"“How do they do it?” I kept asking myself during my stay at Miavana, a private island hideaway just off Madagascar’s northeastern coast. Its extensive restaurant menus and top-shelf drinks list would have been impressive even if it had a traiteur on its doorstep, but given that it took me two flights and a helicopter-hop to reach its perch in the remote Levens Archipelago, the logistic puzzle this toes-in-the-sand operation requires is mind-boggling. As is the price—but that does buy you a stay in an enormous breezy beachfront villa with a barefoot Bauhaus-y design from bamboo and local sandstone, slicked up with licks of copper and jolts of turquoise. You’ll also have a private pool, of course, and a palm-hemmed beach as fine and white as powdered sugar right in front. Butlers fix poolside breakfasts, fresh coconuts and in-villa spa treatments at the drop of a hat, or help organise helicopter safaris to little-visited baobab forests and otherworldly rock formations on the mainland that culminate in lavish picnics. But for all this extravagance, the things that will stick with you the most are the ones you can’t put a price tag on: coming eye-to-beady-eye with a chameleon crossing the jungle floor in its jerky gait; having the on-site experts point out birds and gecko species you’ll find nowhere else on earth; and, if you’re lucky, spotting humpback whales from the helicopter before you’ve even checked in. The best things in life might be free, but Miavana adds a priceless dash of magic. From $3,787. —Chris Schalkx" - CNT Editors
