The scenery, marine life, clean beaches and no noise were all massive plusses for our perfect honeymoon, we had a fabulous time, so very relaxing, we even got to see baby reef sharks swimming just feet away from the shore and Rays floating by amongst all the amazing colours of all the other fish! the accommodation was lovely, every day our room boy made our bed in different shapes it added a real personal touch, nothing was too much for them. The thing that really stands out to us both was having the opportunity to swim with manatee rays on one of there many excursions.
We both really recommend this destination to anyone who loves to relax and explore! The only let down was the food, it was very samey

The Island of Velidhu is paradise on earth, please go soon before John Keels hand over the resort to new owners.

The staff are wonderful, I spent the two weeks trying to work out how to take them home with me as they were so helpful and polite.

The snorkeling was out of this world, like jumping into a tropical fish tank

Beautiful, paradise, wonderful, magic and a lot more words like that.

We took a speed boat to the island, which took just over an hour and it was great fun, dolphins were swimming alongside us. We got the seaplane back, which only took us 20 minutes, with fabulous views. It is hard to describe how wonderful the island is. You work, possibly 50 weeks a year flat out, then you go to Velidhu and chill immediately. We stayed in a beach room that was very stylish and cool. We decided to do pretty much nothing, although there are enough trips and excursions to keep the really energetic satisfied.
We took our own snorkeling gear because just a few feet off the beach is the reef. It's a different world, absolutely amazing. This is all we needed, although some Italian friends we made went on scuba trips most days and showed us amazing photos of Manta Rays and Nemos.
Choice of food in buffet style restaurant is impressive. You will always find something you like, although you really should immerse yourself in the fabulous fish dishes.
My wife took advantage of the huge range of spa treatments available, they were sensational.
The bar on the beach is good fun. We did not participate every night in the activities, it's very tiring doing nothing but the crab racing should not be missed.
Back to the people, I guarantee that you will not find a more genuinely friendly group of people anywhere in the world.
Two weeks seemed like a very long time for us because on normal holidays you stay somewhere but go somewhere else at least every other day. Not here.
In summary, do not hesitate. Go to Velidhu. We plan to sell our souls, if that's what it takes to return.

Well what can I say, I would do anything to go back there! Our waiter was brilliant and he did everything he could for us. We also became good friends with the bar staff and still stay in contact with them to this day. I cannot express just how beautiful this island is; the beach was spectacular, the tropical fish, baby sharks and dolphins just add to the magic. It was clear that the staff on Velidhu really cared about how you were settling in and were only too happy to do anything to make your stay more pleasant. We were lucky enough to be in Velidhu during the Sri Lankan new year. The celebrations were absolutely fantastic with games and music that made the resort buzz. I have made so many memories that will remain with me for the rest of my life! The entertainment was also excellent and crab racing has to be one of the funniest things I have ever experienced in my life! Absolutely hilarious! As was the banana boating and the night fishing trips from the island. I would thoroughly advise anyone to visit this resort if they get the chance; they will have some of the best experiences of their life, once they discover Velidhu.

A beautiful island, you can walk around it in 20 minutes at a casual amble. The staff show traditional excellent hospitality and there is plenty to keep you occupied if you like diving/snorkeling and water sports or just want to step out of your front door onto a beach. The beach bungalows were spacious and well enough equipped if you weren't planning to spend long periods of time there. The lack of room service can be annoying and the lack of phones in the rooms even more so. Having said that, at a determined walk you're only a couple of minutes from anywhere on the island. There seemed to be surprisingly little damage from the Tsunami, even when diving and snorkeling.

Overall, thoroughly good value for money. If they improved the food and a few room facilities it'd be absolutely amazing. We both had an excellent honeymoon.

Recommendations, take some anti-diarrhea tablets (remember that this is still, for all its mod cons, a tropical island) some footwear that can handle sand and dead coral pieces, a snorkel that works and use the sea plane.

This was our second visit to Velidhu Island in the Maldives. We went with friends we met on our first visit. The staff remember you and make you feel very welcome, especially the second time around. One of our waiters even got us one of the few phrase books available for the local language (Devehi). This had to be flown out from Male, but it came as promised. We got a free water bungalow upgrade for 3 nights due to a booking issue, and they try to give you the same room if it's your second visit. The water bungalows were nice, but the beach rooms are fine. The all inclusive drinks were better this year, so they have obviously listened to feedback. Apparently, in a couple of years time the franchisee changes, and I think they're trying to drum up some customer loyalty.

We flew with Qatar, as we tried Monarch the previous year, not again thanks!! Quatar is worth the money, but they are not as good as Emirates, but we couldn't get Emirates flights to match the holiday this year.

On arriving at Velidhu Island in the Maldives the sun was just setting. Our first thoughts were "what an amazing place"! We were taken into the reception area and received a complementary fruit drink. Our luggage man took us to our rooms and showed us how to use everything. What a room! We had a water bungalow. If you have the chance to upgrade, even for night, I suggest you do. The next morning the true beauty of Velidhu Island hit me. What a difference the sun shining made to the colours of the water and the scenery.

Our waiter was a great guy!! He made us laugh every meal time, every day. All the staff were amazing. Our room boy was lovely, and he made me origami fish and birds out of leaves!!

We will definitely be going back to Velidhu, and I will take my two children next time I do.

The only suggestion I will make is if you are flying with Monarch - upgrade for your own sanity.

If I could, I would go back to Velidhu Island in the Maldives now and refuse to leave. It's paradise! The man at the Windsurf Centre is 'the man'. Our waiter was a genuinely nice guy, and nowhere in the world will you find a nicer group of people and be spoilt in the way we were. If you get the chance you have to go!!

We have just returned from a truly amazing two weeks on Velidhu Island in the Maldives. The seaplane transfer is a must!! We booked with Virgin and flew with Qatar Airlines via Doha, and upgraded to business class, which was worth every penny.

The island itself is beautiful, and the food is fantastic, especially the deserts. The all inclusive package is definitely worth having, although they do try to sell you different cocktails and dinners to try and get you to spend money. Just say no, and they will smile and leave you alone.

We had a water bungalow, which was great. We spent loads of time watching the fish through the floor. The room boy turned the bed down in a different pattern every day, and we had flowers in the shapes of hearts, and also Manta Rays on the day we went swimming with them. We also saw Dolphins on the same tour, and we would thoroughly recommend this tour out of all of them, as the experience of swimming with Manta's is breath taking.

This was the most amazing place, and we will definitely return. It is as magical as everyone says it is.

I can honestly say we have never been treated so badly by any dive center ever than at Velidhu Island. They gave no credit for our qualifications, experience or recent logged dives. They expect you to be part of the Put Another Dollar In flock and be herded across the reef at the pace of the newest novice diver all-be-it at a pace to miss the reef and have to make a second attempt at being dropped on the reef with what's left of a 10lt tank @ $62 a go - pure extortion. Then to be criticized for going to the edge of the reef out of the current to wait for the "Flock" to catch up that are drifting off into the blue for a second time so we then carried on with our dive as per the dive plan adhering to the max depth and time (max time one would need to be a 7 stone 4ft 6" to make a 10lt tank go for an hour) . Following discussions with the so called dive guide and the dive center Dive Master that afternoon and again with the French Dive Master the following morning we decided it was not worth the extortionate charges for the boat dives or $52 for a tank and weights per dive for the house reef, and have renamed the Dive Center Eurotrash in memory of the strange spoken presenter of the same program. - Sa lave.

If there are any serious divers going to the Maldives - Velidhu Island Resort save your self a shed load of money and don't use Euro-Divers, go on a live-aboard and do some real diving! The Island is lovely but at their costs are pure extortion because they have the monopoly. We saw as much if not more snorkeling round the island.

We travelled to Velidhu from Gatwick on 12th February 2006, although the flight was on time it was very cramped and seemed to be understaffed. I would not fly with Monarch again. However the seaplane transfer was well worth the extra money, what views! The island itself is a magical place, very good accommodation, and the staff could not do enough for you. The bar and restaurant were first class. The reef is very good for amateur snorkelling with a huge variety of fish from very small brightly coloured ones to huge Rays! A great place to chill out.

We travelled to Velidhu in Jan 2006 for our honeymoon, we flew with Monarch from Gatwick and upgraded our flight to premium, and our opinion...well worth it. We had heard bad things about Monarch, but the premium is good, preferential baggage, first off both ends, premium lounges at Gatwick and Male with free drinks and food, extra legroom, better food, free drinks and better movies....all very good.
We arrived in Male at 10 am their time, and we were whisked without delay to the nearby seaplane company, there we had a very short wait, and we were soon on our way to Velihdu. The flight was fantastic and took about 20 mins.
We arrived at Velihdu at around midday and we were met at the jetty by the manager, who showed us to the reception building and provided us with ice cold towels and tequila sunrises.
We upgraded to a water bungalow on arrival from a superior beach bungalow which cost us about £450 for the 2 weeks.
The Island takes about 15 mins to walk around, it has a bar open from 8am until whenever (all inclusive drinks stop at midnight, but just get a few in beforehand if you want to carry on) The all inclusive package includes, beer, whisky, vodka, gin, dubonnet, campari, sherry, and loads of other drinks including sprite and bottles of mineral water.
The restaurant is nearby and the food is excellent, we read all sorts of rubbish reviews in relation to the food, on this site, and totally disagree, it was excellent with each night having a theme, ie Italian, Maldive, Sri Lankan,French etc etc you get the idea. As well as this there was a choice of something else, ie pasta or similar in case Curry was not to your taste. The puddings were lovely, with fresh melon papaya bananas being available at all 3 meals.
Breakfasts included freshly made omlettes or waffles, Fruit, Cereal, Toast, scrambled eggs, beans, bacon and.....beef bacon??? fried bread, fried fresh tomatoes etc etc, even curry....if you liked it!!!!
The resort offers diving, and lessons for those who cant, a water sports centre for windsurfing, sailing, water skiing etc.
There are all sorts of trips available which were reasonably priced, we did snorkelling with Mantas which was fantatstic, the mantas being about 4 mtrs across, but gentle and harmless creatures.
We went on an evening cocktail cruise which was great fun and included some lovely canape's.
We also had a wonderful lobster dinner on the beach which was very romantic.
The evening entertainment was hillarious and included a singer from the maldives who mis-sang all the words to all the well known songs, crab racing, disco night and kareoke.....all very low key, but the staff try very hard to please...Look out for Ratthi (Ratty) who is the resident Velihdu entertainment dude, and tries very hard to make your stay special.
The Bar staff are wonderful, and cannot be more helpful.
There is a small gift shop where you can buy some nice things to bring home, some things are expensive others were ok.
There is table tennis, free snorkels and fins if you dont have any, and beach towels were provided.
The house reef was amazing and was the best i have been to in the Maldives, (dont forget your waterproof camera)
I guess if we have to be negative, the island could do with a few more sunbeds, (although we always got one and the resort was full) and wine is only available in the restaurant and wasnt very good.
We had to carry drinks to our rooms too, if we wanted to watch the sun go down on our balcony.
But these are not complaints and didnt affect our holiday at all.
This resort is not at all poncy and is filled with similar nice ordinary people from all over the world (larger louts, and drunken idiots not seen)
We cannot see how anyone could go to this paradise and not have a fab time, and we will be returning. At present the Island is run by John Keels Hotels, their 10 year contract runs out in 2 years.....after that who knows.
A truly great resort...fantastic holiday...and a great honeymoon..

We took a sea plane transfers to Velidhu - highly recommended.
Island has two aspects - quiet side facing calm, shallow and very safe lagoon Where we stayed in a garden bungalow); and other side facing more open coral reef with stiffer breeze. The water bungalows are also on a breezy point fairly high above the water.
The grounds are lush, beautifully planted, well maintained, and with plenty of shade.
The house reef is spectacular with the greatest profusion of fish we have ever seen. It is easily reached off the end of the jetty or by swimming up a sand channel. The drop off is awe inspiring. However, the current and breeze on the house reef side meant you needed to be a fairly confident swimmer, whilst the lagoon side was very easy and with plenty of small coral outcrops to keep you interested. There were plenty of 18inch long black tipped reef sharks around (only tiddlers and quite harmless). But it was possible to see 1.5 meter sharks, large rays, and turtles off the house reef drop off. There is an excellent dive school, some reasonable excursions for manta ray and dolphin spotting, island hopping, and night fishing.
The staff here are amazing and go out of their way to make you welcome. The service is very good and the variety and quality of food served means there is always something delicious to cater for every taste. We took the all inclusive option - highly recommended.
There is a surprising amount of entertainment in the evening, including live music, a cultural show (very low key and informal) and hilarious, if somewhat unkind, hermit crab racing.
We stayed for two weeks and really chilled - it's surprising that there is so much to keep you occupied. Watch the staff play football every afternoon - talk about passion! Enjoy an invigorating massage. Sample all the fabulous snorkelling. And tuck in to all that lovely food. Watch the sun set each day from the beach bar with a nice chilled beer, cocktail, etc.
This island is truly wonderful.

Went to Velidhu in April 2005. Long flight, but fortunately upgraded to air taxi on arrival. Long wait for taxi, but at least we were there in the heat! Once we got to Velidhu, wow! What a fantastic place. Peaceful and relaxing just doesn't cover it. There may have been 200 odd people on the island, but you'd be lucky (or unlucky!) to see more than half a dozen during the day. Beautiful white powder sand, turquoise ocean, gentle breeze. Perfect. Loads of fish, don't need to dive, just stick a snorkel on and swim out about 20 yards. Sharks, rays, moray eels, sea snakes, plus hundreds and hundreds of beautiful tropical fish. Evening entertainment fab. Staff were extremelly friendly and couldn't do enough for you. Accomodation very comfortable. Nice touches like folding back sheets in designs each night. Petals and heart on bed on last night was so romantic. I'm misting over thinking about our week there! Perfect. 100%

What an amazing experience, my wife and I went to Velidhu for our honeymoon. From the moment we arrived until we left the staff on this Island were Excellent.

We stayed in a Water Bungalow and went All Inclusive both of these were arranged here in the UK.
It is slightly cheaper to arrange this when you arrive on the Island but their is no gaurantee of getting the water bungalow.

I would recommend a meal on the beach they can appear expensive at first, but on speaking with the Restaurant Manager a 5 course meal designed by the customer can be organised, and significantly reduced in price.

We also went for a Honeymoon special at the Spa again an experience that can not be missed by any newly weds.

A wonderful place, and tears came to my eyes as we left. We met some brilliant people there, and had good company at night. In the evening I walked the jetty, and played table tennis and darts. It was one of the best holidays I have ever had. A total escape from exam pressure!

Velidhu Island - Small island with 80 beach bungalows and 20 water bungalows. We stayed in the beachfront ones which were very spacious, 500 square feet, large double bed, huge bathroom with shower, b day, sink and toilet. Air con, fridge and large storage area, clothes hanging, dressing table and chair. Water bungalows have 800square feet with impressive raised bedroom and separate lounge, TV, tea making facilities and balcony overlooking ocean. Access to sea from communal sun deck at the end of the decking. Resort has volleyball, darts, watersports and diving centre. Large buffet restaraunt with wide choice of excellent food. Breakfast includes all you could wish for and you can have your omelete made to order! Excellent house reef although a little bleached due to global warming and water temp. Lots of fish, reef sharkes and turtles to see within a few feet of the beach.

Dive school is excellent, catering for all experience from never done it before to dive master. Wide choice of dive sites and at least two dive sites per day. Typical dive cost is 57 US Dollars including kit. Not worth taking your own as not much saving. They do charge 10 US per dive trip payable to hotel which does add to cost. They are very flexible at putting together a dive package with discounts and cater for all languages. If you have dived with EURO DIVERS before you get 15% discount!

We went on a full board basis then upgraded to all-inclusive once there. 20 US per person per day. If you don't do this, expect to pay 3US per beer, coke, mixer, etc., so worthwhile if you like a drink or 6. Upgrade to water bungalow is 70US per night but limited availability.

Entertainment is every night ranging from magic show to crab races. Not bad for the Maldives as you usually only get a weekly disco. Don't expect cruise ship cabaret but still good. Bar is lovely with large deck overlooking ocean.

Everywhere immaculate, spotless kitchen and staff who won't let you lift a finger. Everyone always has a smile and are the friendliest people you will ever meet.

There is nothing I can say to fault this resort or location. Worth paying for sea plane transfer as boat is just over 2 hours and can be a bit rough. 20 mins by plane.

I can't recommend it enough.

Velidhu Island:

I just want to say thank you for such a wonderful holiday will definitely go back and see all the boys again they were fantastic. Hi to them all I just couldn't go through and name them as I got to know most of them, suppose because we played football and cricket etc with them when it was there break in the afternoon. go boys who won Velidhu cup well done Mohammed and your team. Thanks to the management for a very professional run resort to the highest standard? Plenty to do on this island water sports, scuba diving, snorkelling, canoeing and many other sports. The Barmen are first class for a wee drink to help you sleep at night cheers Rohan, Nidhal and Sampath catch up with you again soon. Thanks to the chef for the beautiful meal he cooked for a very special occasion celebrated while we were there.