Best of the Maldives: Private Spa – JA Manafaru

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JA Manafaru - private spa outside

When we first started visiting the Maldives, most resorts didn’t have spas and a few had resident massage therapists on contract who would do a treatment on a table tucked in some makeshift area in the inner part of the island. Eventually, the resorts matured to the point where pretty much every one had a dedicated spa facility. As the resorts grew increasingly luxurious, new spacious residences often featured spaces where guests could get treatments in the comfort of their own villa. But for those who want that much more privacy for their treatments (even from their own fellow guests), JA Manafaru’s Royal Island Suite (which is more like a compound than a villa) includes its very own spa building. The personal spa facility includes a steam room, sauna and massage treatment room.

JA Manafaru - private spa 2

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Best of the Maldives: Perimenopause/Menopause Retreat – Amilla

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Amilla - Menopause Retreat

Today is June’s New Moon and it fall right in the middle of Amilla’s newly introduced “moon” of it own. There are “honeymoons” for starting the chapter of your life with your “honey”, “babymoons” for starting the family one, and now Amilla has introduced the first ever Maldives “menomoon” for ladies embarking on that “The Big Change”. Which is an especially apt name as the root “meno-“ in “menopause” comes from the Greek word “menos” meaning “month”, and the word “month” comes from the Old Norse word “menon” meaning “moon” (which is itself, coincidentally, “meno”). So really, it is a “moonmoon”.

And if my experience with Lori going through that “certain age” is any indication, then if there is ever a time a women could use an idyllic retreat, it is then.

Amilla describes:

  • “Even though it is a natural stage in life, many women find it daunting to navigate changes in their hormones during perimenopause and menopause, and all that comes with it – hot flushes, mood swings, lack of sleep, brain fog, weight gain around the middle, anxiety and dwindling confidence. But help is at hand! Amilla Maldives Resort and Residences is the first resort in the Maldives (and one of just a handful of resorts around the world) to have created a women’s perimenopause and menopause retreat…The three Perimenopause/Menopause Retreats at Amilla Maldives Resort will run between June 23rd to July 7th, 2022. It will be led by renowned naturopath and wellness coach, Claire O’Sullivan. The five-day journey has been developed to give women the tools they need to adapt to the changes in their bodies in a healthy and positive way, enabling them to tune into themselves rather than fight nature. With these tools, they will address physical, emotional and lifestyle issues, improving their habits and renewing their energy.”

  

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Best of the Maldives: MediSpa – Heritance Aarah

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Arrah - medispa 2

The pandemic COVID testing has introduced at least medical testing procedures to most resorts, but Heritance Aarah has extended medical grade procedures to its spa menus with an innovative range of diagnostics (see photo at bottom) and treatments.

A few examples include:

  • “Aesthetics – State of the art diagnostic scanning to pinpoint problems, allowing effective prescription of remedial medical aesthetic treatments. Reverse signs of ageing, reduce appearance of fine lines and resolve pigmentation problems. When you want to feel younger than the mirror is telling you, we have the solution.”
  • “Medical Assessment – Unique predictive software provides the most comprehensive medical assessments test to detect current health conditions and evaluates future disease risk to drive prevention that will increase your health span, as well as your lifespan.”

Other procedures include “nanoneedling” and “microneedling” for facials as well as “HIFU (High Intensity Focused Ultrasound)” for skin conditioning (“HIFU” is indeed a medical technique and in one of my previous day jobs heading up a med-tech company, we worked with HIFU for prostate cancer ablation).

The “Non-Surgical Facelift and Contouring” is also distinguished as possibly being the most expensive spa treatment available in the Maldives:

  • Upper Face Lift 60 min – $ 300.00
  • Double Chin Reduction 60 mins – $ 500.00
  • Mid Face Lift 90 mins – $ 800.00
  • Full Face Lift 120 mins – $1000.00
  • Full Face and Neck Lift 150 mins – $1500.00

Aarah is certainly putting the “treatment” into spa treatments.

Arrah - medicspa

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Best of the Maldives: Highest Meditation Area – Soneva Jani

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While the Maldives is renowned for its flatness, when a bit of elevation does poke its head into the air, the vistas are extra dramatic. Especially, with the destination’s signature tapestry of blues mottling the tranquil ocean below. Soneva Jani’s Soneva Soul Yoga Champa is perched above the palm tree canopy proving a breath-taking view for taking your Ujjayi breathes. Just the perfect place to channel your “yogi sitting on top of a mountain” spirit.

DiscoverSoneva’s Instagram feed has also shared its own panorama of this striking vista.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by AKSHAM (@ishotmaldives)

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Best of the Maldives: Beach Front Kids Club – SAii Lagoon

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SAii Lagoon - beach front kids club

The Maldives have come a long way from when it was mostly a destination for divers and honeymooners neither of which brought along little ones. Now (except for a few resorts positioning themselves as “adult only” or “children restricted”), the vast majority of resorts not only welcome children, but cater to them with a range of treats and activities some of which make the adults envious. The centrepiece of family-friendliness is the pervasive “kids club”. These havens of youthful and safe play spaces include all sorts of exciting features, but even the most lavishly equipped and designed tend to be tucked away somewhere in the interior of the island. SAii Lagoon’s Koimala & Maalimi’s Junior Beach Club and Camp has treated its young guests to seaside venue as picturesque as the one their parent’s are enjoying with keenly savoured peace and quiet.

   

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Best of the Maldives: Ocean Bound Plastic Items – Amilla

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Amilla - ocean bound plastic

Some of Amilla’s complimentary items are a gift to the guest and the planet. They provide a variety Mon India bags for guests’ use and some for guests to even take home made out of plastics that would otherwise be destined to end up in the ocean that surrounds their visit:

  • “We have started making bags and accessories out of Ocean Bound Plastic Recycled Fabric. We have developed an ethical supply chain, with our partners collecting plastic bottles and other kinds of plastic and preventing them from entering the seas and ocean. Recycling the collected plastic into fine polyester fabric. Once the fabric reaches us, we make Bags and accessories out of it.”

Amilla includes laundry bags, hairdryer bags, toilet roll bags, table covers and beach bags from Mon India for the guests’ use. And the kids get a welcome back pack (see below) inspired by the local star wildlife resident, the White Long-Tail.

Amilla - kids recylced plastic back pack

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How to Help Maldives Complete

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Helping Maldives Complete

Happy Birthday to…me! Not Maldives Complete, but myself personally. And if you happen to be looking for a birthday gift, here are a few suggestions.

In all seriousness, the THIRD most frequently asked question I get about Maldives Complete is “How can I ever thank you for your website and help?” (the #1 question is “With all your visits and expertise, which is the best resort?”, and the #2 is “Since you don’t make any money on the website and it take so much work, why do you do it?”). So I thought I would post a list of all the ways so many of you do and can help keep the site vibrant, fresh and useful:

  • SOCIAL SHOUT OUT – A Facebook post, Instagram post, Tweet, etc. with shout outs tagging MaldivesComplete is a pretty easy hat tip.
  • COMMENT TO RESORT – When at the resort, especially if you are really happy with a choice that Maldives Complete helped you to make, let the resort front desk staff know “Maldives Complete helped me make this choice”.
  • SCOUT PHOTOS/BEST-OFs – If you see that a Resort Profile or a Room Profile is missing a photo that you can snap, please do and forward it to
  • PATREON – And at the end of the day, if you feel like putting your hand in your pocket to chip in for the extensive costs of running the site, I have recently added a Patreon page.

Thanks for all the help everyone provides and I hope Maldives Complete continues to be a helpful tool to find just the right trip to paradise.

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Best of the Maldives: 24 Hour AI Bar – Siyam World

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Siyam Word - 24 hour bar

It’s not just location that has become flexible in the digital age, but time. People bemoan the 24×7 always-on culture of today’s high-powered business, but the problem is not the “24×7” part, but the “always-on” part. And it doesn’t have to be work that’s available 24-7. Siyam World offers a 24-hour bar Kulhivaru sports bar as a part of its all-inclusive package:

  • “KulhiVaru for live sports, cask beers, bar bites and great company. All major national and international games are broadcasted, meaning you’ll stay up to date with all the latest scores.”

Especially great for catching those football matches being played back home in a different time zone.

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Best of the Maldives: Co-Working – The Crossroads

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SAii Lagoon - coworking

The remote working revolution, powered by the pandemic lock-down, has transformed the extent to which people can unshackle themselves from the location (and time) constraints of doing their job. Some people have taken advantage of their new found freedom to work in the cozy idyll of a shed at the bottom of their garden. But others have taken the workplace revamp to the extremes extending their Maldives holidays by doing a bit of work abroad.

“Residences” and long-term stays (ie. months) have risen dramatically here. A good Internet connection and a growing standardisation of teleconferencing as the default mode of doing business make this increasingly feasible and appealing. It used to be that face-to-face included was the default and you did teleconferencing when you really had to, but now the situation has flipped).

To further help you whistle while you work, SAii Lagoon has introduced the first ever co-working space in the Maldives:

  • “Crossroads Maldives is set to open the Maldives first-ever co-working space in the Maldives located at The Marina at CROSSROADS Maldives..‘Your SPACE’ at CROSSROADS Maldives would be the first of its kind in the Maldives where freelancers, remote workers, start-ups, and other independent professionals can work together in the communal setting. Offering flexible membership levels from hot desk to designated desks and spaces, members would be able to enjoy complimentary return transfers from Malé, free Wi-Fi, secretarial services including printing, scanning, mail delivery, meeting room booking and self-service coffee and tea. Additional benefits include exclusive discounts from the diverse range of dining and shopping outlets at The Marina.”

Other resorts have added enhanced work spaces in the villas (now tagged with the new tag of “Remote Working”), but SAii Lagoon and Hard Rock have introduced a space dedicated to such working in their Crossroad centre. That way one can get some privacy and other business support services for getting some vital work done (hopefully, so you can stay even longer in paradise with all the fires put out at home).

This is a bit of a special topic for me as one of my other websites/blogs has been looking at the concept of remote and flexible working long before it became trendy – Dynamic Work. As it happens, I am posting this piece from another island paradise, the Galapagos, where Lori and I are taking our Maldives-honed diving skills for a different type of diving adventure and our first ever live-aboard experience.

Why have a faux background on your Zoom call, when you can have the real thing?

  

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Best of the Maldives: Suitcase TV – Soneva Jani

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Soneva Jani - suitcase TV

Masks are not just to protect from contagion, but also to protect the aesthetics of a stay in paradise as Soneva Jani craftily demonstrated with its hideaway suitcase television. When not in use, it just looks like an unassuming trunk at the foot of the bed. But if you feel like a little bedtime entertainment, like the roof above, your remote can fire up some distraction.

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