Vilamendhoo Resort & Spa

We chose Vilamendhoo as our house reef stay in the Maldives based on the fact that SnorkelVenture had stayed there, and a recommendation from a travel agent we met in Indonesia. We were not disappointed. My wife and I are well-traveled snorkelers. This was our second trip to the Maldives (first was to Angsana Ihuru further north. We stayed at Boutique Beach in Dhigurah where we did boat-based snorkeling for 6 days and then boat transferred to Vilamendhoo. The house reef: we knew from our previous Maldives trip that the corals are very bland compared to Indonesia and some of the other places on the planet. We came for the fish and other marine life and were not disappointed. Things we saw (check my YouTube channel @tadlindley for the evidence): • Octopi mating • A white tip reef shark hunting for and catching an octopus • Four different types of rays (eagle, spotted, and then 2 kids of non-spotted) • Turtles every day • Morays swimming (2x) • Got to swim with a hunting party of 65 trevallies and many trumpet fish midday on the reef on high tide • Nurse, black tip reef and white tip reef sharks every day, blachtips every time we got in the water • Schools of cuttlefish everyday • Monster parrots crunching away • A wide variety of reef fish who have not been hunted and not been fed, and so are for the most part going on about business as usual • Another guest had dolphins approach him while he was snorkeling on the south side of the island at the restaurant end • Tons of new coral growing on the old played out coral More house reef: along most of the reef there is a fairly vertical wall with beautiful corals. The top of the reef has several access points marked by buoys. We did not spend a lot of time over the shallows as they are mainly accessible at high tide. Depending on wind, swells, and current, there was almost always a place with great visibility. Accommodations: We stayed in an overwater bungalow. The reef was accessible easily from the stairs off of the back deck. We had a sunset view every evening and the air conditioning kept the inside temperature comfortable for us. Food: The food was excellent. We will need to fast extra to undo some of the calories. We only ate at the adults only buffet. There is an ala carte restaurant, but we did not try that. We do not drink alcohol, so we opted for the full board package. Spa: my wife got two massages while we were there and she was quite happy with them. Excursions: The only excursion that I did was night snorkeling (as mentioned above we boat snorkeled at least 2 different locations a day the week before with Boutique Beach). The night snorkeling was enjoyable, but only my 4th time doing that, so I don’t have a lot to compare it to. I did speak with a diver who did the whale shark hunting boat excursion, he did not recommend it. Said there was lots of other boats doing the same thing and when they jumped in, there were 50 other people in the water. Read less

I chose Vilamendhoo based on Internet searches and Trip Advisor reviews. I was particularly attracted to comments about the quality of the snorkelling. This was about my twelfth visit to the Maldives and I came to snorkelling after retiring from diving so may be more critical than many. I found the snorkelling very interesting without being spectacular, eg I saw four species of butterfly fish that I don’t remember seeing before, many different types of parrot fish, Moorish Idols, surgeon fish, etc, etc and I swam with a turtle most days, saw lots of moray eels, including ones swimming in the open, Napoleon wrasses, including one with nine accompanying blue fin jacks and both red and yellow sling—jaw wrasses slinging their jaws, I had an amazing introduction to the black tip sharks under the Asian Wok restaurant, as well as seeing bigger ones in the open water with the highlight, because I was looking for one, an amazing close encounter with a large eagle ray. I didn’t see any nurse sharks and the coral was not as vibrant as I had expected and, while fish are plentiful, spread over a large reef, the density was less than I expected. The drop off between exits 9 and 10 was my favourite place. Exits 4 to 5 have the prettiest coral and the area between exits 1 and 2 provided some nice sightings. Not a bad return on about 30 hours of snorkelling during my week. My only serious disappointment was a Whale Shark trip. I sort of knew I wouldn’t see a whale shark but somehow I didn’t reckon on a four hour trip without entering the water, I think the resort should have a plan B to stop at a reef on the way back to the island for snorkelling to provide something for the $150 cost. Also, probably my own fault because I tended to go into meals at least half-way through the sitting, I often founds tureens empty or nearly empty and they were not refilled. I would have liked to have seen more fresh cooking at the food counter, eg stir fries, Asian breads, etc. But I did enjoy my daily fresh omelette for breakfast! Otherwise everything was excellent, including the service, friendliness, room (I was in 111, an adjoining beach villa) and I think I received good value for money and a really nice experience. Read less