Vilamendhoo, Kuredu, Ellaidhoo OR Gangehi?? First time to Maldives. HELP

[AlMitch]

My mother-in-law has a bucket list item to stay in an over the water villa in the Maldives! ..... Well I'm sure we all have this on our bucket lists!!
We have dived Indo extensively and love Indo to bits, the reason we have not ventured to the Maldives yet is purely due to $$'s!! It is significantly more expensive than Indo!
So I'm starting to plan this trip and have done a BUNCH of research. We are going in early Oct next year.

So far I have narrowed it down to the following three/ four resorts and they are in descending order of preference (based purely on internet research/gut feel and $$'s),

A) Vilamendhoo Island Resort & Spa - preferred at the moment, due to cost and location
B) Kuredu Island Resort & Spa - the only issue that I have with this resort is the size of the resort, it is huge, but it does have better looking accommodation than Vilamendoo)
C) Ellaidhoo Maldives by Cinnamon - the cheapest, BUT it gets some pretty so-so reviews
D) Gangehi Island Resort - which looks amazing and would be top of the list if it were not quite a bit more expensive than the ones above so would have to be significantly better to justify the $$'s.

How would you rank the above?
Do you have any thoughts/ reviews/ comments / preferences on the above?
Am I missing out on any resorts in the same sort of price range??
Which resorts would you recon has the best diving?
Is Gangehi worth the extra $$'s??

Thanks a bunch for any help. I promise I will add a trip report on my return.

 

[casts_by_fly]

I haven't stayed at any of those personally, however we have looked at the first two on multiple trips to the maldives. Vilamendhoo was on our shortlist each time. I don't recall the specific price comparisons, but it looks like Vilamendhoo is in the 300-600 per night range (web rack rate from their website) with full board. That is fairly cheap for the Maldives. I think Kurimathi is in the range. We stayed there our first trip and like it a lot. It is also a big island, though big is relative. The benefit of a bigger place is more options for food. The diving at Kurimathi was good (we learned there) though maybe not as many sites as the Ari atoll centers. If you're diving for a week I'm not sure you'll get enough variety there to keep you happy, though for a 4-5 day trip there are a couple really awesome dives there including the hammerhead dive (seasonal). The rooms were nice and the food was very good.

thanks
rick

 

[mantajohn]

Have a look at Komandoo. Its a much smaller sister island to Kuredu. Excellent dive centre & food. Nice water bungalows.

We had a great trip there a couple of years ago.

 

[Duikertjes]

Stayed at Vilamendhoo and Kuredu , both are the same company and very good. Dive operations (Eurodivers and Prodivers) are also excellent. We liked Vila best, but they are very close. We stayed in a jacuzzi beach villa on both, so can't comment on the water bungalows. No matter which one, make sure you do the day trip to the North (Maayaa, Hafza and Fish Head on Vila and Noonu Atoll for Kuredu .... both excellent with many grey reef sharks &#9786.
Have fun!

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-T800 met Tapatalk

 

[AlMitch]

Thanks guys
Kurimathi looks amazing but is slightly out of the budget.
Komandoo unfortunately is adults only and we have two little ones.

Duikertjes if you were forced to choose between Vilamendhoo and Kuredu which way would you go?

 

[Duikertjes]

AlMitch,

if I had to pick today I would pick Vilamendhoo (although their boat fares for dive trips have gone up too much). Below are my weblogs of both, so you can see how we experienced it. Hope it can help you to make you're final choice.

Holidays Diving Dreaming: Vilamendhoo 2014
Holidays Diving Dreaming: Kuredu

For Vilamendhoo March is the best time to go. But these days it will be difficult to find a good deal. Prices are insane at the high season. Few years back it was better:

Holidays Diving Dreaming: Vilamendhoo - Manta Paradise

PS: Our first trip to the Maldives was Kuramathi .... also a very nice place. But very limited diving options. On the other hand, we saw so much over there: Eagles Rays, Manta's, Sharks, including the Hammerheads!

 

[AlMitch]

Wow Duikertjes those are super details reports! Thanks a million.
The more I look at it the more I'm leaning towards Vilamendhoo.

As we have kids we can only stay in the Beach Villas and can not get a Jacuzzi one!! Bummed about that, but oh well!. Here is the island map. Where would you recon the best beach villas are?
As we have small ones we do not want to be too far from the main restaurant. So I was thinking rooms 232/233 as it vaguely faces west so you will get a bit of the sunset and it is fairly close to the dive center and the main buildings. What are your thoughts?

View attachment MapVilamendhoo102014ColorEnglish.pdf

 

[Duikertjes]

Difficult to say. 1st of all, your assigned a room, so little control about where you'll be. 2nd, the beach tends to change. So sandbag ugly moved from one side to the other on the 2 times we have visited. My advise: check out the view and beach of the room you're assigned to and than walk around the island to make up your mind whether you want to opt for a room change. If yes, don't unpack and make way to reception. If no, unpack and start enjoying your holidays :cool2:

 

[mehmet2010]

View attachment 220773

Remembering the good old days of Vilamendhoo with no water villas and one of the most beautiful house reefs I have ever seen in their place, I don't think I could ever bear to visit this island again. Such a pity, they have totally spoiled it. In the old days 200 to 212 would be the best positioned rooms IMO. :depressed:

 

[Christian]

Just came back from Ellaidhoo. It was a family trip with diving thrown in (kids who took OW etc.) -- so I only managed 18 dives over 11 days. Didn't have any previous experience from The Maldives, but have dived in most other corners of the the Indian Ocean, The Red Sea and SEA.
Picked Ellaidhoo due to price, availability, the claim of having "the best" house reef and the proximity to Maldivian signature dive sites mentioned earlier in the thread. Fish Head for instance, is just 30 minutes away.
The island was a pleasant surprise in a few ways. It does have ugly concrete sea barriers, but they didn't bother us that much. Food was really good.
We stayed in a beach villa and to be honest, I wouldn't pick a water bungalow on Ellaidhoo. I can't really see the point because you're not able to access the water directly from them. Beach bungalows are rustic and a little run down, but clean and cosy.
Diving was ... okeyish. Fish Head stood out as well as Moofushi Kandu (manta dive) wich was a long haul (90 minutes). So as a dive destination, inmo, Maldives might not really be worth it due to the costs involved. But as an over all destination for a family-type of holiday with water activities it certainly is great. But expensive -- you don't really get what you pay for diving wise.
Snorkeling on the house reef was superb though.

Good luck