Summer Island Maldives

I'd like to start by saying that we had a lovely 10 day break on Summer Island. Luckily we booked a superior room on the sunrise side of the island, which had a sizeable, shady garden leading to a lovely bit of beach with a shallow, sandy lagoon. This made our holiday great. The average rating is comparative to the other Maldives experiences we have had. However, there were things that we found frustrating about the resort and they are mostly due to the high number of rooms on the island comparative to its size. There are 156 rooms packed into a tiny area. At possibly 300+ during a peak, that felt like far too many guests to us. To give you an idea, Makunudu just opposite is just under half the size of Summer Island but has 36 rooms! It is in the same price bracket. Summer is probably the highest client density we have experienced in Maldives and we been a few times. Here are the other key issues, many due to overpopulation: 1. We never felt like a privileged guest, but just another paying customer. The service was good, but there was no personal touch. We never saw the island manager, nor the head chef and no-one came to us to ask how things were going. On Nika (another price bracket I know) the General Manager and Entertainment Manager got up early specifically to wave us off when we left. The head chef was there every night presenting and explaining his food. I can go on about other islands too. 2. Because of the overcrowding, particularly around the two storey rooms, guests were constantly seeking escape to sunbeds or beach spots around the superior and premium rooms. We had to move a random bag and a towel from one of our sunbeds twice, and when new guests arrived either side of us, they were greeted by people relaxing on the beds allocated to their room. I have NEVER seen this before in Maldives. There was no explanation given to the guests in the duplex rooms about not sneaking into the premium and superior garden/beach areas as far as we know. There was a small "public" beach area, but that got filled with duplex escapees very quickly. This problem is due to the owners cramming as many rooms onto the island for the sake of profit in our view. 3. Food and drink quality is average at best. The worst of the islands we have been to. Not terrible, just average. Again....catering for TOO MANY PEOPLE. But also, lots of dishes had overcooked fish or meat, or had no flavour. A pad thai came out one evening... everyone got excited and queued up. It was utterly tasteless. Chef...taste the food please??? We were all inclusive so we had one choice of wine for each colour. Cheap Spanish table wine. The red was drinkable, the white not nice at all. But you could buy a bottle from a menu starting at 60usd. No thanks. This was the first place we'd seen a SPECIFIC cocktail menu for all inclusive guests. Sweet, watery, made up cocktails. Nothing recognisable. Poor show. Beers ok. 4. Too many people in the bar (which is a very nice, large area) at sunset led to having to wait to be served on a few occasions and also large groups of people being noisy together when others are trying to enjoy the chilled mood of the sunset. P.s. please drop the live music acts. They were awful. Summer Island is a "budget" option we know, but our advice would be, if you can, spend a bit more and go for that proper Maldives escape experience. We enjoyed ourselves, but we wish we had dug deeper and gone somewhere with fewer guests. If you must go here, and you can afford it, go for the superior rooms (which are very plain but comfortable enough) on the sunrise side rooms 301 to 325. Or even premium 401 to 415 if you can stretch. If you guard your beach space well and are not that fussy about food and wine, you'll have a fabulous time. Despite all that, thank you for everyone on Summer Island for your efforts.

This was our second visit to the Maldives and on this trip, we wanted something not too costly, within 45 minutes speedboat of Male, nice beaches, and sun. We were flying in from Bahrain with a nice early arrival, Gulf Air flight A321 Neo flight was busy. The lady who met us from the resort was very sweet and escorted us to the boat pick up point. A great meet and greet service, swift transfer to meet the boat and off we went, not much waiting at all. We had opted for one of their basic rooms Superior Vista and I have to say we were really pleased, bed massive, comfy, room spacious, a really nice feel and big balcony with table, chairs and massive oval lounging seat. The bathroom had a shower, which was excellent, great water pressure and an abundance of hot water. Pleasantly surprised all round. A single flight of shared stairs to reach the room, there are only 4 in each block. Our room Number 216 was on the sunset side, where the water is calmer. It was well located as near the bar and restaurant and pool, but just 2 minutes’ walk to reception. It should be noted that on the sunrise side you get the sun in the morning up to about 1pm where it is over head and then lovely afternoon sun on the sunset side. We spent the mornings on the sunrise side, where there are about 20 sunbeds which are not allocated to rooms (so anyone can use them). On the sunset side the beds are all allocated to the rooms, each with a number so no need to rise early to get towels on beds! There are about 10 beds by the pool area. All the beach areas where really nice, water crystal blue, lovely and warm. So pluses: • Efficient pick up • Coffee at the Baravaveli bar was the best on the island • Some STAND OUT staff – Somu & Jeanu in the restaurant and Maneesh in the bar area, great people, friendly, welcoming, and clearly love their jobs! • All the toiletry products were lovely, good quality. • Gym was functional, 2 treadmills, a static bike, free weights, and weight machines – husband would have liked a spin bike! • We had two issues with the AC Unit, but the chaps arrived within minutes and sorted the issues – great service. • Gardens are lovely and well looked after on a daily basis. • Housekeeping team were attentive. • The food was good, although personally we felt that having Sushi at lunch and dinner was not needed and we would have preferred to have the sandwich, toasted panni’s at lunch rather than sushi. • There was plenty of choice, the food was fresh, quite a few options and a fresh cook station at every meal. • The fruit bats fly around and on one afternoon we saw fly in over the water, amazing! • The water in the room was 2 large bottles a day which was more than enough. • Nice chilled vibe, relaxed, unpretentious and well cared for island. Room for improvement: • We were lucky to get an early check in, which was appreciated. However, our initial happiness at that was then soured by unrealistic timescales, starting off with “room will be ready shortly”, to “room ready in half an hour” and then again, and again, so 2+ hours later the room was ready. This could have been improved by giving a realistic room ready time, that way we would have changed and hit the beach while we waited. Check in generally needs to be more slick. • There are no day rooms for changing – so if leaving the resort late then the spa facilities need to be used. When we arrived early, we had to carry our wheelie back from our room to the spa and back again (not appreciated by my husband) even though a member of staff took us there they did not offer to help with the bag. • Wi-Fi in the gym is slow. • Packet coffee in the rooms – Nescafe. • Sunbeds don’t lay totally flat. • Some of the sunbed covers are worn. • If it rains the sunbed covers are left out on the sunrise side and end up soaked! We feel this part of the resort is a little over looked and could do with some attention to improve guest experience. • Shop – we feel the resort is missing a trick here, there are hardly any food related items, snacks, no beach shoes etc. Having spent 3 weeks in Greece at an AI resort there was an amazing shop on site where you could be everything from sun hats, to face cream, to bags, to gifts. • Noisy bird – we love wildlife but there was at least one bird who felt it was his responsibility to call loudly in the mornings (6am) to wake us up! We were looking to upgrade to All Inclusive but in the end we stayed at Full Board and it worked out in our favour. The main reason for not upgrading to the AI was that my husband does not drink, there is no non-alcoholic beers being served, they also only serve basic coffee in the AI package. If you want a “speciality coffee”, Cappuccino, Latte etc you get charged for these, we feel these should be included. We felt that was a little unfair given we only really drink coffee and soft drinks. Greater provision needs to be made for non-drinkers in the AI package. If staying HB there are offers on site all the time, so buy one get one free cocktails (but not on coffee), discounts on bottles of wine, happy hour etc. We cannot comment on the snorkelling, diving etc at we did not do it, but there is not much sea life immediately at the resort (although we did see a black tip reef shark daily and a ray one day), you need to take the boat out to the reef (complimentary to AI guests), so something to consider if you are not a confident or strong swimmer (we are not). There were certainly allot of people there to dive, so I imagine this is a really big draw. Speedboat transfers were 2 x people USD 380.00 in total. Cappuccino USD 8.00 Bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon USD 60.00 Peach Tea USD 7.00 Jumbo Prawns, Chips, Salad and roasted vegetable USD 55.00 We would say Summer Island did deliver what were expecting and in some aspects, we felt it went above an beyond what we expected, they have won countless awards and get great scores on the review sites. We would we come back, for a quick trip, that doesn’t break the bank, a lovely holiday, just what we needed for some much need R&R.

Summer Island was an amazing experience. Every person who worked there was extremely nice and accommodating. Snorkeling around the beach you could see so much marine life but we also took the turtle snorkeling tour from the dive shop and it was so worth it. Some of the best snorkeling I’ve ever experienced. We did the full board which I recommend. Again an amazing experience, one which I would recommend to anyone looking to experience the Maldives.

There’s so much to say about this beautiful island. Having not been to the Maldives for 14 years, we wondered whether it would be as lovely as we remembered and we were certainly not disappointed. From the moment we set foot on the speedboat we knew we made the right choice. Greeted with a cold towel and bottle of water for the transfer. Check in was quick and efficient and we were soon shown to our room. Rooms We stayed in a superior beach bungalow as a family of three facing the east side of the Island. The room was spotlessly clean and remained so throughout our stay. We had everything we needed and there was plenty of storage. Bars The staff in the bar were simply outstanding. Within 24 hours they knew our names and not too long after, our drinks order. They were helpful, polite and took an interest in speaking to us and making us feel welcome. The only slight niggle was the beach bar on the east side which was not included as part of the all-inclusive. Restaurant The main buffet restaurant served hands down the best quality and variety of food we’ve ever experienced from an all inclusive anywhere. It was incredible. The staff and our waiter in particular were warm, friendly and helpful. Although we could book, we didn’t use the other restaurant or bar, simply because we had everything we needed where we were. On a couple of occasions we ordered food from the bar for lunch for an additional charge, which was lovely. Facilities As well as the stunning beaches, the pool was spotless and also onsite is a pool table, darts, table tennis, badminton court and gym. Volleyball and football courts and plenty of watersports are available for an additional charge. Dive Centre This is a real bonus. Neither my husband or I are allowed to dive, but our son really wanted to try it. The staff were very supportive and thorough and clearly have a love for what they do. They are professional but friendly and our son had the most amazing time with them. The island in general is kept spotlessly clean and each and every member of staff is friendly and polite. We had a minor issue which was resolved very quickly and without fuss. For a small island there are very two distinct sides to the island. The east side is a little breezier and the sea a little choppier, the west side is very calm and hot. Both equally beautiful. We’d return in a heartbeat and would highly recommend visiting.

Amazing property in Maldives summer island resort, beautiful nature, amazing reef. Life is amazing in here definitely come back again. Food bed and breakfast is really good and the friendly staff our housekeeper waiter. everyone from the reception is really really professional