Day 3: Sunbathing

One of the first things I like to do on holiday is catch up on some sleep and do some sunbathing. So here's how it all works at Centara.

The Beach

Obviously, being an island there is a beach. If you are in a Beach Suite you will have your own loungers on the beachfront, made of white plastic. If you are in a water villa you'll have your own loungers over the water, made of wood. If you are in a water villa but want to relax on the beach then unfortunately your choices are limited. There are a few loungers scattered around, but nothing formal. Furthermore there isn't a beach bar to speak of, since the resort management have prioritised service at the pool instead. It's a gap in my opinion as you can't recreate that relaxing on a desert island feel that I would have assumed was all part of the Maldives experience.

The Pool

The pool is between the Coral Bar and the Reef Restaurant, so once in situ you don't have to walk very far to do anything. One day I left lunch and took nine pace to get to my pool side lounger. The brochures show lots of loungers round the pool (Kuoni, I'm looking at you) whereas in fact there are just 31 of them, which isn't enough basically. Equally the same photos show multiple parasols whereas now there are fewer of them but they are bigger and fixed. Clean towels are provided everyday however and there's waiter service for drinks, so you barely have to lift a finger. Due to the limited number of parasols you'll need to be by the pool before 9am which does limit the chance of a lie in. There seems to be plenty of people who reserve their loungers and then go for breakfast, which I don't agree with, but it's a case of join them or miss out.

Water Villas

If you are in a water villa then you get your own sunbathing space and loungers. Again dedicated sunbathing towels are left in your room everyday, so there's no need to waste your luggage allowance bringing them to the island. Depending on which villa you get you'll either have the morning sun or you'll get in the afternoon and thus the sunset too. For the Luxury Water Villas morning sun is avaialble at numbers 72 - 80. Afternoon sun is from numbers 47 -71.

Suntan or sunburn?

Due to a lack of pollution and closeness to the equator the sun is very strong in the Maldives so sun protection is a must. Don't, like me, be fooled into thinking you can escape it by sitting in the shade - you can't. You will know your preferred SPF rating, but whatever you do bring more than you think you'll need. If you run out your only chance of buying some more is to buy it from the island shop where it costs $26 for a 300ml bottle. And no I'm not kidding! Plus, this being the Maldives there is then 10% service fee on top, plus a further 6% general sales tax. In short, it's much cheaper to buy an extra bottle at the airport and not need it than get caught out.