Alongside eco-friendly and sustainable, tailored and bespoke are pretty big buzzwords in travel. It’s hard to find a luxury resort that doesn’t claim to offer a ‘truly bespoke experience’ – and harder to find one that does what they say. It’s like tailoring; it’s rare that bespoke really means bespoke.
If it does, then you’re in for one hell of a trip. If that trip happens to be to the middle of the Indian Ocean, then all the better. If it’s to Cheval Blanc Randheli, you won’t be forgetting it any time soon.
If you’ve been to Cheval Blanc Courcheval you already know the level of luxury the French group is capable of. Just swap pines for palm trees, skiing for snorkelling and monied oligarchs in fur coats for… well, monied oligarchs without fur coats. It’s far too hot for any of that.
The actual experience starts a little earlier than touching down in Male, with a call from the hotel a week before. It’s not just a hello, although that’s always nice. Instead they ask a few questions to customise your stay. There’s the kind of activities you want to do of course – tennis or a spot of diving take your fancy? – but also how firm you want your pillows, the colour of your linens and what you want in the fridge. Firm, taupe and IPA in case you were wondering.
The first time you get a real sense of what Cheval Blanc Randheli represents is when you touch down in the resort’s own seaplane. Because of course they have their own seaplane. On arrival I was met by a veritable parade of representatives from each department all waving and smiling. That said, I got the feeling they’re always smiling there – they live in paradise, after all.
At first I thought it might just be something they did for press trips but no; we saw them do it time and again for each new visitor, just as happy and welcoming as ever.
In the space of about five minutes, I’d chatted to every department about what I was looking forward to over the four days I was there, from the type of food I preferred to how intense a massage I liked. The most important introduction though was to my very own majordome.
Think of a majordome as a butler without tails. Normally that would be unforgivable but in 30°C heat I’ll give them a pass. My own majordome could have doubled as a bodyguard: a six foot four inch giant of a Russian named Vladimir. If it was possible to be intimidated by a vegan, he would have managed easily.
© 2013 Stefano Candito
I didn’t use him throughout my stay as much as I could have, though he was definitely useful. It was from him I ordered breakfast – for which you have full carte blanche – and he that laid it all out in my own private dining area. He also organised buggies, boat transfers, activities… even the occasional nightcap. I’m not sure the man actually sleeps.
The activities were as phenomenal as you’d expect: a private tennis lesson on world-class courts with ex-Indian professional Vishwesh Sinha; an offmenu spa treatment on the dedicated wellbeing island and a spot of traditional line fishing, catching lunch for the next day.
This resort’s so swish you even get to choose the contents of your minibar and the colour of your linen.
The reefs of course are always a highlight in the Maldives; they’re why a good number of people head there in the first place. After glancing a few moray eels and an octopus that loved showing off, we even found ourselves in the middle of a pod of spinner dolphins, though that was more luck than good organisation. At least, I hope it was; it’d be terrifying otherwise.
I could have done a lot more during my stay, but I managed a good crosssection of what’s available and, to be perfectly honest, leaving my villa was harder than it should have been. Vast is an understatement. For one person, the size of the accommodation is almost overwhelming, enough that when visiting another writer for a pre-dinner drink we lost each other in the house – and we were in the smaller Water Villa.
Snorkel or scuba around the reefs before enjoying a spa treatment with views you’ll remember forever.
That said, everything seems easier to cope with when you can spend a few hours lazing on a floating beanbag in the middle of your private infinity pool. The Maldives will always be a beautiful place to be, wherever you are in the sprawling island chain. But when a quick phone call can make afternoon tea almost instantly appear, or a snack of sushi from stunning on-island restaurant Diptyque, it suddenly gets a whole lot better.
‘Bespoke’ is a word used far too often and far too misleadingly. Yet from the moment you’re greeted by smiling crowds one bugle short of a fanfare, to the second you’re waved off again, the experience at Cheval Blanc Randheli really is, utterly and unequivocally, perfectly bespoke. More at: www.chevalblanc.com
