Four Seasons Gets Adventurous in Asia

PHOTO: The Four Seasons Resort Kuda Huraa is considered one of the Indian Ocean's top resorts for surfers. (All photos courtesy of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts)

More and more, hotels are redefining luxury as more than just an opulent level of comfort. Younger travelers are seeking more than that, especially if they're traveling to long haul destinations. Four Seasons Hotels has been successfully selling both luxury and long haul travel for a very long time and they haven't succeeded in this very competitive space by resting on laurels. As travelers clamor for more in the way of experiential travel, Four Seasons has turned to its activities to add experiences that show that you can have both luxury and an authentic experience of where you are at the same time.

The Four Seasons Resort Langkawi's Mangroves & Eagles Safari through the Kilim Karst UNESCO Geopark goes by boat through a maze of 550-million-year-old limestone cliffs, rock formations and mangroves. Eagles and kites, macaques, mudskippers, tree-climbing crabs, otters, monitor lizards, snakes and hundreds of sleeping bats give participants a multitude of wildlife to sight on the three-hour journey. There's also an hour-long safari for kids aged 4 to 12, called the Mangroves & Monkeys Safari. The kids' journey uses a floating classroom boat.

The resort also offers a three-hour Rainforest Immersion to the uninhabited islet of Pulau Langgun, where the pristine rainforest encircles a karst lake. Guests explore the rainforest and end up at a freshwater lake in the middle of the jungle. The cruise back to the resort stops at Gua Cerita (Cave of Legends), the legendary home of a giant phoenix, a captive princess and a giantess.

The resort's new Geopark Discovery Centre presents interactive presentations using resident naturalists. The resort, located in the Langkawi UNESCO Geopark, features 90 pavilions and villas in tropical beachfront gardens.

PHOTO: Guests at the Four Seasons Resort Langkawi can explore the Kilim Karst UNESCO Geopark.

The Maldives have set new standards in the world of luxury resorts. The island nation has almost 1,200 islands and some 26 atolls scattered across some of the most crystal clear waters in the world. As a tourism destination, the Maldives are known for resorts that each have their own island. Four Seasons has two such resorts and each has added to their luxury offering by adding experiential elements to their offerings.

The waters of the Maldives with their consistent year-round swells and deep, flat reefs make for one of the planet's most consistent surfing playgrounds with typical chest-high to once-overhead waves rising to double- overhead in size between June and September. The Four Seasons Resort Kuda Huraa is considered one of the Indian Ocean's top resorts for surfers.

The resort is offering a new series of chartered "surfaris" using a seaplane to go from surf break to surf break to catch the best waves for surfing. The resort's a top notch Tropicsurf Surf company that knows where to find the secluded A-grade waves. Each surfari takes groups of up to eight surfers. Surfers can either paddle back to the plane for refreshments or wait for the next break to catch a dropping tide. The choice is theirs.

The Tropicsurf Surf operation can teach surfers as young as six years old with lagoon-based courses directly off the beach. They can also provide more experienced surfers with clinics on world-class breaks just a short hop from Kuda Huraa's private garden island.

Providing adventures beneath is a specialty of the Four seasons other Maldivian resort the Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru. Between May and November, large schools of both whale sharks and manta rays head towards the seas surrounding the Baa Atoll to feed on abundant plankton. The Maldives has the world's largest population of reef mantas. The resort participates in the Manta Trust's Maldivian Manta Ray Project, a leading manta ray charity. The project has identified over 3,300 individual manta rays from more than 25,000 sightings in the Maldives.

PHOTO: There are Four Seasons in the Maldives, two of them, including the Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru.

The resort offers its guests a chance to join the project's scientists on board their study cruises to known aggregation sites in the surrounding Baa Atoll UNESCO World Biosphere. Participants help record data; take ID photos; join in the identification process and improve their free-diving technique. Guests can also sign up for "Manta on Call," a snorkeling experience that features a swim with mantas as well as private manta ray cruises.

The Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru resides on 44 acres on the Baa Atoll, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, with 103 thatched Beach and Water Villas. The Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa has 96 thatched roof pavilions, beach bungalows, family beach bungalows.

Four Seasons has also put a stake in another archipelago, this one in Langkawi. While guests in the Maldives sight deep sea wildlife or seek the perfect wave, guests at the Four Seasons Langkawi can take a Mangrove Safari with the resort's resident naturalist Aidi Abdullah.

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