At This Remote Island Resort, Staff Housing Is (Almost) as Luxurious as the Guest Quarters

Unpacked by AFAR

If you travel to a remote island resort, where do the people who work there live? Because of course, if we are traveling to a remote location, it’s highly unlikely that it’s an easy place for hotel staff to commute to and from. Typically on an island resort, staffers are housed in the middle of the island and don’t have access to the beach, the walking paths, or any of the amenities that make these destinations so appealing to travelers.

But there’s a new type of staff housing pioneered by the Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands, which created an entire island for its employees—one where they can also snorkel, swim, relax, eat, work out, and just generally soak in the Maldives. This week’s guest, Sally Kohn, traveled to the resort last year to get a peek at the island and see if it’s really as impressive as it seems. She was surprised by what she found—happy employees included.

Meet this week’s guest

• Sally Kohn, activist, speaker, and author of the book The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity.

Resources

• Read this week’s show notes, including a full transcript of the episode.
• Check out the Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands.
• Read some of Sally’s other AFAR stories, including her essay about traveling as a queer family, and her podcast episode about exploring tolerance in Amsterdam.
• Buy Sally’s book.
• Follow the podcast to ensure you don’t miss an episode.
• Subscribe to AFAR’s YouTube channel for a full video of the conversation.

Be sure to subscribe to the show and to sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, Travel Tales, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us.