VELAA PRIVATE ISLAND MALDIVES

Velaa Private Island has been designed and curated with privacy and comfort as the guiding principles while allowing the Indian Ocean to take centre stage. At one with nature, each of the private retreats is built using local materials, combining contemporary flourishes with interiors designed for sensory exploration.

There are many private islands in Maldives, but only very few of them are truly private, owned by one person. Velaa Private Island is such a case. The owner, Jiri Smejc, has spent countless weeks in Maldives both on holidays and while taking his business trips from Europe to Asia. The islands became his true passion: many of them being beautiful, but each of them coming short on some part of the visitor experience he valued. That's why he decided to build the Velaa Private Island. An island meeting his ideas what a luxurious private resort should be. An island keeping a real privacy for its guests but at the same time versatile enough to provide number of first-class enjoyment opportunities. After all, the owner is the one who will spend most time on the island and wants to enjoy it for years, not only for a week or two...

Velaa shares its name and its home with the generations of sea turtles that have inhabited the island for countless years. The colours and patterns of a turtle shell make up subtle nuances in the design, while from a broader aerial view, Velaa’s exclusive over-water villas resemble the head of a turtle with the island forming the body. Designed by Czech architect Petr Kolar, the overall design concept is contemporary, yet intimate, with Maldivian nuances.