DEPARTURES TRAVEL PARADISE FOUND 26 The lagoon-top spa at the new Ritz-Carlton The Ritz-Carlton’s architecture takes inspiration from the ocean currents ocean-based products. You’ll also find them in the fabulous holistic spa. The resort’s sustainability mission extends to the restaurants, too. Patina has planted organic perma-gardens and bottles its own Nordaq water. The signature restaurant, Roots, is plantbased and brilliant, offering elevated vegetarian cuisine – powerhouse poke bowls, butternut steak with squash ragout and Asian herb crumble, cashew-nut-cream “cheezcake” dolloped with sour cherry and coconut compote. Meanwhile, Latin American restaurant Brasa offers the kind of sophisticated tasting menus that wouldn’t seem out of place in New York or Hong Kong. Island-locked food boredom won’t be an issue with 10 more drinking and dining options scattered across the Fari Islands. Also a part of Patina but open to guests from adjacent islands, the Fari Marina Village has a docking for 18 superyachts and a water-sports centre, as well as a beach club, a clutch of eateries (including a pink tuk-tukstyle food truck hawking Chinese bao buns) and the first physical store from The Rake. It’s from here that guests venture back and forth between Patina and the Ritz-Carlton. Across the water, the Ritz-Carlton (ritzcarlton.com) has taken a quieter approach that is more in keeping with its heritage brand. The last project of the late Kerry Hill, the architecture takes inspiration from the ocean currents, with circles featuring prominently. Appearing from above as if a collection of spaceships has landed in the Indian Ocean, the majority of villas are perfect halos (the two-bedroom villas and the Ritz- Carlton Estate are the exceptions), with private pools swooping across the decks. Calming interiors put the focus on nature, the cream stone and blond woods, crisp white linens and marble bathtubs contrasting with the vivid blues of sea and sky. Other highlights include an outpost of Jean-Michel Cousteau Ocean Futures Society, where guests can learn about the local ecology, as well as booking diving, snorkelling and fishing trips; a high-octane kids’ club, with everything from introduction to marine-biology classes to photography lessons to aqua-Zumba; and a serene Bamford Spa, the first in the Maldives, offering hours-long rituals performed by therapists from Thailand and Bali. Both properties are thoughtful and considered, and will appeal to different types of travellers in their own ways, and while it might be hard to stand out in paradise, the Fari Islands have made themselves unmissable. © RITZ CARLTON PLEASE CHECK THE LATEST GOVERNMENT ADVICE BEFORE BOOKING TRAVEL OR DEPARTING ON ANY TRIP
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