The water villa at Soneva Jani has a retractable roof above the bedroom. This is the fact that distinguishes it from every other water villa in the Maldives and that the resort’s marketing deploys as the primary image — the bed below the opening roof, the stars visible through the gap, the Indian Ocean horizon…
Sonu Shivdasani opened Soneva Fushi on Kunfunadhoo Island in the Baa Atoll in 1995 with a philosophy that he called “intelligent luxury” and that the resort industry has spent the three decades since attempting to imitate with varying degrees of success. The philosophy was not complicated: remove everything unnecessary from the luxury hotel experience, add…
Hadahaa Island is in the Gaafu Alifu Atoll of the southern Maldives — four hundred and fifty kilometres south of the capital Malé, accessible by a sixty-minute domestic flight from Velana International to Kaadedhdhoo Airport followed by a thirty-minute speedboat transfer, and at a remove from the concentrated development of the North Malé Atoll that…
Reethi Rah is the largest private island in the North Malé Atoll — five and a half kilometres of beach perimeter, one hundred and one villas and residences arranged across a landmass so significantly larger than the typical Maldivian resort island that the experience of being here is specifically different from the experience of being…
The South Ari Atoll is the only place in the Maldives where the whale sharks are resident year-round. At every other Maldivian atoll, the whale shark encounters are seasonal — dependent on the plankton blooms that the monsoon patterns deliver to specific locations in specific months. In the South Ari Atoll, the specific oceanographic conditions…
The Maldives is not a children’s destination by default. The most celebrated resorts in the world are built for couples retreating into silence, not families orchestrating snack logistics and afternoon entertainment. But some resorts have done the work to be genuinely excellent for families — not tolerating children, not adding a token kids’ club, but…
The reef sharks pass through in the early morning before the snorkellers have gathered. Parrotfish graze the coral heads. A turtle moves at its own pace, unhurried, past the overwater villa steps. At Machchafushi, the house reef is not an amenity — it is the reason to come, and virtually everything else the resort does…
The seaplane touches down in the Noonu Atoll and there is already someone on the jetty holding your name. By the time the seaplane engine has stopped making noise, a person called Fayaz is shaking your hand and asking about your journey. This is Sun Siyam Iru Fushi’s first and most consistent trick: it is…
Two kilometres of white beach, a buggy app that actually works, a restaurant that has been cooking nothing but vegetarian food since before it was fashionable, and an all-inclusive plan generous enough that you’ll stop checking what’s included after the first afternoon. Kanifushi figured out something that most Maldives resorts haven’t: that guests want to…
Families are returning to this island for the third consecutive year. Not because of the overwater villas, not because of the food — though the food is exceptional — but because of how the gardener says good morning. That single detail tells you almost everything you need to understand about Heritance Aarah, and nothing at…