EGN NEWS DESK
As the speedboat slices by means of dazzling waters, the island forward unfurls in a riot of color. Bold murals and mismatched pops of color peek by means of the plush greenery, as a standard Maldivian name of Aanlheoa alerts the inventive tribe that you just, their newest visitor, is arriving.
This is Oaga Art Resort, a comparatively new arrival on the Maldives resort scene specializing in overt creativity and tradition reasonably than the normal stripped again aesthetic favoured by many of the nation’s different resorts.
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Beneath its forward-thinking method, Oaga’s origins are deeply rooted in historical past and heritage — the resort is 100% Maldivian owned, 99% Maldivian managed and the overwhelming majority of its staff members are native.
Thanks to this, the expertise right here feels natural, genuine and straightforward going. With a reputation which means ‘moments’, visitors are to be their true selves, to exist within the second and to completely embrace island residing.
Middle East Traveller checked right into a Haruge Beach Villa with Private Pool on a Greatest All-Inclusive Plan.
The Hotel
Opened in 2023, Oaga is a comparatively small resort constructed on a protracted, slender sandbar — but its intelligent design ensures it feels something however cramped. Villas are thoughtfully scattered alongside the shoreline, their privateness safeguarded by lush greenery that screens them from each one another and the resort’s communal areas. Adding to the sense of exclusivity, the island is peppered with hidden nooks and secret spots which might be excellent for these searching for solitude.
What Oaga lacks in dimension it makes up for in color, by bucking the high-end design traits of pale palettes and glitzy golds. The interiors break all guidelines — bar stools with summary black and white coverings are set towards graffiti-covered barrels repurposed into tables; solar loungers are flecked in multicoloured paint; fences are striped with purples, blues and reds. Even the golf carts are vivid pink. In the night, these colors rework because the resort is lit up in neon — a comfortable dreamy glow that enhances, reasonably than competes with, the starry sky.
True to its title, Oaga Art Resort is a residing, respiratory gallery, proudly showcasing the biggest assortment of any resort within the Maldives. Communal areas burst with creativity, adorned with playful floor-to-ceiling murals crafted by native artists depicting every thing from island life to anthropomorphised cats and the underwater world. Guests are invited to help this inventive neighborhood by buying one of many 150 distinctive items featured within the Suvasthi Gallery Exhibition Catalogue, positioned in each room.
The resort is peppered with playful particulars that showcase its artistic contact. Every room quantity is handmade and distinct – ours, for instance, was carved right into a clay pot – whereas Catville, dwelling to the island’s resident felines, greets guests with a enjoyable signal: “Where Oaga cats rule, people are non-obligatory, and daily is a Caturday. Paws right here for a purr-fectly good time!” Even morning coffee comes with a aspect of inspiration, served on coasters engraved with uplifting quotes.
Oaga’s sustainability initiatives are simply as imaginative. Near the jetty, a putting manta ray sculpture – aptly named the Manta-ceptor – doubles as an interactive artwork piece. Guests are inspired to fill it with ocean plastic they gather, mirroring the filter-feeding course of of those majestic creatures whereas contributing to a cleaner sea.
The Arrival
Located within the North Malé Atoll, Oaga Art Resort is a 45-minute complimentary speedboat switch from Velana International Airport, the place the staff meet you at arrivals.
Oaga’s nod to creativity and tradition begins on the jetty the place, in a flurry of heat smiles and soothing scorching towels, we had been guided beneath a smooth, fashionable archway and welcomed with a spirited conventional Maldivian dance. Forget strict gown codes or formalities right here — the resort invitations you to embrace laid-back island residing from the outset.
Check-in is refreshingly casual. Instead of a standard reception desk, we settled into the principle bar with a welcome drink in hand, the place we had been launched to Naajee, our Maalimee — a ‘host navigator’ assigned to every group. Naajee guided us by means of Oaga’s thoughtfully curated Greatest All-Inclusive Plan and helped us design a bespoke itinerary tailor-made to our preferences.
Throughout our keep, Naajee was solely a WhatsApp message away, all the time immediate and keen to help with any request.
The Room
Oaga’s celebration of creativity, custom, and storytelling continues inside its rooms. The resort affords 4 distinct lodging sorts, every various in dimension however all sharing the identical inventive aptitude that defines Oaga’s distinctive type.
When we walked into our Haruge Beach Villa, our eyes had been instantly drawn upwards to the dramatic excessive ceiling, an expansive, open-plan design housed inside a powerful A-frame construction that pays homage to the normal Maldivian boatyards which have formed the area’s maritime heritage.
Dominating the centre of the room and dealing with the floor-to-ceiling home windows was a king-sized mattress. Its headboard was a masterpiece in its personal proper, splashed with daring strokes of color and complex line drawings. Part of a sequence unfold throughout all of the Haruge Beach Villas, each tells a chapter within the timeless story of Dhon Hiyala aa’i Alifulhu, a Maldivian Romeo and Juliet whose story provides a poetic contact to the area.
This wasn’t the one story we discovered throughout our keep. Every day, the housekeeping staff left a typed-up chapter of a neighborhood people story for us to get pleasure from — excellent for studying as we relaxed with a drink from the complimentary minibar.
In the toilet, playfulness and custom crossed paths as soon as once more on the graffitied brick wall. Every morning, the smirking, multi-coloured cartoon cat on the toilet wall greeted me — a playful mural by native avenue artist Ahmed Sobah that celebrates the creatures who inhabited the island lengthy earlier than people.
If you’re nervous concerning the riot of color, don’t fear, as a result of the calming out of doors toilet area is impressed by a standard Maldivian gifili, with an opulent bathe surrounded by banana timber.
But the best a part of this villa will not be the temper lighting, the big cut-to-size triangular black out blinds, the smooth tripod TV stand, the throne-like bean bag, or the muralled plunge pool. It’s the seaside — step by means of the glass doorways, stroll down the winding jungle path and let your ft sink into the sand proper on the water’s edge.
The Service
Alongside the concentrate on artwork and custom, what really units Oaga aside is its open neighborhood idea — the place the staff’s personalities are as vibrant because the resort itself.
In the hospitality world, there’s typically an invisible barrier between employees and visitors, with employees anticipated to fade into the background. At Oaga, that couldn’t be farther from the reality. Here, you’ll as an alternative discover an genuine, numerous island neighborhood who, like every good hosts, take the time to get to know their visitors.
This open neighborhood idea felt like a heat hug from the second we arrived to the teary goodbyes on the finish of our keep. Because the staff mingled with the visitors, we obtained to know the people past the title badges. Like with the folkloric murals on our villa wall, we discovered the tales of the individuals who lived and labored on the island, and shared our personal in return.
This personalisation prolonged into form and thoughtful every day service. The bar employees effortlessly remembered our preferences — iced coffee to kickstart the morning, mojitos to wind down the night. At dinner, a small however telling second captured Oaga’s heartfelt hospitality.
Just as I used to be about to chew into some sugared dough balls, Shamyn, one in all Oaga’s staff members, gently intervened. Knowing I don’t eat fish, he wished to ensure I hadn’t by chance picked up Gulha, Maldivian tuna dumplings.
This attentiveness and concern embodies the service at Oaga — the sort that comes from the center and is delivered with a ardour for real connection.
The Activities
Oaga’s Hoba Spa blends Maldivian drugs (Dhivehi Beys) with fashionable science to supply a personalised wellness programme that connects psychological and bodily well being. Its philosophy is led by Xubba, an award-winning wellness pioneer who inherited therapeutic practices from her grandmother and strives to maintain Maldivian traditions alive.
Hoba is an historical Dhivehi phrase for kindness, and that’s simply what I skilled on the Spa. The complete resort staff exit of their method to make visitors glad, an ethos that extends to Oaga’s wellness choices, which concentrate on the facility of constructive pondering.
Oaga’s healers are inspired to create their very own lessons primarily based on what wellness means to them. At a Tibetan sound tub session, class chief Shree shared how she first turned to the meditation apply to heal her thoughts and physique after a private disaster.
For Saritha, dance is a method to de-stress, which is why she requested to guide the Dhandi Jehun Dance Therapy, a Maldivian people custom the place sticks are tapped collectively on the beat.
In a superb mix of cultures, Saritha led me by means of an lively dance she proudly choreographed to a South Indian Carnatic remix of Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You. At the tip of the session, fizzing with ecstatic pleasure I want I might have bottled and brought dwelling with me, we gave one another an enormous hug, linked by our shared expertise.
I additionally noticed the staff’s sense of delight and possession of their work throughout my Free Flow artwork class. Open to all skills, the category was led by native artistic Naffah Shafeeu and joined by two resident parrots. Naffah inspired us to close our eyes and draw freely with crayons, tapping right into a meditative mindset and a childlike nostalgia when mess was enjoyable.
Free Flow was much less concerning the items we created – though I used to be reasonably happy with my vibrant sundown postcard – and extra about discovering perfection in imperfection, and happiness in artistic expression.
Naffah defined that Oaga is one of the best resort for each artistic visitors and employees. As a singer-songwriter by commerce, in different resorts Naffah could be anticipated to cowl Western music — at Oaga, he’s inspired to play his originals. Now, main the Free Flow classes, he has found a love for visible artwork, and a brand new method to categorical his creativity.
Guests can attempt conventional devices at Kaa Studios, discover freedom by means of motion at Dance Lab, or participate in a variety of different actions together with stand-up paddle boarding, kayaking, jet snowboarding, tubing, scuba diving, cooking lessons and cocktail making classes.
The Restaurants and Bars
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are included within the Greatest All-Inclusive Plan and, consistent with the resort’s relaxed method, there isn’t any menu. Instead, like a bustling avenue meals market, visitors get pleasure from dishes from vibrant picket huts, with buffet choices for sides and desserts.
The fundamental eating space is indoor-to-outdoor spot Kaa Kada – which means ‘meals stalls’ in Dhivehi – the place visitors take their choose from meals stalls providing culinary favourites from throughout the globe.
This eating type echoes historic Maldivian island custom the place neighbours would make dishes in their very own houses and share them in a typical space.
Mealtimes felt communal, with loads of alternatives to cease and chat to fellow visitors who, because of the comparatively small dimension of the resort, we ran into daily.
In the night, the buffet theme continues. For dinner, the tables and carts transfer fully outdoors, so visitors can eat beneath fairy lights and stars. Dinner choices are extra different than lunch, as each night time sees a unique theme, and each dish is fantastically and creatively offered.
During our keep, we had been fortunate sufficient to expertise the weekly Maldivian meals night time. While conventional dishes seem at each mealtime, this night time was a full immersion in native delicacies and tradition, introducing us to Garudhiya (Fish Soup), Bashi Hiki Riha (Eggplant Curry) and Baipen (Rice Congee), backdropped by breezy conventional music.
The consuming spots at Oaga are as laid-back because the eating areas. The partitions of Raa Baa, the resort’s fundamental bar, are vivid with murals that glow in the dead of night, the ground is sandy underfoot and visitors can drink at upcycled barrel tables, or lounge round the principle pool’s swim-up bar. In a quieter nook of the resort is the beach-side Sobi Bar, with a pool and veyo, or backyard stream, which connects to the mirror-fronted Veyoge Gallery Pool Villas.
Here, visitors can participate in beer or gin tasting classes as a part of the Greatest All-Inclusive Plan. Right in entrance of Sobi Bar is a reef wealthy with marine life, together with reef sharks, and we even noticed dolphins enjoying within the water throughout common snorkelling classes.
If swimming isn’t for you, then the seaside itself is gorgeous, an untouched stretch of white sand lined with palm timber, the place you possibly can sunbathe with a cocktail whereas listening to the bar’s chill-out tunes.
Why Stay?
If you need an alternative choice to a basic Maldivian resort vacation, select Oaga. The resort remains to be firmly high-end, with its detail-orientated method, attentive service, and bespoke choices. Yet, for Oaga, high-end isn’t restricted by the traditional and the formal. The resort doesn’t take itself too critically, and encourages its visitors to do the identical.
This laid-back vibe nurtures an natural island ambiance, the place Maldivian traditions and tradition mix extra naturally with the tropical backdrop than Western luxurious. Mostly importantly, Oaga’s tradition has fostered an genuine hospitality that offers a human face to a high-end resort. At Oaga, you arrive on the island as a visitor; you allow as part of a neighborhood.
The Essentials
- Rates: The Greatest All-Inclusive Plan begins at USD950 per night time
- Phone quantity: +960 664 4666
- Website: oagaresorts.com
- Address: Maaranfushi, Maadhunifaru Lagoon, North Male’ Atoll, Maldives
