Maldives Tour 2011 – Day 3: Kanuhura

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Kanuhura reception

Kanuhura is the Bollinger of the Maldives.

My wife and I have enjoyed many a good bottle of champers in our time as we have savoured many varieties of Maldives resorts in our 9 visits. We have had budget Cava, vintage Crystal, even a surprisingly delectable Indian sparkling wine (Omar Khyaam). But the one we always come back to is Bollinger NV. It is subtly distinctive, tasty, and well crafted. If our current Maldives tour is like a champagne tasting trip through Reims, then Kanuhura is the much anticipated house of Bollinger.

The One & Only group really pioneered the notion of a super premium luxury marque in hotels. And it definitely kicked off the super-premium class in the Maldives with now veteran resorts Reethi Rah and Kanuhura. But in recent years, the Maldives has been a magnet for the latest bling showpieces in hospitality. Underwater restaurants, underwater spas, luxury sea planes, marine discovery centres. One big arms race to out do one another in jaw-dropping attractions. Kanuhura has not yet come out with such buzz-stirring features, but a conversation with General Manager Vladmir Scanu made it clear that they have some very imaginative thinking about how to further enhance the already first class Kanuhura experience.

A lot of the Kanuhura quality is understated. Subtle touches pervade like flowers under spa treatment beds where your face is poking through (why doesn’t every spa in the world do this?). I get served lots of herbal infusions on my various spa visits around the world, but Kanuhura’s lemon grass ginger tea was the first time I had to ask for the recipe. One of my favourite touches is the ‘poolside sunglasses polishing service.’

In this soft spoken demeanor, Nature is a big focus and theme of the resort is clear (and I will be writing more detailed pieces in the coming weeks). Not just the aquatic type that is sort of a given for any Maldivian resort, but the terrestrial type. The nature of the island and what grows on it. They do Nature walks every Sunday and have such sophisticated orchid cultivation that they have their own variety of orchid registered ‘Dendrobium Kanuhura’.

Kanuhura is a fresh, natural classic. And truly classic style never goes out of date.

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Maldives Tour 2011 – Day 2: Anantara Dhigu, Anantara Veli, Naladhu

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Maldives Tour 2011 Anantara

The Maldive Trio.

We live on a farm in a converted barn quite close to our other neighbours who also live in charming conversions. We are quite remote, being out on a farm, but we don’t feel isolated because we have our neighbours with whom we regularly have spontaneous gatherings for BBQs, tea or drinks. It has a delightful ‘little community’ feel to it. Anantara Dhigu/Veli/Naladhu has that same feel.

A little cluster of three resort islands plus a staff island and a little bonus island makes it like a little exotic community of paradise. It has a different feel to that of the big resort islands, because each individual island is relatively small. Sales Executive Shanoon Khalid, who took me around, is a Maldivian native and he said that the ‘community of little islands’ feel is very authentically ‘Maldivian’ and has the closest feel of any resort to the ambiance and atmosphere of where he grew up.

The portfolio approach to resort layout also enables a ‘have your cake and eat it, too’ solution: the privacy of a small select property with access to a broad range of services and infrastructure – small island feel with large island amenities. Peace and quiet on the beach with water sports available (but secluded away on another island so little sound activity disturbs the beach-goers.

All three resorts are peppered with delightful touches you would expect from a proper 5 star property. For example, Dhigu’s water villas have ceilings styled as if a Maldivian dhoni (traditional) boat had been overturned on the villa. Their design also provides great views while maintaining privacy from the adjacent villas.

The biggest shortcoming to these Anantara resorts is the snorkelling. You can, of course, go on plenty of snorkel excursions for some stunning snorkelling at nearby reefs. If popping out of your villa and plunging straight into snorkelling is high on your list, then I recommend the Veli island where they have some really fine crops of new growth branch coral in the water villa lagoon. Marine Biologist Sarah Kompatscher also says that there are a range of small reefs around the resorts that they can take you and direct you too (she says that octopus is actually quite commonly sighted and Shanoon noted that schools of squid are quite common) according to your swimming abilities.

Five-star done just right. Not too fussy, but nothing missing.

Maldives tour 2011 Anantara 2

Ocean kayaking to the neighbouring ‘picnic island’

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Maldives Tour 2011 – Day 1: BA Flight2043

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Arrival Male Maldives

What goes on tour doesn’t stay on tour this time. I’m off for my longest tour of the Maldives ever – 15 resorts in as many days – and I will be posting daily on them. Like last November, I will then follow up the tour with a series of daily ‘Best Ofs’ with a sample of distinctives and uniques that I uncover.

I’ve opted for the BA non-stop primarily for the ease of finding the best price. I have a number of trips coming up over the next few months and I really appreciate BA’s web site approach which clearly indicates the price of your flight segment and what it would be if you shifted it slightly. EasyJet pioneered this online booking approach in the UK and I am surprised more airlines don’t use it.

The whole BA experience is a reliably positive one. They seem to be on an up cycle for cheerfulness. They were renowned in the earliest years for their service, but then they went through a patch in the nineties where they were surly and off-putting. They seemed to have turned that around as the service staff were about the most friendly and upbeat of any of my recent travels. They had some troubles with the entertainment system at the outset of the trip, but the attendant sorting it out was ever so charming as she explained over the tanoy what was going on and how she was addressing it.

I will also say that the food is quite edible. Again, I have been travelling a fair amount lately and I am stunned at how wrong airlines get plane food. I realise that it is a monster challenge serving a dinner party for 300 and steering clear of everyone’s food preferences to get something everyone will like. What astonishes me the most is how bad the desserts are. I think they are trying to do is create the appearance of fancy dish on a relatively modest budget. Just give us a piece of chocolate cake. Who doesn’t like chocolate cake? I will hand it to BA for having a dessert that I could enjoy – profiteroles with chocolate mousse. Though I did wonder why no simply give everyone a pot of mousse. Who really doesn’t love chocolate mousse??

Another bonus to the #2043 is the early arrival. Most trips to the Maldives you don’t get to the resort to late in the afternoon and Day 1 is about gone. We arrive at Male at 9:05 am with the whole day before us.

More on that tomorrow…

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Maldives Tour 2010 – Day 9: Recap

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Bruce Tour commuting

I never thought that I would use the words ‘frenetic’ and ‘Maldives’ in the same sentence, but that was my past week seeing 9 resorts in 7 days including 5 stops at Male airport for transfers. The objective of ferreting out a number of unsung quirks and curiosities exceeded every expectation.

I also came to some broader upbeat realisations about visiting this paradise…

  • Elephants can dance – I have always gravitated towards the smaller islands in the Maldives. The one step up from the plot of sand with a palm tree on it. To me the small islands exemplified the Robinson Crusoe fantasy. But serendipity brought me to a number of larger properties and I found them universally packed with their own charms and assets.
  • Weather – Don’t sweat the weather forecast. I checked the weather forecasts before our departure and it was calling for ‘Scattered Thundershowers’ every single day. And yet, over the week, not one drop of rain fell on me. We had a shower overnight one day and on another day a brief shower hit while we were in the restaurant. We woke up to an overcast sky one morning, but were slathering on sun block hours later. Everything else was gorgeous sunshine with enough scattered clouds to make for great sunsets.
  • The Deal’s the Thing – When looking for the right holiday for you, filter on what you want and look for the best deal. Most quality is proportionate the standard rates in most cases and the stars rating is not helpful as just about everyone is a 4-plus or 5.
  • Coral Can Come Back – Faster than imagined. Yes, it will take generations to rebuild reefs, but in a few short years you can really see dramatic growth. Active Reef Regeneration like Kuda Huraa’s and Landaa’s really inspired me, but also just places like the Vadoo reef showed vibrancy I have not seen for a while.
  • Food patience – It’s hard to get food right. Not one resort consistently blew me awayon the cuisine front though there were many memorable highlights. The best food works with the relatively local ingredients (tropical fruits, fresh seafood), but I appreciate the challenge of parochial visitors who either (a) want their familiar meat-and-potatoes or fried-rice, or (b) want more variety.
  • Rise of China – Anyone who thinks that China’s prosperity is about a bunch of factory workers getting more rice might want to look at the Maldives’ visitor statistics. In 2010, China rose to the top of the table as the country sending the most visitors to the country’s resorts (maybe I need to do a Mandarin version of Maldives Complete insightful remarked my friend Alex Weindling).  It wasn’t just an empty or dry statistic, but you could see the Chinese every where I went.  One dive master commented that a real challenge (among many) to this shift is that the Chinese are generally pretty weak swimmers and many of them are getting into troubles in the ocean quite often.

I also had some downbeat reflections about the pet peeves that really niggle me…

  • No good tshirts on sale.
  • Eating set far from water or view.
  • Weak bar snacks (olives, crisps, peanuts).
  • Inappropriate ‘pop’ music (especially when played too loudly – more resort managers need to watch this short video clip).

In all, I uncovered 65 ‘Best Of’ candidates on the tour. Next couple of weeks I will be featuring one of my favourites from each of the resorts.

 

Kuda Huraa villa windows inside

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Maldives Tour 2010 – Day 8: Vadoo

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Vadoo Tour

Adaaran Presitge Vadoo exemplifies the ethos of ‘less is more’.

Less size (one of the Maldives’ tiniest resort islands). Less activities (no watersports centre, though access to the one at their sister resort at Club Rannalhi). Less food (none of the ubiquitous buffet). Less beach villas (none, actually, as they only offer water villas). It is a paragon of tasteful understatement.

The biggest ‘less’ is the price. Vadoo is positioning itself to battle in the ‘super-premium’ segment (5+ stars, whatever that means). Individual butler service, exquisite design, distinctive infrastructure. All for under £2000 per week, Vadoo is a super premium bargain.

Several super-premium resorts have piled on the glitz and bling and most guests that I have spoken to are not fond of it (though I definitely know there are people to whom that style appeals). For sun, sand and ostentation I would send people to Dubai. Dubai is even creating artificial micro-islands for those who want the mini-island experience.

Packed into its small scale were plenty of special treats with 11 Best Of candidates identified. Assistant Manager Alex Kovacs (see photo above) thought that the house reef was one of the best in the Maldives, so we had to check it out. It is certainly first class. It is a mere 20 metres from shore through an easily accessible channel. It drops off to a depth of about 30 meters and has a healthy array of coral. We saw a lovely turtle getting her morning spa treatment from cleaner fish as well as the biggest box fish we have ever seen (2 feet at least).

Style, service, distinctions punching well above its weight class measured in size of island or size of budget.

 

Vadoo villa

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Maldives Tour 2010 – Day 7: Club Rannalhi

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Club Rannalhi tour 2010

Adaaran Club Rannalhi lends a whole new perspective on the Maldivian resort.

Rannalhi is a smaller island. And when you can’t expand out…expand up. In an country with an average elevation of a few metres and predominantly built up with thatched villas, Rannalhi is almost entirely 2 stories. All the beach villas are 2 story apartments. The spa, the reception and several new water villas are all two stories. It was refreshing to look out over the mottled blue seascape with a bit more of an aerial perspective.

Our penultimate day was a whirlwind of seeing two other Adaaran properties before our departure. We zipped down to Club Rannalhi for a tour by Front Office Manager Yaameen Abdul Rahman (see photo above), lunch and snorkel. And then back up to Vadoo for dinner and a night at their Prestige property.

Adrian Neville’s seminal resort guide ‘Resorts of the Maldives’ clarified that Club Rannalhi is very popular with an Italian tour operator who runs a ‘club’ concept, but that the resort still maintains a strong international mix of clientele.

I felt that the resort would be good for a Maldives novice. It is small and so easy to learn your way around. I also found the posted guidance very transparent and helpful. They had a sign at reception clearly indicating how one could enjoy a night at the distinctive water villa for a $100/night upgrade supplement (a very reasonable price in my view). They also had all of the activities, excursion, events and special meals all clearly posted on a board by reception. In the past, I have struggled to suss out the lay of the land at resorts until I could get to the concierge desk to see the excursion schedule, go to the restaurants to see the special meal postings, and go to the orientation session to hear everything else. Within minutes of arrival I could see my options and possibilities right away.

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Maldives Tour 2010 – Day 6: Adaaran Hudhuranfushi

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Hudhuranfushi banyan

Hudhuranfushi cultivates many treats from its size.

Immediately on arrival, the staff managers provided a quick briefing to everyone about the island. I really appreciated this welcome because it helped me to get oriented less stressfully. Often when we arrive, we have to wait for an evening drinks orientation and until then we are a bit at loss as to what we should do or plan. Sitting with a lovely drink after a day of travel was smart timing for this introduction. This care to provide a helpful welcome is even more extensive for the water villa guests where they have developed a welcome dock and room at the end of the villa jetty.

Hudhuranfushi is yet another fairly large island and my first question to Patrick De Krester (see photo above) is ‘what does the extra size get you?’ as a guest. Some people feel that you lose some of the ‘tiny island’ experience. Patrick really had some of the best answers of my week seeing many big islands. First, the long seafront contributed to one of its distinctions as one of the best ‘left hand break’ surf sites in the world (more on that in a later post). Also, the interior of the island was rich in mature and diverse tropical trees which created a towering canopy over many of the sand paths. Finally, the very centre has a bountiful food garden that you can tour. In fact, I would call it more of a plantation. Obviously, as a result, the island restaurants make plentiful use of the extensive array of home grown produce.

As it happens the General Manager Asim Mohamed has a particular interest in the culinary side as he first cut his teeth in ‘food and beverage’ operation when he entered the Maldive tourism industry in its earliest days. He has decades of experience and despite numerous assignments and bountiful opportunity to travel and work just about anywhere in the world, he can think of no better place to be than the Maldives. Drinks with him in the evening was a history lesson in the development of tourism in the Maldives.

Asim gave me a real appreciation for the great work that the resort staff and management do. Unlike most resorts in the world, one is not just running a guest and property operation, but you are running a mini-society. Even small islands like Fiji and Bora Bora have access to the national grid, sewage, supply chain, water supply, local labour force, etc. In the Maldives, the resorts are virtually self-contained: their own power generation, sewage treatment, water desalinization, mini-town for staff to have a reasonable life away from work, special supply considerations.

Hudhuranfushi has the substance and experience to make turn its size to advantage in many unsung and satisfying ways.

Hudhuranfushi sunset

 

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Maldives Tour 2010 – Day 5: Reethi Beach

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Reethi Beach jetty

Reethi Beach is a value for money Maldives Classic.

Small island (we could circum-perambulate, which is one of our favourite arrival rituals), excellent food strongly featuring on local produce and local cuisine (including a wood fired grill and a tandoori oven that produced the best, freshly baked naan bread I have ever eaten, despite years of trawling premiere UK curry houses). Sincere hospitality. A relaxed atmosphere with the staff, who freely intermingle with the guests in the bar and restaurants.

I was not surprised when Denise Schmidt (the acting manager) told me that 30% of their residents are repeat visitors. It is a classy enough place to fall in love with and relaxed enough to feel at home.

Stopping in at Reethi Beach Resort (RBR) was a real gear shift from the top of the line resorts we had been visiting earlier in the week. RBR is not a glitzy posh place. It maintains a deliberately laissez-faire, organic approach to the landscape without lots of fussy gardening. Leaves are periodically collected and shredded and then re-spread to allow the nutrients to return to the grounds naturally. The experience is much closer to being dropped off on a deserted tropical island that happens to have some dwellings on it. Much to my bias and delight, RBR has maximised the ‘no shoes’ experience. Sand paths wind everywhere including all the restaurants and even the games room.

But after its October revamp, it has upgraded in many areas. Its greatest strength is value for money. We are not very stingy people when we travel, but sometimes the super-premium prices prevalent in the Maldives do leave a bit of a sour after-taste, as you can’t help but choke a bit on the numbers. RBR boosts satisfaction because you pay very reasonable and even bargain prices. We ate a la carte at the Grill restaurant and I had a lobster bisque with a proper roux and brandy base that I struggle to find in the best restaurants in London – for less than the price of a Starbucks (menu price = $5).

Much as the super 5 stars blew us away in many respects, RBR did bring us down to earth. It reminded us that many distinctions are truly hair-splitting in this stunning destination. Nicely grilled fish caught that day is nicely grilled fish caught that day. It’s a rare massage or spa treatment that doesn’t make someone feel great and how great is really hard to argue. And of course, Maldives paradise is Maldives paradise even if you were just plopped down on one of the deserted islands. For people a bit more constrained on their budget, I can assure you that going to a strong, but lower priced resort like RBR, is going to deliver a stunning and memorable experience.

Reethi Beach jetty 2

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Maldives Tour 2010 – Day 4: Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru

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Landaa Giraavaru Reception

As a Craig Revel-Horwood would conclude…’A-may-zing!’

Without triggering a torrent of debate, Landaa’s recent accolade for one of the ultimate ‘Best Of’ awards – Conde Nast’s ‘Best in the Maldives’ – is no surprise. It is without doubt a contender for one of the top resorts in the Maldives.

As GM Armando Kraenzlin commented, “There is no perfect island”. He is right there. Landaa does not have an easily accessible house reef with a big ‘drop off’ (though it has an impressive lagoon reef enhanced by its coral regeneration as well as very easy and plentiful snorkel excursions that just about make up for this shortcoming).

Landaa is also quite a large island which not every one’s mug of tea (many prefer a setting closer to the ‘palm-tree-on-a-pile-of-sand’ idyll). But Landaa turns the scale to advantage with a sheer expanse of offerings and large accommodations (each villa is really the size of a small house with its own courtyard and pool). The obvious difficulty of getting around it minimised by a fleet of buggies which respond immediately.

Landaa’s not perfect in execution and on the surprising rare occasion a service or serving would disappoint just a bit.  But boy does it aim for perfection.  I think sometimes the nit-picks stemmed from being so constantly spoiled that one’s expectations just start to creep up stratospherically (and it is certainly one of the high end price resorts which will justifiably also fuel high expectations).

But what most captivates the most is the excruciating and creative attention to the tiniest details. Many of these will be highlighted in the no less than 16 ‘Best Of’ candidates I scrounged up in my very short stay. I was often anticipating the very best and then found myself surprised by Landaa delivering something beyond what I had ever fantasized about. I also have a number of petty ‘tests’ that for me separate the royalty from the pretenders and Landaa passed every one (eg. excellent souvenir t-shirts, decent bar snacks, positively supporting the most quirky seating requests I could devise).

If you get a big bonus or budget and are looking for a resort with big things on offer and attention to the smallest finer points, then you can’t miss with Landaa.

Landaa Giraavaru Water Villa

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Maldives Tour 2010 – Day 3: Sheraton Full Moon

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Sheraton Full Moon Sand Coast

If Kuda Hura is a story of regeneration, then Full Moon is one of reinvention.

Kuda took a distinctive property and made it better; Sheraton took a weak property and shifted gears entirely. While Kuda moved up the league ranking, Sheraton changed leagues with a promotion to the Premiership.

Similar to Kuda Hura, I had always shied away from Full Moon because it was a larger island situated on a broad table reef (can limit snorkelling). I was always tempted by some of the juicy offers from its 3-star days when the big size often meant lots of unsold inventory. But, I always decided that there is no value if there is no quality. Sheraton has come along and recast the resort as a player that can stand proudly shoulder to shoulder with any of the other many 5-stars.

With all of the resorts asserting 5-star status, it made me reflect on what really determined that 5th star. First of all, you have to get the fundamentals down. No obvious gaps or weaknesses. But really that’s just 4-stars and table stakes for playing in the 5-star big leagues. 5-stars calls for something exceptional. Something beyond the expected. It may not be best in class in everything, but it has to be in something. And, of course, the big driver to my visit this week has been to do research for Maldives Complete, especially the increasingly popular ‘Best Of’ section which showcases just these sorts of distinctives.

And Sheraton Full Moon didn’t disappoint as I came away with 6 ‘Best of the Maldives’ candidates (stay tuned for special postings on these). That is on top of the ‘Best for Kids Club’ and ‘Best for Bartending’ that have already been posted. I can now personally attest to the bartending kudos as I was served the best pina coladas I have ever had. And I always get pina coladas in the Maldives (a few years ago we had to put time and quantity limits on my pina colada consumption since I was starting at lunch and not being able to stand by dinnertime).

Other highlights were impressive but maybe not unique. They hold a weekly beach party with a DJ every Thursday night (lots of resorts have regular discos inside, but I love the notion of a regular dancing on the sand). The Euro Divers dive instructor Chris was the most fun, warm and engaging dive master I have met. Although I am an advanced diver, I am still a bit apprehensive especially with troubles I have equalizing. Chris was so supportive and attentive, it really put me at ease as evidenced by my longest underwater time ever (47 minutes) indicating how relaxed I was.

All in all, the best thing I can say about Sheraton Full Moon is that it thoroughly exceeded my big league expectations. That is quite a tall order for a resort asserting 5-star status and me being quite picky.

 

Sheraton Full Moon Dhoni

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