Best of the Maldives: Ocean View Office –Hideaway Beach

Hideaway Beach - water villa deck office

A bit belated Labor Day post as I myself was on holiday yesterday (not the Maldives sadly). With remote working becoming the new default, high powered professionals (the work-hard-play-hard set who have always been a big market segment in the Maldives) can now extend their stay by keeping just enough tabs on the work back home. I’ve actually taken that approach for years. People wonder why I would want to interrupt paradise with thinking about work. I just see it as an investment…by doing 5% work during my stay, I can often extend my stay at least 50% (at 10x return of parardise time).

If I was heading out to the Maldives during a particularly busy time, I would consider Hideaway Beach where their water villa features a desk right by the water. Now that’s a corner office! Note: do be careful though (especially if you are mixing work with pina coladas) not drop your computer in the water. You might laugh, but I actually did this in the Maldives at our water villa a few years back. I picked up my backpack that I carried it in and hadn’t zipped it properly and it popped out, bounced on the deck and plunged into the water (fortunately, I was insured, backed up and had brought a spare with me).

Best of the Maldives: Beach Dinner in Bed – Hideaway Beach

Hideaway Beach - beach dinner in bed

The Christmas-New Year period is the ultimate calendar week for lingering languor. Lori and I couldn’t make it to the Maldives, but we are still enjoying lounging by the seaside at our family’s place in North Carolina. Our feet are up and we are grazing on American junk food. But it still doesn’t compare with the dormant decadence of Hideaway Beach’s beach bed complete with candlelight and delicacies.

Best of the Maldives: Halloween Party – Hideaway Beach

Hideaway Beach - halloween party

Happy Halloween!

When we moved to the UK in the early nineties, the British didn’t really celebrate Halloween. It’s since become a more popular holiday, but nothing on par with the USA where it is the second biggest celebration after Christmas. It’s sort of the dream kids holiday – they get to dress up and get free candy. Not wanting to deprive our own little ones of this annual ritual, we hosted our own quite spooktacular Halloween fun all through their childhood and became quite expert in these lavish affairs.

Many resorts will have a few decorations out today and a few sweeties on hand for the young’uns, but Hideaway Beach is the first resort I found that has assembled a comprehensive set of Halloween festivities with all the de rigeur traditions…

  • Pumpkin Carving
  • Creepy Mask Making
  • A Spooky Movie
  • Scary & Spooky Face Paint
  • Trick or Treat Activities
  • Fashion Show Costume Contest

Appropriately, Hideaway Beach is where we first (and only time) spotted a Ghost Pipe Fish (see photo below).  Which make me think that if I could get to the Maldives for Halloween, I would go dresses as a Batfish (Batfish crazy!).

Hideaway Beach - ghost pipe fish

Best of the Maldives: Segway – Hideaway Beach

Hideaway Beach - segway

All proper blokes like a good gadget. And this weekend brought the return of Clarkson and gang to our screen with the successor to the now toppled Top Gear – Grand Tour (from “TG” to “GT”). The GT trio have made a career out of careening around on all sorts of things on wheels including the Segway. In fact, Clarkson rides one in his advert for the new service which hosts his show (see below).

If you too want to get your gear gadgetry going, then Hideaway Beach offers Segway tours of the resort. The prices are – 30 Minutes ($30), 60 Minutes ($50), 4 Hours ($150), 8 Hours ($200.00)

Best of the Maldives: Fly Fishing – Hideaway Beach

Hideaway Beach - fly fishing

Fly-fishing may well be considered the most beautiful of all rural sports.” – Frank Forester

If there is anyone who appreciates a little quiet corner of a solitude, it is the fly fisherman. And Memorial Day this week is the start of many fly fishing seasons in the USA (where the sport is biggest). We can all dangle a line off a dhoni, or run a line from a cruise for a some deep sea fishing. But of all the piscary persuasions, fly fishing seems closest to the spirit of the Maldives – mill pond calm water teeming with fish in the tranquil shallows.

The resort for castaway casting is Hideaway Beach

“We have a plenty of ­fishing points around where you can explore for your own experience both local and international style with the guidance of our local ­fishing guide, who have been trained locally and internationally. Island Hideaway provides a wide range of ­fishing opportunities for fly ­fishing anglers in this nation famous ­fishing zone.”

Fish you can catch include Bone Fish, Blue Fin Trevally, Giant Trevally, Big Eye Trevally, Rainbow Runner, and Groupers.

The prices are $500 for a half day (5 hours) on a ski boat with a local guide (1 or 2 anglers) or $900 for a full day (9 hours). The excursion includes refreshments of fruit and drinks. You can also have a try for bonito fish on the way to the sand bank.

The resort has a designated fly fishing area on the resort (see map directly below), but also offers fly fishing excursions on other nearby islands (see map at bottom).

Fly-fishing is the most fun you can have standing up.” – Arnold Gingrich

Hideaway Beach - fly fishing resort map

Hideaway Beach - fly fishing area map

Best of the Maldives: Relationship Reality TV – Hideaway Beach

Hideaway Beach - Made in Chelsea 1

One group that needs little prompting to get the party started is the cast of “Made In Chelsea”. This week they recorded their Episode 11 titled “Made in Maldives” from Hideaway Beach resort.

An eye-opening reality series that follows the lives and loves of the socially elite 20-somethings who live in some of London’s most exclusive postcodesStephanie hopes a holiday to the Maldives will be just the tonic to get all of her friendships back on track, while Toff and Richard take their friendship to the next level.”

I had to call this “Best of” award “Relationship Reality TV” to differentiate it from “Challenge Reality TV” of Survivor which has already been recognised.

I’m always surprised that more TV shows and movies don’t get shots at this magical backdrop. Especially, nearby Bollywood. (If anyone has connections to the Indian or French film companies, our award-winning daughter Isley has a stunning script based in the Maldives and based on a true story – #thatguywhohasascript)

Hideaway Beach - Made in Chelsea 2

Best of the Maldives: Tub Rain Showers – Hideaway Beach

Hideaway Beach - rain shower

Rain descending from above is not typically a welcome feature of a Maldives stay, except when the rain shower is actually, literally, a “rain SHOWER”.

When we first started coming to the Maldives, massage and power showers were the luxury soakers. Shortly thereafter, “rain showers” became the table stakes default for a self-respecting super-premium resort.

Hideaway Beach resort goes even further with their rain shower offering a trifecta of distinction…

  1. Double shower – A double rain shower. No more getting chilly with having to swap in and out of who gets to be under the water. The resort’s Ocean Villas also have two person rain showers in their bathrooms.
  2. Likely the “tallest shower” in the Maldives (with it reaching several metres up to the bathroom ceiling),
  3. Tub/Shower combo – Another “finally seen” ticked off.

Hideaway Beach - tub rain shower

Best of the Maldives: Water Park – Hideaway Beach

Hideaway Beach - water park 1

If you need a little help with your leaping, then I recommend a visit to Hideaway Beach’s new water park. In fact, it looks like one of the best places to leap in the entire Maldives. Water trampoline, water slide, water bounce cushion, water climbing walls…

Consisting of six inflatables such as a trampoline, slide, balance bar, linked by floating pontoons, this will be open daily and is free of charge to all of our guests (both little and grown up!).

It even includes the Inflatable Body Launcher I called for in “Haven’t Seen Yet in the Maldives – Part 6”.

Geronimo!

Hideaway Beach - water park 2

Hideaway Beach - water park 3

Best of the Maldives: Maldivian Scenes – Hideaway Beach / Conrad Rangali

Hideaway Beach - Maldives art 1

Portraits of the Maldives using a more conventional medium are the latest highlight at Hideaway Beach. The décor in their newly launched Deluxe Sunset Beach Villa features commission by Eagan Badeeu

“Eagan Badeeu is a prominent local artist and Maldivian national treasure, his works mainly focus on abstract or impressionist seascapes and landscapes”

They have an impressionistic feel with a rich texture, colour and light. His work can also be found at Conrad Rangali.

Hideaway Beach - Maldives art 2

Hideaway Beach - Maldives art 3