Hotel Family-friendly a Van＇gaaru

For anyone who hasn’t been to the Maldives before then (aside from the gratingly outrageous cost of food and drink) you may well think that this hotel is fabulous. For anyone that has been to the Maldives before you will be bitterly disappointed and wish you had booked somewhere else. Lets start with the good things. We stayed in the two bedroom pool villa. Yes, as some people have mentioned it is a little dated but the villa itself is very spacious and gave us a very comfortable stay. The main bedroom is large with a huge en suite with deep soaking tub and plenty of piping hot water (big tick!) The kids bedroom, directly off the master bedroom is small but has a full bathroom with shower and a tub. Upstairs, there is a further room currently set up as a lounge with day bed, mini bar, TV and a further shower room making it perfect for a family with lots of children. Outside the villa had a good-sized pool and spacious garden and seating area. The beach villas are nicely spaced out so that you rarely see anyone else. We were assigned a butler who works very much like a Six Senses butler works. This whole system works very well. Unfortunately our main luggage was not offloaded from the seaplane which wasn’t a good start, especially as we had had to wait over three hours for the plane on arrival to Male. Thankfully, our butler Hassan tracked it down and had it back at the hotel four hours later. Unfortunately this meant that along with the seaplane wait we wasted a whole day of our holiday. Back to the plus points - The staff, they are a huge credit to the hotel. Everyone we met was so kind and friendly. They literally fall over themselves to help. They are quick to learn your likes and dislikes and people call you by your name. My son had an accident when playing football. The medic was called, he was treated, I was contacted by WhatsApp. My son said everyone was very caring. They proceeded to check up on him for the next two days. The quality of treatments in the spa are super. Joyce gave the best massages. I am very wary of taking a massage as the last time I was in the Maldives a therapist caused a lot of damage to a shoulder which resulted in steroid injections , physio and a lot of pain for almost a year, so poor Joyce was given a lot of instructions of what not to do or touch. She was incredible. The only downside was the cost of a massage, by the time you add the ++ you are looking at $200 for 50 mins. Quality of food in general very good but the cost is outrageous. They are more than double what we have paid in other Maldives hotels - including The Four Seasons . Meal packages are also very expensive. Every price is ++ so thats an extra 22% on top of the price you see. If you want to upgrade to the all inclusive package thats $450 ++ for anyone 12 years and older - so essentially $550USD and tips are expected on top! Children 12 and over are expected to pay adult price for meal packages! Alternatively you can opt to eat in Aliaa