Kuramathi Blue Lagoon, Village or Cottage?!

Hi everyone. Having trawelled through so many websites i%26#39;m getting nowhere fast! I have been looking at the Kuramathi Blue Lagoon and upgrading to a beach bungalow after reading the reviews on this site. Can anyone advise which is the nicest hotel on the island. I know it%26#39;s down to personal preference, any advice would be much appreciated. Also, do you get the airport noise and tankers going past on this island and i have also read reviews to be wary where you stop as when you stop too close to male you don%26#39;t get the true %26#39;Robinson Crusoe%26#39; feel! One last thing....if we go half board can we only eat in the Blue Lagoon and if so are the other hotels/drink prices expensive? Sorry for all the questions. I look forward to hearing from anyone!

Thanks

Kuramathi Blue Lagoon, Village or Cottage?!

hi

I have stayed and the blue lagoon and the village, in my opinion the blue lagoon end is a lot quieter, however, it is at the narrower part of the island which means that you loose a lot of the beach at the end of the day, you can move around to the sandbank etc and find somewhere to sit but you may only be in the shade in the area outside your room. At the village, not all the rooms are directly on the beach, there may be a 1 min walk to the beach, however, there is a large stretch of beach by the bar which is in the sun all day and we never found it to be busy at all, plus you have the convenience of being able to get drinks whenever. The village i believe only do all inclusive, however this does include cocktails etc which is very rare in the Maldives, the blue lagoon does allow half board, this means you can eat in the other restaurants on the island and to be honest we didnt find them at all expensive, we paid to go all inclusive and still ate out sometimes just for a change. Drinks will be expensive in the maldives as everything is imported, so if you are a big drinker then I would advise to go all inclusive, otherwise you might get a nasty surprise at the end of your holiday with the drink bill. No you do not get airport noise, you might hear the odd seaplane land near by but not half as many as you get on the islands that are only reachable by seaplane and we did see tankers going by, just the local fishing boats and the island boat bringing new guests to the Island. We loved it here and are thinking of returning next year.

Kuramathi Blue Lagoon, Village or Cottage?!

Thanks Melfen

I think we are going to go for the Village as it works out more cost effective like you say with drinks etc. Would you say the Blue Lagoon is a nicer hotel than the village then? The best deal i have found the begginning of May is through Kuoni with an upgrade to a superior room. Do you know if these rooms are on the beach and what they are like. The Kuoni website says you have to pay to use the swimming pool, is this correct? Did you mean in your reply that no oil tankers went by! One last thing..did you upgrade to a seaplane? Sorry for all the questions again. I really appreciate your feedback. Getting very excited about booking now! Thank you

Hello,

Sorry to butt in but i stayed at the Village in December and we got a really good deal with First Choice (booking online via Eclipse Direct). The bonus with booking with them is that their planes are quite good (better than Monarch) and you automatically get allocated a deluxe beach bungalow.

The Blue Lagoon accommodation looked really nice but as mentioned previously the beach is a lot narrower at that end. We walked around the island every day but really liked where we were (bungalow 13).

We opted for the speedboat but if this is your 1st visit to the Maldives would reccommend the seaplane as its an experience in itself.

The pool is based at the Cottage so unless you stay there you have to pay, i think it was $15 pp per week but not sure. It was always deserted when we walked by but did look nice.

Just to reiterate that the food in the %26#39;other%26#39; restaurants that you pay extra for is very good and extremely reasonable. If you are AI in the Village and you eat at either the Indian or Grill restaurant which are based in the Village you even still get all drinks free that would usually fall under the AI.

Hope this helps

Oh - i didn%26#39;t see any tankers go past while i was there.

Thanks Hulah. That is really useful information. I have just looked at Eclipse at it works out cheaper than the first choice website. The upgrade on the flight is a good price as well. Big thank you! Would you book the seaplane direct with the Village or through the operator?

Regards Lucy

Hi Lucy,

I know that when i booked online it didn%26#39;t come up with an option of adding on the seaplane so you would probably have to contact the operator after booking to get the price and arrange etc. I know you can book direct (I think with Maldevian Air Taxi) but not exactly sure how and what their price is. There were some people who had got the speedboat for the incoming journey then arranged seaplane back to the airport via the reception desk and i think it was about $100 per person.

Lou

Thanks Hulah! I%26#39;m such a nervous nerris! I%26#39;m now worrying that if we go in May it will be chucking it down all the time and thinking of going next month. Although the availability is not looking good. What do you think May or Feb?!

Weather is always a topic of great debate on these forums so i%26#39;m sure you will be able to look at the pros and cons of each month. February is supposed to be the dry season and you would be less likely to get as much rain (if any) than in May - but there%26#39;s no guarantee, especially as in the last year the weather in the Maldives has not been in tune with what usually happens.

I have been to the Maldives in both June and December and to be honest there wasn%26#39;t a huge amount of difference in the weather at each of these times. It was generally a mixture of sun, cloud and some rain showers, with only one whole day in a week where there was no sun.

I am also a worrier and i think with the Maldives you just have to go with it, ignore all weather forecasts before you go and take plenty of books in case you have a few rainy days.

Lou

Feb is more expensive than May! and it%26#39;s prob all sold out for Feb this year anyway as it is peak season............ activegirl

Just to add a few further thoughts to your debate on Kuramathi! We%26#39;ve just booked to go to Kuramathi Cottage in March after lots of faffing over ALL the brochures! We ended up booking with Kuoni (but via a holiday discount centre whom we found on the internet who gave us nearly £200 off the brochure price - worth bearing in mind). We decided on this resort as many other resorts on other islands have building works going on at the moment (eg Meeru, White Sands). We also wanted a water bungalow, and we wanted to go by seaplane (I get mega seasick!), which we%26#39;ve paid the supplement for in our package, plus we wanted an island big enough to have a few eating options, not just one restaurant. Also wanted a house reef very close by, whereas some islands you can%26#39;t swim out to the reef but need to take a boat. We gather that the reef by Kuramathi is just out from the water bungalows. I also have a friend who stayed at the Cottage %26amp; Spa last year, and said the accommodation at the Cottage was more luxurious than the Village - but they enjoyed visiting the Village for some livelier action in the evenings. (We%26#39;ve booked the Cottage half board, no drinks included, so we%26#39;re free to roam the island%26#39;s bars if we please, spending the money we saved by not booking direct with Kuoni!)

Regarding the flight, it%26#39;s worth bearing in mind that Monarch whom Kuoni use, have increased their legroom to 31'; seat pitch from January this year, according to Kuoni putting Monarch in line with other long haul carriers like BA, so hopefully this will improve things (we%26#39;ve also read the negative reviews about the Monarch flight to the Maldives).

Agree that there%26#39;s not much availability around for packages at the moment if you do go for Feb. Be careful if you%26#39;re tempted by Hayes %26amp; Jarvis as they appear to have reasonable packages but we found they were using scheduled flights via Doha with 10hr waits in the middle of the night to change planes - not a great way to start your hols!

Can%26#39;t wait to go!

Maria %26amp; Allan

Hello everyone!

Thank you for all your help and advice. I can confirm that we have now FINALLY booked and are off to the village in March. Wooohoo! So excited. We booked through eclipse direct (thanks hullah!) and got such a good deal. Just waiting for the air taxi company to email me back so i can book direct. Thank you! Lucy