Work commitments mean I may have to take a late summer holiday this year. So, am looking at somewhere tropical, which is nice.

Anyone been to the Maldives? If so, any advice? Am after the following;
As all inclusive as possible
Quiet island (No lager lout types! 😉 )
As much sport included as possible (Ideally sailing, windsurf, tennis and almost vital – Wakeboarding)

So, any experience/advice please?

Thanks in advance!

I don’t think you’ll get many lager louts in the Maldives.

http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/brochures/worldwide/holidays/indian_ocean_and_india/maldives/offers.aspx#hd

Some all inclusive deals in there ^^

Went there for work once.
Really beautiful. Never went to the holiday islands, but there are so many of them, you can pretty much define what you want. Not much riding though, highest point on the islands is 2m

Flash, what do you do? You seem to be always going abroad

(can I come?) 😀

oh, yeah, diving too, but actually the water is so clear and full of life in the shallows, snorkelling will get it all for you. Didn’t see an windsurfing whilst i was there, but i was around Male.

Quiet island, with wakeboarding?? 8)

Home

My brother in law went to the maldives on his honeymoon and found it quite boring ‘there’s only so many times a romantic walk on the beach is romantic’! was one he came out with. I always fancied it till he came back.

I went there with the missus via atol adventures on a surf trip. Not sure if they run those other activities but its worth an email to them. Great place, wouldn’t call it boring, but then i was doing boat trips around the atolls and surfing or snorkeling all day.

Diving a must.

Emsz, I’m sure my baggage allowance will allow me to take you! Am sure you’re only ickle! Besides, three might be interesting 😈 😉

My normal trips involve seeing little more than planes, taxis, hotels, offices and reverse the order home. Don’t get to see a lot!

Re beaches etc, all I want on this one is a simple slouch on the beach in glorious sun, with a few cold beers and some sporting diversions!

Thanks for the above so far, reliable STW HiveMind as ever!

🙄 You’re worse than Yeti, LOL!!

good surf out there too. I can recommend Bandos (as an island), capital (Male) isn’t really worth a trip, its like a warm bradford. All inclusive is good idea as beer is expensive!

Sorry, emsz, couldn’t resist! 😉

the best holiday i’ve ever been on, do it!

What’s wrong with Margate yer ponce?

like a warm bradford

I must one day visit this wondrous place… 😯

(Male) isn’t really worth a trip, its like a warm bradford.

Really? I spent a couple of weeks there, and longer in Bradford. I can’t begin to imagine how you see any similarities.

Anyone been to Reethi? Seems to have a decent boat on the beach, and a good looking rack of boards. (Am assuming buttery smooth water at some time!)

Meehaja, good point re beer. Went to Mauritius a while ago on an All Inclusive deal. Wonderful place. After dinner one evening, a German chap asked me how we could afford to have a couple of cocktails before dinner then a beer/wine with it and then sit in the bar sipping rum all evening. Turns out the Germans weren’t on the AI option and were running up a mahoosive bar bill on just a couple of beers a day! 🙂 Everything being imported makes it mondo expensivo.

of course if you go to the inhabited islands as opposed to the holiday islands, they’re booze free (not free booze)

Been to Filitheyo and Coco Palm in the past 4 years. Both good. Try this chap – Jim Forrest at Maldives Direct – http://www.maldivesdirect.uk.com/
Tell him what you want and he’ll tell you where to go(!) – he knows all the resorts and that. And he was as cheap as anyone else too.

Rickos, thanks, that looks great. Will be talking to him!

We’ve to the Maldives a couple of times; once on honeymoon for 2 weeks and once last autumn (when we turned up at the airport to go up St lucia only to have the holiday cancelled due to a hurricane – couple of phone calls later and we were on a plane to Male). Both times were with Kuoni who were great.

All inclusive is definitely the way to go, although I shouldn’t get too excited about the wine….

Obviously its up to you, but most islands don’t have motorised watersports, so if you are set on that then your options will be more limited. As others have suggested it’s the diving and Snorkelling that most people go for, I’ve now spent 3 weeks Snorkelling there and I’m still not bored despite spending literally hours each day in the water.

I can’t remember the name of the first island that we went to, but it was very small. The second trip was to kurumathi water bungalows and was excellent despite the island being a bit bigger than we would perhaps have chosen.

I loved both trips to the Maldives and would happily go back.

Going here Beach but not till August so can’t comment till then, looks nice but I think i’ll leave the bike at home!

Any excuse for a few pictures from our last Maldives trip. Underwater ones were taken snorkelling with a Canon S90 in waterproof housing.

Names of the fish etc should be in the properties if you are interested.

Going to Biyadhoo for the 2nd two weeks of August for the 3rd time (missed last year) and some mates that are going have done 4 (maybe 5 years) there.

the only ‘sports’ are diving and snorkelling as the table tennis table has broken apparently… Also catamarans and canoes for hire.

3 star island with 7 accomodation blocks and central buffet style resturant. Island has good shade from the trees, whereas some bungalo style islands offer you no shade from the sun.

Island has a great house reef and the snorkling is excellent – loads of swimming with the turtles, etc. Boat trips out for swimming with the Mantas and last time there on a catamaran we spotted and chased a whale and calf.

Going all-inclusive for £1560 pp for 16 nights which seems reasonable.

The snorkling, swimming and lazying around provide enough entertainment for me – plus the swimming has been good for the various shoulder injuries I have picked up over the years.

This!

My brother in law went to the maldives on his honeymoon and found it quite boring ‘there’s only so many times a romantic walk on the beach is romantic’! was one he came out with. I always fancied it till he came back.

First time I’ve done a tropical beach holiday, was our honeymoon – by the 3rd day we’d both done as much lying on the beach as we could handle – cabin fever set in, thank god for the diving.

Some people enjoy it, but just not for us 🙁

I have been to the Lacadives, which are the Indian part of the Maldives (cheaper and less people) and it was amazing, diving and fishing – absolutely fantastic holiday. Some people have mentioned snorkeling is all you need to do – honestly you HAVE to dive when you are there. There is also decent surfing, wind and kite boarding too. I suggest you grab the lonely planet you want to see a decent range of activities available – though there is plenty of good advice above.

As it happens I have just booked a liveaboard dive trip in the Maldvies in August – I cannot wait.

Me and Mrs Ox did Chaaya Island Dhonveli for our honeymoon.
Really truly a tropical paradise, but as others have said they are small islands with not much to do. Luckily for us, there was some very respectable surfing on our island, so we got chatting to the surfers and did some of that.

We went a while ago – before the tsunami modified some of the islands – and tbh it’s an awfully long way to go to just sit on a beach with a nice view. Windsurfing tends to be limited to flat water within the reef and although some of the diving is good it’s not a patch on the Red Sea which is a lot nearer. We did see people surfing on the tidal waves between the islands, apparently that’s very good but you need a boat to get out there. The island we were on (Kuda Huraa) was spotless in a Disneyfied sort of way and you could walk round it in half an hour, certainly no scope for tennis – a court would have taken up most of the island. Don’t recall seeing any waterskiing on any of the islands – they’re more into eco-friendly stuff. You need to take some sort of footwear for use in the water – reefs are sharp! It was very quiet, to the extent that you hardly saw anyone except the hotel staff who mysteriously appeared whenever you needed them. Being in the tropics darkness comes early and the nightlife is severely limited – our place did a roaring trade in film rentals; it was either that or a very empty bar. Mrs R got severe cabin fever after a couple of days. Wouldn’t go back unless we happened to be in the area for some other reason or maybe for a couple of days combined with a trip to Dubai or Sri Lanka (we did Dubai and the Maldives). I’d recommend the Red Sea instead as long as the locals can avoid descending into civil war.

Hmmm, looking like Mauritius again, perhaps. (Mainly because I need my wakeboarding fix!)

Thanks for all the advice. Had heard that it can be a little quiet, which was part of the appeal, but don’t want to get cabin fever.

Thanks for all the advice. Had heard that it can be a little quiet, which was part of the appeal, but don’t want to get cabin fever

Then take an Island on the Male Atoll, make sure you can get off island to go visit Male, It’s nothing like Bradford. It’s like a busy small Asian city such as Penang.

We went to Chaaya Lagoon on Hakuraa Huraa for our honeymoon. We chose it because it was a small island with only 50 odd rooms, all sea bungalows (with 3 beach bungalows). There are some islands with 500 rooms (i.e. 1000 people if they’re full), and we wanted a bit of isolation. As a result most times it was only us on the beach (although there was a few days when a group of young Italians stayed and they delighted in making as much noise as possible).

This is the island;

Accomodation was great, each had a private balcony with steps down to the lagoon (lots of fish including rays and reef sharks swimming by), there’s also a window in the floor. Waking up to this view from the bed each morning was nice…

Food was great…possibly the best I’ve had at an inclusive hotel. Plenty of good curries and the meat wasn’t over cooked like you get in a lot of hotels. I particularly enjoyed the fresh naan bread. Plenty of choice with themed evenings. You get a table for your entire stay so you get to know your waiter. We got shown around the kitchens and they are obviously proud of their hotel and they were spotless. They had pictures of each dish so that each chef knew what it should look like…including a picture of a cool box to show what a picnic should look like – which was amusing.

I don’t really enjoy ‘sunbathing’ holidays…I usually need something to keep me occupied, but I really enjoyed the Maldives. Most days were spent snorkling, sitting in turquoise blue seas, watching fishies. In the evenings you can see the black tipped reef sharks hunting in the shallows.

My only comment is don’t bother with the ‘romantic getaway’ trip – they take you to a small remote island with a picnic. It wasn’t that nice and the beach furniture was all dirty. As soon as you open your picnic an army of hermit crabs march towards you…which resulted in my wife deciding they weren’t cute afterall. All sorts of crap washed up on that island, including needles…but that’s not the fault of the hotel more humans in general.

The dolphin safari was ok…although I always assumed that safari mean “watching from a distance”, not “steer the boat at the dolphins when you spot them”. Although seeing baby dolphins playing and jumping out of the water was nice. My wife didn’t enjoy it…she was sea sick and spent the whole time throwing up and groaning.

As she got sea sick we ended up getting invited to a cocktail party with the management team which was meant for returners…I think the posh rich people who go to the island all the time were a bit put out that us oiks got invited!

They also had an extensive library so you don’t need to take loads of books.

I did think it amusing when the instructions with the tickets said we couldn’t bring any Christian symbols or literature into the country. I wonder what would happen if Britain followed that approach. I was dumbing down that holiday and took The Da Vinci Code with me…but as they didn’t check my books I got away with it I’m sure you can take your bible if you can’t live without it. Apparently all they’ll do is confiscate it.

As mentioned by someone above, booze is only available in the resort islands.

I’ve been to Reethi… vvvvvvvvnice

Just the right mix of smart but relaxed vvvvrelaxed.

Watersports where good when I was there, but that was 5 odd years ago..

Took my kites, dropped my bum in the water for a quick breather as I dived the kite to get back up plaining again I looked down and was surfing over a whale shark… One of the best experiences of my little life.

Dont get a water apartment thingy, we were upgraded for free for our first week but prefered the beach room of the second week… You have to walk a whole 20 yards to get on the sand with a water apartment, as opposed to stepping out your room door.

Do the half day trip to the other vvsmall island where you have it to yourself…. just dont get burnt in sensitive places 😉 …. the reef is better over there as well.

Been here, stunning part of the world
Diving a must and take a few good books and chill.

p.s
Velidhu-Island-Resort-Maldives

The Flying Ox – Member

Me and Mrs Ox did Chaaya Island Dhonveli for our honeymoon.

Just noticed your hotel is part of the same chain as the one we went to…Chaaya Lagoon Hakuraa Huraa.

Sounds like Chaaya is a good chain.

Although their photographs are wrong on the website, and have Chaaya Lagoon images against Chaaya Dhonveli.

We did Alidoo (cInnamon island) way up in the northern atolls for 2 weeks. Awesome place, total luxury and as quiet as you can get. They have boat sports (wake boarding) but it was not included for free. They did offer free boat trips to other islands, a mid ocean sandbank, fishing etc etc. I was told there was no surf there (it was our honeymoon so my wife actually chose this one because of that!) and there actually was two perfect breaks out off the island. Devistated, pure torture for someone who has surfed most of the globe. But hey the diving and snorkling made it bearable!

The island is TINY at capacity the hotel takes 150-200 guests iirc.

You’ll love it!