In a bid to help its guests experience optimum wellbeing when on holiday, JA Manafaru Maldives has launched a new lifestyle initiative called Wellness Your Way. The idea has been created to answer a growing call from guests wanting to see more environmental practices put in place to enable experiences in paradise to be coupled with sustainability. As such, JA Manafaru Maldives has taken multiple steps towards a greener future, with the adoption of renewable energy, solar panels, desalination plants for glass bottle drinking water, and, most importantly, the removal of single-use plastics across the island
Now, the focus is switching to guests, creating more tangible opportunities to allow them to play a role in protecting the environment whilst at the resort, from the sourcing ethical produce to using homegrown and homemade dishes and amenities. Through these steps, guests can gain a deeper experiential connection to the natural island environment, maximise their wellbeing and show appreciation of the Maldivian local cultural heritage and preservation of tradition.
And so, in October 2023 Wellness Your Way was launched, a healthy lifestyle alternative, with specially-curated menus available in each of the resort’s six restaurants and bars. The chefs have learned fermenting procedures with the goal of creating ‘@JA Manafaru’ soy sauce, miso and other fermented products on site, alongside a new wellness drinks program, with organic drinks like homemade kombucha.
In the kitchen, JA Manafaru’s chefs are devising new, innovative ways to create healthy versions of guests’ favourite dishes, just by changing one or two ingredients, and simultaneously offering a much wider variety of ‘alternatives’, such as plant-based meat, cheese and seafood, with a vegan ‘buffalo’ mozzarella thrown into the mix, too!
Designed to enhance wellness-conscious guests’ stays by helping them discover different and delicious ways to align their lifestyle choices, the Wellness Your Way initiative works hand-in-hand with the wider island experience, allowing guests to eat a salad one day, then indulge in a seven-course degustation menu the next. It’s all about balance.
Set in the Haa Alifu Atoll, at the northern tip of the Maldives, JA Manafaru has always been a soulful sanctuary, and other Wellness Your Way initiatives across the resort include an Alchemy Bar at Calm Spa Sanctuary, where guests can attend workshops to make herbal remedies, soaps and organic bath bombs, or take part in short wellness programs; Cluckingham Palace, where kids can help collect eggs; A mushroom hut for producing kombucha; Hydroponic and micro-farm tours; And foraging with chefs to find ingredients. All the trappings of a luxury holiday in paradise, with a feel-good side order of wellness – your way.