Welcome to the Maldives! This low lying tropical nation is home to hundreds of islands, some of which are home to luxury resorts whose mission is to create the best island stay possible. Because of this, each resort actively competes with the next to attract visitors. Though this may cause more work for the resorts, this is fantastic for potential guests as you’ll be certain to get the best of the best when it comes to amenities, activities and service.
The island of Bora Bora is home to a few great resorts that offer an overwater stay dripping in luxury. One of these such resorts is the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa. This resort features a collection of first class overwater rooms that provide views of a lifetime from private decks. Recently it has be revealed that the resort is in the process of building 4 two bedroom suites, titled the Brando Overwater Suites.
This week we are highlighting one of the handful of Maldives resorts that promotes what they call a “No news, no shoes” policy. The Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu is a luxurious private-island resort where the emphasis is on being casual and comfortable rather than fancy and posh.
This style is perfect for those who might have to wear a suit every day during their normal life and the last thing they want to do on holiday is to dress up for dinner on a tropical island.
Featuring the only all glass underwater restaurant in the entire world, it comes as no surprise that the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island Resort now also has an underwater room to showcase that’s been titled the Muraka. An underwater stay in itself is impressive enough for most, but not for the owners of the resort. They feel that every guest that books a stay in the Muraka should also experience a private flight to their own seaplane jetty, 4 butlers, a private chef, and an on-call fitness trainer among other amenities.
There’s no getting around the fact that overwater bungalows are expensive, and websites and brochures do the best job they can at showing things in their best light. But since they all make them sound so nice it’s hard to be confident that the resort you choose is as wonderful as it’s made out to be. For that reason we are collecting the best home-made video tours of every resort possible, so you’ll be able to see exactly what the rooms look like when real people stay there.
most people think of the South Pacific or French Polynesia the name “Tahiti” immediately springs to mind. While it is the most populated island by quite a bit, Tahiti isn’t nearly as secluded or even exotic as many other smaller islands in the region. Moorea, for example, is a short ferry ride away, and it’s smaller and more beautiful as well.
The main thing that Tahiti has going for it is that every flight into or out of French Polynesia goes through the main Tahiti airport, so it’s a tranfer point for every guest, regardless of whether you are staying on the island or not.
continuing series we are going to jump over to Asia, where they usually call these things “water villas” instead of overwater bungalows. The Maldives, which is just southwest of India, is actually home to about two-thirds of all the overwater bungalows in the world, and this week’s resort is one of many that offers fantastic value.
The Maldives is very popular with Europeans since it’s an easy overnight flight from anywhere in the region, but it’s a tougher sell for Americans since the flight even from Los Angeles will take an entire day.
Many savvy travelers like to take advantage of the relatively low room rates in the South Pacific during March and April, as they are typically the cheapest months of the year. Fortunately, the weather is basically the same all year round, so these visitors can enjoy all the luxury at lower rates because most others come from June through August.
Instead of just presenting one deal at a time, we’ll now highlight the best deals we can find for each month in one place.
The resort brand, LUX Collective is currently undergoing the initial construction stages of a new resort that will be open to visitors at the end of 2024. This overwater resort, the Luxnam Phu Quoc Resort, will house both land based rooms and those over the water. In total, there will be 126 villas, with 109 being overwater villas. In addition, it should be noted that the suites will range from 1 bedroom, all the way up to 5 bedrooms.
Everybody loves photographs of overwater bungalows, especially the aerial shots that show all the rooms lined up over the turquoise lagoon, but obviously those don’t really tell you much about what it’s like to stay in these glorious hotel rooms.
The good news is that many guests are so thrilled with their bungalow that they’ve recorded guided video tours of them. There are 9 overwater bungalow resorts on Bora Bora itself, and I’ve collected the best video for each of them and put them below.