Vilu Reef.. anyone been?

[Becki]

Has anyone been to Vilu Reef? Seriously considering it for our honeymoon and so far any reviews that I have come across have been good. I would love some more information on the Honeymoon Water Villa if possible and any good tips for staying there.

If anyone has any photos as well i would love to see them.

Thanks

[Rhi & Al]

Hi Becki

We went to Vilu Reef in October 2005 for our honeymoon and had a fantastic time - we would absolutely recommend it to anyone else.

The island is beautiful - not very big but everything still feels secluded, the accomodation was great: we had a beach bungalow and were more than happy with it. A lot of people liked the beach bungalows better than the water villas as the villas were quite close to each other and they could hear their neighbours. However, the villas do have other perks - you get slightly different food service for breakfast and lunch, for example, and there are open air jacuzzis as well!

If you do want to upgrade then I would recommend waiting until you get there - quite a few people did it when we were there. Also, the beach bungalows were over-subscribed so some people were upgraded for free!

The service was excellent - everyone is really friendly and does everything possible to help you have a holiday to remember.

There's a wide range of watersports - all inclusive doesn't cover them but the prices are really reasonable.

There's also a speciality seafood / a la carte restaurant, again not covered by all inclusive but well worth spending a bit extra for! They'll do things for you like lay you a romantic dinner for two on the beach, surrounded by candles.

The all inclusive deal is actually really good - there's a wide range of food and drink available although (as always with AI) the food can get a bit predictable by the end of your second week.

There's always volleyball, tennis, table tennis etc to do to keep you entertained (well, it kept my brand new husband entertained while I was lying by the pool!) as well.

You need to expect to tip. This means your waiter and your room boy as a minimum - we tipped at the end of each week - and also anyone else whose service was good (we always felt sorry for the barman in the pool bar who was great, and the pool boys as they didn't get much).

I only have 2 words of caution: 1 - don't get a garden room in the middle of the island - they have no beach or view, some have internal doors to other rooms (for families, I presume), and they are near to both the staff housing which can be a bit noisy and and also the water treatment plant which can be a bit smelly.
2 - the evening entertainment is shocking!! Crab racing is fun and the staff do make an effort but in the main the music played at discos etc is awful, ancient and extremely repetitive. I have to say though that we had made friends with some other holidayers and we found the entertainment a source of great hilarity night after night!

We enjoyed it so much that we have been looking at prices for this year as we would love to go back. When we were there, several people who had been to other resorts in the Maldives said that Vilu Reef was their favourite!

We do have loads of photos but I have no idea how to upload them.

hope this is helpful, and you have a fab honeymoon wherever you decide to go

Rhi

[HW Techie]

Hi Rhi,

it would be great if you could add a review here


http://www.holidaywatchdog.com/Submit-H ... views.html

[Becki]

Hi Rhi,

Thanks so much for your review. I have read so many reviews about so many islands and getting disappointed comments that i was truely stuck. Vilu reef seems to be one of the few that had 99% great reviews and i know that some people are really fussy and therefore we may enjoy other islands, but when you are spending so much money and its your honeymoon, you want it to be perfect.

What travel company did you travel with? I am planning to book with Kuoni, and the AI is quite good.

Thanks again,

Becki