Marlon Brando fell in love with French Polynesia while filming Mutiny on the Bounty in the 1960s, around the same time that three Californian entrepreneurs upped sticks and moved to Tahiti, bought a little hotel, and then two more, and built the world’s first overwater bungalows. For these three men, it was a matter of practicality – their second hotel was on a spectacular coral reef but had no beach, so they decided to build three rooms on stilts over the water, inspired by local Polynesian fishing huts, allowing guests to head straight from their room onto the astonishing reef below. They were an instant hit.
Yet today it is the Maldives with which we most associate overwater accommodation, despite the concept not arriving there until the late 1980s. Now, after four decades spent finessing the concept, it’s safe to say that the Maldivian take on luxury holidays has become a benchmark to which much of the world aspires, with barefoot resorts such as Soneva Fushi, opened in 1995 by Sonu Shivdasani, with his wife, the former model Eva, leading the charge.
“Eva first went to the Maldives in 1981 to do a fashion shoot, and back then there were about five resorts and nothing to eat but bananas and fish at plastic tables,” Sonu recalls. “When we decided to open a resort there, Eva did a market survey of 40 tour operators, asking what feedback their clients had given them about the Maldives. The two big complaints were the quality of the food and that there was nothing to do. So [these became] a big part of our offering.”
It’s not difficult to see why so many resorts around the world want to emulate the Maldives, especially now its standard of hospitality is so high. Obviously there’s the extraordinarily beautiful Indian Ocean setting, its cerulean waters – the sound of which will lull you to sleep at night – speckled with 1,200 atolls, each ringed by white powder sand and coral reefs, ideal for snorkelling and diving. But there’s also some psychology at play.
“The world feels like a tumultuous and overwhelming place at the moment,” says Geoffrey Kent, founder of luxury tour operator Abercrombie & Kent. “Which makes the idea of escaping to a remote, idyllic haven like the Maldives highly attractive. It provides a sanctuary where one can disconnect from the noise and the chaos, and find solace in nature’s embrace.”
While a growing number of resorts in the Maldives attract families and groups of friends, it will always be primarily a destination for couples – after all, what could be more romantic than an overwater villa for two? But hotelier Alex Polizzi offers a slightly different perspective.
“I like barefoot luxury as much as the next person,” she tells me. “I’m a huge fan of Coral House, a fully serviced villa on the main island of Providenciales in Turks and Caicos, which is right on the beach and wonderful. You can be in a bikini all day if you want and a butler will wade into the sea to bring you a cocktail. But then later you can go and find some local life. The idea of being stuck on a private island, forced to eat a resort’s overpriced food and drink their overpriced booze? I’m not chilled enough to find that relaxing.”
And as for disconnecting and finding inner peace? While it’s probably easier to do this in the Maldives than sitting in a traffic jam on the M25, we also agree that you take your emotional baggage with you wherever you go – and it doesn’t suddenly disappear thanks to some mythical moment on your Maldivian holiday.
Polizzi then confesses that she’s about to go to Four Seasons Resort in Bora Bora with her boyfriend – to stay in an overwater villa for the first time. “There’s this idea that because you’re with someone you adore, you just want to spend 24 hours a day with them, leave the world behind and not to be disturbed by the petty irritations of life or other people,” she says. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve rarely felt like that about anybody, and certainly not for a whole week. The only reason I’ve been persuaded is because, very unusually for a man, my boyfriend is happy to sit and read for hours like I am. Plus, he’s done all the research on water taxis and nearby restaurants, so I’m not going to feel like there’s no escape. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be a convert.”
