Maldives hotels with unique architecture: 11 most beautiful stays

The Maldives stopped long ago being just a place with traditional "thatched huts". Today it is the world's main stage for architectural experiments. Here the best designers from New York, Singapore and Europe compete in creativity. Where in the Maldives can you see not just hotels, but masterpieces of architectural art?

The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

A luxury hotel that became famous for the first underwater villa in the Maldives, The Muraka. This is not just a room, but your personal two-level bathyscaphe, with the lower level lowered five meters under water. The point is that the bedroom is covered with a transparent acrylic dome. From the bedroom, you can watch sharks, rays and schools of colorful fish swim by across 180 degrees. The design of the room itself is minimalist so that the furniture does not distract from the main spectacle behind the glass. The villa comes with a personal butler and chef.

The large hotel stretches across two islands connected by a bridge. There are as many as 150 rooms here and an absolutely crazy choice of food - 12 restaurants and bars. Among them is the famous Ithaa, the world's first underwater restaurant. If you get tired of eating and lying on the beach, you can go to an open-air cinema, talk with marine biologists or relax in one of the two spas, one of which stands on stilts right above the ocean.

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands

A resort for those who appreciate stylish modern minimalism. Architect Kerry Hill designed a hotel where there are no sharp corners at all. He took a perfect circle as the basis, inspired by traditional Maldivian drums. Each of the hundred overwater villas is a wooden cylinder. The bedrooms feature unique panoramic windows that simply merge with the walls, and the room connects seamlessly with the terrace and private infinity pool.

The heart of the hotel is a spa complex in the form of a huge ring floating above the turquoise lagoon. As for entertainment, everything at this resort is thought out at the highest level: a futuristic kids club, an eco program under the guidance of Jean-Michel Cousteau and seven restaurants, from Cantonese to Lebanese cuisine. Guests also have access to Fari Marina Village - a promenade with boutiques, food trucks and a beach club on a neighboring island.

The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands

Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru

At first glance this is a classic green resort, but its charm is hidden in the new Japanese restaurant Madi Hiyaa. It is simply an incredible structure assembled entirely from bamboo. The architects managed to weave the flexible stems so that the building looks like a huge ray jumping out of the water. Inside, light breaks through the bamboo rods, creating the atmosphere of a jungle in the middle of the ocean.

A small and very cozy hotel with just 48 secluded villas with private pools. There is an excellent house reef here, so much attention is given to marine biology: the resort has its own coral restoration laboratory and a sea turtle protection center. The signature Banyan Tree spa deserves special attention - one of the best spa centers in the Maldives.

Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru

Soneva Jani

One of the most unconventional hotels in the Maldives. Its architecture can be described as "a luxurious tree house moved onto the water". Everything is built from recycled wood, and the villas resemble fairy-tale castles with winding bridges. But the main magic is in the bedroom: you press a button near the bed, and the massive roof silently slides aside. You can literally fall asleep under the stars. And in the morning, go down from the second floor of your villa straight into the ocean on your own water slide.

The hotel is known for its free secret rooms: in one you can go in for craft chocolate, in another for dozens of kinds of cheese, in a third for ice cream. In the evening, guests spend time at the Cinema Paradiso overwater cinema or watch the rings of Saturn in the local observatory.

Soneva Jani

JOALI Being

This is not just a hotel, but a full-fledged modern retreat center with a very unusual design integrated into nature. Your journey begins with the "Gate of Zero" - a complex geometric pavilion on the pier. The structure resembles both a frozen ocean wave and the skirts of whirling Sufi dervishes. This complex twisted geometry was calculated using computer algorithms. The idea is that by passing through this gate, you symbolically shed the stress of big cities, the burden of worries and fully "reset" yourself. Architectural installations are placed all over the island, and at the same time they serve as musical instruments - you can walk around and produce sounds from metal bowls and tubes.

There are only 68 villas with pools at the resort, but the main thing is the wellness infrastructure. There are even icy cryotherapy chambers, floating rooms, spaces for sound therapy and even a herb center where you will be taught to blend healthy teas. The restaurants cook according to the "from earth to table" principle, and your menu can be created by a local naturopath.

JOALI Being

Velaa Private Island

This island was created by order of Czech billionaire Jiri Smejc, and the architectural project belongs to Petr Kolar. From above, the layout of the villas repeats the patterns on a turtle shell. Velaa means turtle in translation. But the most unusual building on the island is the Tavaru tower. Imagine a 23-meter concrete monolith wrapped in a light translucent mesh, looking like a lighthouse from the future. Inside this tower is hidden one of the most expensive wine collections in Asia, and a restaurant is open at the very top.

This is a resort for those who want maximum exclusivity. There are only 47 residences and villas with huge infinity pools here. The island has its own professional 9-hole golf course, which is a huge rarity in the Maldives, a squash court, a private submarine and a spa center equipped with a real snow room to cool down after the sauna.

Velaa Private Island

Kudadoo Private Island

This is an example of how solar panels can become the main decoration of a hotel. A Japanese architect designed the main building, The Retreat, so that the huge roof, made up of almost a thousand solar panels, looks like the shining scales of a fantastic fish. The building itself is constructed so that the sea breeze blows through it, so air conditioners are almost unnecessary there. Kudadoo lives entirely on solar energy.

The hotel has 15 huge overwater residences from 300 square meters, and each villa terrace is equipped with a 44-meter pool. The feature of Kudadoo is the concept "Anything, anywhere and anytime". You pay once, and there are no more bills: spa, jet skis, expensive champagne - everything is included around the clock. In addition, guests can travel for free to the neighboring island Hurawalhi for dinner at restaurant "5.8". The name defines the depth at which the venue is located under water. It is one of the exclusive underwater restaurants in the Maldives.

Kudadoo Private Island

Patina Maldives, Fari Islands

Loft style, concrete and fashionable urban architecture against the backdrop of bounty landscapes. The villas at Patina Maldives look more like stylish modern California homes than remote tropical structures in the ocean. They seem dissolved into the jungle, erasing the boundary between room and outdoors. The main art pride of the hotel is the Skyspace pavilion. This is an empty room with a neat cutout in the ceiling. You simply sit inside, and the sky above you looks like a living painting changing color.

Patina offers 90 villas and 20 studios. Like the neighboring Ritz-Carlton resort, it has direct access to the lively Fari Marina village. The food choice is colossal: 12 restaurants, including the exclusive vegan venue Roots. There is an ultra-modern spa complex with floating therapy and red light therapy.

Patina Maldives, Fari Islands

Cheval Blanc Randheli

A luxurious resort by the LVMH corporation, so the architecture here is created by the standards of high fashion. For example, the villa doors reach seven meters in height - when they open, you feel as if you are in a huge palace. The whole hotel is decorated in white-gray tones with bright lemon-yellow accents.

The resort has a spa by the legendary perfume house Guerlain, occupying a separate island. You will be served by a personal majordomo, and for dinner you can go to one of the 5 restaurants - for example, Le 1947 with high French cuisine. If you want to move a little, there are tennis courts, a golf simulator and an excellent water sports center. In total, the resort has 46 villas with large pools.

Cheval Blanc Randheli

Kagi Maldives Spa Island

A small boutique hotel that works in an adults-only format. People come here for absolute silence, and the main wow effect on the island is produced by the overwater spa center Baani. It was designed by Japanese interior designer Yuji Yamazaki. The building has the shape of a perfect circle and seems to float above the turquoise lagoon. In the very center of the roof there is a huge drop-shaped opening - through it, natural light and fresh ocean breeze freely enter inside.

The name Baani is translated from the local language as "ocean swell", and the soft, flowing lines really resemble circles spreading across the water. The building also houses a healthy-eating restaurant and a yoga pavilion. The hotel has only 50 villas with pools. Around the island there is a living house reef.

Kagi Maldives Spa Island

The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort

The creators of the hotel literally copied the shapes of sea creatures. You walk along the main wooden pier, and it leads to overwater villas whose roofs are made in the form of giant manta rays. But the main signature of the resort is the huge Iridium spa center. If you raise a drone, you can clearly see that it is built in the shape of a lobster. In its "claws" massages are done, and in its "head" there is the Blue Hole jacuzzi pool with heated seawater. In the evenings, guests gather at Whale - a bar that looks like the open mouth of a whale shark.

For accommodation, Vommuli offers 77 villas with private pools. You can spend your free time in a way that benefits mental and physical health in the yoga studio, and the PADI diving center will provide bright marine impressions. The resort even has a library built in the shape of a seashell. There is broad culinary diversity in 6 restaurants. You should definitely visit Decanter - it is a real underground wine cellar, which is a huge rarity for the Maldives in general.

The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort