HOLIDAY HOME IN THE MALDIVES

The villa is located on Hulhamale - a man made, yet surprisingly green island with palm tree lined white sandy beaches! There are a few hotels on this island, but mostly it's a quiet yet growing residential island for Maldivians. What's really convenient is that it's joined, by a thin causeway, to Male Airport island. That said, it's not on the flight path and there was no noise disturbance at all! Having considered all options prior to booking, we quickly found that seaplane or speedboat transfers to resorts are incredibly expensive, so this is a massive plus for Hulhamale!

The 2 storey villa offers good, clean, basic self catering accommodation - 3 bedrooms (with bedding, towels, hair dryers, iron etc), 2 bathrooms (with power showers), kitchen (with oven, microwave, toaster, fridge, washing machine etc), living area (with various wicker seats, dinner table & chairs, tv, DVD, computer & desk, wifi access etc) and balcony with a sea view (outdoor seating, table, umbrella)! It's a perfect base to explore the Maldives and, even though the accommodation is perfectly fine, we were out every day and every evening anyway.

But the best thing about our holiday were the 2x amazing guides - Mohamed and Rifa. We were met at airport arrivals, transferred from the airport to the villa, driven to a supermarket, given a local mobile phone (to communicate with them) and given all sorts of useful advise (day trips, best restaurants etc). But equally we didn't feel smothered or fussed over; instead they were there when we needed them!

More exciting than that, the villa included use of a large 6-8 person speedboat. 3 trips were included free of charge - 1 day at a nearby resort island (to use the facilities) and 2 days visiting so-called 'picnic islands' and white sand banks (including snorkelling to see beautiful tropical coral, a ride on an inflatable doughnut and more)! We had the option to pay for additional fuel to see other Maldivian islands & deserted sand banks and did so without hesitation - it was worth every penny!

What a way to see the Maldives and much more fun than being locked to one resort on one island! Thank you Mohamed and Rifa - we had a holiday of a lifetime and look forward to returning again next year!