If private shades are your thing, then Constance Halaveli offers it right out in the main pool. Mini, canopied private jetties are built over a shallow rock pool looking out towards the beach and ocean. Like having your own private deck but with a beach view (which water villas won’t give you) and instant access to a quick Olympic-sized freshwater dip.
From seeing through floors to not seeing through windows, Chaaya Reef Ellaidhoo beach villas feature tinted glass windows. Not only do these help to keep the interior cool in an eco-friendly way, but they also allow you to keep the shades open while maintaining privacy (though you need to keep the lights off in the room to maintain maximum privacy effect).
Perhaps the best villa for a cat would be Huvafenfushi’s Two Bedroom Beach Pavilion with Pool villa which features a second story glass floor (given the feline predilection for surveying surrounding from an elevated perch). All glass floors I know of are water villa features providing a vista to the aquatic life below, but Huvafenfushi’s villa is a beach property. You still get a water view as they have situated the pool directly underneath (though the water creatures are a bit more limited).
Multiple islands also have the more land faring cats (eg. Sun, Bathala, Mirihi). But Nika has 4. One belongs to one of the Maldivian staff and the others to the owners. Strangely they don’t bother the free roaming birds at all. They are quite sociable and they come out to say hello to the guests regularly.
Of all the yachts, there is a special fondness in our family for the doubly-sleek, but twice as stable catamarans. Our brother-in-law took us on his 30 foot cat the “Nauti-Gail” (named after Lori’s sister Gail) and recently they custom-built a 54 foot floating palace (“Nauti-Gail II”).
Reethi Rah’s fleet has a bigger cat, but I prefer their styling of LUX Maldives’ “Kokomo” which it offers up for cruises with some very experienced hands…
“[LUX] have an amazing Maldivian captain that has been sailing boats for past 20 years (believe it or not there are very few Maldivians with sailing experience!) and he combines the charters with a lot of local knowledge. He teaches guests the basics of sailing, shows guests secret snorkeling spots or shows guests old Maldivian recipes when cooking the freshly caught fish on the boats BBQ.”
Cat fight!
The New Year brings a new model year for a range of luxuries and this weekend’s annual London Boat Show kicks off the range of new yachts for the maritime elite. One & Only Reethi Rah is a virtual Maldives Boat Show every day of the year with its extravagant fleet of sleek cruisers (first in list above and rest below in order)…
One of my favourite parts of the Maldives are the jetties. They are like boulevard balconies to the spectacle of Maldivian marine life cavorting below often attracted to the pseudo-reef structure of the jetty itself. Resorts will often equip them with lighting which provides further attraction to the nocturnal creatures after dark.
Mostly these jetties take you to the arrivals welcome or the water villas, but Jumeirah Vittaveli has one which simply encircles part of the island. It really is more of a boardwalk than a jetty. And boardwalks are classic ocean-side features. Another benefit they bring is that people can walk along the water’s edge without the challenge of the sand if they are so disinclined (eg. less mobile folks, people dressed up for dinner).
The legendary Dom Perignon reportedly exclaimed when he first sipped the sparkling wine of his cellars “I am drinking stars.” Well, at Conrad Maldives Rangali, you can sometimes wade in them too. Set in the marine-rich South Ari atoll, Rangali is in the heartland of whale shark country who are drawn by the plankton-rich waters. Also, their marine cousins the mantas can be found so readily that they can be regularly seen of the Rangali jetty in the evening doing loop-de-loops in the pier light feeding on the plankton drawn there. But the possibly the most striking example of plankton spectacles was this photo released by Rangali this month showing bioluminensce on the beaches. The aquatic microrganisms emitting their glow with the gentle stimulation of the equally minute ‘waves’ ticking the shore. When we used to sail in Maine, our friends taught us how to prompt this phenomenon by stirring an oar in the nighttime ocean waters. You can even even swim through this constellation with Rangali’s night dive offer called “ocean of stars”.
May your 2014 be filled with sparkling wonders!
5…4…3…2…1…
For a most distinctive bubbly to accompany the ringing in of the New Year, consider this rare magnum Armand de Brignac Ace of Spades presented by the One & Only Reethi Rah beverage manager Craig.
…Happy New Year!
From a snorkel enhancement to a wreck, to a wreck enhancement to a snorkel. The Chaaya Reef Ellaidhoo extensive house includes its own wreck. A small inter-island cargo ship just off the main jetty. Usually such wrecks are the province of dive trips or excursions, but at Ellaidhoo, it’s just another handy feature of their extensively equipped house reef.