This was our second time to Bandos, the first time being 25 years ago for our honeymoon. We decided to return to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary and to make it even more special, we renewed our Wedding Vows. We travelled with British Airways Holidays as this was the only airline that flew direct to Male. It was more expensive to do the holiday that way, but for someone who doesn’t enjoy flying, it was best for us. Bandos is only 15-20 mins away from Male; we found the island representative in the arrivals area at the airport and after a short wait for other passengers to arrive, we were led to their waiting large speedboat, to take us to Bandos. We were lucky to see a family of dolphins on our journey across the ocean and the pilot of the boat, slowed and stopped the boat so we could take in the beautiful sight of the dolphins against the turquoise blue waters. On arrival to the island, we were led to a reception area and offered cold drinks and warm cleansing cloths to freshen up. After a 10hr+ journey, this was very much appreciated. After a short wait, we were taken to our accommodation by a motorised buggy and our luggage followed shortly behind. We actually got to our room earlier than anticipated as the accommodation was available for us; in theory we should’ve waited 4 hours but we’re kindly allowed to go in early. We booked all inclusive and chose to stay in a Beach Villa for our 9 nights on the island. The accommodation was perfect for our needs; positioned right next to the beach with less than a minute or two to get where we wanted to be. Our accommodation was fairly close to the Huvan, a restaurant/bar that was positioned above the ocean on a walkway jetty. We drank plenty of cocktails from here while watching fish swimming around in the waters below. The position of Huvan was on the west side of the island and gave some beautiful sunsets in the evenings. Our Accommodation was relatively new, very modern with huge king size bed and sofa, tea and coffee making facilities, mini bar etc. hairdryer, and a bathroom that was huge! The bathroom is attached to the accommodation, but is part exposed to the outside ( has no ceiling above the shower)… all open air! Our swimwear dried very quickly in the bathroom after wearing and rinsing! Bandos is a very clean island, and there were many staff on the island always tending to areas on the island, cleaning, tending to plants, sweeping, sorting vegetation etc. The island is somewhat self sustaining and grows vegetables, fruits, rears chickens/ eggs etc. The staff are so helpful and just can’t do enough for you; nothing is too much trouble and they will go out of their way to be helpful in whatever you need. Even though it was the holy month of Ramadan and some staff often were working without eating until after sunset, this never stopped them from smiling and continuing with their normal working activities. The staff are a credit to this island. We could not have got better if we had paid more for a five star island; in our eyes, this lovely island had gone from 4 star to 5 stars in the 25 years since we’d been there! So many changes that were positive, 3 restaurants to now choose from ( previously only 1), an entertainments/ bar area which had a program of changing entertainment throughout the week, a lovely large outside swimming pool with swim up bar, which served some wonderful drinks/cocktails or tea if you preferred! Highlights to our holiday were watching small sharks and stingrays in the evening near the Seabreeze Cafe; just amazing to watch these swim right up to the jetty and await food that was often given to them in the evening. We renewed our wedding vows 2 days after arriving on the island, on our actual 25th wedding anniversary. We had emailed in advance of the holiday to ask and explain of our intention to do this and on arrival, after an initial chat and a few smaller chats, everything was taken care of by the management and Bandos staff. They arranged for our wedding attire to be picked up and ironed, arranged for me to have wedding makeup and hair done; picked me up and took me to Orchid Spa for these to be done. They picked up my Hubby and brought him to meet me ready for the ceremony. They arranged for a photographer to capture photos of our afternoon/ evening and special day. We had the ceremony on a beautiful part of the beach, where we later cut cake, and celebrated with champagne and our wedding meal. We also were taken for a short trip around the bay on a boat, for more photo opportunities. It was a perfect day! We received the digital photos prior to leaving the island; was lovely to look at them on the plane home! The food on the island was superb, catered for all needs. For us, there was a great buffet selection of different meat or fish dishes, pastas, vegetables, salads, breads, soups, great breakfast selections from cooked breakfasts, different breads, pastries, fruit, and a wonderful selection of desserts from mini cakes, Ice cream to puddings… just couldn’t fault choices available at every meal time! We were blessed with great weather during our stay but if we hadn’t, we would’ve made even more use of the indoor air conditioned gym or games area. The badminton court was not air conditioned, so we only managed 15 mins in there after an hour in a cool gym! But was great nonetheless. As it was Easter, the island was quite busy. It was quieter in the first few days we arrived but soon became busier and more families arrived. We would’ve loved an area of the island to be adult only; working in Education, it’s nice to have the chance to escape children, but if there were more families around, you could always walk elsewhere. We loved our stay, and can’t wait to return again one day. Thankyou to all of the Bandos staff, Amar, Petru in the pool and sandbar, the lovely ladies that greeted us in the Gallery restaurant ( 159!) , the wonderful guy in the sea breeze cafe ( whose name we’ve forgotten so sorry, but had s pointy beard and was always smiling!) and the lovely guy in the orchid spa, who did a wonderful job making me feel a million dollars on our Special day… thank you to you all!

We had a Deluxe Double and the room was lovely, bed very comfortable all the usual facilities and a big bathroom with lovely shower. Because this is a small Island all the rooms were just a minute walk to the beach, in fact I would say no difference between the location of the rooms to the beach whichever standard of room you choose. We chose half board and all meals (whether all-inclusive or not) are buffet style in the same restaurant. The other satellite restaurants offer different cuisine's but are all extra, even if all-inclusive. The drinks are quite expensive but not too bad considering you are a captive audience (about 22USD for a large beer and a G+T). On our first night they were offering some deals on bottles of wine which we took and that was better that about 15USD a glass! We just took the wine to dinner each night and there was no problem getting glasses and an ice bucket. The snorkelling is the thing you go to the Maldives for and it is great here, you can snorkel straight off the beach and it was excellent. Definitely worth taking you own masks as they charge for the loan of those too. If I had to be a bit critical, the buffet breakfast and dinner get a bit repetitive after a few nights, they try and change a few options around but it doesn't make that much difference, the quality of the food is not that great for the money you pay, although this is obviously mass catering!

Had two wonderful weeks on Bandos. Ten minutes by speedboat to the island which for us was a big plus. Last time we came to the Maldives we had a seaplane transfer and had to wait for three hours before we could fly, the last thing you need after a long flight. Check in was smooth and uneventful, a cool towel and iced tea helped the formalities go down, our room was ready, again another plus point as check in was normally 2 pm. We had a standard room which was nice and spacious. Had a problem with the shower, was running more like a tap, mentioned it to the room attendant (Shahbaan) and by the time we got back from the beach he’d had the maintenance man in and the shower was fixed! Also at first I was getting bitten by mozzies but only in the room. Again just mentioned it to Shahbaan and next thing I knew, a can of mozzy spray was left in the room. Sprayed the whole room with it and never had another bite all holiday. If you get Shahbaan as your room attendant you’ll be well looked after. He speaks very good English too so we had some nice chats. The standard rooms are definitely the best as regards their proximity to the beach, in fact on walking around the island it appeared to be the only beach. Lots of little coves rather than a big beach seemed to be more common. Never went in the pool but it looked lovely as did the deluxe beach villas on that side of the island. Food was delicious and a huge choice...having read reviews before we came and read some people complaining we were pleasantly surprised. Breakfasts consisted of fresh fruit, yogurts, cereals, waffles, pancakes, omelettes and the usual array of bacon, sausage, hash browns etc. Croissants, pastries...You could even have a curry if you fancied it! Lunches and dinners were the same, huge choice and the deserts were to die for. Salads, fish, meat, curries all extremely tasty. You really would need to be the fussiest eater on earth if you couldn’t find something you liked.. we had a seafood lunch on the beach one day which again was really tasty... skewered prawn, whole fish, calamari, tuna enlivened by a baby shark cruising along the shoreline! All the staff were pleasant, friendly and helpful. Previous reviews were right about that. Apart from Shahbaan the room boy, there were two waiters, Labeeb and Naagih? who were very good too. Naagih decorated our table on our last evening, a nice finish to our holiday. The sea was a bit choppy on occasions but didn’t stop us from enjoying the snorkelling. Never used the snorkel trips because all you had to do was just walk into the water and there were loads of fish right there. My husband saw some anemone fish which he’d been wanting to find for ages. All in all a very good holiday, after the miserable weather at home it was lovely to feel warm and to be able to chill out and relax. We loved every minute of it and would definitely go again. Thank you Bandos x