Best of the Maldives: Beach Volleyball – W Retreat

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W Retreat beach volleyball

If you like your beach time a bit more active, then probably the most popular beach activity is Beach Volleyball. Not just in the Maldives, where it is definitely the sport you will see most often set up at resorts by the waterside with often a keen staffer stirring up some play among the guests. But worldwide in this Olympic year. In my day job with Red Bee Piero, we are starting to prepare special functionality for covering the London 2012 Games and Beach Volleyball is right at the top of the list of events that major market broadcasters cover in detail.

A number of resorts have the nets and line markers laid out quite well. But only a few have the soft sand for those diving saves. W Retreat not only offers both of these, but a number of other uniques in its world-class standard Beach Volleyball court. First, it has padded net stands for further protection from ambitious play. Secondly, the W provides ‘antennae’ for out of bound marking on net (the photo doesn’t show them).

Spike!

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Best of the Maldives: Bean Bags–Velassaru / Baros

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Velssaru bean bags

If you don’t want to sit on a gigantic beach towel, then Velassaru has the biggest beach beanbags I have ever come across…”Fatboys”. Bean bags are becoming more an more popular in the Maldives as a cozy seating. We saw them at Kurumba and Kandooma. But ‘Fatboys’ are the Cadillac, or should I say ‘Hummers’ of the genre.

According to a Daily Mail feature, the Fat Boys are also at nearby sister Universal resort of Baros as well…

  • “With a flourish, Jihad threw open the door to our villa and our children-squeezed past us, ignoring the emperor-sized bed, the teak decor, flatscreen TV, iPod charger and the Moet et Chandon on ice, and instead headed straight for the dazzling beach beyond the veranda. ‘Mummy! Daddy!’ they cried, ‘they’ve got a fat boy here!’ Amanda and I glanced at each other in horror; were we now about to face an outraged and indignant parent? Fortunately, the ‘fat boy’ turned out to be a Fatboy, a giant waterproof cushion, a sort of amphibious beanbag equally at home on the beach or in the water, and from then on it became the most heavily used piece of kit on the island.”
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Best of the Maldives: Biggest Beach Towels – Kandooma

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Kandooma beach towels

 

A big shower calls for a big towel. And the biggest towel I have ever seen, in the Maldives or elsewhere, are the Kandooma beach towels. They are longer than a king sized bed (more than 2 metres) and nearly 5 feet long (see above). That’s me holding it up and I’m an not a small guy (I stand 6’ 4”). They were also soft and fluffy (I hate stiff, thin hotel towels) and quite a fetching shade of Maldivian blue.

Also, especially good for claiming large swathes of beach loungers.

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Best of the Maldives: Shower – Anantara Kihava

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Anantara Kihavah shower

Some prefer the bath, some prefer the shower. If you prefer a drenching standing up rather than lounging in a gargantuan pool amidst the sprawling expanse of water, than Anantara Kihavah is the place for you.

Their water villas showers feature the latest trend in the super luxury bathing fixtures – waterfall shower. It was just a few years ago that Rain/Drench showers were introduced for a more sumptuous showering experience (the previous innovation to that was the variable, pulsating shower Massage fixture). In the ever escalating arms race of 5-star-plus decadence, waterfall showers are the new 6-star thing. I first experienced one of these at Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru (see below). To cap off the experience, Anatara have added a glass floor so you get the whole water surround experience.

Just don’t scare the fish away with your singing.

Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru drench shower

[UPDATE NOV-14] As the waterfall drench showers grow in popularity among the super deluxe properties, Kihavah maintains its distinction with the widest of all drenchings...

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Best of the Maldives: Biggest Water Villa Private Pool – Velassaru

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Velassaru water villa suite pool

If the biggest private pool is not enough aquatic acreage for you, then of course you have the water villa option. And if you really want it all, then you can have a big private pool on your water villa. Velassaru’s Water Suite features a 30 metre long pool covering 105 sq/m that pips Shangri-La Villingili Villa Muthee’s (104 sq/m).

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Best of the Maldives: Biggest Private Pool – Soneva Fushi

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Soneva Fushi Jungle Reserve private pool

If the kind of ‘space’ that you like in your pool is less the ‘starry night’ type, and more the ‘stretchy out’ kind, then Soneva Fushi’s Jungle Reserve Villa (villa #42) is the one for you.

It’s private pool extends 150 square metres (15m x 10m). That comparer to the runner up in astronomical aquatic acreage of Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru’s Royal Beach Villa with 113 sq/m.

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Best of the Maldives: Coral – Park Hyatt Hadahaa

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Tim Godfrey Gaafu Alifu cave

If the underwater stars that dazzle you are star fish, starlets and feather stars, then Park Hyatt Hadahaa is the place to swim to and at.

Adrian Neville tweeted last week, “Park Hyatt house reef, the best corals of any resort bar none. But oddly the fish life is as quiet as life on the island.”

Not much better authority than Adrian Neville. And he’s just finished latest research for his upcoming edition of his must-have book on Maldives resorts ‘Resorts of the Maldives’. Check out his Twitter stream for 140-character advance tidbits.

Hadahaa is in the Gaafu Alifu atoll which Harwood and Bryning’s book “Complete Guide to Diving and Snorkeling the Maldives” describes as “The coral reefs inside the atoll are in great condition and a marvel to dive and snorkel” (see picture above).

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Best of the Maldives: Midnight Dip – W Retreat

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W Retreat pool stars

If stars are more your thing than the moon, then follow them over to W Retreat for a midnight dip in their constellation pools. Both their main pool and their individual villa pools feature star lights along the bottom creating their own little galaxies. The main pool is one of the larger ones in the Maldives at 50 square meters. And the villa pools are also combined with Jacuzzis.

It is legend that when Dom Perignon discovered champagne, he remarked ‘I am drinking stars!’ (In fact, there is even a book on the history of champagne with this quote as its title). With a glass of champagne, you are surrounded by stars below, above and inside.

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Best of the Maldives: Night Spa – Four Seasons Kuda Huraa

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Four Seasons Kuda Huraa Ahmed Amir
Perfect accompanying photo by Ahmed Amir – Full Moon over Kuda Huraa spa

This week’s full moon was at its farthest point from the Earth this year making it the smallest Full Moon of 2011. If you follow these sorts of celestial events, then you should follow the five stars to Four Seasons Kuda Huraa for their Night Spa just launched this week…

“The Island Spa’s Night Spa treatments are very different from treatments you might experience during the day. In fact, they’re probably different from anything you’ve experienced before. From the moment we collect you from your villa to the moment we bring you back, you’ll be wrapped in the nurturing embrace of the tropical evening air. Relax beneath the stars in the Night Spa’s torch-lit lounge, then indulge in one of four open-air lunar rituals devised by Sodashi to attune the body to nature’s rhythms. Each lunar ritual can be enjoyed at any time but will provide the greatest benefit during its linked lunar phase. Available from 10:00 pm to 1:00 am nightly, Night Spa treatments must be booked a minimum of 24 hours in advance.”

Their treatments include…

  • Reflect – “The new moon is a time of commencement, new beginnings and renewal.”
  • Nourish – “The waxing moon is a good time to nourish and strengthen the body.”
  • Harmonize– “During the full moon, the body’s healing potential and the skin’s ability to absorb minerals are at their highest.”
  • Release – “The waning moon is the ideal time to eliminate toxins and negativity.”

I never like to take spa treatments during the day in the Maldives because it is just less time in sunshine and being out and about in paradise. But the night time is a bit more limited to strolls through the paths and by the ocean and a great time to ratchet the stress down that further gear.

Also recommended for vampires and werewolves.

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Best of the Maldives: Veteran Manager – Adaaran Hudhuranfushi

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Asim Mohamed Hudhuranfushi GM
Asim Mohamed on right from his Flickr photostream

For Mohamed Asim, it is not just a job, not just posting, not just a career, not even a passion…it is his life. He is not only one of the few Maldivian native GMs, but he is definitely the first one still serving.

He doesn’t just ‘manage’ the property, he lives it. He surfs the Lohi surf break. He dives. He has his own Flickr stream with nearly 100 images to share his avid photography documenting so many facets of Maldive life and Adaaran Hudhuranfushi highlights. He first cut his teeth in ‘food and beverage’ operation when he entered the Maldive tourism industry in its earliest days so he even mixes it up in the resort kitchen from time to time.

Asim has decades of experience and despite numerous assignments and bountiful opportunity to travel and work just about anywhere in the world, he can think of no better place to be than the Maldives. I can think of no better legacy of the Maldives increasingly proud and world leading tourism industry.

Happy Birthday Asim!

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