Well, what can I say. This has to be hands down the best holiday I've ever been on.

Having not been away all 2011 I wanted this holiday to be special, however, having trawled through the reviews on tripadviser there seemed to be a fair amount being left to chance...which part of the island, which restaurant, level of all-inclusive package. etc etc. Anyway, I promised myself that I would write as good a review as possible, seeing as how tripadviser made this holiday what it was for us.

First the basics - the 'no shoes, no news' policy was a little confusing on paper...but it basically means that you could, in theory, go without shoes for your entire holiday. The Island and the rooms are immaculately clean, and glasses aren't allowed out of the bars. The 'no-news' bit meaning, leave your troubles behind.

The transfer from Male was easy, and sitting on the veranda waiting for the seaplane was a lovely way to acclimatise (they also now provide you with ear plugs for the journey). Looking at all the Atols as you fly in is stunning!

On arrival, the staff line up and give you a little welcoming song. Nice touch.

They also appreciate that you're pretty frazzled after your flight, so don't pile too much on on the first day. Just enough to make sure you're settled and comfortable.

Now for the assessment of the more serious aspects of the holiday.

Having read lots of reviews I was aware that the All Inclusive package I was being offered by all the travel companies was actually a limited all inclusive package. Doesn't include cocktails mini-bar and importantly, bottled water. I would say that the best decision we made was to upgrade to the 'Gold All Inclusive' package. This really made a difference. Not only did it mean we could wander around the entire island drinking cocktails to our hearts content, but it also meant that we could clean out the minibar on a daily basis (which is nice when you want to sit in front of the sea having a glass of wine before you go out of an evening…and the odd packets of crisps/nuts). But seriously, if you think you’ll drink a fair amount of cocktails, it’s worth upgrading to the Gold All Inclusive for this alone. They’re pretty expensive, and you don’t want to be watching the pennies on a holiday like this. Aside from the cocktails though, the Gold All Inclusive gives you a few other advantages: Everyone gets a 15 minute refresher massage in the Spa, but with the Gold AI you get a full hour treatment (plus the 15 mins given to everyone). You get a round of golf, a couple of excursions included (a note on this later), and a meal at one of the a-la-carte restaurants.

The Island itself is effectively split into 3 areas – O Resort, Sangu and Koumas. You’re allocated a restaurant in the resort which is attached to your accommodation. You can easily walk between the resorts - it will take you 10 mins max, (there’s also a taxi/bus service if you can’t be bothered) but your nearest, allocated restaurant is the one you’ll be remembered in and will be expected to take your evening meal in. You can have breakfast and lunch in any of the 3, but if you choose to eat at a different restaurant in the evening you need to let them know in the morning. This isn’t a problem. The food is absolutely incredible (all the bad reviews seem to be from a 4 month window a few years ago). Massive buffet with lots of options, and always a carvery too. I’ve never eaten so much in my life…and 3 meals a day of this kind was often too much, and I often skipped one.

You have to pay for decent coffee though. And if you like coffee, you’ll definitely end up paying for one…otherwise it’s instant Nescafe all week.

The meal at the a-la-carte restaurant (Francos) was also a nice change. Food was amazing, good restaurant quality food and it was nice for one night to be waited on properly and with decent choice of wine (as opposed to the house wine you get in the 3 buffet restaurants). This was included as part of the Gold AI. Had to pay for the wine, but that was it.

After much much reading, I decided that I wanted to stay in the O resort. I’d read that this was the newest of the resorts and most ‘relaxed’. Indeed.
To do this I had to contact Kuredu directly to arrange in advance.

Now, for the politically undiplomatic bit – your choice of resort, where your restaurant is, will be absolutely vital to the type of holiday you have. Each ‘resort’ has it’s own pool/bar/restaurant…and they differ wildly. We were in the O resort Jacuzzi Beach Villa, it was about as picture postcard as you can possibly imagine. Stunning, quiet, everything you could possibly wish for. Views straight out of the villa onto white sand, onto turquoise sea. For this reason alone we didn’t actually sit around any of the pools other than to eat.

If you were staying in Koumas, you have a bigger beach in front of you, the marina and a lot of people walking up and down. O Resort is much more secluded. Sangu is the resort attached to the Water Villas (which for my money, weren’t worth the upgrade cost…much preferred the white sand of O-resort). However, the Sangu has the setting sun and I would highly recommend booking into their restaurant one night: watch the sun setting at the bar, and if you’re lucky eat by candlelight on the beach, if you can get a table (there’s not many and it seems to be first come first served…although the rest of the restaurant is fine too).

Now, for the tricky bit – we obviously spent a lot of time walking around the island during the day, and often found ourselves at the Koumas pool/bar which is central on the island. The only way I can describe this is by being completely honest: If I’d paid money to go to the Maldives, and this was my holiday experience I would have been severely disappointed. Call me snobbish, but I’m just telling it how I saw it. Take from this as little or as much as you wish, but it basically felt like you were on a club 18-30 in Magaluf. I think myself and my girlfriend were literally the only people around this pool who didn’t have at least one tattoo on some part of our body and I felt a little out of place NOT reading a Premiership Footballers autobiography. Like I say, call me snobby, but if I pay that much money and go that far for that sort of holiday, I don’t want it to feel like I’m in Spain.

For this reason we were extremely relieved that we’d chosen O-Resort.

Excursions: There are a lot of excursions to chose from, some of which are included in the Gold AI package, BUT they are limited and not every day. Something we were not aware of when we arrived. You get acclimatised, get your bearings, decide what you want to do and go to put your name down, only to find that the excursion is fully booked and the next one isn’t until after you leave. SO, decide what you want to do early and put your name down!

Bars: Each resort has its own bar. One of the reasons we chose Kuredu was that it was a large-ish resort and we thought there would be more going on at night. This is most definitely NOT the case. By 11pm most nights we were pretty much the only people still up – in any of the bars. O Resort Bar, was VERY quiet in the evenings. It’s nice, set over water and you can chill out at the end of the day, but busy it is not. Koumas is the largest bar and where they have most of the evenings entertainment, but again, it’s fairly quiet after a certain point. There was one ‘disco’ but it was white clothing only. I’m sure we could have sorted something out, but we weren’t that bothered. Sangu was smaller, but did tend to have a few more people sitting around. By and large though, with the sun being a strict 12 hours 6am-6pm, I think most people got up early and went to bed early too.

So, I’d say the Golden Rules would be – choose your resort carefully (but bear in mind you can go wherever you like). The only accommodation I’d stay clear of would be the Garden Bungalows, because you’re not sea front. Having said that the people we met who were staying in them were usually staying on the island for ‘at least’ twice as long as our holiday. In some cases people were staying there for 3 weeks for less than we paid for our 1. You pays your money…..

Beach Villas and Jacuzzi Beach Villas are both lovely and I think fairly similar (aside from the obvious). O-Resort is quieter and more secluded than Koumas. Sangu has the water villas.

DO consider how many cocktails you’ll be drinking. Even if you don’t want to go on excursions, play golf, eat in the a-la-carte restaurant and have a fantastic Spa massage…the Gold All Inclusive package is worth it even if you only have a couple of cocktails a day (they come in at about £10-£18 each I think). Plus, like I say, you get your minibar filled for free daily, and you don’t have to buy bottled water separately.

If you can spend a little extra to do this, it’s definitely worth it. Like I said at the beginning, this was the best holiday I’ve ever been on. A fantastic place. The research done before hand made it special though!