Hi

Personally I think water vilas are over rated and would always choose to stay in a beach front location :-)

Darryl

We love water villas but mostly for the private decking with direct access to the sea for snorkelling. Also love watching sea life from bed, bath and lounger. But tend to be much more expensive.

If you want to go to a water villa try it, you don't have to go down to the water if you can't swim. Anyway there are tides, so depth changes during the day... I usually decide focused on the island and not on the kind of accomodation.

If you give your budget in USD, people reading your thread won't have to look for an exchange rate USDCAD...

No contest for us. Beach villa end of.

When we arrived at Angaga we were told that had been 'upgraded' to a water villa as all the beach villas were full. We freaked out and told them that we hated the things and no way did we want to spend the whole holiday in one. There was nothing they could do for the first night so we stayed in this swish, 4 poster bedded water villa with private deck and gorgeous bathroom and then moved the next day into a beach bungalow of our choice. It confirmed everything that we had always thought. What is the point of going to an island with the most beautiful beach, sea and the softest sand imaginable only to then have to walk down a scorching gang plank to get to it. As I have said on here before, one of the greatest joys for me is to poke my head out of the door of our room to check for snoopers, and if the coast is clear thunder through the undergrowth, hot foot it at full pelt across the sand and then hurl myself with unfettered abandonment into the velvet water.

Can't do that from a water villa.

You also need to be careful with water villas if you can't swim as many are located in deep water where you'd be out of your depth straight away. 2 metres may seem shallow but nearly everyone would need to swim just in that depth and I've seen pictures of wvs with big waves rolling past - PHH for one.

My ideal would be a beach villa somewhere like Athuruga where you are straight onto sand and just a few metres from the sea but a lot of beach bungalowz are set quite far back and your view of the sea is obscured by trees and shrubbery so choose carefully.

Good value wvs I've stayed in with shallow lagoons include Fihalhohi and Sun Island.

My hubby hardly ever swims in the lagoon but he loves water villas, don't ask me why! We already did it twice and are going back to the maldives next year...in a water villa of course. If you want to try it I say go for it, I doubt you'll regret it.

Thank you for all of the replies so far.

Some of you have mentioned what I was afraid of – 2m is far too deep for me (I’m only about 160cm/5 ft. 2 and would be too nervous in water over my shoulders). So I guess I shouldn’t expect to be able to go into the water from villas at most resorts.

I think it might be best to book a beach villa and upgrade to a water villa for a few days just so that my fiancé and I have at least tried it. I’m sure the view is amazing. (Maybe I will be lucky and the water won’t be over my head.) I will look for beach villas that have an unobstructed view of the water.

If anyone else has been to islands with particularly shallow lagoons please let me know! My budget in USD is about $5000 for the accommodation (all inclusive) only.

Sun Island has a huge shallow lagoon but it's not very good for snorkelling. By shallow I mean it never came above waist height on me ( I am 5 8").

It is quite possible that on arrival all the water villas are booked so that you can't upgrade, so if you want to go to a water Villa, go for it, otherwise don't go with an upgrade thinking, just in case it isn't possible to avoid dissapointment...

I suggest you to learn swimming: three are usually little corals in the bottom,and there may be fishes, eagle rays and other fishes passing by, so just standing on your feet isn't a good idea...