Best of the Maldives: Room Bonus – Safari Island

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Safari Island - dhoni room bonus

Bonus room! Not just an extra bed, but a completely distinctive experience sleeping on the water. Not just in a water villa perched over the water, but in a Maldivian-styled dhoni yacht. Not just hearing the ocean gently sloshing below you, but feeling the ocean languidly rock you to sleep.

If you are lucky, some resorts will occasionally offer a free upgrade for a night or more from their beach villas to their water bungalows.  But Safari Island, if you stay 7 nights you get a free dhoni tour like a sunset cruise or fishing. If you stay 14 nights, then you get a free night on the dhoni.

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Best of the Maldives: Most Bedrooms – Soneva Fushi

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Soneva Fushi residences 2

Festival of Sleep is possibly the true and appropriate end of the holiday festivities. Established to “some shut-eye and relaxation after the holidays”, possibly the chronological and spiritual antithesis to “Black Friday” which kicks off the mayhem of the season.

The resort, in fact villa, that could open the door to its own sleep gala is Soneva Fushi’s Private Residence with 9 bedrooms (though one is described as staff quarters)…

  • “The residence is a two storey collection of villas with an expansive wraparound swimming pool spread over a large area with generous outdoor living space. The master bedroom boasts its own private swimming pool measuring 111.3 m2 and an outdoor bathroom but there are five additional guest bedrooms, a children’s bedroom, a smaller nanny’s bedroom and of course one for the Mr./Miss Friday butler.”

Rental prices will range from $11,300 – $30,000/night depending on the season.

Wishing everyone a restful recovery from the holiday season!

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Best of the Maldives: Door Closer – Soneva Fushi

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Soneva Fushi door opener

You know what they say about adversity and opportunity – when one door closes, another one opens. And when this door at Soneva Fushi opens, it also closes on its own. With one of the most eco-friendly mechanisms ever devised straight from Gilligan’s Island – the coconut counterweight. No worries about closing the door behind you (that goes especially for you 2016!).

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Best of the Maldives: Round Door – Noovilu Suites

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Anantara Dhigu - New Year bed decorating

Happy New Year 2017!

Lots of fun traditions to celebrate this annual milestone – Hogmanay ‘First Footing’, fireworks and noisemakers (supposedly to scare away the devil), Southern cooking collard greens for wealth and black-eyed peas for fortune.

I don’t really cover guest houses, but I couldn’t resist Noovilu Suites’ portal which has one of the most all-aRound delightful ways to let out the old year (see photo above).

An number of resorts are also marking the occasion with special bed decorations like Anantara Dhigu’s (above) and Amari Havodda (below).

May your 2017 be prosperous to afford many visits to the Maldives (even if you do have to mind you budget in a guest house, at least you might find a door ….)

Noovilu Suites - round door

Amari Havodda - New Years bed decoration

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Best of the Maldives: Couples Scrub – Ayada

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Ayada - couples scrub

After all that beach posing, every power couple will want to power wash in style before tonight’s big New Year’s Eve celebrations. Fortunately, Ayada offers a special couples scrub spa treatment. Couples massages are pretty commonplace, but a couples scrub I haven’t seen as elaborately done as at Ayada. Complete with Esta brand cleansers. 

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Best of the Maldives: Facebook Live – LUX South Ari Atoll

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LUX South Ari Atoll - live event

If you want to get that much closer to “being there” in the Maldives with their holiday spectacles, then check out LUX South Ari Atoll’s Facebook Live events. This week they featured their fire show by Totem Entertainment as well as Santa’s arrival by seaplane.

Facebook Live is just the latest in LUX’s social media pioneering. Led by marketing manager Dolores Semeraro, LUX was one of the first resorts to embrace Twitter with active and creative uses (like her Twitter chats).

LUX south Ari Atoll - santa seaplane visit

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Best of the Maldives: Pageant – Paradise Island

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Paradise Island - pageant

The holidays are filled with treats and at Paradise Island this week one fashion feast is the annual holiday pageant where one lucky sun-kissed guest will be crowned “Miss Paradise”….

  • “’Miss Paradise’ is one of the evening events included in our Christmas and New Year program. The participants/pageants are from the in-house guests and panel of judges are also selected from the house. It is a short event conducted at the Main Bar floor with a small runway selecting and announcing the winners.”

Most Christmas pageants I’ve ever been to involve toddlers dressed up as shepherds and sheep falling over each other while they mumble out contrived verses.

Paradise Island - pageant 2

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Best of the Maldives: Star Wars – Six Senses Laamu

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Six Senses Laamu - Star Wars

The holidays call for merry food and drink and of course the traditional collapse in front of the TV to watch a holiday favorite like “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “Die Hard”. And December is second only to the summer for blockbuster Hollywood releases. This festive season brings back the greatest film franchise of all time, Star Wars, gracing the silver screen with the azure landscape of the Maldives. I’ve often said that part of the magic Maldives is that it doesn’t just seem like an exotic place on the planet…it seems like another planet altogether. There are a few places on Earth that have that other-worldly feel – Iceland, Grand Canyon, and this collection from CondeNast.

Fanboys who trek to Tunisia to see the “Tatooine” set of early Star Wars episodes will want to start getting their bookings to Six Senses Laamu, the only resort in the Laamu atoll where “Rogue One” filmed the idyllic scenes from planet Scarif.

Six Senses Laamu - Rogue One aerial

Six Senses Laamu - Rogue One

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Best of the Maldives: Toddy – Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu

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Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu - palm toddy

Christmas is just a few sleeps away and most of us are nestled by the fire accompanied by shot of hot toddy as the winter chill (first day of winter yesterday) hits the air. And just because you are spending your holidays in the sun-drenched tropics doesn’t mean you can’t also enjoy the sweet and spicy distilled delights of a toddy. Especially at Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu which serves palm toddies (thanks Paola). In fact, they can be delivered to your door daily. The Christmas ‘spirit’ all year round!

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