Trip To Bandos Island Resort

Just before the end of last year's  December School break, my hubby and I decided to take a short break and head to Bandos Island Resort. Its the first time we visited this island resort and I invited my sister-in-law with her hubby and son to join us, as I felt she could use a break as well being pregnant with her second child and staying cooped up at home during the holidays.


Bandos Island Resort  is one of the oldest resorts in Maldives it is still popular and is still very well maintained.
Bandos Island resort has special packages for  Locals as well, which are slightly cheaper compared to the tourist rate, and  is one of the reasons we were able to go on own. The only thing I didn't like was the fact we had to travel on the staff ferry. It, was not the idea of travelling with staff but we were not staff and it would be nice if they treated the local guests the same way they treat other guests and had boat ready depending on the number of local guests even on the day we went three families were heading there and that was also during a weekday,  ( just a suggestion) I say this because quite a number of locals actually head to Bandos, especially during breaks and even during week ends.

We were supposed to leave at 1 pm but the staff ferry ( or rather a large speed boat this time) was full so it took it two more trips before we finally had our turn ( now you know why I suggested a separate means of travel for local guests, as we were standing outside near the jetty in the hot sun).

Our room which we asked for a delux room was upgraded for the same price to a beach side villa and garden villa.   The rooms were pretty spacious, they had made a nice comfy makeshift bed made out of a large mattress and comfy bedding, for the boys downstairs while the main bedroom was upstairs s and the bathroom came equipped with a jacuzzi much for the boys' excitement, who turned it into a space ship ( well boys will be boys).

Of course, event though there was a pool we headed to the beach, we prefer the beach. The beach was gorgeous ( of course)  and loads of fish swam very close to the beach, so a great place for snorkelling. We even encountered a supposedly harmless baby shark, just brushing against me and my sis in law ( although we shot out from the water as fast as we could, LOL).

The food was very good. We had all our meals at the Gallery restaurant, and I have to say the food really got top marks as everything was delicious. Ate a really delicious yoghurt terrine with berries,  and am still searching for the recipe.

While strolling around we walked into their vegetable garden.

Hi!!! thats me trying to get the perfect shot when hubby decided to sneak up from behind me  :) 

There was a herb garden with basil, mint, and even a  rosemary bush.

clock wise from top, mint, thai basil, local , rosemary and local basil

Beautiful lettuce leaves grown using the hydroponics technique and this technique was used to grow melons and tomatoes as well.

 There was an aubergine patch,  chillies. I think it is great they are trying to grow their own vegetables locally instead of importing everything from abroad.

We also took a peek inside the kids club but was a bit small in size.

We stayed for one night and two days,   our package included transport with the room for the night along with dinner, breakfast and lunch all for less than 300$  for each family.

So with the mid-term holidays coming up thought I would post this, for those looking for a quick getaway from the current madness in the city, now dont get me started on that either.   I have meant to post this since we went but kept slipping my mind. For more information, you can check the website here