Joali Being Opens as a Well-Being Island in the Maldives
The second Joali island opened on 15 November 2021 in Raa Atoll with 68 villas and a programme built on mind, skin, microbiome and energy.
Joali Being opened on 15 November 2021 on Bodufushi, an island in Raa Atoll about 40 minutes by seaplane from Malé. Its owners present it as the first resort in the Maldives devoted entirely to well-being, and it is the second property of Joali, whose first island, opened in the same atoll in 2018, is known for its art.
The resort has 68 villas, 33 on the beach and 35 over the water, with one to four bedrooms, each with a pool and a personal host called a jadugar. The design follows what its architects call biophilic principles: curved forms, natural materials, and layouts planned around the movement of light and air and the existing trees.
The programme is built on four pillars, mind, skin, microbiome and energy, and each guest begins with a consultation that sets the direction of the stay. The facilities are extensive for an island of this size. There are 39 treatment rooms. Areka holds the gym and an over-water meditation deck, Core the private training studios. Kaashi is a hydrotherapy hall with a sensory deprivation room, and Seda is dedicated to sound healing, an interest that continues outdoors on the Discovery Sound Path, a trail of instruments set among the trees. Aktar is a herbology centre where remedies and teas are blended. A learning centre runs workshops, and there is a turtle conservation sanctuary.
Four restaurants serve what the resort calls earth-to-table food, with menus that give as much space to vegetarian and vegan dishes as to fish. At opening, programmes required a minimum stay of five nights.
The Maldives had long treated the spa as an amenity, an over-water pavilion attached to a beach holiday. Joali Being reversed the order, making the programme the reason for the journey. It appeared at the same moment as medical and longevity retreats were multiplying across Asia, from RAKxa in Bangkok to Clinique La Prairie in Anji, and it sits at the gentler, more sensory end of that range. Other recent arrivals in the archipelago include Patina Maldives.