Bandos Maldives

The island. The room. The bars. The food. The drinks. The restaurants. Umi Yaki’s chef. The nature. The reef. The service…… I’ve never experienced anything like this before. The staff at the reception are amazing and very cooperative, polite and professional. The drivers of the buggies were also great and very nice! We loved being around Afar(?) or Afir(?) (apologies for not remembering the correct name) and we were very happy when he was driving us around. The superior villa was so good! Very comfortable, with great bathroom and all details were top notch! HUVAN was an experience! We EXQUISITELY loved Ibrahim! He was always smiling, always bringing around good mood, his communication skills were immaculate and his overall vibe is what kept us wanting to go there every day! Ibrahim, thank you with all our hearts for doing what you do in such an enchanting way! I loved being in the hands of Sarah from Orchid SPA, too! So professional, such a good masseuse, so welcoming and nice! Sincere thank you to you, Sarah! Very rarely do I receive a facial with this kind of quality! Next - Uttar from Sand bar. What a guy! Best cocktails! Amazing service! Great Shisha! Loved going there every night to enjoy the performances and have a chat with Uttar! He made our vacation x100 times better! Dear Uttar, you’re the best! Looking forward to coming back to you, hopefully soon. Continuing with Reehaan from the diving center. Our amazing instructor, who made this diving experience something that we will talk about for years and years. The professionalism, the dedication, the fact that he loves his jobs all showed during our diving sessions! Reehaan, you rock! Sincere thank you to you too! Apart from that everyone else from Dive BANDOS were amazing! COOKING CLASS! Loved it!!!!!!!! Umi Yaki is something that I’ll always remember! The chef had a great sense of humour, he is also an amazing cook and it was a very interesting and broadening experience! Sincere thank you to you, too, chef! I am so pleased with what we’ve experienced the last 7 days and I can’t wait to come back again! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! It was a dream come true! Read less

Had a wonderful stay at Bandos Maldives. A special thanks to Chef Jayveer for going out of his way to prepare a complete vegetarian dish for us every day — it made our meals extremely comfortable and enjoyable. Also, Hussain was always welcoming us with a smile and was incredibly hospitable throughout our stay. Truly great service and warm hospitality! Read less

Our vacation in the Maldives was absolutely unforgettable! The island was stunning, the water crystal clear, and the whole experience felt like paradise from start to finish. A special thank you to Reehaan, our dive instructor, who made every dive incredible. He was professional, patient, knowledgeable, and made us feel safe and confident underwater while still making everything fun and exciting. Diving with him was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Huge thanks as well to Uttar from the Sand Bar, who makes the most incredible shisha! He was always friendly, welcoming, and created such a great atmosphere every evening. Spending nights there became part of our daily routine. We also want to mention Ibrahim from the Huvan restaurant. He was super friendly, very helpful, and always there for us with a smile. His hospitality truly made us feel special and taken care of throughout our stay. Thank you to everyone for making our Maldives vacation so memorable — we already want to come back! Read less

Our stay at Bandos Maldives was once again absolutely wonderful! We first visited in 2011 with our girls and ever since then we have kept coming back — which says everything about how special this resort is to us. Bandos truly feels like a second home in the Maldives. The island is beautiful, the atmosphere is relaxing and the service is consistently exceptional every single time we visit. It’s rare to find a place that maintains such high standards over the years but Bandos continues to exceed our expectations with every stay. A very special mention goes to Ramee at Huvan, who is so professional, friendly and helpful as always. His outstanding service, attention to detail and warm hospitality always make our visits even more memorable. Staff like Ramee are one of the many reasons we continue returning year after year. Thank you to the entire Bandos team for another unforgettable stay. We are already looking forward to our next visit! Read less

We went for 10 days in April and absolutely loved it. 10 min speedboat from the airport and you are in paradise, loved the beach and sea, could always get sunbeds, had sundowners every night at huvan, the gallery restaurant for all inclusive was one of the most enjoyable buffets we’ve ever had, always a roast meat, potato’s and veg, cheesy pasta and tomato pasta, curry’s, even had shepards pie and lasagne one day. We always sat where mansoor was serving and he was amazing. The Russians pushed in a lot and I heard many brits and Germans and Chinese having a go at them for being so rude. All the staff work so hard, the same servers are there from 7am in the morning to 9pm at night for dinner. Had plenty of drinks at huvan, ate there for lunch twice as it was so hot and humid we couldn’t be bothered to walk the 20 mins from our room to gallery restaurant both lunches were lovely, we also had a couple of ice creams there and got 40% the bill. It would be nice if 1 restaurant was included on all inclusive. The afternoon tea sandwich and cakes at sea breeze wasn’t very nice so wouldn’t bother with that, the cakes were dry and cheese sarnie was that plastic cheese. There was no breeze that side of the island so it was always dead in there, everyone went to huvan as there is a breeze that side. We saw sharks and lots of fish snorkelling. I did step on a sea anemone in the lagoon which stung really bad so take beach shoes! We loved the wood band, duo couple and Maldivian night entertainment. The karaoke was primarily Russian so we didn’t enjoy that or the dj night. The one reason my husband wouldn’t return is because he got bitten so so badly, we didn’t see any mozzies so assume it must have been sand flies but they seemed to love his skin even though we sprayed jungle formula every night before we went out he had at least 30 bit sore bites by the end. We wondered if they got in our room as the cleaners leave the doors open when cleaning. Didn’t find the reception girls friendly either we asked for an iron and it never arrived and also phoned for a buggy to pick us up twice but after Half an hour it didn’t come so we walked then they rolled their eyes when they realised we’d walked instead as they had obviously finally sent one. Mini bar in rooms was topped up daily with 2 beer 2 coke and 2 juice. We did the dolphin sunset cruise which was great and well worth the money, we saw loads of dolphins we also did the beach bbq which we didn’t think was worth the money, there was steak, lamb chop and chicken drumstick. The beef was really tough and fatty and stringy, the chop had no meat on it, it was all bone and chicken drumsticks are cheap as chips but filled up on them and bread. There was muscles prawn and octopus if u like that but we don’t so thought $160 was too much. Also we didn’t get to have it on the beach, I don’t know why as it was fine all afternoon had some rain in the morning but it cleared so was disappointed with that one. You couldnt have beer or a cocktail at the bbq either u could only have wine or soft drink. Weird. We went to the water sports area 3 times and there was never anyone there so didn’t get to use the kayaks or paddle boards which was a shame, maybe we were meant to help ourselves I’m not sure? Bandos it would be really nice if you could get ice cream at the gallery restaurant as this was never available and an all inclusive should at least have ice cream. We went to the pool once to experience the swim up bar, the pool is lovely with lots of sunbeds but the water is too warm so there was never anyone there, it wasn’t refreshing could do with being chilled. All in all we loved our holiday the sea was so clear and refreshing and I would come back in a heart beat but unfortunately my hubby won’t because of the bites. 10 days mid April weather was a mix of cloud and sun but only rained 1 morning and 1 evening. We were on the beach everyday. Read less