To give this review an accurate account, I would like to point out that my wife and I have been travelling to the Maldives for 29 Years and made 24 visits to 13 different islands, so we have some idea of what to expect. Regarding Athuruga this visit was our seventh, but with a 20 yr gap between our last visit and this one. Yes things change over 20 years and people change too. But Athuruga was always our happy island and that for our last trip to the Maldives was the reason we chose it. So let’s do the review…..we arrived at the airport and no one from Athuruga was visible, we eventually asked someone if they could contact the island representative which they did and five minutes later someone appeared. Seaplane luggage sorted we were transported to a lounge in the new sea plane terminal, I can’t remember the name I think it was something like Nooni, it was the worst lounge I have ever been in, in the Maldives, not clean and everything had to be bought. Our seaplane flight was relatively quick and we were at Athuruga within 35 minutes. We were taken to our room a junior suite number 41, it was in a position on the beach where we have stayed before but the room had been updated to a suite. We will start with the issues…and our views The room was a bit tired and not really very functional with very few drawers but two wardrobes and not many coat hangers. The flooring was a bit messy and looked unfinished and some of the skirting boards didn’t quite fit correctly leaving holes onto the walls. The loungers on the beach were quite dangerous with the corrosion on them pictures below Our first room boy as not very good, he didn’t clean the room very well and he didn’t change the bedding when he was supposed to after three days but apparently he claimed it was our fault for not asking him to, but the reception staff had stated bedding would be changed every three days. I went to reception and pointed out the bedding hadn’t been changed, they agreed it should have been and made a phone call, we heard nothing then until the next morning when we had a new room boy, no apologies or anything but at least the bedding had been changed. Our major complaint was with regards to the dining room the display of food for breakfast was appalling not very much at all. You could order an omelette with beans and bacon but the omelette was cold because the chef cooked the omelette then put it on a cold plate whilst he warmed the beans up in a frying pan and warmed the pre cooked bacon on the grill, by the time the beans were warm and the bacon the omelette was cold and pretty soon it was all cold. This also applies to lunch and to evening meals everything was cold or at best like warm, the food on display on the boat centre didn’t appear to have heating under them and didn’t always go with one another and very few choices. This was a shame as the cooking stations made very tasty food but it was always cold or luke warm, in 10 days I only had one meal that was warm. Let’s go to the positives… As I said the food at the cooking stations were very flavoursome shame about the temperature. Our waiter Rasheed was brilliant as were the pizza chef whose name I cannot remember but a real comedian. The ice cream station was brilliant, and fortunately always cold. Our new room boy was Imran, he was brilliant and did his job to an excellent level and very friendly. The room was clean in respect of creatures, no ants, spiders or cockroaches. There was little interaction with management if any and reception staff were not always that approachable. We tend to look after ourselves but when we did ask or speak to staff it wasn’t met with friendliness. Which was one of the things we loved about the old Athuruga it was a happy place full of people with lovely food. On one day about 30 people left and after that not very many arrived and the island looked and felt almost empty. Our overall opinion on the island and the experience was that everything appeared to be penny pinching, done as cheap as possible or to save as much money as possible. It was such a shame as the island used to be brilliant, it appears to have lost its heart and soul. I was not impressed with the reef either it used to be vibrant and full of creatures it certainly wasn’t that good now.