Arrived at Olhuveli Beach & Spa Hotel on the 26/07/04. Boat trip from airport longer than expected due to terrible weather. Booked deluxe room. First room taken to was appalling, looked like a bare prison cell, just three beds and a TV, bathroom was stained and dirty looking. All the bedding and towels looked grey and worn and rather frayed at the edges. Requested better room immediately. Credit to the manageress she didn't quibble and moved us to a far better room on the better side of the island. She explained that some of the rooms have been updated and many are still waiting to be done. There is a big difference in the finishing of the newer rooms. One side of the island looks out over the lagoon which is filled with sea grass and not very pleasant to look at, the other side is sand and clear(ish) sea. Also the upstairs rooms are better than the downstairs rooms (Deluxe villa's, we can't speak for the standard rooms). If the management spent a little more money getting the small details right, i.e., replace all the bedding and towels that are worn out, it would help improve the general feel that they actually take pride in the resort.

We have now been eight times to the Maldives and the food is always to a very high standard. This island is the exception. Food is plentiful and edible; however it is not anything special, reminded me of school dinners. All the other islands we have been to vary the menu daily, here it is virtually the same old stuff every day. If you like pasta you will be ok as there is an Italian chef who cooks fresh pasta every mealtime as most of the guests are Italian (very noisy!)

The house reef is ok. We did not experience a strong current and were able to swim easily. We saw rays every time we went out and a five foot white tipped reef shark twice. The water is fairly murky due to the plankton. Learning to dive on this island seems quite expensive. When you go to the dive shop they tell you it is $350 (as did the manager in an email before we left). They fail to mention there is also a $120 'certification' fee, $12 per boat trip and finally a 10% service charge on top of everything. This 10% service charge is applied to everything you buy on the island from drinks to any trips. None of the staff seem to know why it is added. The losers seem to be the boys who take you on boat trips as no one was tipping them as a service charge had already been added, apparently this does not go to them but to the hotel.

If you are going to the Maldives for the first time you would probably be satisfied with this island. It rates itself as a four star island. In our opinion this is a 2.5 star resort.

Take the strongest insect repellent you can find. The mosquitoes are something else. everyone we saw and spoke to had bites. None of the guests we spoke to had seen or heard any spraying/fogging at all. Every other resort we have been to carry out mosquito killing at least twice a week. We have returned covered in bites and we took the best spray we could find (jungle formula).

All of the staff on the island are very friendly, you can not fault them and this review does not reflect on them in any way. Some of the staff we spoke to were very interested in our opinion of this island as we had been to several over the last few years. They tend to move from island to island and the general opinion was that this was not the best island they had worked on.

If you are looking for a quiet, unspoilt romantic holiday (in our opinion, what the Maldives sells its self on and is what it is all about)then you will be very disappointed. It appears to be very geared to the Italian family, apparently the kids all go free. It is very noisy including the evenings when the entertainment begins at 22.00hrs with most rooms able to hear the loud noise, not our idea of quiet and romantic! If you are a family looking for an exotic 'Butlins' type resort you will be more than happy with this island, but do be prepared for a cramped room if you take the kids.

The other islands we have been to are:- Velivaru 7/10, Veligandu 9/10, Coco Palm 8/10, Thudafushi 8/10, Kanaifinulu 6/10, Velidhu 5/10, Kuramathi 4/10. We have given each an overall rating out of 10.

General Comment:
Olhuveli Beach and Spa Resort - By Colin Jones

I booked to go to Olhuveli in the Maldives on the 9th May 2004 with my partner for 10 days All Inclusive. This wasn't our first choice and poor service from our agent "Dreamticket.com" resulted in this being our destination.

Arrival at Male was smooth and effortless (customs and immigration), transfer was arranged by Speedboat to the island. Was annoyed at the fact we were met by a rep who informed us the speed boat had not arrived and we should sit and wait. So we waited for approx 30 mins in a heat of the day waiting for a speedboat. As it turns out their were 8 other couples that had been waiting quite a bit longer after arriving on a earlier flight. I would expect paying for a holiday such as this prompt service would be paramount. Apparently not as I will further advise in this review. Speedboat journey lasted about an hour. Were not met and greeted like other guests were with the traditional drums.

Rooms:
We had booked one of the few "Deluxe Beach Bungalows" The bungalow had high ceilings and felt spacious and clean. Remote control air conditioning etc. During our stay we met a couple who were staying in the standard bungalows, I was so thankful we had paid the extra for the Deluxe and difference was huge, and im sure the price difference wasn't. The standard of finish in the rooms and bathrooms are not that what I would expect from a 3*/4* resort. The finish was cheap and that attention to detail was missing.

Food:
Large choice available of food of how much you would eat is the issue. I would consider myself to have a wide and varied diet, but I didn't struggle almost of a daily basis. The choice was large however alot of thick heavy sauces accompanied the meats and chicken dishes available. Alot of curry of different types and rice. Salads and pastas. Although most of the food was thick heavy and stodgy, not what you want in 34oC and 90% humidity. Furthermore the amount of flies that were allowed to crawl over the food appalled me. I don't expect every thing to be protected but no effort was made to protect the food from flies which I thought was disgusting.
The restaurant itself was located on the Lagoon side of the island which offered stunning views and the noise of the wind through the palm trees.

Entertainment:
Well what can I say, personally im not bothered whether im entertained or not, I was their to chill out and relax and witness the most beautiful sunsets and gaze at the stars. What I saw of the entertainment was the band "Sultan" who were a local Maldivian band and were actually very good. The Magician was the most strangest thing I have ever seen, the total lack of magic and entertainment was shocking. Romantic night is held every other night which means they do nothing apart from a single candle at each table, for this they feel the need to advertise with posters all round the island.

Service:
If there is anything that saves this Island from me giving it an absolute slating is the service from the Food Waiters, Drinks Waiters and the Room Boys. They work very hard and the service is amazing. Best waiter "Ameez" was a star. The island customer service and the UK rep called Dianne were ok. Although when the issue of mosquitos and the de fuming of the island issue was ongoing they lied through their back teeth and told different stories to many guests. Minibar in the room, Mars Bars out of date, complained about this still got charged for eating an out of date chocolate bar.

Resort:
Beautiful Island visually, and stunning lagoon, grounds well kept. As I said earlier depending on where your located on the island could be the difference on this holiday. Some of the accommodation was located next to less desirable areas such as, water storage and electric generators, satellite dishes and so on. If you are going to this island check this ! and check it again get it in writing. Island had a Mosquito problem which they were reluctant to deal with, people needed to get injections from the Island doctor because they had been bitten so much and of course they had to pay for this.
The House Reef wasn't great the water quite choppy and current strong weak or nervous swimmers beware. The Diving school apparently was excellent and those who were involved couldn't sing its praises enough. Another important point here is there are a high number of Italian guests here for which they have their own chef (nice) but they also bring their children with them, so if your looking for peace and quite then another important point to note. We went in the rainy season and had 10 days of great weather !!

Recommendation:
As you can tell I would not recommend this resort to my friends, for the money we paid we know for sure we could have booked elsewhere and enjoyed another island, even for the sake of paying perhaps a few hundred more pounds I would go elsewhere, I mean you have travelled half way round the world to get here may as well cough up a bit more to get that extra luxury. The Maldives has earned a reputation as one of the best holiday places in the world, I don't doubt that for one minute but sadly Olhuveli doesn't come to the mark.

Olhuveli Olhuveli Beach & Spa Hotel - I saw ROBEM's review before leaving for Olhuveli. Too late to cancel trip so decided to go and see for myself before commenting. I spent the first week of June on the island, and here are some comments.

(I did not verify whether the original review was written by the English Ents Manager of the resort or not. Even without checking there is enough to say. But just the thought of someone trying to get away with this type of tricky reviewing is what motivates me to reply and also to write a review of my own.)

Rooms:
We were happy with our room. I think it is a standard "deluxe" room on the second floor. Basic but quite adequate. In fact the standard rooms might be better value for the money since they are located in the quieter side of the island. The northern part of the island, where the deluxe beach bungalows are located, seems a bit more crowded and less private.

I am not surprised, however, by the bad experience suffered by ROBEM. Depending on your location on the island, your dream vacation could be ruined by one of the following: Sound from generators, or the deslination plant, bad music from the bar, or, of course, looking into a satellite dish.

Food:
Large quantity and variety of food but of uneven quality. Good for people who like heavy Italian cooking. Recommendation: Don't go to this island if you fit one of the following description:

a.You are French and like well-prepared food.
b.You like food that is not overwhelmed by grease or the taste of the sauce.
c.You like to eat fish (Fish is plentiful in the Maldive, so ruining good fish is unpardonable)

Besides the dining room, the only other place to get food is the coffee shop. Here the service is slow and the menu is limited. You can get pizzas, hamburgers, salads and curry. But quality is again low.

Entertainment:
For us the best entertainment on the island is the beach, the clear water lagoons, and the sound of Palm trees rustling overhead. We did not come to the Maldives to hear loud rap music, or live rock late into the night. The latter is what we got. Imagine, you are sitting at the lagoon bar waiting for your drinks, the sun is setting over the lagoon, a warm ocean wind is blowing in your face and suddenly the bar decides to play some rap music. We cancelled our drinks and left on the spot.

Sevice:
Service in the dining room is ok. The grounds keepers do a wonder job with the garden. Reception staff are friendly. Sometimes it is hard to get a satisfactory answer. You might get a yes / no but no explanation.

Resort:
There is a house reef. It might not be as good as house reefs on other island. Also the lagoon surrounding the north side of the island has a lot of sea grass and algae. Makes me think that this could be the result of improper waste disposal or pollution of some sort.

Recommendation:
I would hesitate recommending this resort to a friend. The risk of something ruining the vacation could come from anyone one of the following: poor food, loud music, getting a bad room on a noisy part of the island. And the prospect that the ents manager wrote one of the glowing reviews is troublesome.

Olhuveli Olhuveli Beach & Spa Hotel - Having read an extremely favourable review of this hotel we booked a dream holiday. Upon arriving we were to discover this review had been written by the English ents manager!
Upon arrival we were dropped at a nearby island only to have to wait for a rickety boat to take us to Olhuveli. As the holiday progressed we were disappointed to see the varying degree of 'welcomes' for guests. We soon noticed that if you arrived in small numbers you did not merit the grand welcome of the speed boat and a traditional 'drum' lead into the hotel.
We had booked a standard room and soon found out how basic and standard it was, certainly not the dream Maldivian holiday we were hoping for. We were not informed of the maintenance work on our block and on the first day was greeted by a shower of sparks from welding taking place outside our patio area. Needless to say we complained immediately to be told it would be finished the next day or we could move to a room overlooking the hotel's satellite dishes!!! We decided to wait out the work until the room above us sprung leaks (due to maintenance work) and our bathroom became a waterfall!!! After complaining bitterly, we were finally told 5 days into our 13 day holiday we could move to another room. We were moved to a beautiful upper floor deluxe room. (I wish we had booked this first!).
Although this incident may have been a one-off for the hotel, we were dismayed at the way we were handled. We had to spend the first few days of our holiday constantly 'bugging' the reception staff and the ents manager to do something about our situation. We feel that had we not persistently requested a room change our situation would have been ignored.
The hotel had a large Asian and Italian clientele, which was a nice mix until we became bored with the same Italian foods at dinner (the chef turned out to be Italian too).