Olhuveli Beach Spa Resort Reviews

We had two fantastic weeks in paradise (26th july-11th aug 2004).
We arrived at the tail end of the rainy season so had a couple of wet but still very warm day`s,We had a delux room with a 4 poster queen sized bed and spectacular views over the ocean (the sun set on our side of the island).The staff are all really friendly from diana the rep to the room boy,and can`t do enough for you.food was very varied alway`s well presented and plenty of it (put 10lb on in two weeks)The water sports are very reasonably priced,snorkelling off the house reef is amazing,Aaron completed his open water for around £400.00.

in a nutshell!!!
Accomodation-definatley go deluxe-very nice
Food-very good(best go all-inclusive)all drinks are included beers,bacardi,gin etc
Staff-superb service in restaurants-bars-poolside bar.
Entertainment-The band(the sultans)are amazing,really nice guys and talented musicians who will play all night long
Ahmed who is the entertainments manager again really nice bloke who gets involved.
Beaches and sea-talcum powder soft sand,crystal clear water,we did`nt wear shoes for 2 weeks the pathways are all soft sand,
Spa-again superb and very reasonable a 1hr long back massage around £16.00
Met lot`s of nice people, had a great time the best holiday we`ve ever had and are hoping to go back in feb.

This resort is picture postcard - white sands and blue seas. When we arrived we were accompanied along the jetty by a welcoming commitee playing drums! Check in was smooth and we stayed in the Beach bungalow (deluxe) definately worth the upgrade, but the upper level ones are better with a high level beams and thatched roof and lovely wooden balcony. Bathroom was spacious, large shower and hairdryer.

Rooms were cleaned twice a day which was great - in the morning when you went out and again in the evening whilst you were at dinner. The staff are friendly and helpful in particular Diane and Ahmed - who took a shine to our 4 yr old daughter (who happened to be the only english kid in the resort!) and they spoilt her with gifts under her pillow from the Olhuveli ";fairy";. I have to add here that we found out towards the end of our holiday that the Thomas Cook rep lived at the resort - however we had no contact from her whatsoever and it was Diane (guest relations manager) that gave us any advice or help we needed.

We were given a great table in the resturant, near the beach. There was a good selection of food - and had no problem finding food for our daughter even though the resort did not really cater for children (not that we expected this). The only criticism I would say is that popular dishes did occasionally run out and were not always replensished - however there was always an alternative choice. I would definately recommend All inclusive. Our bar bill was averaged apx $150 per night and we were not drinking ourselves silly!

The pool area was lovely, although humid due to being sheltered. What we did discover was the side of the island our bungalow was on had a breeze but the other side did not and was extremely hot to sunbathe in. We were in bungalow 162, however 161 next door had an unobscured seaview (vegetation was quite tall outside our balcony).
Each bungalow is allocated its own numbered sunbeds on the beach outside and we had clean beach towels each day. There is plenty of fish in the sea and we had our own baby shark that swam up and down about 3 feet out from the shore!

We recommend the evening Dolphin boat trip - not only did we see Dolpins but were lucky enough to see a whale-shark - an rare sight. The full day excursion was tiring and not something I would do again and my husband went on the early morning fishing trip which was a complete waste of money/time.
The hotel entertainment is quite good - the nights the band played were excellent as well as the disco night. Crab racing was fun too.

A word of warning - I had no mosquito bites at all until I visted the spa - the spa treatment was excellent - however it was spoilt by the fact that I was eaten alive in the relaxation area and had to visit the hotel clinic for treatment!
We would definately return to this resort.

when we stepped off the plane, the heat was amazing but fresh. especially from the freezing weather of Gatwick.

when we arrived into our accommodation we were on our honeymoon, our bed was decorated and we had a fantastic time.

the full day excursion was one of the best we are not really a couple who go on excursions but it was excellent value for money. if you are lucky enough to be offered the sunset queen safari excursion take it it is the best thing that we did on holiday and really made it a special experience to see all the different atolls, reefs and experience the maldives in luxcury.

Diana and Ahmed were fantastic they are partb of the guest relations and i am sure Diana would appreciate if ypou brought Mccoys crisps and irn bru as she is scottish and misses these things.

overall money well spent and we will definately be back in the future

We went for a fortnight over Christmas and New Year and had a fantastic holiday. The island is lovely and the beaches are fantastic. The lagoon is very large and you can walk in knee high water for hours! The snorkelling is out of this world, we saw loads of reef sharks and a huge stingray really close to the beach. We're fairly well travelled but never been to Maldives before.

The staff were very helpful and friendly - there are more staff than guests. However whilst they appear to speak English they only seem to understand what they want to, which can be frustrating.

We went half board and were really pleased we didn't pay for all inclusive as the food in the buffet restaurant is very repetitive and after a few days it's not very appetising. The emphasis is definitely more on quantity rather than quality. We managed to spend under the $45/day upgrade fee to all inclusive (fee charged in resort - Thomson charge £33/day)and we ate lunch in the buffet restaurant and had dinner in the a la carte restaurant and usually had a bottle of wine or some beer.

We had a beach bungalow which was very nice, however after finding a few cockroaches and lots of large ants we did have to move rooms. One couple we met who stayed in the water bungalows apparently found cockroaches every night (some with wings).

The rep, who is employed by the hotel, is very unprofessional and she deflects/argues any constructive comments/criticism rather than listening and adopting ";the client is always right"; approach!

We'd definitely go back to Maldives, would go back to this hotel - mainly because of the food, we think it's really a 3* not 4*. However we really did have a fantastic holiday.

After looking forward to our holiday for 5 months, we were horrified to find out on the day of departure that we were overbooked. There were 6 other British couples in the same boat and possibly others. When we arrived in the Maldives it was obvious that the overbooking situation at Olhuveli was not an unusual one.

We were put to a different island for the first week of our holiday and Olhuveli for our second week. When we arrived at Olhuveli our rooms werent ready and we had to wait around an hour. We were the lucky ones though as one couple had to wait for 3 hours.

Whilst at Olhuveli, we discovered that the resort is constantly over booked. Leaflets were pushed under our door every day asking us to upgrade to water bungalows(at a cost)or to go out on a 3 day boat trip(at a cost). In both circumstances you had to completely pack up and they couldnt tell you which room you would go back into as they had to give your room to other people. On our last day, the customer relations manager and the Thomsons rep were literally begging guests to upgrade to water villas and were actually offering the boat trip free as they needed rooms.

The food in the restaurant was average and you had to queue for an age to get near it. The variety of food was reasonable but was luke warm at best. The selection of desserts was not very varied and they ran out very quickly. On most nights they did not replace things which ran out. As there were so many children in the resort, mealtimes were noisy and not at all relaxing.

There were literally dozens of children while we were there and they ran around the bar until midnight every night(not quite the quiet get away we were expecting). We asked a couple of waiters if it was always so noisy and they confirmed yes.

All of the entertainment was in Italian and was awful!

The resort itself was lovely. The beach and sea were beautiful, the pool was great and the accomodation was nice but it was not a quiet get away. If you are looking for a romantic break on a secluded island then I think you should try somewhere else.

The 2 redeeming features about the resort were the Serena Spa which was fantastic and reasonably priced and Carolyn at the diving school who was excellent.

The worst things were the noise and the cost of items in the only shop. The prices in the shop at Olhuveli were on average 2/2.5 times more expensive than the first island we were on.