Expect the unexpected with Maldives’ Niyama Private Islands

Niyama Private Islands is everything that you would expect from a gorgeous luxury Maldivian retreat, and yet at the same time nothing you should expect.

Spread over two lush islands it has all the required, post-card friendly hallmarks—alluring beaches, ultra-high-end accommodation and superb service—and then are the unique quirks that you don’t expect to make it all feel rather special.

The resorts’ 136 villas are all designed with luxurious interiors hewn from the land with huge thatched roofs made from dried coconut palm leaves and
pieces fashioned from reclaimed wood. The island’s natural landscaping is full of banana leaf trees, banyan trees and screwpines, peppered with colourful beach hibiscus. The place has a glorious barefoot-in-paradise feel. Eco-friendly biodiesel flame torches light the way come nightfall.

Niyama’s twin islands, affectionately known as ‘Play’ and ‘Chill’, are connected by a wooden bridge and offer guests a genuine luxury of choice.

True to its name, Chill is custom-built for couples looking to drop down a gear and sink into the relaxed pace of island life, whether that is by checking into the award-winning The Drift Spa, or cuddling up in the evenings to watch a film under the stars in the bijoux open-air beach cinema. All this is before mentioning Niyama’s showpiece seafood restaurant Edge, which is located a half-mile off shore and accessible by boat. But remember, at Niyama you need to expect the unexpected. Located six metres underneath Edge is Subsix, an incredible underwater restaurant that not only has you eating lunch while watching hawksbill turtles swim by, but at sundown it becomes a nightclub.

Play, is no less luxurious but certainly more family-friendly. Crowned by its rather excellent array of watersports activities, Niyama not only offers options to swim with hammerhead sharks, and go wakeboarding, but it also has the distinct honour of being the country’s leading surfing spot, boasting uncrowded waters with nearby reefs offering both left and right hander waves, as well as powerful barreling waves a little further out. When done with the day’s surf, you can retreat to your customised Surf Villa with surfboard rack right on the beach at Play Island’s Surf Corner.

If variety is the spice of life, Niyama Private Islands simplifies that choice into two: Play and Chill. Choose wisely.