Maldives resorts are packing especially their premium villas with all sorts of imaginable amenities. Perhaps the most unexpected item I have come across is NIYAMA’s electric guitar and amp featured in its Beach Pavilion villa. Or all those rock stars inspired by the beauty of paradise, budding (and established) artists can have their own creative retreat away from the distractions of daily life. Rock on.
Of all the resort resident birds, perhaps none are more apropos that the flock of white doves on Malahini Kuda Bandos. Releasing white doves is can be found at some of the more extravagant wedding celebrations. And they are an iconic symbol of peace. Like the tranquillity you find sitting among them at the beach bar watching the sunset.
The sand at Cinnamon Hakura Huraa might not polished, but still Maldives-soft making those dramatic diving catches so much easier. And inertia arresting beach makes daisy cutters particularly ineffective so you sort of have to swing for the fences. Mind you, there actually are specific rules for Beach Cricket to help account for the distinctive playing surface.
With its Sri Lankan connection (Cinnamon resorts are headquartered in Sri Lanka and many of the staff come from there), cricket is a popular pastime on the resort. In fact, their team won are the reigning JKMR champions. I remember training on the beach for (American) football as a youngster. The extra work of the sand giving way under your feet made the work out twice as hard, but when you got onto solid ground, you felt like you had extra bonus power which might be part of the secret to their success.
A non-resort island, Fuvamulah, is one of the most intriguing islands of all in the Maldives It does feature a number of guest houses and hotels, but it is not the little plot of sand in the middle of the ocean, but rather the second largest island in the Maldives. It is also not a pearl on an atoll necklace, but more of a sparkling broach standing solitary on the breast of the Indian Ocean.
Among its many distinctive features is the ground itself which makes up the island. The sand and the pebbles are unique to the island as they are polished by the action of the waves crashing on to the beach. Some beaches have pebbles (see photo above). One part of the island also has a pile of polished black stones on the beach. Other areas on the island have smaller grains of proper sand. But the sand grains are themselves polished. I was told that the unique texture of the sand makes the sand “sing” as you walk on it.
Happy Valentines Day! Sweetheart around the world will be inscribing their love in hearts made from cards, chocolate, emojis, hands, and any number of creative materials. In the Maldives, the power soft, brilliant white coral sands that make up and define this paradise also make a handy canvas for romance…
Many Maldives spas have relaxation areas often for chilling before or after a treatment, but Hurawalhi has a separate meditation room devoted to a higher plane of mindfulness. A range of comfortable mats and sitting adjacent to the “ringing bowls” for those who want to incorporate those into their practice.
If lots of folks want to put their feet up, Sun Siyam Irufushi has the most treatment rooms in the Maldives with their spa featuring 20. And that’s not counting the private treatment room in their Celebrity Retreat villa.
The underwater versions of parrot fish and other reef marine life will have a literally more powerful habitat at Angsana Ihuru as a result of their “Necklace Project”. Hotelier Maldives published a great article about the project, “’The Necklace Project’ to be presented at the GM Forum in April”:
Up the sky of the Baa atoll, it’s a fish named after a bird, it’s a plane…it’s Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru’s latest seaplane inspired by one of the more colourful creatures on the atoll reef…
“A warm welcome to the 52nd member of our fleet!!! The magnificent Four Seasons branded aircraft!”
I might have to create a new tag for “Fish Planes”…
Look! In the sunny cerulean sky! It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s super Best Of! “Super” because skydiving in the Maldives is perhaps one of the most eagerly anticipated Best of the Maldives activity to date. It was featured in the very first “Haven’t Seen Yet” post nearly a decade ago. Since then, I have been teased regularly by a number of announcements that skydiving was coming to the destination. A number of initiatives never seemed to get off the ground (quite literally). Even the company who eventually pulled it off, Sky Diving Maldives, posted about it months before details actually were forthcoming. Until finally they teamed up with Shangri-La Villingili for a landmark jump. The plane takes off from neighbouring Gan airport and you land on Villingili island. Guests were able to sail through the blue sky towards the blue water in a tandem jump for $699.
