How did you celebrate Valentines this week? A decadent spa day? A sumptuous meal? How about both in one? SAii Lagoon’s Len Be Well spa have coupled a spa-dining combo for couples. You have savour both tactile and tasty sensations in a treatment that enhances the body inside and out.
One of Maldives Complete’s initial objectives was to help people sort through the myriad resort options. Options which have only expanded with the resort growth and the profusion of diverse room types. It’s almost like Maldives Complete is a “resort concierge” (or “room concierge”). When we first started visiting the destination in the 90s, spas were an anomaly, but now they are standard fare. And spas at the luxury properties have as many bewildering choice of treatments as the Maldives has resorts. So Waldorf Astoria Ithaafushi has introduced its own “Wellness Concierge”:
In the early years, the “spa” was relegated to some small rooms in sequestered in the middle of the island. With the rise of wellness tourism, resorts brought the spas front and centre to the main stage of the destination – over water. Now, an over-water spa common fare among the five-star Maldives properties. And yet, within the spas themselves, the massages are the main event and most of the treatments rooms are designed and reserved for the treatments. The spas will often feature beauty treatments – eg. facials, manicures, pedicures – but they are most often found near the entrance with a limited ocean view. But, the Jumeirah Maldives spa gives the aestheticians the same pride of place as the masseuses with an over-water room with floor-to-ceiling windows on 3 sides. Good looking out for those getting their looks good.
I’ve realized with this post that I need an “Over Water” tag for all those over water treats (but keeping the overwater villa features separate).
Floating breakfasts have gone from being never seen before to don’t miss. But what if you are not a big breakfast person (or just like a particularly leisurely lie-in on holiday)? Well, Kandima has introduced the floating lunch. Now that’s a “liquid lunch”!
I’d actually been on the lookout for something like this my latest “Not Yet Seen” draft when I came upon an outdoor sauna pod doing Christmas shopping. Not a sauna, but a steam bath at Soneva Jani with a bonus twist of being perched on the deck of one of their water villas. The room was sensibly designed with two large floor-to-ceiling walls facing the turquoise vista of the lagoon (I didn’t get to try it out to see how much the steamed glass affected the view). Still, I love the idea of relaxing in the soothing heat coming from something other than rays of sunshine while still taking in the outdoor scenery (as opposed to being sequestered away in some nook of a spa facility).
Steamy room with a view!
A steam bath is a common feature at resort spas to double-down on the soothing heat of the tropics with a pore-opening, muscle relaxing, sinus-clearing session. And for the devotees of such healthy humidity, Kudafushi offers a personal steam bath a several of its villas. We always enjoy a hot shower as the end of a day of sun and sand and salt, but it is easier to linger in a steam bath than a running shower to relax and cleanse even deeper.
As I noted a number of times, I originally thought of doing a website about the Maldives called “Maldives for Families”. When we first started visiting this paradise, it was a haven for divers and honeymooners, but we thought it was a superb destination for families. Well, our instincts have played out with all top resorts catering strongly to the family vacationer with kids clubs, family activities and a increasing number of rooming options for families to be together. But, Nika has gone all the way by making family room options for every single room category. Perhaps this family-friendly extreme is no surprise since the resort itself has been a family business since its founding.
One of the biggest trends in Maldives tourism is move from shopping for a resort to shopping for a villa. Maldives distinguished itself years ago with the concept of “One island, one resort”. People decided on which resort island was for them and they knew that their entire Maldives experience would be contained in that microcosm of aquatic terrain.
This concept contributed strongly to the development of Maldives Complete. Because you were segregated on a single island, choosing that island carefully was all the more important. It wasn’t like choosing a city hotel where the hotel part of the city break was just a small part which also included restaurants, shopping, sights, etc. outside the hotel. Furthermore, because the property was so clearly delineated, it also made developing a database on the characteristics of the resort easier as everything on the island was specific to that property.
But as I have noted on numerous occasions, guests now seek out “villas” with the same discernment that they used to seek resorts themselves. In the early years, each island only had a few room categories – Standard, Deluxe, Water Villa, etc. – to choose from. What distinguished your holiday was the island you chose and the rooms were more uniform within the island. I wrote a post in 2010 about Kurumba having the most room types with 8. Today, I don’t know of a single new property that has launched with less than that. Soneva Fushi has 27 room types today!
In 2012, I launched the Room Type database to help guests with the task that was now an order of magnitude larger of choosing a room type as opposed to just choosing an island. Just this past October, I amended the popular “How to Pick the Perfect Maldives Resort” post by removing the criteria of whether the resort had a pool or not. This characteristic was one of the very first ones I researched extensively in the 90s before all this Internet stuff as we knew that our kids loved to pay in a pool. Now all but a couple of resorts have a pools. The real question is whether you want your villa to have its own personal pool.
All sorts of special amenities that used to be distinctive for resorts are now available in your own villa (for the premium rooms on the rate card). I remember when spas were just starting to be introduced in the Maldives. Often a therapist on contract given and room and a table to work at buried in the island interior. Now some Presidential suites have their own in-villa spa rooms.
The latest distinction to have gone personal are water hammocks. First spotted at Anantara Dhigu in 2011. In 2016, I was able to post a collection of water hammocks at various resorts. Now, Amilla has added personal water hammocks outside a bank of its water villas!
Like the famous (well, in America) Reese’s commercial, “two great tastes in one”. Two of my favourite decoration motifs are (a) maps, and (b) bed decorating. Bathala has combined both for this striking creation.
