the times Saturday April 9 202250 Travel
Luxury Indian Ocean
O
n the glass-bottomed
dancefloor of the Beru
Bar at the Standard,
Huruvalhi, as wafts of
Mark Ronson’s Why Hide
fills the air and
primary-coloured strobe
lights stream every which way, I half-see
a black, shadowy figure gliding through
the waters below me.
Ambling back to my overwater
villa later, I spy it in the lagoon
again — and this time there’s no
mistaking the disc-like body and
razor-thin tail of a stingray. It
makes me think, for a club in
the Maldives, an overwater
glass-bottomed dancefloor is
the right way to remind guests
of the magnificence of their
location. Especially if one too
many ginger cosmopolitans has
made them forget.
It’s only recently that dancefloors
and the Maldives were mentioned in
the same sentence. Since it established
itself as the ultimate tropical paradise in
the 1980s, the archipelago and its impossi-
bly perfect beaches and ocean have been
the reserve of the super-rich and honey-
mooners who favoured peace and tran-
quillity. But that one-note holiday is
changing as island resorts offer luxury for
a little less, making them accessible to a
wider and often younger demographic.
There’s a growing need for hotels to
differentiate themselves in an increasingly
crowded market — the number of island
resorts has gone up from 98 in 2010 to
about 155 in 2020.
Enter the Standard, the chic hotel group
with a Miami Beach flagship, which
opened its Maldives outpost in the
Raa Atoll, north of the capital Malé, in
late 2019 — which means it’s only really
getting going now.
Relaxing on beanbag-style sofas in the
chill zone of the Joos Café, I meet Angie,
the DJ from the night before, who has been
behind the decks in the Maldives for nine
years. “Guests here seem more outdoorsy
and youthful than in other places I play,
although whether there’s dancing com-
pletely depends on the energy of the guests
at the time,” she says. “Were you there last
night when the big Spanish group came in?
They filled up the dancefloor until it
finished at midnight.”
In most ultra-luxury resorts, she says,
people prefer to stay in their villas. But
here the bar is busy most nights, and it’s
sociable. “I’ll often see groups of people
together and it’s not obvious whether theyThe new wave of
Maldives party pads
Horse riding, big-name DJs and even surfing — the latest
hotels to arrive on the archipelago are pulling out all the
stops to attract a new generation, says Shilpa Ganatra
knew each other before or just met.”
Demand for her sets has risen in the past
few years, but she’s not sure if it’s because
more resorts want DJs or because of a
recent push to employ local musicians
such as her. Big-name international DJs
are still welcomed for short stints, she
explains. They are frequently brought in
for private parties and as guest attractions
for the handful of resorts that, with
the Standard, are reinventing the
Maldives’ vibe.
Last year the Hard Rock Hotel
(a hotel chain I didn’t expect to
see here) laid on the luxury
music festival Cult Excape in
collaboration with its island
neighbour Saii Lagoon, featur-
ing DJs playing day and night,
and special events throughout
the long weekend. The LUX*
resort did similar, jetting in DJs
from France, Spain, Argentina and
Brazil for a week-long festival.
However, some things don’t change.
It’s a badge of honour for every resort in
the Maldives to have “the biggest” or “the
only” or “the most” of something, and
the Standard lays claim to the largest disco
ball in the archipelago. I can confirm it’s
a little unnerving to dance underneath it.
The disco ball fun continues in my
overwater villa. In the bathroom — which
has glass panels in the floor so I can idly
watch the baby reef sharks and rays swim
by underneath — a smaller disco ball takes
centre stage over a grand circular (and
rather unnecessary) bath. More won-
drously, the carefully positioned light
bounces off the disco ball like confetti
across the room, and the warm breeze run-
ning through the semi-outdoor bathroom
keeps the light show in motion.
It’s the highlight of a playful villa. One
wall is adorned with snorkelling gear in a
striking white and hot pink colour scheme,
and there’s a Wonderboom speaker for my
holiday playlist. A ukulele leans against a
minibar that includes a bottle of Patrón
tequila (a mere £70) and Grey Goose vod-
ka (£75). The message from the Standard is
clear: we’ll provide the base ingredients,
you provide the party.
Even in the daytime, the vibe is as
relaxed but not as hushed as I’ve experi-
enced elsewhere in the Maldives. At the
heart of the operation at the Standard’s
Kula bar (it means “colours” in Maldivian),
gentle Ibizan chill-out music drifts out of
the speakers. Outside, the beach club
scene of bright white furnishings, yellow-
and-white striped towels, and palm trees
bent around an infinity pool could be20 milesFinolhuThe StandardSiyam WorldMALDIVESMaléTravel
T
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thetimes.co.uk/travelOverwater villas
at the Standard