Bandos Island Resort, Maldives

Well furnished, nicely decorated, fully equipped with excellent services. Bandos Island is perfect resort for holidays and makes some fun with your family. We had stayed for a week in Bandos Island during my family holidays. We had found everything well managed and in a mannered way. We stayed at deluxe room which was elegantly designed and had a great view Jacuzzi Beach.

The all staffs were very friendly and served everything in a mannered way. The food was superb especially Thai food was amazing. We enjoyed boating there especially this is good stuff for the kids. I recommended this resort for their excellent services and must visit again. I had booked this hotel through

We took our 4 year old and 22 month old to Bandos in July 2009 for one week booking full board with first choice and flying Thomson air direct to Male. The flights were better than we expected and reasonably stress free. Male airport on arrival was hot and uncomfortable with long queues for passport control etc - pack shorts in your hand luggage - but once through there was a short wait for a speed boat then a 15 minute trip over the water to Bandos which DS was thrilled with. (The airport was much better on the way home for some reason with decent air conditioning) reasonably quick check in and over to our spacious delux room with air conditioning and a porch to sit out in in the evenings listening to the sound of the waves. The shady beach was 30 seconds walk away with a hammock and sun beds - rarely anyone else on "our" bit and if there were we found the next stretch a few paces away. The sea was quite rough apart from at low tide and a bit rocky underfoot and dd didn't like to go in but she enjoyed digging in the sand in the shade. The snorkling was mostly fabulous - bad visablity the first time we tried - the reef was not far away and there were loads of fish, good coral and we saw a turtle on our last day and a few sharks. We did an introduction to diving course and the instructor was great as was the reef again. They take children from 8 for a "bubble maker" lesson and from 10 for everything else. The Kids club was brilliant and free in the day time. We fed the children early at sea breeze cafe - included in our full board package - and had a baby sitter for a couple of hours each evening for our food. The buffets were great - lots of variety and good quality - easy to feed the children at lunch time who usually had pasta. Puddings a bit generous on the old gelatine but some were quite good.

The pool was very nice - kept the children happy and us cool for long periods of time - good shallow childrens pool and a bubbly swim up bar. We did a few excursions - dolphins at sunset - highly recommended, the glass bottomed boat so that the children could see the reef and the fish - again very good although did make dh feel a bit queasy and night fishing with bbq of the catch. There was live music, karioke and crab racing in the bar in the evenings which was good and a magic show and crab racing for the children. the shop had a good variety of stock including nappies, baby wipes and a little baby food. Everyone was really friendly with the children. Walking around the whole island took about 20 minutes and there were lovely beaches all round the edge. There were also lots of water sports available and a spa and other excursions that we didn't try. All round a great family holiday. Do watch the bar/shop/excursion bill though because everything is quite expensive.

Brilliant resort. Fantastic kids club, we didn't think twice about leaving our daughter there most of the day, and to be honest she was better off there as it was sooooo hot. Staff very helpful and lovely, fantastic with kids. Only thing that I would say let the resort down was it's food.

After months (literally!) of trawling the internet, asking for friends' opinions and brochure hunting, we finally settled on the Bandos Island Resort in the Maldives for our once in a lifetime trip to paradise. Boy did that research pay off!

After a relatively stress free flight (Sri Lankan Air) we were greeted by our rep who then took us to a speedboat for a reviving 20 minute trip to the island, where we were greeted with cool face towels and a fruity cocktail. Transfer to our room (beach villa with outdoor jacuzzi) was by golf buggy and we were literally speechless at the sight that awaited us - we were literally on the beach... white sand, turquoise water and the most amazing villa. Incidentally, the villa is not very child friendly as the bedroom is vaulted but well worth the upgrade to be able to sleep to the sound of the waves.

Don't go A/I as this is very restrictive - e.g dinner has to from 7:15pm onwards, not very good with LO's. Everyone we met who had gone for this option regretted it. We went bed and breakfast which was fab as you had lots of flexibility and the choice was fabulous. (Kids portions are very generous so go for one between 2.)

A well run kids club was one of our top criteria as we wanted to know that, for a couple of hours a day, the kids were safe and happy. We offloaded the kids from 3-5 everyday and they were in good company and really entertained! We didn't dive as the house reef really was amazing, white tip sharks, turtles and rays were a common sight.

If you are looking to splash out and have a well deserved break then I cannot recommend Bandos enough! Happy holidays!!!