All of the Maldives resorts welcome their guests with various treats from tropical drinks, scented cold towels and even music, but Komandoo is the first I have seen to have their own welcome song. Delivered with heart and enthusiasm accompanies by bodu-beru drumming, it is really warm fun. The full sensory experience welcome (scented towels, refreshing drink, dulcet tones, and pleasing smiles).
Italy has one of the strongest heritages in the Maldives along with the British and the Germans. At least half a dozen resorts are primarily Italian in clientele and background. But the ‘nonno’ of them all has to be Palm Beach.
Over 85% of Palm Beach’s guests are Italian and nearly 100% during the peak holiday season of this month. They attract the glitterati of Italian society from Italian movies stars and footballers to prominent politicians and business leaders. This dominance is evident in the prevalent Italian fare on offer down to the San Pelligrino water as well as a very Mediterranean family vibe throughout.
So how would one determine the ‘Best’ for Italians? Well, for starters, it might be the place where the Italian experts on the Maldives so on their vacation. And by total coincidence, the single day that we stopped at Palm Beach was the final day for Roberta Migliarini and Paolo Bellici, founders and operators of not just one of the top Italian sites on the Maldives, but one of the top sites worldwide – MondoMaldive.
As if their own presence wasn’t testimony enough, I did ask them what they thought the best islands for Italians would be in the Maldives. They wouldn’t be drawn into declaring Palm Beach the best, but it was very clear that they thought extremely highly of the place. They tried to make a case for some of the others, but just didn’t convince me that the others were superior (unless you wanted something different in atmosphere or offerings.., my saying ’there is no best island, only the best for you island’).
We spent the evening chatting about all thing Maldives. By further coincidence, I had just bought their guide book MondoMaldives at the airport gift store on arrival. Like their site, surely the most comprehensive resource on the details of the various resorts. They inscribed my copy “Per le vostre stresse nostre passione per le Maldive.” And to top it off, they presented me with an official MondoMaldive t-shirt (see below). Note to resorts and entrepreneurs – the MondoMaldive t-shirt features the words ‘I love the Maldives’ in the native language of Dhiveli which attracted constant remark and attention from all the Maldivian staff who saw it throughout my stay. Someone should ask MondoMaldives about selling their t-shirt as well as their book. They are a great couple as friendly and warm as their website is comprehensive and useful. I can see why their Forum is such a hit (unfortunately, it is only in Italian).
Because the resort is so popular with Italians, it is a bit unsung in other countries, but Palm Beach welcomes all nationalities enthusiastically and noted that a steadily growing number of British have discovered its charms.
Ciao bellissima Palm Beach!
Perhaps the most relaxing times in our decade and a half of visiting the Maldives were lounging by the pool. Kanuhura has turned that relaxation into an art.
First of all they boast one of the largest pools in the Maldives. A contortionate, curvaceous beast like some sort of voluptuous gymnast. As pleasant on the eye as the soothing to the skin.
Then they add a unique in its own right…a bank of Jacuzzi loungers (see photo above). Not a separate jacuzzi, but a air jets right in the pool. And not some little space where you sit on some bench-like contraption trying not to inadvertently play footsie with some other guest who happened drop in. Your own, full-length, individual, head-propping, leg-stretching lounger. In the pool.
To top it all off, they have simply the most elaborate pool-side service I have come across anywhere. More on that in a future piece, but just hint of it…’sun glass polishing service’.
Ahhhhh.
resort
Forget your underwater spas, restaurants, bedrooms and night clubs. I’m on my honeymoon and I don’t want to be looking at a bunch of Brown Spotted Groupers. I want to look at my gorgeous bride. And that includes my underwater viewing fun. Here in one of Naladhu’s private villas, they have combined the outdoor pool with the outdoor bathtub. Relaxing in a soothing tub while watching my gorgeous bride taking a dip in her ‘skimpiest’ of suits. Now that’s a treat.
For people who really want to get away from it all. For people for whom going to some exotic island in the middle of the Indian Ocean is not remote enough. For people who want to go their own little haven of solitude in the middle of the ocean off the exotic island in the middle of the ocean.
A hammock in the middle of the ocean.
Genius.
This view in the photo above is not from some island, but from the middle of the ocean (in a kayak) looking back at Anantara Dhigu. It is over 100 yards off shore (though the depth here at a lazy-butt-cooling high tide is about 4 feet).
My fortnight tour of the Maldives identified 89 potential new ‘Best of Maldives’ features (to add to the 169 I have already posted and the further 94 that I have drafted in the wings). Over the upcoming fortnight, I will be featuring the first ‘Best Of’ pieces stemming from the trip. They might not be the biggest or most dramatic, just a sample of some my favourites.
Speaking of favourites, our favourite food of the trip was hands down the Italian-Fusion restaurant on Anantara Veli, Geckos. When I first was told about it, I was a bit sceptical. ‘So what is it? Pizza and sushi? What’s the fusion?’ And it is indeed the ‘fusion’ that makes it special. Executive Sous-Chef Ken explained that they use indigenous ingredients from both Japanese and Italian cuisine and do indeed ‘fuse’ them into novel renditions of familiar dishes and styles.
Yes, they have Sushi Pizza (the sushi is put on after it’s cooked and the pizza base is a thinner style). They have Italian pasta made with Japanese togorashi and nouri. Even the Italian garlic bread is accented with Japanese spices. I had the Teppanyaki pork on lemon grass and crab meat sauce which was stunning. The chef’s specialty is ‘Ebi Pizza’ made with prawns, crab, dry roasted seaweed, Japanese spices, Mishima yaksri
Ken even offers the guest recipes of any of the dishes you crave (my wife wants the recipes for the ‘Roasted sesame seed ice cream’ and ‘spiced salmon on Tagliatelle with wafu sauce’).
‘buon appetito’ in Japanese
Best Of the Best – A lot of people ask ‘what is the best island’, but the real question to ask is ‘what is the best island FOR YOU.’ As Mohamed Thoufeeq, Reservations Manager at Kuredu says “Resorts create their own atmosphere and that is actually the tradition with local islands.” I kept being surprised by the many funky and quirky bits I would uncover. I would often arrive at an island with the first impression that everything looked so conventional that nothing would stand out. But after a few minutes of walking around, all of these hidden treasures would reveal themselves.
Two weeks versus one week. This was our first two week trip. We used to think that a single week was just fine. That after seven days you get a bit tired of the resort food, miss home, run out of clean clothes. Aside from just ‘more Maldives’ and ‘more time down time,’ there was one dramatic impact that the fortnight stay had over the single week. It meant that when you woke up and the day wasn’t quite so sunny to start with or if a day didn’t quite go the way you wanted, you didn’t worry that one of your precious days was lessened. You figured that you had plenty more and so each inevitable, minor shortcoming was easier to shrug off than the 7 day stay. It was the difference between savouring a fine meal and wolfing it down. I do think that the ideal is probably 10 days – ie. a week straddling two weekends. Then you get most of the 14 days while only burning one week of holiday time. With the increasing availability of commercial flights and direct booking, such a tailored timing is much more feasible than ever (versus the tour operators who want to slot you into nicely synchronised 7 day segments).
Rainy Season. One of the top frets of prospective visitors is rain spoiling any part of their stay. The weather is the weather and anything can happen anywhere. Mother Nature offers no guarantees on planet Earth. That disclaimer said, in my experience, the Maldives worst rainy season is on a whole better the UK’s best sunny season. Official meteorological data is the most objective and scientific, but nonetheless I offer this anecdotal perspective because the ‘quality’ of the weather can get lost in the statistics. Travelling in late July, normally we would be past the depths of the rainy season in May and June. But July is the third wettest month and due to a relatively dry and sunny June people were saying that the rainy season was stretching into July. In fact, when we looked at the forecasts on the night before our departure there was an unending string of thunderstorm icons. So what really happened? Out of 15 days, we got a couple of showers at night while we were tucked in our beds, and a couple of days where you felt some drips and asked ‘is it raining?’ I would say that most days there were clouds in the sky instead of the iconic boundless blueness mirroring the aquamarine sea below.
Kurumba is perhaps the most unsung house reef there is. You don’t often hear about it being mentioned as one of the tops, but I must say that Kurumba is simply the best house reef we have ever snorkelled. And we have snorkelled dozens. Especially for reef sharks, Kurumba is Shark Central (though a local tells me that Bandos is also extremely good for reef sharks). Our first snorkel at Kurumba we lost track of how many sharks we saw at about 20. Some well over a metre long. When they swim, sharks shake their butt more than a double-jointed salsa dancer. We thought maybe it was a fluke. Sometimes you see things snorkelling and other times you don’t is typically how it goes. But every single day we snorkelled at Kurumba, we saw tons of fish and lots of reef sharks of all sized.
But that wasn’t all. Lots of sting rays (mostly by the water sports centre), every type of lion fish, a turtle we swam with. A friend we met found an octopus in the lagoon and took lots of pictures. My wife’s favourite was finding a Zebra Moray (see picture below). They are very shy so she waited by his hovel for a long time hoping for him to pop out a bit more for a better photo op.
Dusk seems to be a particularly good time for fish activity. What we recommend is starting your snorkel around the front/reception side of the island (a bit to the left of the restaurants) around 4:00 pm and circle the house reef leisurely until you hit the Sunset Bar. Pull up there just in time for a sunset pina colada. Then, order your dinner right there too and eat on the beach while the sunset sky changes hues and the stars start popping out overhead.
Welcome by Abdul Samad Ibrahim to Club Med Kani
Activity Central, Maldives.
Many resorts seem to tick the box by offering a night time DJ, local band, traditional dancing or the like. It always seems a bit depressing when so many times these events are so sparsely attended. At Club Med Kani, these events are always hopping with enthusiastic and ‘join in the fun’ audiences.
And it’s not just night time that people get bopping. When I arrived at lunchtime, the water aerobics was just beginning. Perky announcements were blaring from the loud speakers around the common areas repeated in half a dozen languages. Then a hard driving club beat came over the sound system and no less than 30 people aged 5 to 75 jumped in the pool and started moshing to the instructions of a couple of fit youngsters.
The energy is pulsating constantly. No fear of boredom here. Lots of laughter and chatter everywhere I went. “Friendly and convivial” is how the resort was described by Chief of Village, Ryan Leach.
Club Med Kani is not for lovers of quiet unless you sequester yourself on the premium side of the island. Like Kuredu and Meeru, Club Med Kani has segregated a part of the island for a more premium product. It is not officially classified as ‘5 star’, but all of the design criteria are 5-star quality. The trademark boisterousness is kept to a minimum down that end, it seems.
High octane fun.
You never forget your first time.
Lori and I returned to the first ever island that we visited in the Maldives back in 1996. Back then it was the 3 and half star ‘Laguna Beach.’ Simple, but enchanting for us first-timers. It wasn’t the perfect resort, but it seemed perfect to us. One of our recommendations is to go to the most basic resort you think that you can tolerate on your first visit to the Maldives. The Maldives have so much beauty and delight to take in, if the resort piles even more on top, it is almost too much to take in at once.
On our transport over there, we felt like we were going home, but you know the adage, ‘you can’t go home again.’ Certainly not to Laguna Beach. Universal Resorts has since completely overhauled it into a dazzling 5-star gem renamed ‘Velassaru’.
If the W is over-engineered, over-priced or just OTT for you, the Velassaru offers a cut-rate version of a glossy, stylish, modern 5-star. Velassaru is less than half the price of the W Retreat. Kind of ‘V’ as half a ‘W’. The one area where Velassaru does best the W is with the glass floor in its top room. Velassaru’s Water Villa Suite boasts a 138 square foot glass floor beating the W’s top floor of 100 square feet (it also boasts one of the longest private water villa pools at 100 feet).
Another thing that Velassaru did better than the W was its desk location. Like Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru, they have placed the desk behind the bed, facing outside. I have only seen it in a few resorts, but thoroughly applaud it as someone who regularly has to be on the computer and do work during my stays. It’s bad enough if you have to be on the computer or even work in paradise, but most of the resorts add insult to injury by placing the desks in some back area facing a blank wall, making you feel even more like someone being punished.
One thing we remembered so fondly about ‘Laguna’ was its colourful landscape. We have not yet come across an island with such dense flowers as we remember from Laguna (Vadoo is close with its two gardens taking up the better part of the island). While not quite as concentrated, there are still lots of flowers lining the paths, especially a hyper-abundance of multi-coloured bougainvillea.
The colours don’t end with the greenery. Velassaru could make a case for a ‘Best for Turquoise’ award. It is surrounded by an extended, shallow, sandy lagoon which produces a dazzling azure blue everywhere you look. On the water villa side, the lagoon extends over a mile. We still remember snorkelling that part of the island with our small children. Even though the water was only waist deep, we were well over a half mile from shore and felt, ‘Hmmm…maybe it’s time to head back.’
While completely transformed, it was certainly a treat to head back to Laguna in its new guise as Velassaru.