Recently reframed around the “Joy of Well‑Living,” this one-percenter luxury retreat on Raa Atoll in The Maldives makes you feel like can return from holiday feeling taller—in stature, clarity, and self. 

Paradise doesn’t have to be about hedonism. JOALI BEING is proof that a Maldivian escape can be just as much about well‑living as it is about bottomless margaritas and turquoise shallows. This isn’t a place you stumble into because flights were cheap; it’s an island you choose when you want to come back from holiday not needing another holiday.

Why Maldives, and why now

From India, travelling to the Maldives is almost disarmingly easy. Direct flights from Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi get you to Malé in around 2–3 hours, with multiple daily departures and civilised mid‑morning options from Bengaluru that don’t require a red‑eye. I, of course, made things harder for myself by taking a SriLankan Airlines connection via Colombo, but it’s comforting to know you don’t have to. For Indians, immigration is a breeze – no entry fee required and a simple form filled will give you a QR code to show to immigration officers.

In the Maldives, luxury isn’t a bonus, it’s the baseline. Malé’s humidity falls away the moment you’re met by JOALI staff holding a discreet placard and shepherded towards the seaplane terminal. You can take the standard Trans Maldivian Airways plane (more affordable), but if you can, opt for the JOALI private seaplane: an eight‑seater, 40‑minute hop to Raa Atoll that doesn’t scream opulence, but feels infinitely more comfortable and private than the standard commuter. Just the seaplane costs around $1500 for a round trip; while pricey, it is significantly more affordable than a private charter. 

Up on the top floor of the seaplane terminal, JOALI’s shared lounge sits alongside the Maldivian A‑list—Cheval Blanc, Velaa Private Island, One&Only. Think calm air‑conditioning, a proper à la carte snack menu, showers with Dyson hairdryers, and a sea view of seaplanes skimming across turquoise runways. It’s your first reminder that, here, “transit” is also part of the experience.

Gate of Zero: where the reset begins

Some arrivals feel like logistics. JOALI BEING’S feels like a soft reboot.

You are welcomed to the world of JOALI BEING via the “Gate of Zero”

The seaplane glides into an arrival jetty enigmatically called the “Gate of Zero” — JOALI BEING’s own metaphorical threshold between your regular life and everything that comes after, designed to represent the flared white skirt of a whirling dervish.

A line of smiling staff waves you in, led by General Manager Graeme, hand-on-heart as they say “Marhaba” — the Maldivian welcome that JOALI has turned into a quiet ritual. Right hand to heart: welcome, from the heart.

There is no front desk, no queue, no pen on a chain. True luxury doesn’t make you wait. Your Jadugar (literally “magician”; JOALI’s term for butlers, borrowed from Urdu) simply appears, takes your bags, loads you into a buggy, and leads you into the island toward your ocean villa. Check‑in will happen later, barefoot, on your own sofa.

JOALI BEING vs JOALI Maldives: sisters, not twins

JOALI Maldives, the elder sister, is a 20‑minute speedboat ride away, a high‑octane design‑forward island where art, gastronomy, and indulgence take centre stage. JOALI BEING is newer, quieter, more introspective: the world’s first “well‑being island,” now gently reframed as a sanctuary for the Joy of Well‑Living rather than a strict wellness bootcamp.

This shift in narrative matters. It means you don’t have to arrive with a step count, a juice cleanse, or a yoga certification. You can be a beginner, curious, or simply exhausted. The island asks only that you’re willing to feel better when you leave.

The Grand Ocean Pool Villa: aquamarine everything

I checked into a Grand Ocean Pool Villa, the kind of overwater address that makes the camera roll feel underprepared. Perched on stilts above the Indian Ocean, the villa stretches out in soft aquamarines and turquoise. These accomodations are vast; generous bedroom, living area, dressing room, and a bathroom that seems to belong to a spa rather than a “room,” all opening onto a sprawling deck and a 33 sqm infinity pool that spills visually into the reef beyond. Stairs lead straight into the ocean, where the water is so shallow and calm you can float for ages, watching the sky change colour. If you’re a decent swimmer, yes, you can absolutely swim to the next villa. Sunset, bobbing alone in a warm lagoon that looks like molten copper, is one of those moments you’ll spend the next month trying—and failing—to explain properly.

The health‑forward lens shows up subtly from the start. Before arrival you’re asked: would you like a bottle of Ruinart on ice, or a sparkling tea? The option exists to choose kombucha over champagne, but in the spirit of balance, we chose the champagne and promised to make good choices later. JOALI BEING makes these choices easier than its elder sister property, and it doesn’t just have to do with the cute bicycles each island resident is given to traverse the island upon check-in.

JOALI BEING’s Four Pillars: where the science comes in

My first “appointment” happened soon after check‑in, at the island’s spa and diagnostics hub, AREKA — the beating heart of JOALI BEING’s wellness offering. I was greeted by their resident doctor, a fellow South Indian, whose remit stretches far beyond sore backs and tight shoulders. Here, they start with the idea that what’s stuck in your mind often shows up in your body. Pent‑up emotions? Expect them to be reflected somewhere in your organs.

Bioenergetic testing sounds like sci‑fi but feels surprisingly gentle: you sit, hold two electrodes for a few minutes, and the system maps imbalances and stressors. Results from this Qest4 device are then translated into JOALI BEING’s Four Pillars: Mind, Microbiome, Skin, Energy. Your therapist walks you through where you’re thriving, where you’re compensating, and what to focus on during your stay.

The clever bit? Every treatment and dish on the island is tagged to one or more of these pillars. That seaweed body wrap, the sound‑healing session, even your breakfast shot at FLOW — each is linked back to mind, microbiome, skin, or energy. It’s gameified wellbeing, but in a way that feels adult and quietly empowering. I went in skeptical; I walked out with a list of very practical tweaks that spoke eerie truth to long‑ignored lab reports and late‑night Google searches.

Eating fresh from the ocean

JOALI BEING has three main restaurants:

• FLOW – the all‑day, three‑kitchens‑in‑one restaurant that anchors the island. Mornings here mean a kombucha and tonic bar (the maple syrup kombucha is dangerously good), an encyclopaedia of eggs, Turkish‑leaning breakfast plates, and more ways to eat fruit and grains than your nutritionist has had time to write down.
• MOJO – the beach‑club‑adjacent restaurant that works for lazy lunches and unhurried dinners. Expect Atlantic salmon tartare, scallops, oysters so fresh they taste like the idea of the sea, tiger prawns that could pass for small lobsters, and a steady undercurrent of Indian comfort dishes.
• Yutori – their Japanese restaurant. We didn’t manage to dine here, but it’s where those craving omakase energy and precise knife work will feel most at home.

Everything is labelled with its pillar benefits, but there’s never a sense of being policed. You can order the miso‑marinated fish and a chocolate mousse and still feel like you’re on the “well‑living” path.

Will I get bored in the Maldives? Not here.

AKTAR, JOALI BEING’s own herbology studio leans into Turkish roots to create fantastic activities for residents, including an excellent perfume making workshop (Image: JOALI BEING)

This is the question clients ask us most: “If I don’t dive, will I be bored?” At JOALI BEING, the answer is an emphatic ‘no’.

• AREKA spa is easily among the most sophisticated in the Indian Ocean, with hydrotherapy, sound therapy, and all manner of massages calibrated to your pillar profile. I tried their signature ‘Four Pillar’ massage and exited the spa with rigor and vitality that felt almost alien to me. 
• The gym is touted as the best in the Maldives, fitted with seriously high‑end equipment and a cryotherapy chamber that cools to near‑Arctic levels (-78 degrees Celsius).Three minutes inside can torch up to 700 calories, but more importantly, leaves you feeling like your nervous system has been rebooted. Kickboxing, dance fitness, and pilates lessons means that you’re always around professionals, if needed. 
• AKTAR, their herbology studio, offers one of my favourite experiences on the island: a 90‑minute perfume‑making workshop where you build your own signature scent, then leave with the recipe and a bottle to take home.

• The house reef, explored with the resident marine biologist, is busy with life: eagle and sting rays, turtles, reef sharks, and enough fish to make you feel you’ve swum into an animated film. My taxonomy never evolved beyond “Nemo” and “Dory,” but the joy was universal.
• The Discovery Sound Path threads through a forested section of the island, dotted with sound installations and interactive “games” that more spiritually inclined guests will adore. It veered a bit too esoteric for me, but I can think of several friends in chanting circles who’d slot right in.
• The kids’ club is outrageous in the best way: cooking classes, boxing, astronomy sessions, padel courts, and surprise visits from sporting legends. In just the last couple of months, the resort has hosted football icons like Clarence Seedorf and Dimitar Berbatov, and Wimbledon champion Markéta Vondroušová for guest and children’s masterclasses.

And if you’re the do‑less type? There’s not many better places to do nothing. You can spend an entire afternoon with your nose in a book or lounging about and still feeling like you’ve done something important.

For VIPs (and VVIPs)

Even on a remote island, privacy can be dialled up. Private cinema screenings under the stars, off‑menu dinners inside sculptural installations shaped like sea creatures, and carefully sequestered beach and deck corners ensure that those who don’t want to be seen, won’t be. The four‑bedroom overwater residence is a destination in itself: reef‑front sauna, private gym and treatment rooms, and a deck roughly the size of a medium‑sized apartment, fronted by an infinity pool that seems to fuse with the Indian Ocean.

The Joy of Well‑Living, with Panache

In late 2025, JOALI BEING formally pivoted from “wellness island” to a broader “Joy of Well‑Living” philosophy, anchored by its new “Joyful Journeys of Well‑Living” campaign. It’s less about chasing perfection and more about leaving lighter, clearer, and happier than when you arrived.

Book through Panache World and the VIP experience quietly turns VVIP. We secure better rates than those online, line up the right seaplane at the right time, and build an itinerary that matches your energy, not your neighbour’s. Paradise doesn’t have to be hedonism; at JOALI BEING, it can be the most beautiful reset button you’ve ever pressed.