Just come back from Eriyadu and having never been to the Maldives before we were thrilled to experience something new every day. The wildlife is amazing, the fruit bats, the herons, other exotic sounding birds, the hermit crabs, the lizards and the enormous ants were all fascinating but obviously the sea-life is something else. We swam with Eagle rays, tipped reef sharks and turtles and so many beautiful tropical fish that I couldn't begin to name. Large nurse sharks live there too and dolphins are present- all harmless but breath-taking to see in the wild. Snorkelling really is the number 1 activity here, and exploring the endless reef and eyeing the drop-off with it's threat of larger less benign sea-life is enough to keep a middle-aged couple like us feeling very much alive. The dive centre has all necessary equipment for this but we took our own prescription masks as we didn't want to miss a thing. They will also provide paddle boards and kayaks - some with clear bottoms- and Padi scuba courses if you want them. They also took us out to another reef 20 mins away to check out the turtles there for a fee, but lots of people we met saw turtles in the house reef for free. The staff at Eriyadu are lovely and smiley, and very attentive. Sometimes they can have a tendency to quiz you on why you haven't been at breakfast for the last two days, (having a lie-in!) or why you didn't want your room making up yesterday? - (having another lie-in!) but our cleaner was happy to come back later on when we asked. The rooms are a bit shabby, the edges of the laminate flooring were curling up from repeated wet footprints I guess, and the wooden furniture was scuffed and tatty, but the bed was huge and comfortable, the air-con effective and the bathrooms were fairly modern and very clean, and really that's all that matters on a holiday where you spend most time outside. The bathroom has twin sinks, a bath and two showers - one underneath a hole in the ceiling which meant that we got to shower in the warm tropical rain when we had a storm, and on another dryer day, the tree above us was alive with fruitbats. Pretty magical. The buffet restaurant had a really good selection of dishes, my husband ate dahl for every meal (thank God we were outside mostly) but there was cereal, toast, very fluffy omelettes, cooked breaky items, croissants, and tons more at breakfast, main meals offering fried chicken, soup, salads, chow mein, stroganoff, and more curries. The deserts were interesting and plenty of fresh fruit was provided, their apples in lemon or cinnamon water were delish, and whilst some dishes were not covered, there were hardly any flies present and the salads caused no problems for anyone. The kitchen staff were constantly refreshing the containers and I was really impressed by the waiters' efforts to make us comfortable and satisfied. You must bear in mind that being a muslim country they will not provide any pork dishes, bacon, pork sausages etc, and whilst we partied in the bar with some overtly lesbian couples, there is still a certain amount of sexist stereotyping displayed inadvertently - giving my beer to hubby darling and his wine to me etc. On the other hand, there were several examples of a lack of respect for their culture shown by some guests, who weren't always shy about sunbathing topless or wearing revealing clothing to dinner as though it were some place in the Med. However, the worst offenders were the Russians who of course never smile, as it's not common in their culture, and could at times be very rude to the wait staff. Even on a shared boat trip we struggled to connect with them and afterwards it was if we didn't exist. They seemed sometimes to only be there for the selfie opportunities, and I found them uncomfortable to be around with the current situation in Ukraine. By the time we left, their number had become the majority and on a small island with no chance of escape it became my only complaint. Maybe some of the niggles in reviews below have been responded to as we found no problem having drinks next to the pool, or taking it back to our room. We saw others bring back drinks from the Turtle bar to their sunbeds outside their rooms and we felt lucky that whilst all of the channels on the room's TV (other than Al Jazeera) were not understood by us, two football matches that we were interested in watching were actually shown, so we brought wine back to drink whilst watching. The shop is ridiculously expensive, I was tempted my a lovely little shell bowl until I realised it was $400. Friends said they paid over £30 for a forgotten bottle of suncream. So make sure to bring the essentials, which IMO are, 2 or 3 swimsuits, snorkelling equipment if you want your own, sunscreen, toiletries and casual hot-weather clothing. I went everywhere bare foot, only worrying about treading on hermit crabs and there is no point in dressing up for dinner with the sandy floor and heat. Swim shoes are helpful if not wearing flippers as the coral can be really sharp.…