BACKGROUND AND LOCATION

The Maldives are a group of small islands (1190 of them!) in the Indian Ocean. They are grouped into 26 atolls (a series of islands enclosing a lagoon); each atoll has a "capital" island, and there is also a national capital, Male. Only 200 of the islands are inhabited by natives, and 87 further islands are set up as resorts - the rest are completely uninhabited. The southernmost islands are just south of the Equator.

The weather is pretty constant all year around - about 30-35 C in the shade, and up to 45 C in the sun, during the middle of the day. In the evening and overnight the temperature drops to around 28 C. The rainy season is June-August, when there are thunder storms and torrential rain almost every day (that's not to say it doesn't sometimes rain at other times too!). There's a nice breeze off the ocean most of the time.

THE RESORT

Kuredu Island Resort is in the Lhaviyani Atoll, which is in the North East of the Maldives.

The resort is primarily all-inclusive, although you can get half- or full-board packages as well. The all-inclusive guests get a yellow plastic bracelet to identify them to the staff; any extras such as shop purchases are simply signed for and then paid off with credit card, travellers' cheques, or cash (or a combination!) at the end of your stay.

Kuredu is owned by two Swedish brothers. Most of the guests there are English, German, or Swedish. The non-local staff are mostly German or Swedish but all speak good English.

GETTING THERE

We flew with Airtours both times, so it might be different with a different operator. For our first trip the flight was 7 hours Gatwick to Bahrain (re-fuelling stop), and then 5 hours Bahrain to Male. Take plenty of bottled water for the flight - we got very dehydrated and were parched by the time we arrived in Bahrain! Fortunately there was a reasonably priced shop selling bottled water there! The second trip we flew direct from Gatwick to Male and the flight took 11 hours.

Kuredu is then reached from Male airport either by a 5 hour boat trip, or a 45-minute sea plane trip. We opted for the sea plane and were very glad we did - we heard lots of horror stories about the boat and almost everyone who arrived on the boat opted to go home on the sea-plane instead! The sea plane was great fun. If you can book the sea-plane in advance, do so - it was double the price if you came on the boat but wanted to go back on the sea-plane.

On our first trip, our flight home was delayed by 17 hours, which wasn't particularly wonderful, and while Airtours did pay for food and a hotel room for us while we waited, we weren't very impressed with how they handled the situation. No doubt everyone was doing the best they could in the circumstances, but we felt that communication was somewhat lacking about what was going on! Facilities at Male airport are fairly basic but sufficient: a snack-bar, a few shops, toilets etc. To get an idea of what the airport looks like, have a look at this postcard! Our second trip was much smoother with only an hour or so delay at Male coming home.