My first trip to maldives and i wanted to stay at a peaceful,beautiful,away from too many people around. There are many resorts in Maldives, they have capacity of catering more than 500 guests at a time and i didnt want that. This beauty Thulhagiri Island Resort has limited accomodation with water bungalows and beach bungalows. I stayed 3 Nights in beach one and 1 night in water bungalows.. trust me both the types have fun and peace in its own. I liked both of them. i visited there on 30th Nov and was there till 4th Dec.Following are the points would like to give my review on:

1) Stay-Rooms are quite big, awesome. Only negative thing is less capacity of Air condition as u would require it after gettin in from Sun.

2) Food and cocktails- I opted for half board and i made the right choice as me and my wife are vegeterians. As out 90% of the food is non veg. Only thing which helped us out was salads and deserts. You get so many varieties that we go confused what to have and what not to.Cocktails- More than 80 diff types and the bartender not much experienced but still makes it good stuff. During his absence for lunch even the accountant prepared a cocktail which was even much better. Beer@ 4.5$ Ex Tax. Cocktails from 6$ to 11$ Ex Taxes.My bar and munching bill was 324$.

3)Water Sports- If u are goin to maldives this is one piece you would regret if u miss it.

4)Staff and Services- Upto mark. I wont say excellent but yes would rate it as good.

They have arranged one night for magic show, one night for live Band.

Overall i would recommend atleast once if u frequent visitior to maldives and if once yes u should visit this place.

ps: Get some nice music along, sun lotion, Mosquito repelent (Must).Loads of Chinese, south east asians and germans.

Staff were friendly and when I asked for anything, always helpful. Small island, with gorgeous white sand beach and tropical green inland (budgies in the trees!). Lovely house reef (for snorkling and diving) and excellent professional dive centre (saw manta rays and sharks). I stayed in a beach bungalow, right on the beach, spacious, clean, decor was laid back island/ resort style rather than smart western hotel. Probably fair to say it's a very good and friendly 3* rather than a 4* but at half the price great value for money. Beach bar is perfect to watch the sun go down and to people watch. Food is buffet style, breakfast is continental, evening meal has lots of variety and is good. From previous reviews I didn't expect any westerners but I met a few Brits, lots of Europeans and a few Chinese. Only downside were the mosquitos, got a bite or two everyday even when using deet repellant.

I've got lots of great tips in here for you to enjoy your stay here even more... worth the read.

My wife and I traveled here for our anniversary. First and foremost, this is NOT the best or most beautiful or most upscale resort in the Maldives. But we chose it because of it's price and how isolated it is.... we were looking for a TRUE getaway, without the comforts of home. After reading the reviews here, I didn't expect much... I thought the staff would be rude and it would be some run down rock in the middle of the ocean. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Booking. We booked our travel through a travel agent. Make sure you look around and fight to get all inclusive meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner. This will pay off huge.

Arrival, when you get to the airport, go out the exit and look for booth 54, that is the Thulagiri booth. They will have your name there, assuming you've made the proper reservations. The man there will tell you do wait until your boat has arrived. We waited about 10 minutes and he escorted us and several other people to the dock which is only about 100 feet away.

Boat advice: Either get on the boat first and take the closest seat to the front - or - trust that everyone in front of you will fill in the boat from the back first. It is crucial you get in the front of the boat. I'll tell you why in the next paragraph. Your boat ride is about 25 minutes to the island.

Arrival: If you've gotten the first seat in the boat, once you dock, just make a B-Line for the front desk. You will be tempted to stop and take pictures of the beautiful island. Don't do it! Plenty of time for pictures later. The staff will guide you to a seating area and ask you to fill out a form. It's first come, first serve... so the sooner you get to the area, get your complimentary drink, fill out your form and give it back to the staff member, the sooner you get your room. I've seen some people have to wait for 20 minutes or more to check in. So get there early!!

Rooms: I can't speak to the land villas, because I didn't stay in them. But I can tell you that I wasn't very impressed by the exterior. And they seemed very bunched together... not much room to feel like your lost on an exotic island. However, the water bungalows were GREAT! Theres about 15 bungalows attached to each pier, and there are two piers. Advice: Make sure you ask for a "new water bungalow" when you make your reservation and then again when you check in. The old water bungalows are... well.... old. The new ones have better fixtures and water pressure, etc. Specifically, I recommend the rooms from 220 ~ 230. Because they have a great view of the sunrise from your balcony and there is plenty of "swimming area" between your balcony and the edge of the coral reef. And don't ask for the "Honeymoon" package. We did, and it consisted of a fruit basket and some flower petals on the bed. The petals had ants on them and introduced an ant problem to our bungalow. there are NO BUGS in the bungalows, by default. But if you ask for the flowers, you might get some.

The rooms are pretty good. Beds are a little hard but very manageable. Bathrooms have a bath with removable shower head, a shower, two sinks, hair dryer, toilet and a door that leads straight out to the balcony. There is lots of closet and shelve space and a safe. The TV is a nice little flat screen but, not many channles. But, who needs a TV when you're in paradise, right? Room comes with sufficient air conditioning. The coffee table doubles as a glass window to the ocean floor below. Very cool. Each deck has two surprisingly comfortable sun beds and a parasole. From the deck, you are pretty much blocked off from your neighbors, theres a nice little privacy wall on the left side and only one window to the room on your right side. Made for some great nude sunbathing and.... other... stuff. You really feel alone on this island until you go to the restaurant/bar.

Ocean playing: The water is the most amazing I've ever seen. So clean, no trash or even sea debris. Its normally about chest deep, depending on your height and the tide. But you can walk out about 100 feet from your bungalow. I went swimming every morning. It was amazing. The sealife is MOST active in the morning. Sting-rays and baby sharks will come right up to your bungalow. Rumor is, the stingrays and other fish like bananas. Snorkeling is a must. I recommend you bring your own mask and fins, as they are quite used at the excursion stand and buying them on the island will cost you an arm and a leg. We rented life vests, just because we didn't want to pack them. But the rental fee for the vests is $5 per day (24-hour period) per vest.

Snorkeling is BEST on the north side of the island, opposite from the bungalows. I wasted all the memory on my Countour underwater HD camera before I found it. So I recommend you head there first. Tons of sea life.

Dining: The food here is GREAT! I've read some bad reviews in the past and I've hear that they totally upgraded the food they serve. I don't know. All I know is, when I got there the food was great - and more than you can possibly eat. They really load up the buffet for lunch and dinner. Just be careful, some of the dishes are very salty. I recommend taking a small amount of each.. find the over salty dishes, then exclude them from any future buffet trips.

ADVICE: The restaurant staff will seat you at a table and tell you that this will be your table for the duration of your stay. They will put your room number on the table and you are expected to stay at this table. However, if you give your waiter a good tip, $5 - $10 on the first day and ask for a GREAT table, he will seat you in a good place. For example, while the seats inside are generally closer to the buffet line, it gets hot and stuffy in there plus, the closer to the garden you are, the more mosquitos you will encounter. Ask for a table out near the beach, they open the window covers and you get that gentle ocean breeze through there. It's really the best seats in the house.

The weather was a nice 85~90 degrees F during the day, but cools down to a comfortable mid-seventies to high-sixties at night. You may need a very light

Gym: LOL. Some dumbells, a flat bench, two "treadmills" (i guess) one cable pulldown machine. I went there once, saw that it was full with 3 people and they weren't even guests, they were the staff. I just did calisthenics (pushups, situps) and used a heavy resistance band I brought with me and worked out on my balcony, overlooking the sea, then caught a quick swim to finish it off. More than enough to keep you toned up for your short stay.

Entertainment: This is truly and island getaway. there is no shopping, no clubs, no shows, nothing. And that is EXACTLY what I wanted out of this trip. You have one bar, a band will come an play a few nights per week, one restaurant - and there is a gift shop and a jewelry shop right next to the bar. Thats it.

SPA: Looked nice. it sits over the water in a bungalow-like structure. I never went there (as I usually do) because the water play kept me busy. But there are some cute little girls working in there. Looked and sounded Philippino but, I don't know. Could be Pinay~~

Internet: LOL. Wow. Bad. Wifi only available in the bar and front desk area. They claim its in the restaurant too but I could never connect outside of the front dest area. Good luck. I brought an iPhone and used 3G mostly but, data roaming gets rediculous.

Staff: I read so many reviews that said they were "rude", "lazy", etc. My experience was completely different - but I can see how foreigners can misconstrue their mannerisms as rude or lazy. They are a very calm people, they don't smile a lot, they don't get excited much. But if you come to them with a good attitude and ask politely for things, they are MORE than happy to help you. I had good experiences with everyone I worked with. And the longer they get to know you, the more they open up. And I even got a few smiles out of them. If you come off like a typical, well-to-do, arrogant type - you probably won't get very good service.

In summary, the island is gorgeous, the water is perfect, and the staff is more than capable of handling your requests. Take my advice and follow some of these things I said - it will help you. While this place is not the best resort in Maldives, it is a natural oasis and you're not paying the overhead for a bunch of fancy fixtures and buildings.

We stayed a couple days at this island. The island is beautiful, the sand of the beach is very white and the water is very clear and turquoise blue. It's possible to walk within 5 minutes around the island. That gives you a paradise feeling.

We stayed in the waterbungalow. This bungalow is spacious and clean.

But, except the very nice coral there is not many special to see when you are snorkelling around the island. We also stayed at another island and there we've seen sharks, turtles, watersnakes and squids.

The staff was not friendly at all and are very lazy. They are not even smiling. The receptionist was the laziest man I've ever seen in my life. He almost felt asleep while people were talking to him.

There were also a lot of people from the east of Europe (Russia). They are not the most sociable people in the world.

And there are too many buildings at this small island. It's too crowded in the restaurant. The food in the restaurant is average, not very good.

If you are deciding to go to the maledives, I would recommend you not to go to this island. It's not worth the money.