Equator Village

Before I begin...if you are the type of person that picks holes at every opportunity, then it’s not for you. The room is basic....1 small wardrobe with half a dozen plastic coat hangers and nowhere to place folded items, but you improvise. Leave them in your case. The bed is large and comfortable. The en-suite bathroom is spacious and the shower has plenty of hot water. The air conditioning is good and it is left on day and night. The food is excellent. We are both Vegetarians, but the meat dishes looked tasty and they had a variety of different choices daily. We absolutely loved the soups. The beach is small, but very safe and ideal for snorkelling. There’s no shortage of sun loungers and you can safely leave your towels, books etc unattended whilst you go for lunch. The pool is large and kept very clean. Most of the pool is kept to a depth of 1.4 metres, but at one end it is closer to 2 metres. With the all inclusive package you can more or less get a drink from 9am until midnight. The daily snorkelling trips and the once weekly island hopping trip is all part of the package. This place is popular with Eastern Europeans as they know a bargain when they see one. Many told me they have been coming every year for the past 10 years. We are going to go for two weeks every year from now on. This is not 5 star luxury. There are plenty of those to choose from in the Maldives if you don’t mind paying £500 pounds a night.

Its a nice peaceful stay for us, the all inclusive package definitely worth the shot. There's not the typical Maldives expensive resort you seen on TV, but everything is there for and adequate with friendly staff and service with smile. Gan island is a quiet easy island to spent a few days, enjoy the hospitality from little island just south of equator.

I have stayed before on two occasions, some refurbishment has been carried out since the new management took over a year ago. To the good the pool area looks great and has had new tiles and a lick of paint . The lack and condition of the steps to get out of the pool needs addressing . Also the bar service is somewhat slow but then we are on holiday. All in all a lovely place to see the real Maldives

Firstly, let me say that this is (or was) my favourite hotel in the Maldives and that the ordinary staff, cleaners, barmen, waiters gardener etc. are extremely hardworking and courteous. However the hotel is suffering from sever mismanagement from the top. The beautiful old pool bar has been vandalised to the point of destruction leaving it unsafe and unusable in poor weather. the wooden steps to the beach are rotted to the point of one of the steps breaking under a 70 year old female guest leaving her badly shaken and bruised but miraculously not seriously . The beautiful gardens are a shadow of their former self, looking overgrown and neglected, we even had to tie back the undergrowth to gain access to our room!! If you are a non-smoker, be aware that smoking is rife in the bars (including the swim-up pool bar

If you like to snorkel choose the all inclusive deal which includes one free boat trip per day. Make sure you get to Mulikeda, Banana Reef and Bushy Island as they were the highlights for us. The staff are friendly and go the extra mile, just don't expect luxury, however the room was adequate and the a/c worked a treat. The food was fine with plenty of options including a good salad bar. If you're feeling peckish in the afternoon, savoury and sweet treats with tea/coffee are available from 16:00. Equator Village is brilliant value for money and would definitely recommend a stay. I'm already planning another trip for next year, 'nough said!

Rooms were basic as shown in photos but clean and had everything that you need. Plenty of sun beds either by the pool or the beach. Breakfast was the same every day but a very varied menu for lunch and dinner. Meals were really tasty with lots of flavour. It was good to have so much choice of vegetables. Staff always pleasant and helpful. We went out on the snorkel boat to different locations most days and saw an abundance of fish including sharks, eagle rays and turtles. The snorkelling was also good off the beach. It was a great holiday.

Great room located beachside and the all inclusive package makes it all so easy...no more to pay. Staff were friendly and very helpful. We loved the snorkeling and island hopping trip and the location on Gan Island is great to cycle around and meet the locals.

The staff were friendly and we recieved a very nice greeting from the general manager on our arrival. The location is good - the beach front rooms are quiet and there is a good coral garden just off the beach - we saw turtles, octopus and a small reef shark right there. The hotel room was comfortable - we were a bit apprehensive when booking but the rooms turned out to be fine. Well maintained, clean and spacious. Not luxurious but good. We managed to hire a scooter from outsude the hotel and used that to visit other parts of the atoll - the nature reserve in the far north is quite worth a visit for its coral too. The breakfast and other meals were fine; again not luxurious but good. There were vegetarian friendly options too. Given the location it was possible to visit local restaurants too.

Nice relaxing island. Our only concern was that since we went last year they had lost a few bar and restaurant staff which had not been replaced. They were much needed shall I say.

A bit dated - but you could see some improvements were being made - like the pool was beautiful