It is built along the same straight, solid lines as the other Villa resorts but uses more luxurious materials - lots of dark wood and rich textiles - and offers even higher quality sporting facilities. It’s a pretty island inside but the beach and snorkeling are disappointing.

2 Presidential Suites take over the sunset and sunrise tips of the island, while the other 148 identical rooms stretch around the perimeter between them. There are 10 interconnecting rooms but this is not considered a family resort. The guests are couples, from honeymooners to elderly, who come from Russia, Germany, Italy, the UK, France and the Far East.

Though the rooms are close to each other, decent foliage and a solid build mean neighbours are not often heard or seen. The rooms themselves are not large but they are expensively furnished. Dark wooden furniture with carved decoration, wood panelled walls, heavy marble table tops and thick covers and drapes in gold and maroons give them a distinctly aristocratic look and feel. The best rooms to have are those on the southside of the island.

The large, 2-bedroomed Presidential Suites are more of the same, and some - an expensive confection of ‘chandelier luxury’ - well suited to the Russian and Arab markets. The spacious veranda and swimming pool are certainly pleasant and lead out through large gaps in the enclosing tree line to what amounts to a private beach and lagoon. The sunrise suite enjoys possibly the best beach on the island.

After struggling with beach erosion for some years, it was decided to build a wall all the way around the island. This has enabled a stable beach in front of every room, but the quality of the sand is not great. Work is ongoing to take away the many bits of coral and shell pieces.

The quality of the build, furnishings and facilities are the real strong points of this resort. The free-form swimming pool with its bar and decking is an attractive focal point for much of the day, surrounded on one side by the beach and on the other side by the main bar and lounge. A separate Fun Pub has been built for those crazy karaoke and disco nights, leaving this bar undisturbed for long social evenings. Mostly the evenings are quiet, with just one live band and one Bodu Beru night.

Racquet sports fans will be delighted with this place. The pair of floodlit tennis courts, the squash court and the indoor badminton court are all first class facilities. The gym is fairly decent too. The watersports centre is very large and has all the kit, from canoes to wakeboards, parasailing and kitesurfing.

The spa has a new grand entrance but overall it seems to have been missing some love and attention. The therapists are good and the menu impressive but the buildings, paths and decorations are not as attractive as they used to be.

The à la carte restaurant enjoys a pleasant position by the water’s edge, on the far side of the island from the main buildings. Specialising in barbecues and lobster meals, it’s a potentially romantic getaway for the occasional evening meal. The food in the main restaurant is the usual mix of buffets, and uninspired for this class of resort, although there is a permanent Mediterranean Corner and Sushi and Sashimi.

Diving in the region is mostly about thilas, the channels being too wide for the strong currents that attract the sharks and pelagics. Schooling fish are in abundance and there are a couple of Manta points, offering an excellent chance of sightings from May through to November. But Hanifaru is now the big pull. Discovered only a few years ago, it is a place where hundreds of whale sharks and mantas come and stay around the months of August and September. The dive school is well set up for the beginner and the average diver.

Sadly, much of the housereef was reconstructed around the time the resort was built. It is not used for diving and is not in good shape for snorkeling. Both the resort and water sports centre do snorkeling trips to nearby reefs. Big game fishing is also available.