For those who prefer their resort (wo)man caves underwater, Amilla Fushi’s house reef features a striking cave right on its house reef. The Blue Hole is a popular dive site in the area exits and entries at different depths in three different places. It opens at 5 meters and then has exits at 12 and 21 meters.
Classic combos – champagne and canapes, red meat and claret, port and stilton…and of course whiskey and cigars. To facilitate the decadent luxury of lingering over a sumptuous meal, Joali features a private section of its Mura Bar dedicated to this postprandial pairing.
Best place in the Maldives for a glass of something. Soneva Jani’s “The Gathering Bar” features a captivating vitreous sculpture for its bar and seating:
Glass has long been a very fitting material for the Maldives with its aqua-green hues and light refracting properties evoking the glassy lagoons themselves.
We’ve had glass bottom boats and glass bottom tubs, Soneva Fushi’s Soneva in Aqua features a glass bottom tub in its floating villa.
LUX North Male Atoll lets your yacht stop over at its Overwater Retreat which is fitted out with its own private boat jetty. The most luxurious arrival since the now defunct helipads at Anantara and Maafushivaru.
One of the most frequently asked questions that I get is not about “visiting” the Maldives, but “passing through”. There are two major groups of these stopovers
What you can do is very dependent on how much time you have. The more time, the further down the list of alternatives below you can go…
Other islands which have featured day passes in the past or are reported to offer such visits (always best to contact the resort to confirm their current policy and protocol) include:
Secret Paradise also offers a range of excursions including snorkel trips which I have featured previously.
Havana ho-ho-ho na-na…
The Christmas and New Years holidays have a distinctive Latin vibe a Raffles Meradhoo with their “Raffles Revolution 2000”:
Dance workshops by Yesenia Selier (photo above), and music by Chino putting the sizzle into the salsa and the ay ‘kurumba’ into the rumba.
Most resorts don a bit of Yuletide adornment for the festive season, but Jumeirah Vittaveli has done theirs with a distinctively aquatic style with a giant sea-faring Christmas tree and a red-nosed jet ski drawing Santa’s sleigh:
Martime Christmas!
Homes festooned with Christmas lights to herald Santa’s arrival around the world, but if you don’t want him disturbing your tropical holiday with his festive cheer, then the two little green and red light on the outside of LUX North Male Atoll’s villas are its “do not disturb” system. Just flip the switch inside that illuminates them. You can choose between a silent night or a bearing gifts ye traverse afar. Merry Christmas everyone.
For the squinting crowd whose arms are not long enough to hold a menu far away enough to see it, the romance of under-the-stars candlelight might add to the romance, but it also means you can’t figure out what you can order for dinner. Resorts have come up with a various solutions to this problem including the fiddly clip-on mini light or the serve holding a torch. But Faarufushi has introduced electronic menu tablets with soft back lighting to provide optimal visibility.