Review: Veligandu Island Resort, The Maldives

It’s the tropical holiday that’s on many a bucket list – but does it live up to the dream, asks Tatyana Leonov?

Flying in

The seaplane twitches like a nervous sprinter at the blocks then jumps into the air. We’re almost there.

Everyone’s dreamed about this holiday – the one where you stay in a gorgeous bungalow above a ridiculously turquoise sea.

It’s a bucket list item many hope they will one day check off and I am no different. It’s the type of indulgent holiday you don’t book on a whim though; it’s definitely one to keep for those special occasions.

Lucky for us it’s our honeymoon and this is a honeymoon script hard to beat.

Background of the islands

The Maldives consists of about 1190 islands scattered into coral atolls and just over 100 of those islands are resorts – so picking one is not easy.

There are island’s with underwater restaurants, flagship spas and swanky nightclubs; resorts that house bungalows only accessible by boat (for the ultimate private getaway); and pools that stretch to ‘infinity and beyond’.

Bucket list view? Veligandu Island Resort.

If you’ve got the money you’ll find almost anything you want in the Maldives.

The resort

We book Veligandu Island Resort based on the price and reviews. It seems to be the resort that has everything we need – for a moderately lower price compared to other resorts that seemingly offer much the same thing.

The seaplane glides effortlessly across turquoise blue water to rest at the atoll’s jetty. Men in white flowing shirts greet us with colourful drinks, luggage is whisked away, shoes vanish – welcome to Veligandu.

Eighty-one villas are scattered along the coastline of the 600 metre-long, 150 metre-wide idyllic island (which holds a mix of over-water and beach villas).

The villa

Our over-water villa is almost the best. The best is the villa on the end of the walkway, with sunset views and infinite shades of that crystal clear water. We are second from the tip of the walkway so I’m not complaining.

Guests in over-water villas can dip-in and out as they please.

Although the over-water villas feel quite close together, noise levels are minimal throughout our stay (though that could just be because the island is full of couples keeping to themselves).

The villa interior is neat and functional. In-room beverages are courtesy of a Nespresso coffee machine, an overstocked tea box and a fridge filled with wine and beer (replenished daily if you book an all-inclusive package).

The bathroom leads to the villa’s own outdoor jacuzzi, while floor-to-ceiling bi-fold doors open the bedroom/living area to the deck. This is the place to be.

The simple and spacious interior of the jacuzzi water villa.

All up the villa is 86 metres-squared including the outdoor jacuzzi and deck – large enough to not feel cramped.

The food

With three buffet meals a day, there’s a danger of menu fatigue. As buffets go, it’s probably one of the best. Breakfasts include the usual – plenty of fresh fruits, muesli, cereals, yoghurts, a hot selection, and an egg and waffle station.

For dinner, the cooked-to-order stations offer a semblance of à la carte dining. We choose from grilled jackfish, creamy seafood risotto, tender wagyu beef, barbecued veggie kebabs and buttery pesto gnocchi.

Dine in the open air with sand between your toes.

Dessert is disappointing. The colourful dessert bar looks lucrative each and every time – but looks were deceiving. Cheesecakes, puddings and mousses all appeared as if they would knock your taste buds out with a blissful infusion of sweet flavours, but they all taste the same, just sugary.

Activities

What dessert we do eat we snorkel off. The crystal clear house lagoon is a delight to explore amongst the colourful schools of reef fish, sharks and manta rays.

We quickly develop a structure to our day – mornings are for snorkelling and laying on the beach, and afternoons for relaxing on our deck with the occasional snorkel thrown in.

There are plenty of activities for those that need stimulation; two tennis courts or an indoor air-conditioned games room with a pool table and table tennis.

You can play board games at the bar (not as boring as it sounds – I taught my husband how to play chess over a few cocktails), and there’s a decent-sized DVD and book library at reception. And, of course, I indulge in a massage. The treatment is as it should be – relaxing and tranquil.

Water activities include cruises (book in the day before), windsurfing, catamaran sailing, kayaks, surf biking, scuba diving and, of course, snorkelling.

We do a night snorkel, which is wonderful. Our waterproof torches and clued-up guide open our eyes to a more active evening reef. Even without a snorkel, we have an excellent view of the underwater world at night through the pristine water.

As we walk home after dinner, we see manta rays and stingrays peacefully gliding under the boardwalk.

The selling point of the resort is the location (evidently), the daily feasts and the courteous staff who are there when you need them but remain largely unseen throughout your stay.

When choosing just one resort the level of luxury in the Maldives is simply mind-boggling, but if you’re after days filled with sun, swimming, snorkelling, massage and food – you’ll be happy whiling away your time at Veligandu.

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The details:

Veligandu Island Resort & Spa: Island of Veligandu North Ari Atoll, Maldives.

The IT Verdict: Jetlag disintegrates swiftly and days quickly become dream-like at Veligandu. For us, Veligandu was the pinnacle of island escapes.

Notes: Tatyana stayed for six nights and paid $647 a night full board (three meals a day)

Address: Veligandu Island, Maldives

Three more great Maldives resorts

Huvafen Fushi:

The underwater spa at Huvafen Fushi is as special as they get (and it’s the first underwater spa in the world); close your eyes and escape into a world of relaxation; open them and see fish swimming a mere few metres away.

Stay above water – with 44 modern bungalows to choose from.

Six Senses Laamu:

Environmentalists will be keen on Six Senses Laamu, the only resort in the Laamu Atoll.
Recycled and sustainable materials have been used for everything – from the impressive villas to the weathered timber jetty.
Some of the villas feature treetop panoramic decks for the ultimate Maldivian sunset.

Club Med Kani:

This is a great resort for love-struck couples or families seeking a bit of seclusion.
There is an array of activities from diving in the underwater world (the resort is close to a number of fantastic lagoons for great scuba diving) to sampling a diverse range of cuisine.
The accommodation ranges from superior rooms to over-water bungalows.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.