Club Faru: Best food I've had ever and lovely and clean. (Hotels in Maldives)

Member Name: Jeffandk8

Product:	Hotels in Maldives
Date:	19/02/09 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean and great food.

Disadvantages: Long flight especially with First Choice

In August 2007 we went the the Club Faru resort for our honeymoon.
We flew with First Choice as the hotel is part owned or have exclusive UK booking through them.
The Flight from Gatwick took just over 10 and a half hours and was not the best flight ever. The First Choice stewards were not great and considering the liquid restrictions placed on flights, only your small juice or coffee were included in your price, small (and I mean tiny cans) were 60p each! No water or anything else supplied. When we did try to get served, most passengers were asleep so the crew weren't busy and we could see them talking and ignoring the call light and buzzer at their station. Not the best service.
After that we thought we had made a mistake using them but luckily having landed in Male we were greeted by our rep Zena. She was very nice and although she covered 2 islands lived most of her time on Faru. The meeting on the first night set the scene of what was available and what you needed to do.

Resort
To get to Faru you arrive by speedboat not sea plane. Although I would have liked to have flown others said it was horrible and noisy but the speedboat was a very James Bond way to arrive. You are presented with afruit juice and warm towel to clean yourself after the flight. You're then booked in and take to your room. Your bags arrive later and it is well worth tipping a few US$ as you will get much better service throughout your stay.

Accommodation
We asked for a room on the pool side of the island and we were luckily near the dive school, well away from the bar which is very noisy on karaoke nights. The rooms are not far from the main area of the island and although not the most plush in the world, the room was comfy, had great air con and was clean.
Our room was meant to be cleaned daily but our room boy was ill on the first 2 days although it wasn't going to be dirty after such a short time there.
Afterwards the room boy swept through every day, changed the linen and cleaned the loo.
The only problem with the room wasn't really avoidable. The loo smells really strongly of eggs due to the sulphur used in the desalination plant. As long as the door was closed it wasn't noticed really.

Food
The best food ever!!!
If you need more detail then the desert chef is an Asian silver star chef (very good inother words) and the guys who worked in the kitchen are great. The food is all buffet style but if you go there at a reasonable time then the food was very hot, plenty of it and not dry at all.
Both my wife and myself put on weight there as we ate so well.
If you are a honeymoon couple you get a table of your own but most couples are asked to share a table, fine if you don't mind company or a yap but you can always arrange with your table mates to eat at different times to avoid a share.
The puds were outstanding and you can eat and drink as much as you like. LITERALLY!!! Everything is available free unless you want premium spirts and cocktails.
The best advice is to tip your waiter, put a tip in the kitchen box and say hi to the guys who cook. You will get your food cooked fresh if you do!!!

Activities
Free stuff includes canoe hire, table tennis, pool, a free trip to Male (the capital) and lots of snorkel trips (twice a day and rarely visit the same time twice in 2 weeks).
The stuff you pay for isn't cheap but is good value. There is a spa on the island, which my wife used twice and loved. You can hire the speedboat with a driver but it isn't cheap and you can learn or do scuba diving at the dive school. There are also lots of trips, flights etc.
The snorkel trips were amazing although you are best taking your own mask and snorkel and if possible your own fins. The currents are very very strong and can scare weaker swimmers without them. We regularly saw dolphins, so don't waste your money on the dolphin trip as you are not guarenteed to see any!
On my snorkeling trips we had loads of dolphin encounters, saw lots of amazing fish and I saw and swam with white tip reef sharks.

I was also determined to learn to scuba dive which has always been an interest of mine. I did a short try dive in 1 day which was ace as a quick see if you like. I decided to do the full PADI course straight after which was intense and meant lots of class time and reading but was worth it.
All of the dive crew I learnt with have moved on but they were ace. I dived some of the best dive sites in the world, dive mag reviews not just mine. I saw so much wildlife it was untrue. I nearly sat on a turtle as it fed below me and came up to see me!!!

If diving isn't your thing then the pool is lovely! it is one of the endless pools which looks out to sea. The sea is relatively clean although there is some rubbish floating around after the tsunami. This will never truely go away but is everywhere in the Maldives.
The beaches are cleaned daily and the centre of the island has palm trees growing. Sometimes you hear the thud of a coconut falling but there are also kept in order by the guys who regularly cut them off.

Trip to Male
Although it was interesting going to one of the worlds smallest capital cities, it is not great. It is very croweded and dirty and the smells are horrendous! You get a real sense of the poverty there when you see how the Maldivians live. You are also kinda led to the guides shop to buy your souveniers. The Faru island shop was often as cheap or cheaper!

The best way to get along on Faru is a little tip every few days and be polite to the staff and they will go out of their way to help.

I would recommend you go there soon though as the island is being merged with the expansion island in the next few years and is being turned into a different type of hotel.

Summary: Brilliant place for a honeymoon.