Vacationing With Friends? Here Are 4 Luxury Buy-Outs From the Maldives to Morocco
Yes, a standalone villa within a hotel is appealing, but why not go one better and take over an entire property? The Goldilocks size for any new five-star pile is just large enough so that your entire party can commandeer it as their own. Alex Wix of Wix Squared has seen a 40 percent increase in friends traveling in large groups, perhaps four couples vacationing together. “They want a shared space to hang out whilst also having their privacy,” she says. Hoteliers are responding to that shift by creating new properties where rooms and suites can be sold piecemeal but which are best enjoyed like the perfect hors d’oeuvre: in a single bite. Whether a cluster of islands in the Maldives or a contemporary chic safari lodge in South Africa, these are all built to buy out.
Soneva Secret, Maldives
Need to Know:
This resort is a homecoming for Soneva, which launched here three decades ago. The new 14-villa concept on the country’s farthest-flung atoll, Haa Dhaalu, is 75 minutes by seaplane from the capital, Malé. Each villa has its own team of three, including a chef, and many are appointed with brand signatures: slides that take you directly into the ocean, retractable roofs for star-gazing, and slick wooden interiors. Opt for the Magical Mystery Tour–like Secret Days, for which staff will design a surprise-filled itinerary.
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Ideal For: Old friends who’d rather crash at sunset than party till dawn.
Happy Occassion: A restorative class reunion—with people you actually want to see.
From $150,000
Kateka, South Africa
Need to Know:
The six-villa property, which can accommodate 16 guests, sits within the 60,000-acre Klaserie Reserve, a concession in the country’s northeast where few other lodges trouble the game. The modern design bucks the dated devotion to colonial architecture at other safari camps. Also contemporary: the impressive wellness offering, with yoga, personalized functional training, and an infrared Himalayan-salt sauna. And you won’t be completely off-grid. Owner Joel Ospovat installed a main internet carrier and a backup.
Ideal for: Fitness-obsessed family members who don’t live near one another.
Happy Occassion: A stimulating vacation for a multigenerational set, elephants included.
From around $28,700
Villa Avellana, Costa Rica
Need to Know:
The 33,000 square-foot, 10-bedroom home, built by Sarco architects, sits on its own three-acre compound on Papagayo Peninsula. Think of it as a private playland: There’s a flotilla of water toys, including e-foils and a captained, 42-foot yacht on call, plus a concierge ready to wrangle a tee time at the Arnold Palmer Ocean Course next door. And yes, that steak does taste like Wagyu. The chef partners with a local farmer who raises cows with Japanese heritage right there in Costa Rica.
Ideal For: Longtime friends who’ve done a summerhouse share and lived to tell the tale.
Happy Occassion: Bachelor parties, benchmark birthdays, and other blowout celebrations.
From around $22,000
Villa Mabrouka, Morocco
Need to Know:
Yves Saint Laurent’s former home in Tangier, an Art Deco–era mansion right on the cliffside, reopened last June as a sumptuously maximalist 12-room hotel, courtesy of interior designer–turned-hotelier Jasper Conran. In addition to the six rooms in the main house (to which Conran added a rooftop bar), there are also six new private cottages, which required digging up and relandscaping the two-acre garden with more than 6,500 plants.
Ideal for: Stylish types bewitched by the 20th century’s greatest fashion designers.
Happy Occassion: A well-earned getaway with friends and loved ones.
Price available upon request
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