We last went to the Maldives in 1996 as a couple for our honeymoon and had high expectations - which were in fact surpassed when 15 years later we returned for our 2nd trip to the Maldives (Diva) with our three children (13 / 10 / 4). What an amazing place ! The island is beautiful and the proportion of beach is great (some islands have too many bungalows and not enough beach). The sunset side has bigger beaches and is more open whilst the other side of the island has smaller, more shady and private beach space. The sand is soft, fine and white....

Children's facilities are great. The kids club is free and the staff there are very friendly and have a genuine love of kids. There's a whole variety of activities laid on for the kids and our three had "their best holiday yet". In particular our girls of 10 and 13 very much loved the freedom they had to roam freely around the island. Staff in the restaurants are interact well with the kids and there were several members of staff we were sad to say goodbye to.

For older kids there's an internet lounge, wii, playstation, table tennis and a place to "hang out" - although we went out of season when there were not many other teens around.

House reef snorkelling is great. We were sceptical at first about having to get a boat out to snorkel on the reef (last time we could snorkel from the beach). In fact this was a plus for us. The resort offers free boat trips out once a day alternating between morning and afternoon) - the boat trips are fun and the staff take you to a different site every time - which means you get real variety in the things you see (we saw whale sharks, manta rays, turtles, a huge variety of fish and more).

There are plenty of other water-sports on hand too if you want them - pedalos, cayaks, windsurf, waterskiing, banana boat and other inflatables ....

Food is exquisite and very high standard. We went out with low expectations of hotel buffet meals (lots of bland food kept warm for hours) .. but this was something else - fresh, hot and very tasty with lots of variety. There was also a good variety in the different restaurants, from Italian to Asian, Indian, Japanese etc. There's a children’s menu at all restaurants but they are also very happy to provide children's portions of anything else on the menu. At times the service in a couple of the a la carte restaurants was slow – we raised this with management and were very happy with their responsiveness to this.

One other plus point worth knowing: the whole island is sprayed with insecticide every afternoon and so there’s not a mosquito or bug in sight – this was a real bonus.

Rooms are lovely – very much reflective of the photos on the Diva-Naiades site. Room service and room boys are very friendly and service there is excellent.

All in all we would strongly recommend the site for any families with children. As a couple we also managed to find some quality time together and chill out too

We are saving up for our next trip !!!