Kuramathi Tourist Island - Kuramathi Village Review

Overall Rating

The food was good and the rooms well decorated and clean.

Having read previous reviews I simply had to tell the other side of the story. I completely disagree with anybody that could give this resort 10/10.

1. Kuramathi Tourist Island is not an intimate island. There are three resorts with a taxi traversing back and forth. This means:
(a)If you want a drink when on the beach you often have to walk 15 minutes to your room.
(b) You cannot get a drink from the bar as you cannot use your all inclusive anywhere on the island, but only in the resort closest to your room.

2.The Bungalows are set back from the beach, many set in a kind of Semi Circle Shape. This means:
(a) In most Bungalows you cannot walk direct from your bed to the beach without crossing a path.
(b) The verandas are out front. This is far less intimate as your veranda faces about 10-15 others, and you sip cocktails with many other people walking past on the path directly in front. On most other islands the front of the bungalow is set on the beach and the path is set behind, meaning you have privacy.

3.Entertainment. Three resorts means one lot entertainment each night when the other two do not have it. If you are all inclusive you will not be able to use your all inclusive in the resort that has the entertainment that night.

4.Beach beds are a problem. There are none, which quite frankly kind of makes the idea of a beach holiday to relax a little pointless.

5.Socialising, again not so intimate. On a smaller resort you get to know many people after the end of the week. You go to one bar and know you will bump into someone you know. This is not often the case on kuramthi as there are far more places to spend the evening.

6.We went looking for Paradise, but found a couple had brought 6 children with them screaming and shouting as we lay on our towels (No Sunbeds).

7. People Booking after May beware. Out of 6 days in rained non stop for 4.5 of them.

We spent 6 days at Kuramathi Coconut Village in May 05, having been on another resort the previous year. One day was spent at Gatwick due to the 30 hour delay to our Monarch Gatwick Flight.

Members' Comments onLambrias's Review

• nmason on 21st Mar 2006

  Complete Rubbish!!! What do these people expect!!! Do they want this island to themselves? If the bungalows were any closer they would be in the water! If it was full of sun beds it would look like "Costa del sol” this place is unique! Oh and as for taking 15 mins to get back to the room it took us only 15 mins to walk the length of the island!!! And if you don’t like kids well just move along the beach (we were all kids once) what’s the problem? Check other people’s comments. I’ve travelled quite extensively around the world myself and this is definitely at the top of my list, don’t get put off try it for yourself! We went first 2 weeks in May 05 sunny every day but one. Loved it going back May 06.

• Lambrias on 21st Mar 2006

  Complete Rubbish!!! What does this person expect!!! The whole point of the Maldives is to relax and indeed have as much of the place to themselves as possible? Actually on most other islands you can lie in your bed and gaze out over the sea, and this experience truly is like no other holiday on earth. That is the charm, indeed the bungalows are very close to the water! You don’t need a hundred sun beds just a handful for those that want them. That would make all the difference. Oh and as for taking 15 minis to get back to the room just get a map of the island. From memory it is at least a mile Long!!! The point about kids is that most other more romantic resorts don’t really cater for them. As Kuramathi does, it is worth pointing this out to the unsuspecting traveller. I’ve travelled quite extensively around the Maldives myself and this is one is a disappointment, it simply spoils all the things that are the best of the Maldives.

• bluemango on 23rd Mar 2006

  lambrias I was on the Island at the same time as you and have come away with some amazing memories and was lucky to have met some lovely people several of whom I am still in touch with. You are quite wrong about the children, there were seven children on the Island, two families were travelling together so that makes four adults and they had five children between them. The other two on the Island were the daughter of the manger (who resides there) and my daughter. As you found the Island large and less than intimate I am suprised you were not able to escape to the other two resorts to get away from them. Kuramathi is proud of the fact that it is a family friendly island, if you really do not want to be SURROUNDED by children can I suggest you book one of the adult only Islands.

• Lambrias on 2nd Apr 2006

  I am sorry for not taking the time to wander the island notebook in hand trying to work out how many children there were and where they were staying.
  
  The truth of the matter is there were 5 children on the beach at the coconut village from 29.5.2005 to 6.6.2005, because I saw them with my own eyes.
  
  As for the memories all I remember is the 30 hours at Gatwick the near riot when all the holidaymakers refused point blank to be taken to Eastbourne (on the second day of the delay) then the near non stop torrential rain when we finally got to the island ( I have video evidence of all of this and many letters from Monarch and Kuoni in support of all this)
  
  As for moving we felt compelled to move to a water bungalow simply to get away from all the noise of these children, even if we could not get away from the rain.

• thought on 14th Mar 2007

  Lambrias, I have been to Kuramathi five times and while I appreciate it is not one of the most intimate islands, being 1km long and 200 yards wide! I still think it as possibly one of the most amazing places on the planet. Why do the Cotton Club in the Village, when more casual is so much better. It is truly all inclusive, you don't pay for a bottle of water as you do elsewhere on the island. On a general note, the main beach on Kuramathi is tiny but you still find the nearest person to you is 10+ metres away. There is usually only 10 people on the beach at any one time and of course there is always the more secluded parts of the island! My over-riding experience of Kuramathi is that if you want to be alone, you can be but if you fancy being social just hit the bar! Oh I forgot about the moonlight skinny dipping, oh the stars are stunning and the crabs, I have many happy memories at 1 in the morning chasing hundreds of the little buggers off the beach. It was fun, walking up the beach and seeing this mass of crabs parting as you walked, amazing! Don't knock it, that was a holiday of a lifetime! Hoping to go back later this year, beware of the rainy season, even during the good season you get a couple of days of rain but it's fun and sociable. Feb and Sep I've found best. Anyway, that's my tuppence worth!

• katmoz33 on 26th May 2007

  I don't think you can blame the holiday resort for your delay or the rain! That was just unlucky, I went to Kuramathi just over a year ago, I thought it was stunning, very clean, peaceful and I would highly recommend it. Shame you didn't enjoy it but I feel some of your comments are not a reflection on the place itself ie the weather! My advice is pay a little bit extra and go when it's not the rainy season.

• Lambrias on 26th Jun 2007

  I want to point out that whilst some of the factors were in respect of features outside of the control of the staff at the resort, most of my comments are not.
  
  The poor layout, poor customer service, the poor facilities, the lack of feel good factor, you know that feeling you get when you first see paradise. The screaming kids, the difficulty to use the all inclusive, poor entertaining, poor excursions and to top it all it lacks precisely what makes the Maldives so special, which is intimacy and a feeling of being in paradise. Kuramathi was more like Maldives meets the Spanish Costa.

• philcd on 30th Dec 2007

  Hello All
  
  I've been looking at several sites for info on The Maldives including reviews. All the comments here have been most helpful in helping me choose my resort to visit. You could do worse than have a look at www.the-complete-maldives-holiday-guide.com They don't do holidays but they do have information in abundance I've found helpful among other site searches I've done.
  Regards all and Happy New Year
  Phil