Cocoon’s resident artists are the guests themselves. The villa rooms feature superb framed photographs taken around the island. It turns out that they are snaps taken by guest during their stay and posted on Instagram. Cocoon identifies the best ones (sort of the same spirit of how I curate the “Fashion” series here). The resort contacts the Instagramming guest and requests permission and includes a credit to their feed on the photo itself. New pictures are posted to the walls every six months.
At Cocoon Maldives, over-sized flamingos and indolent marine life aren’t only things floating around. The resort has infused the buoyancy of the surrounding waters throughout the property with furnishing that themselves seem to float like puppy black-tips skimming the surface.
Examples include bar tables, coffee tables, settees but most prominently the beds which have soft lights underneath them which amplify the illusion at night. A new meaning to the phrase “drift to sleep”.
Good design adds value making the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Cocoon describes itself as “the first design resort in the Maldives”. I wasn’t sure about the “first” as I have seen lots of fine design across the islands, but it certainly first class for this spirit of design – adding value. And in so doing, it is one of the best value 5-stars you will find.
I find many of the bling palace resorts doing the reverse – trying to inject cachet into their properties by importing the most exotic materials and ingredients, anything shiny or rare, and throwing them together on a grand scale with an equally towering price tag. They are a pile of the trappings of luxury and not luxury by design.
The property is named after the movie “Cocoon” and the magic pool that brought eternal youth (One of the more inspired resort names. The group is also developing a sequel, “You & Me” in the Raa atoll which happens to be a film about even more intensive recovery). But the inspiration for the property design is Italian designer Lago. A range of clever, distinctive and actually subtle touches filled my “Best of the Maldives” notebook during my visit (stay tuned).
Equally to the clever and subtle styling, it was the value that impressed me. Priced more like many 4-stars, the resort has designed its entire proposition to optimise not just the guest experience, but the bank account experience. Each beach villa has a comfy sofa bed for an extra child and they can bring in a second roll away. For a limited time, they are offerings a two kids eat and stay free (guests do have to pay for the transfers). That would have been a top appeal when we were visiting as a family. And their a la carte Manta restaurant is extremely reasonable with main dishes around $20 (not too much different to a decent English gastro pub).
If you are put off by the escalating prices of the Maldives or wary that too many value-priced “5-stars” are just tired properties compensating for their dated look and wear-and-tear with discounting, then you need to get a quote from Cocoon.
Instagram has started as a straightforward snap sharing service from simple phone cameras, but it has exploded so much that now you get Hollywood quality productions being shared. I check out the Maldives geotag every morning over coffee as a great scouting radar for resort highlights as well as the latest fashionista shoots so I have been tracking the Maldives material for a couple of years. The video clips have increasing popped up and feature more and more in my fashionista posts. My favourite, that really stuck out for its sophistication and quirky style is Nicole Mazzocato’s post (above) filmed by Fabio Colloricchio.