Joy Island Hotel

We went to Joy Island for 6 days. We arrived at Male and was greeted straight away with the Hummingbird rep, he was very good and put the tags on our cases and took us to the waiting room until the other people arrived to get the boat. We did have to wait around 45mins. The sea was quite rough so the journey took around an hour and was very choppy. Once at Joy Island we were greeted by the team playing their instruments and given a refreshing towel and nice cold drink. Our Rep Shify was so lovely and took us around the Island to show us where everything was. She then took us to our water villa and our cases were already there. The villa was stunning and very clean. When you walk in and see that view, it was special. During our stay the room was kept clean and mini bar stocked up. The food was out of this world and the staff were absolutely amazing! Special mention to Shasha in the air con room (great interaction with the children, giving them games to work out and getting them ice cream at dinner time 😁) and Dita front of restaurant, she remembered our names every day and always made sure everything was ok. Another special mention to the meat chef, he was lovely and looked after us 😊 The Rainbow bar after dinner was always fun and a nice way to end the night. Again service was excellent and always made an effort to find us somewhere to sit. The island as a whole is very pretty but definitely better the sunset side. The other side does have work going on so the digger was going during the day but luckily we were sunset side. There are a few reefs with some pretty fish but nothing major. We spotted lots of sting rays and bigger fish outside our bungalow and spotted 1 large shark by the walk way. The pool was nice and never busy. We had good weather just very windy so unfortunately we were not allowed to kayak or paddle board. On our penultimate night we won the raffle, a trip to go and see the sharks in the evening. I was apprehensive but the guy assured me it was fine and I’m so glad he did!! We never expected to see the amount of sharks we did! Worth doing definitely. As a family of 4 with a daughter 15 and son 13, we had an amazing time and definitely think this island is better for families which is why I chose it. If you’re looking for traditional Maldivian accommodation, I would go to a different island but this island was perfect for us as we like the modern clean accommodation. I can’t fault anything, but would make a suggestion that they have something like a kids corner in the restaurant where they can grab pizza, chips, hot dog, ice cream etc. just my opinion. The rest of the food stations were 10/10, every thing you could possibly want was there fresh meats, fresh fish, fresh fruit, salads, breads of all kinds, pasta station, curries, and the dessert room…wow! All in all we had an amazing time and everyone really made us feel special. Thank you also to Maral who looked after us whilst Shify went on vacation. And thank you for the sea sickness tablets, they worked 😃. We really hope to go back to Joy Island one day. Thanks all ❤️