Best of the Maldives: Custom Beachwear – One & Only Reethi Rah

One and Only Reethi Rah NEO boutique custom beachwear

In today’s Miss Universe pagent, contestants will dazzle not only with their natural beauty but with a range of fashion and costumes the most famous of which is the swimming costumes. You too can shine in your own swimwear competition at One & Only Reethi Rah who offer a swimsuit customization service…

“Ever wish you could skip the packing before your holiday and not have to think about what to wear on the beach? Guests will be treated to this luxury thanks to the collaboration with designer swimwear brand Babajaan. Launched in November, NEO Beach Boutique [will let you] customise your purchases by choosing the fabrics, embroidery, beading and chain details you like, so you can be sure you’ll be the only one of the beach wearing them. The Panama hats are traditionally woven by an Ecuadoran weaver, pressed to your desired shape and decorated with the ribbons and trimmings of your choice.”

Lori has bought a number of fashion items travelling in the Maldives from jewellery to dresses and wraps. Often you find things that just evoke the distinctive colours and imagery of this tropical paradise. Reethi lets you combine a bit of that tropical air with your own personal flair.

One and Only Reethi Rah NEO beach boutique

Best of the Maldives: Bike Return Service – One & Only Reethi Rah

One and Only Reethi Rah bicycle homing service Purple Passport

For a considerably bigger treat brought to you from anywhere on the island, One & Only Reethi Rah provides a bike “homing service”. You’ve ridden your personal bike somewhere and then wandered off for a stroll down the beach. Or you’ve ridden it to the bar and had one cocktail too many to consider operating any sort of vehicle much less an unsteady one. Or you are in a rush for something and grab a buggy. Well, Reethi staff return left bike back to your villa when they find them around the island.

Reethi phone home.

Best of the Maldives: Custom Mini-Bar – LUX Maldives

LUX Maldives customer mini bar

When you knock at the door of the LUX Maldives mini-bar today, you don’t have to be content with stale candy corn, apple or a rock. You can customise your mini-bar with your own personal snack-dictions. For example, one couple asked for chilled cucumber for their mini-bar (to put on their eyes).

Treat trick!

Best of the Maldives: Private Jetty – Angsana Velavaru

Angsana Velavaru deck 1

 

From longest day to longest private quai. One of our favourite parts of staying in a water villa is walking along the jetty to the room looking down in the shallows of the lagoon at the various marine life cavorting below. Velavaru extends that promenade out the back of its villas with your own private jetty to a special lounger set even more remotely in the middle of the ocean.

 

Angsana Velavaru deck 2

Best of the Maldives: Longest Day – Nika

Nika sunset

 

In the Maldives, one can simply lose track of time. Not just because of indolent indifference. But also because it varies from resort to resort. Many resorts follow “resort time” which is an hour ahead of Male time. There is no geographical reason since the entire country is aligned longitudinally from north to south. It is sort of like a permanent “Daylight Savings Time” or “British Summer Time” (which officially ended today).

The whole concept behind daylight savings time was to provide more daylight hours in the still active part of the later afternoon and early evening. Certainly a great way to stretch your days and activities in the Maldives. One can say that time simply doesn’t matter in this remote paradise, but people still tend to be guided by the benchmarks of daily clock times for their rituals like dining and settling down.

Being so close to the equator, the sunrise and sunset times do not vary much through the year. The sun rises and sets around 6:00 (am and pm) every day varying a matter of minutes through the year. But for the resorts, this means a 7:00 am sunrise (don’t have to get up quite so early for sunrise yoga) and 7:00 pm sunset (so you can carry on your activities later before it truly becomes the dinner hour.

The resort Nika has literally doubled down on this concept setting their resort’s time to 2 whole hours ahead of Male. At Nika, sunset was at 8:00 pm. Which meant that we carried on quite late and by the time we freshened up and went to dinner, it was approaching 9:00 pm. But that dinner hour only amplified Nika’s Italianate vibe where dinner tends to start and linger later into the evening.

Double the sun, double the fun.

Best of the Maldives: Champagne Treats – Conrad Rangali

Conrad Rangali underwater champagne

 

Champagne seems to be the consummate tipple for both celebrating and for romance. So with the Maldives being the honeymoon capital of the world, champagne does flow as copiously as the azure lagoons. Some might say that in the Maldives, every day is “Champagne Day”, but today that decadence is shared around the world.

If you want to pop a little extra diversity into your brut bubbly banquet, then head over to Conrad Rangali who offers a variety of champers pampers…

“With an extensive wine cellar of over 20,000 bottles, Conrad Maldives Rangali Island further enhances its guests’ wine experience this year with the introduction of three new ways of enjoying champagne at this luxury resort: ‘Bubbles on the Beach’, ‘Sparkling Hour’ and ‘The Perfect Sundowner’…Food and beverage director Wolfgang Brandl explains: “Of course there’s never a wrong way to enjoy champagne, but relaxing in the privacy of your own private villa while taking in the beauty of a breathtaking Maldivian sunset with a glass of your favourite champagne in your hand has to be one of the most spectacular ways to do it.’”