Best of the Maldives: Beach Table Tennis – Mirihi

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Mirihi table tennis

Many think that the Olympics have some and gone, but here in the UK the ‘London 2012 Games’ were just the warm up. Now London is buzzing with the Paralympics which are equally sold out and in many ways even more enthralling than the conventional Games. One of the events I have been watching recently is Table Tennis.

For all those Table Tennis fans out there who are inspired to sharpen their skills, Mirihi lends a touch of paradise to the sport with a twist…’Beach Table Tennis’. Their table is set up in its own shaded alcove on a pitch of deep, soft sand. Reethi Beach has a ping pong table on sand, but it is indoors.

If such idyllic training isn’t enough to inspire you, then check out the video below. One of the greatest sports promotional short films ever filmed…

Meet the Superhumans.

Meet the Superhumans

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Best of the Maldives: Repeater Occupancy – Mirihi

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Reethi Beach repeater occupancy

How do you measure paradise?

Kurumba’s business facilities remind me of my time at Microsoft in such rooms where we spent countless hours pouring over the numbers and scorecards. From the business perspective of a resort, a key metric has to be ‘Repeater Guests’. Not only are these the lowest cost customers to market to (you know them) and sell to (they know you), but anyone coming back for more is likely a fan enough to be recommending your product to others.

I saw this impressive high water mark for Reethi Beach on their Facebook page with ‘110’. Out of an occupancy of 200, that is 55%. That compares to another popular ‘repeater’ resort Kuredu who informs me that they have had about 160 repeater guest at a given time. Yes, a higher total, but out of their 570 guest capacity, a lower (though still boast-worthy) 28%.

But the tops I can find is Mirihi. Another popular favourite with a near cultish following. The ‘average’ 40-50% over the year and have hit 80% repeater occupancy.

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Best of the Maldives: Business – Kurumba

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Kurumba board room

 

 

Happy Labor Day!

Americans are celebrating the end of the summer and the end of wearing white with countless final BBQs and beach trips this weekend. The holiday commemorates “celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers”.

The last thing one wants to do is ‘labor’ when you are visiting the Maldives, but it you have to, the place to do it is Kurumba…

  • Best Conference Facility
  • Closest to Male (for access to Maldive businesses and HQ as well as other business facilities and support not available on a resort)
  • Most Restaurants (if by any chance you are doing some business entertaining)
  • Business centre
  • Wifi (pervasively supported across the resort free of charge)

With the rise of remote working, people often protest at work’s intrusion into one’s private life. In actuality, the technology works both ways and can also be a windfall to extending one’s leisure time. One example is people being able to extend their time off and holidays with the investment of a small amount of work during them in order to keep things ticking over back at the office. Checking in for a short period might not be everyone’s idea of a vacation, but if a day of work allows one to extend their time in paradise by several days, then it seems like a good payback. And if you are going to adopt that strategy, choosing a resort set up for a bit of business is a wise move to make the work you do have to do as painless and easy as possible.

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Best of the Maldives: Higher Education – Sun Island

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Sun Island tourism college

 

 

One of the best ‘semester away’ ever I think. Villa College is a higher education institution with a number of campuses in the Maldives including one on the island resort of Sun Island. Which is pretty apropos given the one of the most prominent courses is ‘Tourism’.

Other offerings include…

“The college offer a number of diversified programmes and courses in the areas of Hospitality Management, Business Administration, Information and Technology, Educational Studies, and Human Resource Management. Educational Studies, Information Technology and Business Administration programmes are available up to a Masters’ Degree.”

While Maldivians are the largest part of the student body, the school does attract people from all over the world including Europe and Asia. They have posted the YoutTube virtual tour below to provide a closer look…

 

Sun Island Villa College virtual tour

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Best of the Maldives: SNUBA – Angsana Ihuru

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Angsana Ihuru SNUBA

 

Another option for kids immersing themselves in another world, is the new SNUBA offering a Angsana Ihuru. Atoll Paradise reports…

“Angsana Ihuru is the first resort in the Maldives to introduce the revolutionary SNUBA snorkel-dive cross-over. SNUBA allows you to dive down to up to 6 meters while breathing through a hose attached to a floating raft. Even small children can participate in this fun activity and SNUBA Doo on the surface with the help of a special floatation device, while their older siblings SNUBA dive down below…With an access to 30 diving sites less than an hour away from the resort, you can expect to see stingrays, scorpion fish, giant moray eels and myriads more of colorful marine life.”


SNUBA uba-doo!

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Best of the Maldives: Fantasy Kids Club – Soneva Fushi

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Soneva Fushi kids club 1

If your kids want to immerse themselves in an imaginary world of a less virtual type, then Soneva Fushi’s kids club is as out of this world as any level of Tron. Sort of like what Tim Burton would design for kids if he was stranded on a tropical island. Other creative offerings include yoga for kids (kids sitting quietly and contemplately…that is a magical fantasy world!).

Fantastic!

Soneva Fushi kids club 2

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Best of the Maldives: Beach Web Surfing – Paradise Island

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Paradise Island - beach web surfing

Another surfer’s Paradise in the Maldives. This time for ‘web surfers’. And offered up by the eponymous Paradise Island. The resort not only offers wifi that extends to the beach in front of their reception, but also they have run power outlets to the tables. As a result, you can surf for hours without running out of juice (well, you might need a top up for your pina colada).

Paradise Island - beach web surfing 2

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Best of the Maldives: Surfer Island – Coke’s Island

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Cokes Island 2

Okay, maybe not a ‘resort’, but to many surfers, still absolute luxury in paradise.

‘Coke Island’ is one of the first local island guest properties and has a special focus on surfing.

I read about it in the Maldivian Air Taxi in-flight magazine piece by Donna Richardson. I tend to keep the focus of Maldives Complete, especially the ‘Best of the Maldives’ section focused on the official resort islands. I have added a few of the Male hotels that do have a fair amount tourists (eg. Traders, Hulhule, Nasandhura). Recently, the government opened up the option for non-resort islands to host visitors in guest house as way to offer more possibilities to guests, generate direct income to local islands, and to provide more low-cost budget options. The Maldives heritage was actually in low cost diving lodges. Also, I see the Maldives becoming a more and more prominent surfing destination and I am trying to document many of the surf features. Richardson describes it…

“Just two hours dhoni ride from Male or 45 minutes by speedboat, this charming island offers a different experience to laid-back resort life. It gives backpackers the chance to live as the locals do. To boot you can get to grips with one of the best surf breaks in the country – ‘Cokes’ which too is named after the [nearby] fizzy drink factory. The first port of call for weary travellers is a new guest house specifically aimed at European backpackers called Surfers World. The camp itself features a five bedroom hostel with comfortable and clean beds with sleeps between two and four people per room.”

 

Cokes Island 1

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Rising Tide of Quality

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Gili Lankanfushi - gym vista

Every time I go to the Maldives, I am struck by the relentlessly rising tide of quality. Refurbishments, extensions, additions. Not just at the super-premium deluxe end of the market where the ever escalating arms race for wow factors marches on. But, also at the ‘regular’ 5-stars and even middle market properties. More and more resorts are playing more tasteful and appropriate soft jazz and acoustic rather than the pop chart songs which all too often jarred a sundowner. Tasteful colours and décor have replaced pervasive white walls and pedestrian prints/drawings of tropical scenes.

Some features were innovative when introduced, but are now getting more and more commonplace, eg…

  • Telescopes
  • Outdoor cinemas (made possible by the emergence of cheap, digital projectors)
  • Resort label bottled water
  • Hydroponic gardens

With such constant change, it is not surprising that after nearly 4 years of Maldives Complete, some of the early assessments on the ‘Best of the Maldives’ would reshuffle a bit. It is coming time that some of the ‘Best’ crowns get passed on to successors. I did choose the blog format so people could alert me to rivals for these distinctions. As time goes on and more research is accomplished, I’m starting to uncover some instances that trump the incumbent.

On my latest tour, I come upon a number specific features where the resort arguably surpass the reigning ‘Best of’ such as…

  • Basketball: Paradise Island has a complete, regulation court in great shape (photo below)
  • Gym Vista: Gili Lankanfushi has a broader expanse of big picture windows from a second story vista (photo above)

Paradise Island - basketball

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