Bandos with a 9mo - good idea?

[drawohamme]

Looking on here it seems that Bandos in the Maldives was a great dive holiday resort with kids. Has anyone been recently? Still worth the money/flight times?

We went to Bandos last year. Beaches were small but nice and private. Loads of watersports, snokelling, all the usual Maldives activities. Our children are older and they loved every minute of it. Not sure what is available in terms of babysitting as we didn't use it. Lots of activities arranged each day (extra cost). Not much in the way of nightlife but then that's not what the Maldives is for. There was a lot of karaoke and a few traditional shows. Lots of nationalities majority Russian I would say. Mainly families and a few couples. The restaurants are relatively expensive, we went B&B and spent LOADS on meals (no shops for buying food for lunches, picnics, etc) so we ended up smuggling breakfast rolls out. Beautiful sea and very close to Male so a nice short trip to the island from the airport, but this also means that you can see Male and also see the odd supply ship so the air of seclusion was somewhat lost depending on which part of the island you are on. Island is small and you can walk all around it easily. Nice bungalow set-up with lots of privacy and lovely walks through the resort. Staff were very nice and friendly. We went off season but still got loads of sun with a nice fresh downpour each night.

Have been to Bandos 3 times with kids and it is fabulous and currently planning 4th trip

Thanks for the replies, speaking to the travel agent in the morning

Thanks for the replies, speaking to the travel agent in the morning

Very jealous, I love it there so much and am currently trying to work out if I can afford/justify a week there in October

If you don't mind being within sight of Male, have a look at Kurumba. It has a good reputation for being child-friendly. We have only made afternoon visits while on the little Atoll Explorer boat, but we liked the beach and saw lots of kids enjoying themselves. They do All Inclusive, might be worth investigating because As SandalsITB says, if you have to pay as you go for food it is very expensive with no alternative apart from roll-smuggling.