Vakaru Resort Reviews

Holiday details:
Booked with Hayes and Jarvis - 12 weeks before going. Flights from Gatwick -> Male and then 30 min sea plane to Atoll Jetty (the Jetty is a Sea Plane drop off/pick up point for several islands on the Atoll), followed by 20min Dhoni boat to the Island.
14 Nights (all on the island) Full Board

Flights:
Gatwick -> Male: These were with First Choice, and having been to the Maldives before with Monarch I must say that First Choice was a far superior service compared to Monarch.
Given the choice I would go with First choice every time!

Sea Plane: always an adventure! Great views of the Atolls, and short enough to be comfortable! The only problem was that our bags were bumped to the next fligh, which meant waiting a couple of hours for them when on the island... however we kinda knew this might happen so we had appropiate atire stashed in the hand luggage (always thinking!).

The welcome: Greated in a novel way with coconut icecream and a cold towel. Check in didn't take long, and we only had to wait 10-20mins for our rooms to become ready!

The rooms:
Very large. Large bed, large bathroom, AC that worked 100% of the time and lovely views of the reef through the palms. The only thing that it lacked was a deck (like at Velavaru). But its not essential so I don't mind!

The Island:
The island seemed a bit smaller than Velavaru, which was good. There is a dive school on the island and there were a large amount of divers , so during the days the island is pretty much empty. The Spa is exceptional. Easy to book and the range of treatmets was vast!

Food and drink:
Pretty much as you would expect... the food was very good, except on a couple of nights when there is an a la cart menu... but, to be honest you don't care as the food is so good the rest of the time you are glad you have an excuse not to eat!
The Bar is pretty much open al the time... but the service is very laid back! The bar has a nice veranda which you can sit out on all day (it does have shade) and watch people dive/snorkel in the lagoon or off the reef. We did see dolphins from this veranda a couple of times!

The reef:
Fantastic. A great abundance of wildlife, which is accessible at all hours. We saw sharks, turtles, rays all by snorkelling off the house reef!
If you want to see some you can always see it on youtube.com just type in vakaru in the search engine!

Visiting Vakaru was a fantastic experience, if I return to the Maldives I'll be going back to Vakaru!