Beach Bungalow Reviews

This was our third visit to the Maldives and Filitheyo is the best island we've been to so far.
The island itself is lovely, very green with beautiful beaches.
The food was excellent. There was always huge variety and a lot of the dishes were freshly cooked for you (even though it's a buffet). There were never any long queues in the buffet restaurant and the staff were constantly putting fresh food out.

Both the bars were good. The sunset bar was (as the name suggests) a very pleasant place to sit and have a drink as the sun went down. We often went there after dinner as well. It was quieter than the main bar, not that the main bar was very noisy. The staff were all very friendly and helpful.
The accomodation was excellent. A large room with a very comfy four poster bed. a sofa and TV. Each bungalow had its own terrace with a little table and chairs. The bathroom was partially open air (the toilet is seperate and the two sinks are covered over, with the shower being open to the sky).
We had a semi-detached bungalow, number 121. The bungalow itself was lovely but 121 was on the north-east side of the island and although there was a lovely white sandy beach outside our room, we couldn't swim in the sea there. We had to walk back towards the north-west side because of the reef and currents on our side of the island. Although we did have a nice breeze all the time. Also we were about the furthest away from the dive school, restaurants and bars.

The dive school was run by WernerLau. I think they're Swiss. Most of the staff were German or Swiss (plus an Italian and a Japanese). They weren't the friendliest dive school I've used but they weren't rude or bossy - just a bit reserved. They did provide a good service though. At least two boats morning and afternoon, one to a strong current dive and the other to a weak to moderate current dive. The only small complaint is that each boat only gives one dive. The other dive schools we've used in the Maldives did two dives off the morning boat and one off the afternoon boat. That said there was nothing to stop us diving off the house reef. The house reef was excellent. We saw stingrays, morays and at least seven turtles - and that was just snorkelling. When we dived it we saw napoleon wrasse, big lobsters and whitetip reef sharks as well. Oh and in the shallows by the main jetty there were baby blacktip reef sharks and young stingrays.

The spa was excellent too. We got a voucher for a free 20 min neck and shoulder massage when we arrived. And we both had a massage on our last day too.
All in all it was a wonderful holiday and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Filitheyo.

Had a wonderful 2 weeks in true paradise island suroundings - The Maldives are the luxury beach holiday destination.

The food was excellent, superb choice and quality - we are quite fussy but didn't feel the need to pay extra for the ala carte once in 2 weeks!

The island is delightful and very well kept, large enough to not feel claustophobic but not too busy. Ideal for a quiet romantic holiday. We have been to Kuramathi before which was very nice but this is a step up from that

Dive school is German run and orientated but was perfectly adequate.

All inclusive was great with good quality of drinks available for most of the day until midnight - and as said excellent food.

Delightfully quiet nightlife and hardly any children - perfect for us! - if you like Karaoke then go to Spain or one of the more built up cheesier Maldivian island like ";Fun"; or ";Pardise";.

The semi-detached beach bungalows were air conditioned (essential!) and nicely decked out with lovely part open bathrooms
Our bungalow was great (number 40 something) - just 5-10 yards from the sea with a delightful view then just 20 yards swim to the reef edge - Perfect!

A few bits of advice - avoid bungalows from number 85-90 upwards as much of the beach has been washed away in front of these and completely avoid the ones from 103 upwards as these have no beach at all.

NB the walls of the semi-detached beach bungalows are a little then so don't get next to noisy types if you can help it - Thankfully only about 1/3 of the visitors are English so this isn't all that likely.

As usual in the Maldives we would avoid the more expensive water bungalows as you don't get your own bit of beach to lie on right outside your hut and they are quite packed together.

There are a few detached bungalows on the less shady part of the island which are nice, but these did have a much longer swim to get to the reef edge.

Sea Plane trip as everone says is great - do it if you can.

I'd just like to criticise Thomas Cook UK as they combined London and Manchester flights after booking (within the small print of course) which led to 2-3 hour longer journey - on top of which the flight was delayed by 2 hours so we spent ages at the airport and almost missed our transfer to the island - Basically very poor treatment of people paying good money for holidays (this isn't allocate on arrival in Tenerife Thomas Cook!).
Treatment when you get to Maldives by contrast is very good.

We rarely go back anywhere on holiday, but we will be going back to Filitheyo!