Arriving at said airport, by all accounts, can be quite overwhelming. Velana is pretty small (though it is getting a swanky new international passenger terminal in mid-2025), and there are seemingly endless sea taxis, planes and transfer minivans waiting for their guests when you first land. Fortunately, for Nautilus guests, everything runs like clockwork.
We had a member of airport staff meet us off of our flight from Abu Dhabi (ridiculous, I know), where we got taken by car to an arrival lounge to sip on full-fat Coke while our bags were rescued from the luggage carousel for us. Most hotels have you make your own way through customs and baggage claim, which can take a while and be very hot, so this was a real treat.
All of the staff seemed to know exactly who we were and where we needed to be, and reps from The Nautilus were on hand to show us the way to our sea plane terminal.
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The Nautilus has its own, very-lilac sea plane, which takes guests from Velana direct to The Nautilus multiple times a day. Under normal circumstances, you’d arrange an independent seaplane transfer, operated by the nation’s Manta Air, but guests of The Nautilus don’t have to go through the hassle.
Reaching The Nautilus takes a short 30 minutes, a journey that is made more than comfortable with water, earplugs and fans. Taking off just before sunset and flying over the butter-soft beaches that lined the islands below was like nothing I had ever experienced – and landing on a wooden pontoon in the middle of the ocean was pretty spectacular, too.
The final stage of the journey was to hop onto The Nautilus’ private boat for a five-minute shuttle to a jetty on the southern-most tip of the island – and approaching the Thiladhoo (the island The Nautilus is set on) was actually one of the most joyful moments of my whole experience. Smart, friendly staffed lined the jetty, smiling joyfully and – cold towel and ice-cold mocktails in-hand – marking the start of our holiday.
The houses
There are 26 beach and ocean houses at The Nautilus, and while the over-water ocean houses remain the most popular with new guests, the beach houses are reportedly favoured by friends and repeat guests of the island. Whichever style of room you opt for, your experience will be tailored to your needs entirely – proven by the fact that you get a personal butler for the duration of your stay, and the chance to fill out a pre-arrival preferences form to let staff know who you are.
You can walk around the entire parameter of the island in less than 20 minutes – or cycle, if you don’t mind avoiding the beaches – so reaching the room was a speedy affair. We were driven right to the front door of our over-water villa by buggy, through frangipani and hibiscus-littered paths, and felt comforts of home from the moment we stepped inside.