If you’re traveling to the Maldives from most corners of the world, you’ll have a serious journey ahead. Yet there’s a reason why every year, over a million tourists embark on a pilgrimage through clinical airport waiting rooms and endless flight connections to reach this narrow line of ring-shaped coral reefs and islands, stretching down from the south of India like a string of pearls. Step out of the Malé airport terminal and feel the first blast of brackish, tropical air—and witness the throngs of tourists cramming into shuttle buses—and the region’s charm becomes immediately apparent.
On a recent visit, however, my final destination was somewhere a little more intimate than your usual sprawling Maldives getaway: the Cheval Blanc Randheli. First launched in 2013 as the second property wholly owned by LVMH—the luxury behemoth whose portfolio spans everything from Christian Dior and Cartier to Dom Pérignon Champagne and Belvedere vodka—its radically new (for the Maldives, anyway) vision of architect-designed, minimalist villas in lieu of traditional, thatch-roofed overwater huts quickly became a formula that is now much imitated. (But as I learned, never quite replicated.) READ MORE FROM VOGUE
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