Akanksha Dean
| WWhether you’re Snorkelling, enjoying a glass of wine at the bar or a decadent floating breakfast in your Villa, the Ozen Hotels offer a wide variety of luxury experiences to indulge in at their beautifully crafted, masterpieces!
When you find yourself fantasizing about fleeing to the Indian Ocean, chances are that a masterwork from the Ozen Collection is just the kind of place you’ve been dreaming of all along. Tasteful, sumptuous and devised to gratify your every whim and fancy, both Ozen Life Maadhoo and Ozen Reserve Bolifushi have been created to serve you a slice of paradise! |
OZEN RESERVE BOLIFUSHI
As I arrive at the Ozen Collection Airport Lounge, there is an overwhelming sense of peace and well-being permeating the air, largely in part due to the gorgeous design: from here we are whisked off in a private catamaran athwart the beautiful deep waters of the Indian Ocean to the palm ruled shorelines of Bolifushi Atoll.
We are received with the customary Maldivian welcome: crooned by conch and Boduberu tapping, festooned with handcrafted palm-leaf necklaces and honoured with a spray of soft flower petals.
From here, the occasions to pamper myself only increase: I am spoilt for choice at the many restaurants and bars at the island offering local cuisine for the all-day dining, or otherwise Moroccan at Songu Beach and even Indian at Saffron. However, this being the Maldives, I was looking to experience beach barbeque and floating breakfasts. The plush individual villas and reserves at Ozen Reserve Bolifushi, are cleverly designed to amplify its location.
The beach villas feel more exclusive, but with waters rife with aquatic life – stingrays, green sea turtles, hawksbill turtles, unicorn fish – you would be sorely out if you don’t spend at least a couple of nights in the overwater reserve with a slide. Below the waves, Bolifushi’s house reef is seamless for snorkelling or diving if you wish and, since it’s a great place for families, the Kuda Koli Kids’ Klub, one of the biggest in the Maldives, offers a range of activities set up for each day!
OZEN LIFE MAADHOO
For those of you who dream of discovering the Indian Ocean, Ozen Life Maadhoo, the Ozen Collection’s foremost property, takes you one step ahead: here you can enjoy a meal experience six metres beneath the waters, at M6M, presenting fine dining, exquisite fresh seafood, married with superlative wines, here you will be encircled by some of the best vivid and enthralling sea life on the planet.
However, that’s only one fragment of the resort’s attraction. Hosting overwater and beachfront villas, Ozen Life Maadhoo, on the South Malé Atoll, is the personification of Indian Ocean extravagance, with apparently infinite palm-fringed white-sand beaches watching clear blue waters. There are more whimsical restaurants to choose from, from champagne breakfasts at The Palms all-day restaurant to Lonu, a concept restaurant enthused by conventional local cuisine, and two bars. The Hudhu Bay Beach Club, provides you with the finest of everything beach, from water sports to sundowners. I am in the Maldives so a Spa is a given, more so because this Nature spa and wellness centre has overwater treatment rooms with glass-bottom floors. Formed on the viewpoint of ‘elements of nature’ ELE spa uses all the natural elements, Wind, Water, Fire, Earth, and Wood to create a therapeutic environment.
You can pick your choice from the beautiful variety of facilities and treatments, that knock into the vitalities of these rudiments. I had booked the The Ozen Life Maadhoo Indulgence Plan, in case you are wondering; it covered restaurants, with the M6M underwater restaurant, exceptional drinks, exploration activities, and, based on the duration of your stay, a multitude of luxuries including a butler, diving and spa facilities.
| Where: Ozen Reserve Bolifushi, Bolifushi Island Kaafu Atoll, 20222, Maldives
Call: +960 664 2020 Web: https://theozencollection.com/ozenreserve-bolifushi/ Where: Ozen Life Maadhoo, Maadhoo Island, South Malé Atoll, Maadhoo Island 20094, Maldives. Call: 00 960 400 2222 |
Akanksha Dean, an independent chef as well as a food & travel writer, is the first Indian to have trained at Osteria Francescana, in Modena, Italy, rated as the world’s best restaurant in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
