News
Celebrate festive ‘Moments in our Hearts’ at Angsana Velavaru Maldives
As the most joyous time of the year is fast approaching, Angsana Velavaru, an all-inclusive premium resort in South Nilandhe Atoll, Maldives will be hosting “Moments in our Hearts”, a festive celebration of bonding and connection with family, friends, loved ones and nature from 21 December 2023 to 7 January 2024.
Guests are invited to cherish the gift of time and travel – taking in the beautiful sights around, creating beautiful memories and reconnecting with the people that matter the most.
As the inspiring spirit of giving and sharing fills the air, guests can revel in the vibrant colours of island life with an array of activities crafted just for them – from indulgent feasts and thrilling games to party nights and dazzling entertainments.
The Celebrations Commence
The resort will be embellished with colourful and eco-friendly ornaments. On 21 December, the traditional cake mixing, annual festive tree and gingerbread house lighting will take place to ring in the joy and magic of the season.
Guests will receive a genuine and heartfelt welcome, akin to family, while also having the chance to immerse themselves in the Maldivian culture, heritage, and customs. An enthralling Maldivian Cultural Night is in store, featuring the captivating Boduberu rhythms that entice guests to embrace the enigmatic dance, alongside various other local performances.
Joyful Culinary Delights
Each dining experience will be a symphony of flavours and cultures, weaving together moments of joy and indulgence. Guests can delight in themed nights featuring global cuisines from the exotic allure of Maldivian and Mongolian to sizzling Barbecue and enticing Asian flavours, as well as the elegant Mediterranean and international cuisines. They can also explore innovative cocktails and enjoy relaxing sundowners.
Highlighting the season are the lavish Festive Gala Dinner on 24 December, the sumptuous New Year’s Eve Gala Dinner followed by the lively “Friendship in Diversity” New Year’s Eve Gala Dinner and Countdown Party on 31 December, the symbolic Orthodox Holiday Dinner on 6 January, as well as the mesmerising Lunar New Year’s Eve Dinner, welcoming the “Year of the Dragon”.
Fantastic Fun for the Little Ones
Engaging in do-it-yourself (DIY) festive ornaments, crafting dream catchers and keychains, creating adorable teddy bears and more, the little ones will be able to channel their creativity. Excitement peaks with the highlight – a grand arrival parade by Santa himself on 24 December, igniting wonder and spreading holiday cheer, a magical journey of fantastic fun and heartwarming moments, making the festive season truly unforgettable especially for the precious little ones.
Sense of Family
This festive season, families staying at Angsana Velavaru can bond over activities that create cherished memories, such as heartwarming experiences in kite flying, sand art and sculpture, and bird feeding – fostering connections. They can immerse themselves in the magic of a movie under the stars, where captivating tales come to life against a celestial backdrop. For those seeking aquatic thrills, they can partake in exhilarating watersports and water activities, including house reef and citizen science snorkelling, a chance to contribute to sustainability through coral planting, and engaging marine talks. If they wish to elevate the Watersports holiday spirit, they can sign up for festive sandbank snorkelling trips or even embark on a remarkable dive with Santa adventure.
Relaxation and Wellness
At Angsana Velavaru, the festive season is not just a celebration – it is an opportunity to discover the true meaning of relaxation, wellness, and the beauty of nature. Whether you choose to embark on a Barefoot Power Walk, dive into self-discovery, or indulge in Unveiling the Secrets of Couple Massage, your stay will be enjoyable and enriching.
Meaningful Entertainments
Celebrate togetherness with lively and immersive theme gatherings – whether it is a tropical luau, beachside soirée or cultural spectacle, these themed nights are designed to foster connection and create bonds.
As the sun sets, the Beatus Band, hailing from the Philippines with performances in luxury hotels and resorts across China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Maldives will provide the soundtrack to magical evenings with their vocal prowess and skillful mastery of guitar, keyboard, and saxophone.
For an unforgettable New Year’s Eve soirée, delight in an opulent Gala Dinner complete with live culinary theatrics and a sumptuous selection of both timeless classics and global gastronomic treasures. As a prelude to the mesmerising countdown, immerse yourself in a captivating tapestry of performances from across the globe in a Cultural Show. The pinnacle of the night arrives with the “Friendship in Diversity” New Year’s Eve and Countdown Party. Groove to the harmonious melodies of the Beatus Band, an exceptional musical ensemble hailing from the Philippines, and dance into the night’s embrace with the resort’s resident DJ. To heighten the jubilation, guests can stand the chance to win the lucky draw with amazing prices at stake. Together with its guests, Angsana Velavaru will usher in 2024 by celebrating diversity, fostering friendships, and honouring traditions – truly “Moments in our Hearts”.
The season of celebration and joy is just around the corner – and there is no better place to better #SenseTheMoment than Angsana Velavaru. Download Angsana Velavaru’s Festive Brochure 2023 – 2024. Find out more through this link: Sharing Time Offer | Angsana Velavaru Resort & Spa. Enjoy and earn Accor Live Limitless points, too!
Action
Gili Lankanfushi Maldives expands wellbeing offering with tennis pro, visiting practitioner
At Gili Lankanfushi Maldives wellbeing is a deeply personal journey. This season, the award-winning eco-luxury resort is enriching that journey with the arrival of two exceptional specialists, each bringing a unique approach to helping guests reconnect with themselves through movement, mindfulness and transformative experiences.
Joining the resort as Resident Tennis Pro, Nikola Vučković offers bespoke tennis lessons tailored to players of all ages and abilities. With more than 15 years of international coaching experience, Nikola combines technical expertise, tactical insight and personalised guidance to help guests build confidence and elevate their game. His distinguished career includes coaching players to success at European Championships, ITF tournaments and national-level competitions. In partnership with Tipsarevic Luxury Tennis, the personalised lessons cater to all skill levels, providing professional instruction and expert guidance to help guests improve their technique, develop their confidence and enhance their overall game. Whether stepping onto the court for the first time or refining advanced skills, guests can enjoy a rewarding and engaging tennis experience in a relaxed island setting.

Complementing the resort’s active lifestyle experiences is Dr Aradhana, a visiting wellness practitioner in residence until the end of September. With more than a decade of experience in holistic wellbeing, she offers a nurturing and personalised approach designed to help guests restore balance between the body, mind and emotions. Through bespoke therapies and immersive wellness sessions, Dr Aradhana creates a supportive space for relaxation, self-discovery and renewal, encouraging guests to reconnect with themselves and cultivate a deeper sense of wellbeing that extends beyond their stay.
Guests can also take part in E-Motion Flow: Moving Body to Release Emotions, a complimentary wellness session led by Aradhana that combines movement and breathwork to support emotional release, inner balance and overall wellbeing.

Together, these experiences reflect Gili Lankanfushi’s belief that luxury travel should nourish both body and soul. Whether discovering the joy of tennis, embracing holistic wellness practices or simply taking time to reconnect with oneself, guests are invited to embark on a journey that is as restorative as it is inspiring.
By bringing together experts from the worlds of sport and wellness, Gili Lankanfushi continues to create meaningful experiences that encourage guests to return home feeling refreshed, empowered and renewed.
Awards
.Here Baa Atoll recognised for landscape and suite design at AHEAD Asia 2026
.Here Baa Atoll has been named a winner in two categories at the AHEAD Asia 2026 Awards, receiving honours for Landscaping & Outdoor Spaces and Suite. The recognition celebrates the private island retreat’s distinctive approach to hospitality design, where architecture, interiors and landscape have been conceived as a unified response to one of the Maldives’ most extraordinary natural settings.
The wins follow .Here’s selection among the 2026 AHEAD Asia shortlist, which was drawn from a record field of more than 220 entries from across the region. The project was recognised alongside its creative collaborators Kulör Group, Muza Lab and Topo Design Studio.
Set within the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Baa Atoll, .Here takes an intentionally intimate approach to island hospitality, comprising just nine expansive residences across two natural islands, Somewhere and Nowhere. Rather than treating the landscape as a backdrop, the design places it at the centre of the experience, creating an architecture that responds to light, movement, material and the changing relationship between land and ocean.
The architectural vision was conceived by Christopher Chua of Kulör Group, with interiors by Inge Moore of London-based Muza Lab. The two disciplines were developed around a shared principle: spaces should feel grounded in their environment rather than imposed upon it. Indoor and outdoor areas flow into one another, while natural materials, muted tones and tactile layers create interiors that are deliberately restrained. Views towards the horizon, lagoon and sky become part of the composition, with architecture serving to frame rather than compete with the landscape.
That dialogue with nature extends through the residences themselves. Carefully considered proportions balance openness with intimacy, while transitions between beach and ocean, shade and sunlight, and interior and exterior spaces are designed to feel fluid. The architecture follows the contours of the islands, with residences positioned to maximise views and the experience of sunrise and sunset. Passive cooling strategies and responsibly sourced materials also form part of the project’s environmentally sensitive approach.
Inside, Muza Lab draws on the maritime character of the Maldives through bespoke furnishings, artisanal detailing and natural textures. References to traditional dhonis, celestial navigation and the shifting colours of the Indian Ocean are interpreted subtly rather than literally, creating spaces that feel contemporary while retaining a strong sense of place. Even the names of .Here’s residences look beneath the waterline for inspiration, referencing the coral reefs and marine formations that shape the ecosystem of Baa Atoll.
The Landscaping & Outdoor Spaces award places particular emphasis on another important element of the project: the relationship between the built environment and the existing island landscape. Working alongside Kulör Group and Muza Lab, Topo Design Studio approached the landscape as an extension of the architecture, retaining native vegetation and shaping pathways, gardens and shared spaces around the connection between land, sea and sky.
The Suite award, meanwhile, recognises the residential experience at the heart of .Here. Rather than conventional hotel accommodation, the retreat is composed entirely of large-scale private residences designed around space, privacy and a close relationship with the ocean. Across the project, architecture and interiors move between expansive living areas and quieter, more intimate spaces, allowing the experience of the surrounding landscape to remain ever-present.
The two awards mark a progression from .Here Baa Atoll’s earlier recognition as an AHEAD Asia finalist across multiple design disciplines and underscore the strength of the collaboration between Seaside Hotels & Resorts, Kulör Group, Muza Lab and Topo Design Studio. The official AHEAD shortlist credits the same project team across .Here’s Landscaping & Outdoor Spaces and Suite entries.
With the Asia winners now advancing to compete with winning projects from other regions, .Here Baa Atoll will progress to the next AHEAD Global edition, where the programme’s worldwide champions will be determined.
For .Here, the recognition ultimately reflects a design philosophy that is intentionally quiet: architecture that gives precedence to its surroundings, interiors informed by place rather than decoration, and a landscape allowed to retain its own identity. The result is a retreat where the experience of design is inseparable from the experience of Baa Atoll itself.
To learn more about .Here Baa Atoll, visit www.here-maldives.com.
Awards
Three years, three wins: Siyam World retains Most Innovative Resort title at TTM Awards
Siyam World Maldives, part of the Lifestyle Collection at Sun Siyam Resorts, a collection created for travellers looking for something less traditional. It probably explains a few things about us.
Apparently, once was not enough. Or twice.
For the third consecutive year, Siyam World Maldives has been named Most Innovative Resort at the TTM Awards 2026. We must be on to something here.
Three consecutive wins is starting to look less like a coincidence and more like a habit.
With one of the most extensive collections of experiences in the Maldives, there is a lot going on here. Guests can spend their entire holiday doing absolutely nothing.
They can also spend it doing almost everything.
The choice is rather the point.
Siyam World is home to 16 different villa categories, from Beach Villas with Pool to Over Water Villas with Slides, giving guests plenty of ways to find their own version of island life. Then there is the food. Guests can move around from one dining experience to another without feeling like they are eating at the same place twice. Different cuisines, different settings and enough choice to make deciding where to have dinner feel like a game of roulette.
And then there are the experiences.
This is where the Most Innovative Resort title starts to make a little more sense.

Siyam World is home to the largest floating water park in the Maldives, the first and only horse ranch in the country, and an ever-growing line-up of experiences that are not exactly what you would expect to find on a Maldivian island. There’s a Jetcar, a first-of-its-kind electric go-kart track, extensive sports facilities, overwater villas with slides and pools, and a 24-hour premium all-inclusive concept designed to keep the choice going long after dinner.
Even the reef has become part of the story, with the new Shipwreck project bringing together an unusual mix of adventure and reef restoration.
And the innovation does not stop at what is already here. Football camps have become a regular part of life at Siyam World, bringing international football legends to the island to work with young guests. The idea has always been bigger than a photo opportunity. It is about creating experiences that guests, especially the little ones, will actually remember.
Innovation at Siyam World has never been about introducing something new just for the sake of saying it is new. It is about asking what a Maldivian holiday could be if we stopped assuming there was only one way to do it.
Three years. Three wins.
Still doing things differently.
But an award for innovation comes with an interesting question.
What are they doing next?
With Halloween around the corner, the festive season already taking shape and another line-up of football camps on the horizon, one thing is certain, Siyam World is already busy dreaming up its next big idea.
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