I traveled alone to Male to go diving in a detour from my business trip to China and Sri Lanka. As a female solo traveler, my main concern was safety. The Anantara caters mostly to couples (families tend to stay at their sister resort Dighu). The staff knew that I was alone and they went out of their way to make me feel safe and welcomed. I absolutely LOVED my experience at the Anantara. The Maldivians are a lovely group of people, warm and grounded. The resort is gorgeous and the diving was amazing. The sealife is diversed and abundant. Being a seasoned diver I rank the Maldives in my top 3 favorite diving spots. The dive staff is very professional and knowledgeable. They group divers based on experience level. The boat was never croweded and most of my dives were alone with my dive master which I utterly enjoyed. The hotel is very peaceful. The perfect place to get away from EVERYTHING and enjoy the beauty of this natural wonder. Even though it was full, I hardly saw people and there was plenty of space for everyone to do their own thing without feeling crowded. If you are looking for nighlife and excitement, neither Anantara nor Male are the place for you. The food is delicious and yes... expensive. But if you are flying all the way there, the last thing to think about is how much things cost. My experience was unforgettable and if I ever get the chance I will go back in a minute. It is paradise!

My wife and 2 sons (8 & 10) stayed at this resort and was blown away. The rooms were clean and the resort was good but the entire package was awesome. The resort is listed as a 3 I believe but they treated you like a 5. This includes location. The folks at the dive center are the most professional that i have ever encountered. The boys had the beach, surf, pool and golf to entertain each other with....no playground needed. If there was a suggestion it would be to keep the restaurants open a little longer.

We stayed in the resort for one week and when we left we both thought that a few days more would have been great. The water villa was wonderful. We had a villa on the "sunrise' side, there is another row of villas on the "sunset" side of the resort. If you are not an early bird maybe the sunset side is better. Most of the evenings we had our meals in de Malaafaiy buffet restaurant which was the cheaper of the two possibilities and in our opinion much better than the a la carte restaurant Al Fresco. One of the evenings we had a romantic beach BBQ which was indeed romantic, but the food was disappointing. The food in the buffet restaurant is excellent and good value for money. No need to bring formal dresses or high heeled shoes because there is very little opportunity to wear them. The dress code is casual; the buffet restaurant has sand on the floor so flip-flops are more comfortable.

Posh resort, clean, well maintained and good food. Wonderful sea full of life.

Enjoyed our stay there. Would use the same resort in the future. The diving and dive staff were great. Very relaxed, casual resort. Very friendly and efficient resort staff.

We spent 4 days at Shangri' La and 4days at six senses Laamu - a brand new resort that just opened 3 weeks ago and cost 3 times the price of Shangri-La however was only half as good. I would definately recommend Shangri-La to anyone. We had a private beach villa and had 2 children and were perfectley comfortable. Kids loved the pool and private beach. Service is impeccable in comparison to the Six Senses resort where we were waiting hours for room service and a long time for any service at bars and restaurants there. Shangri-La was definately the better hotel and also had great snorkelling experiences there. The reef is spectacular.

I stayed at Soneva Fushi for five days and could not have been more impressed. The hotel and staff have thought of absolutely everything; I never found myself saying, "I wish they..." because they left nothing to wish for. Not only do you have the beautiful ocean views (with dolphins swimming past your villa at least once a day when we were there) but the island has many other things to do and explore, either on foot or bike. If you are a spa person, the spa treatments are wonderful. The only thing people should keep in mind is that the Maldives are expensive. I imagine most resorts are comparable in terms of costs once you arrive (although, you must take a seaplane to Soneva Fushi as opposed to a boat, which can add to the costs). What I can say about my experience at Soneva Fushi is that I felt it was all worth it. And the resort certainly takes great care of its guests - including an unexpected "sandbar cocktail party" hosted by the hotel with champagne, delicious food, etc. The food is expensive but delicious and there is a huge variety, which I wasn't expecting. I had a perfect vacation and highly recommend this hotel/resort.