Honeymoons and wedding vow renewals are understandably popular here. However it is also a resort that has gained respect and popularity for its green credentials, particularly its work with turtles, sharks and coral regeneration. As there is no need for a seaplane transfer flight and the Banyan Tree brand is strong in Asia, a majority of guests are from the Far East.

Like many islands inside the atolls, including its neighbour and sister resort Angsana Ihuru, it is small, roughly circular, has a close housereef and very good beaches.

As with many resorts there is beach erosion in the northeast corner which is contained and replenished with sand pumping from the lagoon. The lovely big, soft beach faces west to the sunset and this is where most of the more expensive rooms are. Aside from the top 2 Vabbinfaru Villas, the 48 rooms are divided between Beach Front Villas/Deluxe Villas right on the beach and Ocean View Villas/Deluxe Villas, which are tucked behind those rooms.

All the rooms are the same size but the deluxe rooms use some finer materials. All electricity goes off when the card key is removed from its slot and the air conditioning must be separately restarted. The best plan is probably to throw the doors open and enjoy the inside-outside life for which the rooms are well designed. The small rooms then spill out onto a fair sized deck and then a garden for the ocean view villas or the beach for the beach front villas. Jacuzzis have been replaced with much more enjoyable plunge pools and each room also has a ‘sala’ or pavilion, which is inside the attractive, private gardens or, for the beach villas, at the end of a covered walkway out over the beach.

The beach salas tend to reduce the amount of walking around the outside of the island and that increases the privacy although, for a 5 star resort, the large number of rooms to island size means being aware of your sunbathing neighbours on the beach.

Banyan Tree brings a Southeast Asian look and feel to the resort that works very well. All the buildings are made from Indonesian materials, down to the thatch on the roofs. The spa is where it works best of all. Its reception is a little straight-edged and formal but the treatment rooms are large and lovely. And the highly trained Thai and Balinese therapists are so good that the spa often becomes a major part of the guests’ holiday even if that wasn’t their original intention. It is often full as some guests have packages that include 2 treatments a day.

Beyond the traditional massages, the spa offers seductive combinations of treatments, including facials, scrubs, rainmist showers, acupressure and much more that build into 2 and 3-hour sessions. There is even a 7-hour full day session that works through your body from top to toe.

The dive base shares its dives with Angsana Ihuru. Ihuru is now targeted at divers whereas diving is less important on this resort. However, there is plenty to enjoy in terms of the underwater world. The dive base leader feeds the sting rays every day and as she does so she teaches guests about the life of these extraordinary fish. She then takes guests over to feed the growing turtles before release.

The island’s marine centre is constantly active in a range of valuable projects. Having begun with tracking coral regrowth after the 1998 bleaching event, it moved on to studying methods of encouraging that regrowth. It then began research on sharks, both purely scientific and around their economic value. But its most visible and popular work has been with the endangered Green Sea Turtles. A small number of eggs are raised on the island for 12-18 months and then released with a tag and, in a few instances, a satellite transmitter.

The cuisine, sadly, is not as good as it once was. And the level of service that was once top class is no longer at those heights. It is as if the resort is settling for a different life now that it has been so obviously passed by the new 5 and 6 star resorts. Having said that, the upgrades and a new vision from the top can change this is a very short time because the island itself is a Maldives classic.