At Taj Exotica, every day (well, every arrival day) features the fragrant Valentinesque blossoms. Each guest is welcomed with a shower of petals. You don’t have to be a bride emerging from the church or pampered by adoring sweetheart, just a fresh arrival to paradise by Taj.
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Maldives
The Maldives is long renowned as one of the most romantic places on Earth. No surprise that there are hearts are everywhere you look in this corner of paramour’s paradise. So to celebrate Valentines Day today instead of a dozen roses, a dozen hearts in paradise…
If you want to take to the wheel, One and Only Reethi Rah offers buggies for their guests to drive themselves. They are available for rental (except for Grand Villa and Duplex guests which include a villa buggy free of charge). Of course, you can still opt for the chauffeured service on call. And when you pull up to their main restaurant, no worries about parking as they provide their own “Valet Parking” service (see below).
While the main jetty is often the focal point of to-ing and fro-ing, the biggest islands like Canareef (well, one of the longest), also lay on ground shuttles with little electric buggies to ferry people across the property itself. You can call them when you need them, but depending on how busy and far away they are, they might take a few minutes to reach you. Rather than expending any energy standing in the tropical sun, Canareef has constructed a number of sheltered buggy stops at its prime spots (eg. restaurants, spa).
First impressions make the biggest impact. It’s one of the reasons why I added a photo of the “Arrival Jetty” to the Maldives Complete Profiles. We were particularly struck by Shangri-La Villingili’s towering welcome pier this summer. But Soneva Jani has set a new high bar in terms of aloha artistry with its sculpted creation.
If payment is overdue on the Huracan and you are having to make due with store brand Beluga, then maybe Angsana Velavaru’s version of “private island” will suit your budget best. Intimate seaside experience all to yourself.
If the price of oil has got your sovereign fund in a slump or interest rates have hit your hedge fund, then maybe you want to consider the value priced private island hire available at AaaVeee. (thanks Paola) You can only bring up to 50 of your posse mates, but in the low season you can get away at a mere snip of a price of $50,000 per night…
And if this deal wasn’t inviting enough, AaaVeee has a Special Offer on its website – “7 nights on a Private island with All-inclusive Meals, accommodation & with your your invitees ONLY. (Max 50pax) Entire Island in nature’s paradise for your Private event JUST $100,000.”
Your very own plot of paradise that easy on the pocketbook (relatively).
Your own private island in paradise for just you…and 150 of your closest friends. A billionaire fantasy that might just be reachable to mere multimillionaires.
Coco Prive is notoriously *only* available for renting out in its entirety, but it is a mere 5600 square metres in size with only 7 rooms (there are some suites larger than that in the Maldives). Finolhu recently gave its entire island to the Delavingne girls for a week, but that was a one-off launch publicity stunt. I supposed any resort island would rent itself out entirely to a single customer (and their posse of friends). I have heard tell of a few Middle Eastern princes doing just this. It’s not easy to do as most resorts allocate out inventory to distributors and agents over a year in advance. But W Retreat has introduced a “island buyout” package with a standard advertised rack rate. The package includes:
Mind you this is not a budget punter’s paradise with rates at these levels…
Start saving your pennies…
Hulhumale’s “lagoon pool” ticks off another “Finally Seen”. The authentically natural swimming experience, but a bit protected and groomed (ie. sand) for some people’s comfort. We still bump into folks visiting the Maldives spooked to go in the ocean for fear of the little puppy sand sharks swimming about. Come to find out, some people don’t want to swim in any water that has any fish in it. I can’t guarantee that some enterprising piscatorial bounder hasn’t literally made the leap to check this feature out, but you should be pretty safe.
