Seychelles is home to many luxury properties sprawled all over the island. The famous Bill Bensley designed property of MAIA Luxury resorts have mastered the art of seclusion with their exclusive 30 villa properties nestled in the rocky, tropical landscapes of their award-winning gardens. With Aztec and Balinese design influences, you are certainly in for a treat at MAIA, part of the Leading Hotels of the World collection of hotels and resorts.
If you are looking to book your MAIA Luxury experience, reach out to us for exclusive extra booking perks or check out these two options to compare rates Booking.com and Agoda.
Where is MAIA Luxury Resort and Spa located
With your own exclusive beach located in the inlet of Anse Louis, MAIA is in the south-west of the island and is only a 30-minute short drive from the Seychelles international airport. Transfers are not included in the price of the stay but can be arranged by the team. If you are looking for a cost-effective method, a taxi will bring you there but prices on the island are quite high. Being located on the west side of the island means you will get some cracking sunsets if the conditions are right.
How it works at MAIA Luxury Resort and Spa
This is perhaps the greatest advantage of the MAIA resort. Each villa has its own 24 hour butler. Each has been handpicked based on their personality and life experience to match them with the client. We had the pleasure to have
Their motto is: “Whatever Wherever, Whenever”. The team goes out of their way to make your experience as personalized and memorable as possible, making sure your family or couple are treated like royals. No wonder why a large amount of guests are regulars. For the 30 villas, there are 230 staff, point of difference unlike any other.
MAIA has no reception area and it is a great thing. As you enter the property you are driven to a beautiful lounge area, and a buggy is waiting to pick you up. They believe in convenience so no need to wait for check-in, as the process will be done in the comfort of your own room with welcome drinks and food even awaiting!
Most people spend their time in their villa as it is like a dream, but there are plenty of other activities to try out too.
The all-inclusive price includes not only meals and most alcoholic drinks but all non-motorized water sports, scuba diving lessons, yoga, qi gong sessions and laundry.
After our long day, we were greeted with drinks and desserts, courtesy of our butler that planned an amazing welcome to the resort with my favourite music playing out loud in the villas’ sound system. The menu was there waiting for us so we could start ordering all the food and drinks that we wished for our dinner whilst checking-in.
Facilities at MAIA Luxury Resort and Spa
Yes, it is all about the villas but there is plenty to do there as well. There are yoga classes every morning in the spa area and an adjoining fitness centre. The equipment is pretty average compared to other hotels we have stayed in, but there is still a treadmill and enough weights to get a good workout in.
Maia’s boutique spa is dedicated to the rejuvenation and restoration of the body, mind and soul. It is set in the lush gardens near the resort’s entrance, so you will walk through palms on a wooden pathway leading you to the small spa reception pavilion to then luxurious open-air treatment rooms. Spa treatment at the MAIA is great, we recommend you to book your massages in advance. They mix Balinese traditional massage styles with modern treatment methods.
At the centre of the property, and also home to the restaurant and non-motorized sports, is the infinity pool where you can relax with a drink or two. Of course, we found this pool was fairly empty as everyone had their own drinks and pools in individual villas. Fair to say that MAIA is for people who want their own space, not the social ones.
A little fact about beaches in Seychelles is that no matter where they are, they are regarded as public beaches. MAIA is on Anse Louis Beach and has some incredible white sand and clear blue waters, especially when the sky is sunny. Note that all beaches in the Seychelles are public, this beach is actually is conveniently located right off the main coastal road, easy-access to get for non-guests, either by car, taxi, or local bus, but on the bright side, as we have observed and according to the staff, Anse Louis Beach never gets crowded, mostly because visitors do tend to stay at the far end of the beach nearer to the parking lot, which is very much away from the resort’s beach section.
Rooms at MAIA Luxury Resort and Spa
Thuymi and I have been talking and we have both agreed that this was one of the most incredible resorts we have ever stayed in. Each villa is strategically positioned in different locations to have ultimate privacy and reached through individual gated gardens. They all have at least one infinity-edged pool, most have two, and expansive terraces that seem to be suspended above the earth. 11 of the villas have direct beach access and the other 19 villas are set on the hillside. We were fortunate to stay at the best one in the house at the very end and top of the hill , the Ocean Panoramic View Villa, which was overlooking the Indian Ocean and the surrounding Bay Area.
Like I stated before, the villas are designed for maximum privacy and each has its own award-winning gardens, meaning no one can see in even if they tried to look over!
The outside area consists of a large day bed, butler area, coffee machine, fridge, cooking area and a dining table to enjoy food with a view. The main cabana area is the king-size bed, couch, vanity area, big screen TV and stereo system. The bathroom consists of a huge toilet and shower walkway with a double vanity setup with Bali influences running through it. It is stocked with extravagant Hermès toiletries, by far the most impressive bathroom amenities that we have ever encountered in a luxury hotel. There is another dedicated outside area for the double sunken bathtub which looks straight at the sunset. There are also deck chairs out there so you can enjoy the peace and quiet.
Not to forget to mention, the room is equipped with Bose sound system for you to play your tunes all day and night throughout the whole villa. It is necessary to repeat that part of the room fare, you get the all-inclusive service including all-day snacks and select alcoholic beverages. The service goes above and beyond by allowing you to curate your meals and to dine anywhere and anytime you want. 24 hours in-room dining at the best we have ever experienced. With a phone number to reach your butler, you can make anything happen when you want it! From your villa to the beach, the resort will serve your meals wherever it pleases you. Otherwise, breakfast, lunch and dinner are served at the property’s sole restaurant, called Tec-Tec, which we will share more to you in our next dining section!
Dining at MAIA Luxury Resort and Spa
There is one restaurant on property, called Tec-Tec. It is open sided and high-ceilinged. Bill Bensley designed the space to mix elegance with raw nature vibes. It is also positioned beside the beach, giving it great vibes if you focus to hear the sound of the waves. Tec-Tec’s cuisine draws inspiration from a number of cultures, giving you the option to choose from five menus during dinner: Indian, Japanese, Mediterranean, Thai and Creole. The cuisine is complemented by an impressive collection of top international wines. There is an on-site sommelier and there are several hundred wines to choose from. You can even suggest your preferences in cocktails and they will make up whatever you wish, or even get creative from your favourite drinks and flavours if you fancy a surprise drink.
After interacting with other lovely guests and the staff, we have learned that most guests choose to eat in their own villas. The in-room doing options are the way to go here. They have very close to the same menus as the restaurant, except you do not have to leave your villa at all! Just call your butler to say what you want and it gets done.
Sustainability at MAIA Luxury Resort and Spa
All the bottles at MAIA are glass and the property works hard to ensure that there are limited waste and limited plastics. Their pride and joy is the fact that it is a clean jungle garden you are surrounded in so you never certainly see rubbish around. They keep the beach super clean as well. Linen changes only occur every three days unless requested otherwise.
Our Experience at MAIA Luxury Resort and Spa
After the experience of staying in at least 200 hotels all around the world in 91 countries, the MAIA Luxury Resort and Spa is up to now the top place we have ever stayed at. Having a butler sounds so posh, but the personalization of the whole experience made our stay unreal and definitely tough to beat. It was a combination of everything, location, staff, food and beverage, facilities, amenities, service and design, that made us rank this place as our all time favourite so far. The butler was just there at all the right times and quickly learned how and when we liked things like our coffee, snacks and private time, making the experience completely curated and personal.
Again, we enjoyed that at the MAIA, with your butler, everything can be modified, adapted and changed to make you happy. “Whatever Wherever, Whenever” really was well executed to the point that we had the best party ever to celebrate our friends’ 100th country anniversary!
We believe this is a great resort for the Gulf families and couples as it is a short flight from those areas. The longer haul travellers will want to stay a minimum of fives days to unwind and relax. The resort is definitely more suited to couples, since child-friendly facilities are limited, but the staff do a terrific job of making it a whole family experience and they look after the children brilliantly so the parents can get a bit of alone time. That said, MAIS’s policy for children is extremely generous! How? Children up to 4 years old can stay free of charge and a single child from 5 to 18 years old can be accommodated in each villa with a meal supplement charge. It is also important to know that if you are traveling with children, you can only stay at MAIA’s ocean front villas, which are situated right on by the beach, near the main pool.
We also love the privacy at MAIA, with hut structures spaced out privately all over the rocky outcrop with beach on each side and no stage we could hear or see anyone. The MAIA team was organize a wide range of experiences such as swimming with turtles, helicopter rides, scuba diving, deep sea fishing, basically anything you want, they will do it for you (some activities with a price-tag evidently).
Spa Experience
We had a couples massage in one of the three open-air treatment rooms. It looks as though you have an entire rainforest surrounding you during the experience with all the greenery and sounds. Massages are quality and fill up quickly so make sure you book as soon as you arrive at the resort or even before arrival. We had a traditional massage and it was one of the most enjoyable massages we have had in terms of total experience and ambience. This is also the place they have yoga and qi lessons every morning so if you enjoy that, you will be very familiar with this area.
Best time to Visit
They say that you can visit the Seychelles virtually any time of the year and we can see why that is possible. The rainy-ish season is about November to March and it gets s little windy during May-September. As it is an island, sometimes the wind causes seaweed to come along the shoreline.
Hope this review made you dream of a vacation again! If you are looking to book your MAIA Luxury experience, reach out to us for exclusive extra booking perks or check out these two options to compare rates Booking.com and Agoda.
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