered false hotel experience
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
We stayed at Vilamendhoo from 7th October to 22nd October 2007. It was our 2nd time to the Maldives (went to Kuredu last year for our honeymoon), and we found this island completely different to our first Maldives experience.
The island is a reasonable size, and takes about 15-20 minutes to walk around it. All the accommodation looked pretty much the same, except for a few deluxe rooms (looked the same as the others), and a few rooms in the middle of the island (wouldn't recommend those).
We stayed in room 117 (we requested rooms 113 to 130 after reading other reviews) which was in a fantastic location, with a lovely beach outside the room and an excellent spot on the reef. The room was really close to the sunset bar (sitting out on the beach at night watching the shooting stars!), which was lovely, and wasn't far to the restaurant and reception.
The food is great, although it did get a little "samey" after two weeks - great quality though, and fantastic curries and poppadums! The chefs were great and made fresh omelettes for me every morning and pasta at lunchtime. The best part of the food is the fish. There is fish at every course and it is so fresh - fantastic. The drinks were great - I lost count of the gin and tonics I had each day, but they were so refreshing.
We shared our dinner table with another couple from the UK. We were a bit wary of this as last time we had a table for two, and we are quite quiet people who don't really like making polite chit-chat. But in fact it was one of the best parts of our hols as our table buddies were a real laugh, hello Stuart and Gail. I always looked forward to going for meals. We had great fun at dinners.
The staff on the island were fantastic. You got the few odd ones, but 99% were so helpful and loved chatting to you.
We did a few of the trips whilst we were there: sunset fishing - good fun, didn't catch anything although must have had about 1,000 bites!! The skipper and his assistant were really helpful baiting the hooks for us and everything - despite not speaking a word of the Queen's!
We also had a romantic meal for two down at the sunset bar - the food was fantastic, immaculate everything and only 40 dollars each. And we did the half day barbecue trip to the deserted island - good fun although the snorkelling wasn't as good as Vil.
Ok, so now onto why we went to the Maldives - the snorkelling. We aren't divers, but you don't need to be. This island was incredible for the marine life. The reef goes all the way round the island although you only really snorkel the two sides from one end to the other.
As earlier said, outside our room was Exit 5 (There are 10 cut channels through the reef to the outer-reef, so you don't damage it when swimming to the outside), this exit was possibly the best one on the island with wonderful colour (finally seems to be growing back) and an abundance of fishes.
We snorkelled both sides every day and saw so many fish including: Moray Eels, Lionfish, Ttian Triggers, Clown triggers, Eagle Rays, Cow Tail Stingray, Black Tip Reef Shark, loads of Anenome fish (Clark's and Maldivian), Lobster, and all the colourful reef fish you normally see. The snorkelling was 100 times better than Kuredu (which was good too!).
On our 2nd day there we were by our room when we heard someone shouting Whale Shark. We walked to the beach, and sure enough, about 20 metres from the beach was a Whale Shark swimming slowly by! I grabbed my camcorder and caught some of the action. It did a few passes, but as soon as a couple of snorkellers splashed out towards it, it disappeared. Amazing!
We saw some dolphins patrolling the reef at another time.
We did a few snorkel trips that the hotel organise, on the Dhonis. They cost 15 dollars each and are well worth a couple of hours of your time.
Our room was immaculately clean. I agree the bathroom looks a bit dated, but it is so clean, you wouldn't mind. Our room didn't have an outside bathroom (about half of the rooms did and half didn't). We used the minibar every day as the prices were really reasonable, compared to other resorts.
We loved this island, and I think would definitely go back for a lot of reasons, the main one being the snorkelling - fantastic. We really recommend this place - it's not a luxurious island, but it seems more rustic than others with a real Maldivian charm about the place.
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