Best of the Maldives: Pool Waterfall – Sun Island

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Sun Island pool fountains

I love waterfall features in pools (no not Michael Phelps kind of pool ‘waterfalls’…in fact, one might want to be careful around the Conrad Rangali pool). Perhaps it is because they make the pool more alive with animation. Perhaps it is because it evokes one of my all time favourite adventures trekking into a Togolese jungle to visit the Badou Cascades. Perhaps they evoke some other stereotypically imprinted image of tropical paradise. Our very first resort in the Maldives featured one – the erstwhile Laguna Beach, now Velassaru (unfortunately, now sans waterfall)l. Sheraton Full Moon had an impressive one, but it was more adjacent to the pool than integrated into the pool (you can’t swim under it). So I was on a bit of a quest for the best Pool Waterfall in the Maldives.

I found my heart’s desire at Sun Island. Sun has not just one, but two striking waterfall fountains. Doubly dramatic.

Sun Island pool fountains 2

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Best of the Maldives: Kids Club Pool – Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru

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Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru kids club pool

Kandooma may be the best pool for young kids, but Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru has the best young kids pool I have soon. Kandooma’s is the main pool for everyone which happens to be well suited for young pre-schoolers. But Landaa has a special kiddie pool, that is far from kiddie sized, in their excellent kids club. But what really clinched their distinction was their adorable little kiddie lounge chairs and matching junior-sized beach towels (see below).  I did feel a bit like Gulliver visiting the club.  Just right for kids to feel big on a small island.

Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru kids sun beds

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Best of the Maldives: Biggest Pool– Kandooma

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Kandooma - pool 2

There are all sorts of people distinctions. Dog people and cat people. Lake people and ocean people. Sail people and motorboat people. Beach people and pool people.

If you prefer a pool as expansive as Landaa’s beach, then Kandooma is the resort to head to. Now, like the many Maldives lagoons it sort of ressembles, much of the pool is quite shallow. As a result, it makes for an ideal play area for young children.

Kandooma’s pool comes in at 65 metres by 73 metres for a total area of 4,745 square metres. Kanuhura’s pool covers 120 metres by 67 metres, but in actually aquatic area, more than half of those distances are various sinuous twists and squirms rather than full water area.

Pool is so big that it has two of its own island with lounge chairs. With Kandooma’s signature giant beach towels, you could also say that Kandooma is the ‘Best for Paul Bunyan to Take a Dip.’

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Best of the Maldives: Infiniti Pool – Dusit Thani

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Dusit Thani infiniti pool

Welcome to the neighbourhood, Dusit Thani.

This week, Dusit Thani opens its doors to its first guests…

Their announcement highlights one of their first distinctions out of the blocks, their infinity pool…

  • “The resort’s centrepiece is the expansive infinity swimming pool, the largest in the Maldives, a full 750 square metres designed around an ancient banyan tree.”

There is a magical dimension to infiniti pools. The way they seamlessly insinuate themselves into the surrounding landscape. Our most memorable was the Filitheyo pool whose pool edge faces the west making for the most soothing dip at sunset pina coladas in hand. Dusit Thani’s sheer scale amplifies that trompe de l’oeil and it’s island banyan tree adds just that extra touch of magic.

One a side note, my heart goes out to all Maldivians facing this current unsettled period and my hope is that sensible minds and caring hearts prevail quickly.

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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: 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 – Bubble Loungers: One & Only Kanuhura

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Kanuhura pool jacuzzi

Perhaps the most relaxing times in our decade and a half of visiting the Maldives were lounging by the pool. Kanuhura has turned that relaxation into an art.

First of all they boast one of the largest pools in the Maldives. A contortionate, curvaceous beast like some sort of voluptuous gymnast. As pleasant on the eye as the soothing to the skin.

Then they add a unique in its own right…a bank of Jacuzzi loungers (see photo above). Not a separate jacuzzi, but a air jets right in the pool. And not some little space where you sit on some bench-like contraption trying not to inadvertently play footsie with some other guest who happened drop in. Your own, full-length, individual, head-propping, leg-stretching lounger. In the pool.

To top it all off, they have simply the most elaborate pool-side service I have come across anywhere. More on that in a future piece, but just hint of it…’sun glass polishing service’.

Ahhhhh.

resort

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Best of the Maldives: Sore Feet Dining – Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru

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Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru Blu pool dining

Ooohhh…sore feet. Whether it yesterday’s marathon or tenderness from overly hot sand, Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru has the pedi-treatment for you.

Their Blu restaurant is a lovely place with a rustic, understated elegance fashioned from unpolished concrete and distressed wood. To extend the soothing comfort of its Italian delicacies, it also offers diner in the pool. Many resorts have ‘pool-side’ bars, but Landaa is the first ‘pool-in’ dining. I thought that the sensation of warm sand between my toes during dinner was distinctive, but warm water soaking my feet while a crisp Sauvignon soaks my palette is sublime.

Landaa’s piscinary gourmet uniqueness may be somewhat short-lived, however, as the upcoming Ayada resort has a published designs which show even more extensive catering to this no-shoes style of dining.

A final note to add an inspiring follow up to my post-script of the last post. Mark Deakin not only completed the London Marathon, but started a new life marathon at the same time as he stopped at the Tower Bridge to propose to his girlfriend, Ilona. So Landaa’s pool dining can not only soothe Mark’s weary feet, but also provide the perfectly romantic celebration to their new life together. Maybe this post should be ‘Best Post-Marathon Marriage Proposal Romantic Dinner’.

Mark and Ilona proposal 1  Mark and Ilona proposal 2  Mark and Ilona proposal 3

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