We stayed on Nalaguraidhoo Island from 10th to 24th April 2007 and boy was it hot. Not only was it hot , it was humid all the time. So if you are wondering what clothes to take I'd suggest loose fitting cotton or linen.
Our home for two weeks was water-bungalow # 382. We opted for full board, even though we both like a drink we decided the cost to upgrade to all inclusive wasn't worth it. (if you would like to see what drinks are available to all inc. travellers see images attached)
Everyone has a different idea of an ideal holiday but, I would suggest if you are booking a water-bungalow you go full board. We made full use of our terrace/deck during the day but noticed our neighbours didn't. I concluded this was because they were all inc. and to take advantage of their complimentary drinks they obviously needed to be near one of the designated bars.
As you can see from the layout of the island (images attached) the beach bar and Mekunu bar are not conveniently situated.
All inc. or not staying in a water-bungalow gets you complimentary tea, coffee, sugar and creamer and a maximum of two bottles of water a day.
On occasion we used the mini bar (which in comparison wasn't much dearer than the bars) a G & T for two cost £6.80 the only problem being there wasn't an ice box in the fridge and no shop to buy a lemon. The price of wine was similar to english restaurants the cheapest being £11 - £13 for which you got a nice temparillo or pinot grigio.
Food in the Southern Star restaurant (associated with water-bungalows) was fantastic, vegatables were just as I like them (crispy), potatoes in many different forms, curries flavoursome and spicey - especially the fish curry, fresh fruit galore and the desserts........ avoid the faux cream ones they're a bit tasteless, go for the pies, crumbles, tarts and sponges all with custard of course.
Our bungalow was cleaned by Naz, I say cleaned, Naz was a bit of a lad, he was very chatty - in pidgin english - and no sooner had we unpacked he was telling us he wouldn't be available on our last day because we had a wedding to go to. In other words "tip me the day before", if was left to me I would tipped him $10 a week but, I was over ruled. To me cleaning includes mopping floors, defingerprinting windows and dusting. Or maybe I'm just being picky.
Because our bungalow was on the sunset side we had shade from the roof overhang until 1.30ish. After that there was no escape from the blistering sun unless you had a lilo in which case you could float in the shade under the bungalow.
In my opinion the best place to snorkel would be off the Thai restaurant towards the reef but, don't go when the tide is low you'll catch yourself on the coral no matter how careful you are.
Talking of coral, if you happen to be allocated # 382 or you request it please let me know how "skull reef" and it's residents are going on. You will see "skull reef" when you peer over the balustrade on the deck into the crystal clear sea, it somehow appeared over the two weeks of our stay and when we left a few small fish had moved in including a triggerfish and a boxfish.
Finally, if you hire a bike and have any concerns regarding its maintenance get it swapped, I put up with a grinding / clattering noise from the front axle for 5 days. on the sixth day the bearings seized and I came to a sudden stop. My partner was given a bike with a loose back wheel, so if you're not happy with a bikes condition change it sooner rather than later.
Hi to Tim and Lynne, hope you are both well, let me know if you'd like a copy of photo i took of you.

Hi my boyfriend and myself have just got back from Sun Island 25th April had a brillant time.

Went for 2 weeks which is just not long enough. Anybody travelling for a 1 week dont do it its too far to go.

The flights a killer we travelled with My Travel who were great but its so long.

Def have to upgrade to the sea plane transfer its amazing seeing all the different islands.
We had a stop of at Angaga a tiny island. We got out onto a flouting ponton were we were surrounded my dolphins! We had only been in the country an hour!

Sun Island is big we hired bikes to travel around. Our room was 448 based on Sunset beach we had a Deluxe room which had a an outside shower which we both loved!

Our beach was lush you get your own sun loungers with your room no. on so nobody else can taken thm! The all inclusive scheme is a little silly that only some bars you can drinks at but after a while you get to grips with it thats the only bad thing i have to say about the island!

The food is amazing we went to the italian two nights just to make a change & the food is out of this world, and the setting is truly out of this world to with the indian ocean crashing underneathe you!

Have to say the heat is an experience. We have been to lots of destinations but this was one of the hottest its hard sit out in it as most days there is no breeze.

We both got our Padi Scuba divers course which has to be done if your not already qualified! The fish life is out of this world we seen sharks, turtles, stingrays, lion fish, lobster, on are first dive! Anybody tht goes to the maldives & doesnt dive is missing out!!!!! but the snorkelling at the house reef is just as good. You can see clown fish, trigger fish, etc no turtles or sharks tho! Get some bread from the coffee shop they go crazy chasing you for the food!

We went out on a dive nearly everyday, each day the dive school goes to different reefs and its so cheap.

We also went on the sunset fishing trip which is free. Good job because it was horrible. You catch all the stunning fish that you snorkelling & dive with and there just chucked in a bucket which i found unberable!

My advice dont bother going! We did not do the hello neighbours trip which is free as well as lots of because said it was not worth it and you have to pay for lots of extras!

The dolphin trip is well worth the £10!!!!!!! We seen so many pods, jumping out of the water and you get to see the sun rise.

We also went deep sea fishing which is a great way of topping up your tan! We again seen dolphins hundreds of them this time as well as massive tuna jumping out of the water. We caught several Dolphin fish and a Tuna, which we put back.

The staff are so friendly and getting assigned a water at the start of your holiday is a real help we had a good seat which had views of sea. Very nice eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with the sea infront of you.

I could talk all day bout Sun Island but better stop now. If you would like any further informations please feel free to email me at laura_barrett_1984@yahoo.co.uk

Seven of us,thats 3 couples and our 11 year old son,traveled to sun on the 28th feb for 2 weeks.We booked with first choice and upgraded to premium star class,this cost an extra 450 pounds per person. We checked our bags in the night before and were given our tickets there and then.The seats are pre allocated so it does not matter how early you check in, this is how it happens!We were lucky, all of us ended up together..Now the moan,yes premium is boarded first but we were kept at the gate hearded in like cattle for nearly half an hour ,and there were very few seats.We then spent 2 hours on the plane waiting for them to fix a porblem with the pump,yes i want my plane to be safe but we were near the open doors on a feb eve at gatwick dressed to arrive in the maldives the next day!The cabin crew were very unhelpfull, when asked if it was possible to have a hot drink we were told no,we remarked that it would be nice to have a drink because it was very cold ,only to be told "its the same for us as well you know". Any way we eventualy took of and arived in paradise 32 and sunny! We booked the sea plane transfer and belive me this is the only way to go, breath taking views and only 30 mins as compaired to 3 hours on the boat .When we first saw sun island we realy got the wow factor and this never realy whent away for the whole two weeks.Booking in was a broblem because when we booked we could only get 1 super delux and 2 delux,my self my wife and our 11 year old son had 1 of the delux but his bed was in the super delux simple you might say ,just move the bed please,but this seemed to be beyond them , how ever our first choice rep was equal to the task evey thing was sorted .We walked over to our rooms taking in all the beautifull plants and admiring all the well kept gardens and how green every thing was.There are alot of people working very disscretley behind the scenes on sun island just to keep it beautifull. We arrived at our rooms the same time as our bags ,this is were the tipping starts.I had read a lot about the the tipping cullture on the island and i think we got it about right so here goes it does not matter if you give them 2 dollars or 20 dollars the look of distaine will be the same, we gave the porters 5 dollars each, the room boy 15 at the start and the promise of more when we whent,we did the same with our bar waiter the reasturant waiter and the guys round the pool,as a result we had what we wanted when we wanted it ,this aplied to all seven of us. We only ate in the main resturant and i dont think i had the same thing twice ,if i did it was because it was so nice i wanted more! .Every thing is very clean and everyone so friendly on the island. Evening entertainment is low key but as there were 7 of us it did not matter, how ever ther was a good band once a week,disco once a week crab racing! kareoke and a culture show which i could take or leave .also there is live football from the uk . We were all inclusive but unless like us you intend to make use of the bars iam not sure it is worth it, like other reports it does seem strange that some bars are a/i and some are not, even though drinks are the same price every where on the island. Its a good idea to hire bikes because allthough the island is small it can still seem a fair walk at times. We were in rooms 221&222 which is sunset side, its a lovely beach and the water is quite shallow.We saw plenty of fish to many to mention, but ithink the entire cast of finding nemo and shark tale were there, but the highlite was a small [4ft!] reef shark swimming round us .Snokerling is a must you can buy the equipment from the gift shop ie flippers mask and snorkel for about 50 pounds which you will prob use most days so is good value ,or you can hire from the dive centre.The mermaid dive centre is very good,one of our party did his padi course whilst there [about 120 pounds] and my 11 year son did a one off dive which he loved, a big thank you to camila his dive instructer I must praise the medical center as i became ill and as a result dehydrated,they were fantastic.the centre was spotless and the doctor very nice and reasuring. We all had wounderfull time and i cant see how any body would be dissapointed. Our final bit of excitment was the sea plane being late and having to be rushed through the airport with seconds to spare. We are all now trying to find a spot to go next year but every thing looks poor in comparison.

My girlfirend and I have just returned from 2 weeks on Sun Island (the Malidivian name is Nalaguraidhoo - much nicer I think)

We booked through Travel Sanctuary (via Teletext Holidays website) and paid £1469 pp All Inclusive.

We flew out on 9th April on Mytravel. We paid an extra £230 pp return to upgrade the flights to Premier Gold and it was well worth it. As upgrades go, you don't get a huge amount extra, but the extra leg room and seat space is worth the price alone. The flight is 10 hours and the economy seats are really cramped! I'd definately updgrade again if travelling Mytravel if the flight was over 5 hours.

On arrival at Male we had about an hour to wait (on the terrace with an orange jice in the sun) before the seaplane transfer to the resort which took 30mins. I would definately recommend booking the seaplane as the boat takes 3 hours and doesn't look to comfortable. Also, the view from the plane is great!

On arrival at the resort we were given a map of the Island and told which bars were AI, where they were etc, what drinks were included and when. This was a very clear way of getting across what is included in AI and what is not, although I still find it strange that some bars are NOT all inclusive, despite serving the same drinks as the bars that are?!

We were upgraded to a Super Deluxe bungalow. I'm not sure of the exact difference but I think the deluxe bungalows are smaller and have a very small partially open air shower. They are in groups of 4 with a sea view. The Super Deluxe roomks are only 2 together so you have more of a feeling of privacy. They are slightly bigger than the deluxe and have good size open air showers. There's definately something very nice about looking up through palm trees to the stars and chatting to the Geckos on the wall whilst showering. These also have beach views.

Each room has 2 wooden sun loungers outside it on the beach with the room number painted on it, so there's no chance of any members of certain EU countries living up to their stereotype (which they tend to do with the communal loungers on the beach in front of the main bar).

The beach outside our room (446 - Sunset Beach) was great...very quiet, shady ares if needed and decent snorkelling close by. There were also 3 stingrays that did daily circuits up and down the beach which were very cute.

The rooms are nice and clean, comfortable beds and good air con and fans. The room boy will ask you on his first visit if you want your room serviced once or twice a day. We found once was fine and then he comes in the evening to change your beach towels and give you two bottls of mineral water. Towards the end of your stay he will decorate your bed, which looks great and is a really nice touch.

All the staff are very very friendly, some of thebest we've ever experienced.

The restaurant can accomodate a large number of people but it still feels very friendly and is well layed out. You are assigned a waiter and table on your first day and they remain for the duration. If you want to change for a different view they will accomodate this. The food is generally very good. Each day there is a large selection of salads, sides, mains and desserts, all presented very nicely. The fish is always very good, as are the curries. The only criticism of the food is that sometimes, some of the meat could be a little tough. having said that, overall, the food was extremely good.

There are three A'la Carte restaurants which you pay for but get a 20% discount voucher for - Italian, Japansese and Thai. The service in the Thai left a bit to be desired one the one occasion we visited. We waited 30mins for a wine list and the wine was only shown the fridge before hand so we had to sit it in the ice bucket for a while first. Despite the wait the food was good...the Tempura prawns were the size of my hand!

The Italian was very good food as well, and good service. In both restaurants, for two people eating starters and mains with a bottle of decent wine your looking at about US$100 (£50)

On the Island, the best snorkelling is off the Italian Restaurant. Practically everyone tends to go off to the left hand side but we found the best bits were on the right and you're on your own.

Anyone that says the snorkellig is rubbish and the coral all dead (as some review have said) clearly didn't snorkel further than 2 feet from the beach. Shame, because they missed a lot. The water is fairly shallow all over the island (with a few exceptions) so inevitably, coral in such shallow water is going to get sun bleached over time. If you take the time to explore the coral, which after all is the point if snorkelling, you will see more than youn think. We regularly saw black tip reef sharks, puffer fish, box fish, parrot fish, all sorts if different colouful coral...the list goes on.

Also, around the water bungalows makes for good snorkelling too. At 1830 every night they feed the sharks by the Thai restaurant at the end of the water bungalows. Thhis attracts some large fish, large stingrays and larger sharks. The biggest we saw was a 6 foot reef shark. On the last night I got in and snorkelled with the stingrays and 4 foot sharks, but was sensible enough to get out before they started throwing chunks of fish into the water! Definately an experience!

The stingray feeding is also a must do! Huge, graceful creatures that take chunks of fish from your hand. You'll also see a few small reef sharks amongst them too.

The reef explorer excusion is well worth it...only $18 dollars and a great reef. We also did the dolphin trip and sunset fishing. We didn't see any dolphins on the organised trip but saw them on the way to the reef explorer and saw a turtle on the sunset fishing. This trip was great and they bbq your catch for you after which was really tasty.

The Hello Neighbours trip (included for AI guests) is not worth going. You go to Holiday Island (awful!) for 45 minutes and one of 3 local islands for about an hour and a half. You get shown the local school and mosque and then go to a few souvenir shops - All of which sell exactly the same things, or variations of the same at comically overloaded prices. They were trying to sell packets of incense for $6 that cost about 50pence here.

Basically, all of the souvenirs you could want are sold in the resort shop and they are cheaper and better quality than the local island shops.

For anyone unsure as to whether to go Full Board or All Inclusive, I'd say it would depend on whether you're going to drink a lot.

The white wine avaialble on AI is not the best but the red is very drinkable. In the A'la Carte restaurant, you can get a good bottle of wine for around $25.

The AI includes Pay TV in your room (otherwise $10 per day), beer, soft drinks, wine during dinner, the same plus selected spirits and mixers in the main bar, beach bar and pool bar, 2 excursions (Hello Neighbours and Sunset Fishing) all sports/gym facilities including squash, badminton, sauna, jacuzzi and steam room, afternoon tea at the coffee shop (tea, coffee, cake and sandwiches) although anyone thats still hungry after breakfast and lunch has problems! NO watersports are included in AI and all the watersports are quite expensive.

If you go full board and decide when you get there to upgrade to AI, it'll cost you $35 per person per day (unless you're Russian, in which case, ammusingly, it'll cost you $55 pppd!!). This way, you can pretty soon work out what you are spending or likely to spend each day and upgrade if necessary.

I would recommend any upgrades, be they room or board, be done in resort rather than through your travel agent. I've seen some travel agents charging an extra £65 ($130) per person per night to upgrade to a Water Bungalow. In the resort they will upgrade you for $130 per ROOM per night.

Deluxe to Super Deluxe is $20 per room per night and well worth it.

Overall, we had a fantastic two weeks. the weather was superb (it rained twice, once early in the morning and once at night). The island is gorgeous and whilst some peope feel it is too big (1 mile long and 380 yards wide) I think this makes for privacy when you want it. The island is covered in shrubs, trees and flowers that are immaculately maintained. You can hire a bike for $3 per day which is well worthwhile and gets you around the island quickly and easily.

No part of the beach is crowded apart form outside the main bar where there are some loungers and sun shades that have the towels covering them by 6am!

Why people would want to go here is beyond me...I can only assume they were either unable to stray too far from the bar, or their rooms didn't have a great bit of beach to lie out on.

We did not experience the Spa as the only place you can find out what they offer is from the Guest relations person and they do not have any printed material you can take away with you to look at in your own time re prices and whats offered. Basically, they want to sit you down and have you decide there and then which we just couldn't be bothered with. I find it starnge that they will advertise every excursion and theme dinner etc, but not a word about the spa. They must be losing a lot of business because of this.

I would definately recommend Sun Island resort. I anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to try an answer them. two_tarts_tim@hotmail.com