There’s a particular shade of turquoise that seems to whisper to something deep inside us. A sense of forgotten tranquillity, the cool blue reminder urging us to pause, just for a moment.
The luxury of a spontaneous trip – fleeing our routines with the promise of soft white sands, cerulean skies and an inbox assistant set to please-whoever-you-are-do-not-contact-me-for-the-next-few-days.
We take what is accessible to us for granted and only tend to appreciate it, when it is no longer available to us. Travel, once so mundane and every day, became an unimaginable adventure for many of us this past year.
Sequestered in our home offices and scrabbling to recalibrate our livelihoods and an understanding of our very existence, weekend escapes, holidays and even business trips were relegated to the status of pure fantasy. The year reminded us, in that brutally indifferent way that life tends to do, what a privilege it is to travel and to plan an escape.
With travel corridors reopening and rules relaxing, the opportunity to fly somewhere seems almost too good to pass up, and with Eid escapes beckoning, many of us are making travel plans again.
Even the mildly irritating process of searching for flights is imbued with a frisson of adventure – and for an escape that’s light on the flight time and abundant on the pay-off, Maldives remains one of the region’s most popular destinations for ultimate ‘long weekend’ escapes.
The process of going for a PCR test and messing about online comparing and booking our flights barely registers on the scale of small inconveniences, thanks to the palpable sense of excitement about traveling again. Our destination is a tiny island in the South Male atoll.
Dhigu, a speck of white and green in the Indian Ocean, is part of the Anantara Group, a byword in thoughtfully designed luxury. Founded in Thailand in 2001, the brand has three properties in Maldives.
Dhigu, a speck of white and green in the Indian Ocean, is part of the Anantara Group
The hypnotic rhythm of a speedboat rocks away the stiffness of the short flight between Dubai and Male, and then it’s a case of simply immersing oneself into the ambience of island life. Which isn’t, frankly, much of a tough adjustment to make. Not at all. The frenetic pace of daily life is temporarily suspended in a fantasy of cerulean, ivory and white.
Greeting guests at the island’s main pontoon, the staff whisk our luggage away while proffering cool towels and warm smiles.
Dhigu boasts 110 beach villas and over-water suites, making it large enough to offer enough food, dining and entertainment to punctuate the soporific pace of island life, but small enough to feel intimate and personal.
Its neighbouring island, a small boat trip of a few minutes, is Veli, so there’s also the opportunity to explore next door, as well as a smaller island that boasts a swimming pool set into the sea, and a stunning coral reef.
The overwater villas at Dhigu are just as fabulous as you’d want them to be: boasting views straight into that blissfully blue ocean, they offer a sense of privacy and connectedness to the natural surroundings. Thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows (and even a cheeky porthole by your feet in the bathroom) watercolour sunrises and sunsets punctuate the start and end of each day, with an in-villa butler to attend to any whims or requirements.
Guests are treated with adventures across silvery sands, at sea, and below the water’s surface
Life here is geared towards the aquatic, and if you’re lucky, you may spot a sea turtle swimming lazily past, or even small sharks and schools of fish. A little further out and the marine life reveals itself in rich, living colour.
The Maldives have suffered more than their fair share of coral bleaching thanks to global warming and so now many of the resort islands are taking direct action courtesy of conservation programs to encourage new reefs to grow.
Snorkelling around the island gives you the chance to get up close and personal with the sea life, or for a more adventurous dip, the island offers – amongst several ocean-themed activities – the chance to swim right next to nurse sharks. This is the kind of bucket-list adventure that leaves you feeling euphoric, adrenalized, alive and fully charged – emotions not usually associated with a lazy few days on a white-sanded island of pure luxury, but Dhigu is full of opportunities for enchantment and wonder.
Free-diving is one of the more unusual experiences offered alongside scuba diving and dolphin watching cruises. One day we wade over to Gulhifushi, a tiny little mound of sand that features an ocean pool, reef and bar, and while away a few hours splashing about on the water’s surface and following fish, before sitting beneath the shade of the traditional thatched roof bar and cooling down with ice-cold fizzy drinks.
Thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows, watercolour sunrises and sunsets punctuate the start and end of each day at Anantara Dhigu Maldives
There are eight food options at the island and neighbouring Veli, and the close of each gorgeously relaxed day beckons with a new dining experience – Japanese, Thai and traditional Maldivian dishes are amongst the offerings, while breakfast each day seems to cater to every possible whim including plant-based diets; the banana coconut pancake as decadent and flavourful as any dessert, and easily justified by the promise of a vigorous swim at some point in the day.
There’s a beautiful over-water spa on the island of course, and a treatment here is about as agreeable an experience as one can wish for. Submitting to the skilled hands of the therapist, knots are kneaded away and the rhythmic, soothing sensation of skilled touch is blissfully hypnotic. Thankfully a stirring ginger tea is offered post-massage to rouse you from your blissed-out state and send you floating back to the beach.
A heightened sense of appreciation is fertile ground for happiness to grow, and on Dhigu, the idyllic setting offers ample opportunity to slow down and savour small moments of pleasure – something that many of us have been reminded over the past year or so, is really what the art of living gratefully is about.
Rates from USD 662 per night half board; anantara.com