Cast Away

Ante up on your next trip to the Maldives and take exclusivity to the extreme. These private island resorts offer sun, silver service and seclusion par excellence.

- Gina Johnson

FOR HOPELESS ROMANTICS

Small, exclusive, and ultra-discreet, Naladhu Private Island Maldives offers the type of vacation experience that public figures – from celebrities to presidents – long for; the kind of place where guests come for a week and the staff never see them.

The island is connected via a wooden jetty, and by boat, to sister resorts Anantara Veli and Anantara Dhigu and while guests can leave the protected enclave of Naladhu to dabble in what the more sociable islands have to offer (a key to a wooden door on the jetty provides one-way access only), the island is totally off limits to all but guests in residence.

Unlike the glossy marketing footprint of many other Maldivian hotels, Naladhu is not extensively promoted and there are few photographs of its inner sanctum – by design. The pillar of secrecy is evident everywhere including in its ocean-facing location. While most resorts offer over water villas surrounded by open lagoons, Naladhu comprises mostly sea-facing private houses, a purposeful descriptor reflecting the aesthetic that you are literally ‘coming home’, albeit to your secret island bolt-hole.

The tiny island located in the South Male atoll has 20 beach houses, a cellar, and just one restaurant which, luxuriously, serves all-day breakfast because guests here rise when they like. Each house is allocated its own secluded beach cabana with sun lounges, and complimentary kayaks and floatation sunbeds come as part of the kit. The sunrise side of the island is coddled by a calm lagoon and there is a charming mosque as well as a boule court in the centre of the island.