Ayada Maldives

Day 1, arriving

A domestic flight south to Kaadedhdhoo and then a speedboat. Allow around two hours door to island, and in practice it is often less, because the timing depends on the flight rather than the boat. The useful part is how late it runs: the connection holds for a Velana landing as late as the evening, which is unusual for the far south and much later than any seaplane island. An evening arrival from India still puts you on the island the same night.

Do these three things when you land.

• Book your restaurants through your butler on the first day. Six of the eight need a dinner reservation and only the buffet and the pool bar take walk-ins.
• If you are on the upper plan, choose your two included excursions early rather than at the end.
• Ask for the house reef snorkel to be set at a time that suits you. There is no fixed schedule for it here, which is unusual and worth using.

Days 2 to 3, your full days

Mornings

A strong house reef, with an access note worth reading before you plan a morning around it.

We rate the reef in the upper band, and the resort handles it differently from most: there is no rota for house reef snorkelling at all, and the time is arranged around the guest rather than the other way round. If that is why you came, say so at check-in and have it set for the mornings you want.

Divers

Four departures a day, at 08:30, 10:00, 14:30 and 16:30. That is an unusually frequent dive schedule, and it means a dive fits around the rest of the day rather than dictating it.

Anyone who wants the reef without a tank

The aquarium snorkel is short and early enough to leave the day intact, and the longer safari snorkel runs three hours through the afternoon. Both go every day, so no day is the wrong day.

Families

The kids club, the tennis court, the yoga studio, football and volleyball grounds, the gym and the bicycles are all inside both plans. The island is large enough that a bike is worth having.

Afternoons

Every trip here runs daily, which is not true of most islands and is the quiet advantage of the place. Elsewhere the day you arrive decides which animal you can see. Here it decides nothing, so a three or four night stay loses nothing to the calendar. The aquarium snorkel goes at 14:30 and takes an hour and a half. The safari snorkel runs two till five. One thing to weigh: excursions are shared, and the larger boat carries up to thirty six guests while the fishing boat takes thirteen or fourteen. A trip with thirty five other people on board is a different afternoon from one with twelve, so ask which boat yours uses when you book.

Evenings

Sunset fishing leaves at 17:30 and the sunset cruise at 18:30, both around two hours. Then dinner across eight outlets, and the reservation rule is the thing that goes wrong most often. Only the main buffet and the poolside bar take walk-ins. The over-water restaurant, the far-eastern room, the teppanyaki counter, the beach barbecue, the wine and cheese bar and the Turkish lounge all want booking, and the teppanyaki counter is the pinch point because it has limited seating and stops serving an hour before everything else. Your butler books all of it, so use them on day one rather than day three.

Day 4, leaving

Work backwards from the domestic flight rather than from a check-out time, and reconfirm the connection the evening before. The southern routing is reliable but it is two legs, not one.

Who this island's day does not suit

Anyone on a three or four night trip who wants the upper plan, because they will not be sold it. Anyone who wants to be near Male, since this is the far south and the journey is a flight plus a boat. And anyone who books an all-inclusive expecting the excursions to come with it, unless they are on the plan that says so.