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Soneva Jani crowned world’s Best Over-the-Top Luxury hotel, St. Regis Maldives as runner-up

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Soneva’s newest resort in Maldives, Soneva Jani has been named Best Over-the-Top Luxury hotel of the year by Jetsetter.com.

Jetsetter.com, the world’s go-to brand for travellers with discerning taste, announced on Monday the winners of its annual Best of the Best hotel awards. Soneva Jani won the Best Over-the-Top Luxury hotel award with another newly opened Maldives’ resort, The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort named the runner-up.

Soneva Jani is Soneva’s newest property, which opened in late 2016. Soneva Jani encompasses a collection of 24 overwater villas and one island villa set in a 5.6 kilometre private lagoon located in the northern Noonu Atoll. The resort spans five islands surrounded by pure white beaches, covered in rich tropical vegetation, offering the ultimate in privacy and luxury.

The second placed St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort was recently included by Condé Nast Traveler amongst the best hotels opened last year. Run by Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the resort opened its doors in November with just 77 villas spread across the private island in Dhaalu Atoll. The resort offers six innovative dining experiences and and overwater spa.

The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli resort, which opened in November. PHOTO/ ST. REGIS

This year’s Best of the Best hotel awards by Jetsetter.com include 22 “Best” categories ranging from Over-the-Top Luxury and Best-Looking Guests to All-Inclusive and Nightlife. Each category includes a winner and one runner-up, with the winners being:

  • Best Big City Sleep: The Beekman, a Thompson Hotel, New York
  • Best Style Steal: Amastan Paris
  • Best Boutique: The Dewberry, Charleston
  • Best for Romance: Six Senses Zil Pasyon, Seychelles
  • Best Design: Il Sereno Lago di Como, Italy
  • Best Game-changer: The Asbury Hotel, New Jersey
  • Best on the Beach: Le Barthélemy, St. Barts
  • Best All-Inclusive: Grand Velas Los Cabos, Mexico
  • Best Over-the-Top Luxury: Soneva Jani, Maldives
  • Best Looking Guests: 11 Howard, New York
  • Best Nightlife: Ace Hotel New Orleans
  • Best Pool Scene: Casa Cook Rhodes, Greece
  • Best Comeback: Pulitzer Amsterdam
  • Best Safari-Lodge: andBeyond Matetsi River Lodge, Zimbabwe
  • Best Business-Meets-Pleasure: The Peninsula Beijing
  • Best for Communing with Nature: Nekupe, Nicaragua
  • Best for Wellness: Amanemu, Japan
  • Best Far-Flung Escape: Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar, Oman
  • Best Grounds: Leeu Estates, South Africa
  • Best for Food: Coombeshead Farm, England
  • Best For Families: Four Seasons Resort Lanai, Hawaii
  • Audience Favourite: PUBLIC Chicago

In a statement, Jetsetter.com’s Lindsey Olander said deciding this year’s Best of the Best awards was the hardest yet. The 22 winners were selected after months of culling countless recommendations from both editors and insiders, she added.

“In an industry that keeps redefining where we should spend our every hour, choosing where we sleep, eat, and experience a destination has become more important than ever,” the statement read.

Jetsetter.com, part of the world’s largest travel site TripAdvisor, provides great hotel deals, in-the-know destination guides and useful travel tips to its more than 33 million members. From hotels to insightful stories to trip planning, Jetsetter is designed to match discerning travellers with their ideal travel experience. Each property featured is hand-selected by a team of curators and by Jetsetter’s global network of correspondents. Jetsetters can browse limited-time sales of up to 40 percent off, peruse the Jetsetter permanent collection of more than 6,500 hotels and resorts or find travel ideas and inspiration in the newly redesigned magazine.

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Feydhoo Hall opens at dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives as new event space

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Dusit International, one of Thailand’s leading hotel and property development companies, has announced the opening of Feydhoo Hall, a landmark event venue at dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives, redefining the possibilities for meetings, celebrations, and destination events in the Maldives.

Designed to bring scale, flexibility, and creativity to island gatherings, Feydhoo Hall represents a bold step forward in positioning the Maldives as a dynamic destination for conferences, weddings, and large-scale social occasions.

Feydhoo Hall offers a versatile event complex designed to accommodate a wide range of gatherings, from corporate meetings and conferences to weddings and social celebrations.

At its core is the 390 sqm Main Hall, capable of hosting:

  • Up to 300 guests in theatre-style setup
  • Up to 240 guests for dining and banquet-style events
  • Up to 200 guests for cocktail-style receptions
  • Up to 144 guests in cluster-round configuration

Enhancing the flexibility of the venue are additional dedicated spaces, including:

  • A 110 sqm Veranda Terrace, ideal for welcome receptions, breakout sessions, and pre-event gatherings, accommodating up to 100 guests for cocktail-style events.
  • A spacious 1,000 sqm Lawn Space, perfect for large-scale outdoor celebrations, destination weddings, and open-air events, accommodating up to 400 guests for cocktail receptions and up to 350 guests for dining setups.
  • The 55 sqm Ekugai Meeting Room, designed for smaller meetings and executive sessions, accommodating up to 30 guests in theatre or dining setup and 24 guests in cluster-round format.

Together, these integrated spaces create a seamless indoor-outdoor event experience, allowing planners to design dynamic and personalised event journeys.

True to the dusitD2 brand’s lifestyle-driven philosophy, Feydhoo Hall introduces a fresh approach to meetings and events — where productivity meets creativity in an inspiring island setting.

The venue offers flexible meeting formats designed to suit different event needs, including:

  • Half-Day Meeting Package (4 hours) — ideal for focused sessions, executive meetings, and creative workshops.
  • Full-Day Meeting Package (8 hours) — designed for immersive conferences, extended workshops, and large-scale corporate gatherings.

These thoughtfully structured packages provide planners with the flexibility to create impactful and seamless experiences, whether hosting intimate strategy sessions or dynamic full-day events.

Located just seven minutes by speedboat from Velana International Airport, dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives combines accessibility with vibrant lifestyle energy, offering event planners and guests a rare balance between convenience and tropical escape.

With the introduction of Feydhoo Hall, the resort strengthens its position as a versatile destination — not only for leisure travellers but also for international conferences, creative retreats, luxury weddings, and large-scale social celebrations seeking something refreshingly different in the Maldives.

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BBM expands retail presence with new Hulhumalé outlet

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Bestbuy Maldives (BBM) opened a new wholesale store in Hulhumalé Phase 2 on Monday.

The outlet is located on the ground floor of Lot 20286, Nirolhu Magu, and is intended to improve access to BBM’s imported goods for residents of Hulhumalé Phase 2 and for businesses operating in the area.

According to the company, the opening forms part of its plan to expand services closer to customers in line with population growth in Hulhumalé.

With the opening of the new store, BBM’s full range of imported and distributed products will be available at the Hulhumalé Phase 2 location. These include consumer goods from international brands such as Lifebuoy, Vaseline and Unilever.

The store will also stock wholesale food products from brands including Daily, Cavin’s and Redman.

BBM has supplied goods to resorts, hotels and retail outlets across the Maldives for several years.

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Ataraxis Grand & Spa hosts integrated work-and-dive corporate retreat in Fuvahmulah

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Ataraxis Grand & Spa recently hosted a week-long, closed corporate offsite in Fuvahmulah for a US-based artificial intelligence company, highlighting the island’s growing suitability for integrated work-and-experience retreats. The retreat brought a group of 36 international professionals to the property, which was reserved exclusively for the programme.

Designed as a private company offsite, the stay combined structured daily work sessions with guided diving and beginner-friendly surf experiences, creating a balanced format that blended focused collaboration with physical reset.

A notable component of the programme was dive training and certification. During the retreat, 17 participants completed their Open Water certification, while a further six undertook the Advanced Open Water course, with training and dives scheduled alongside work sessions as part of the integrated itinerary.

Throughout the week, participants worked on-site using dedicated shared spaces supported by reliable high-speed internet, allowing meetings, informal collaboration and scheduled activities to take place within a single, uninterrupted environment. This setup enabled teams to move seamlessly between work periods and organised ocean activities without leaving the property.

Fuvahmulah’s natural and operational advantages formed a key part of the retreat’s appeal. As one of the Maldives’ largest inhabited islands, it offers immediate access to pelagic dive sites, internationally recognised shark diving and surf breaks suitable for instruction, alongside the infrastructure required to support extended group stays.

The offsite reflects a growing preference among technology and knowledge-sector teams for small-scale retreats that prioritise concentrated work environments and team cohesion over traditional conference formats. Such programmes typically involve longer stays and higher per-capita spend, aligning with sustainable, quality-driven tourism models.

The retreat also demonstrates how locally operated properties such as Ataraxis Grand & Spa are supporting this shift by delivering unified environments where accommodation, workspaces, connectivity and curated experiences operate as a single programme rather than separate services.

As organisations continue to explore alternative formats for strategy sessions, team resets and creative offsites, Ataraxis Grand & Spa’s experience positions Fuvahmulah as an increasingly viable destination for integrated corporate retreats.

Ataraxis Grand & Spa offers work-and-dive retreat programmes in Fuvahmulah that combine accommodation, dedicated workspaces, high-speed connectivity and organised diving and surfing.

Further information on retreat formats and dive-inclusive stays is available via the Ataraxis Grand & Spa website.

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