The Perfect Christmas Getaway

Courtesy of LUXURY LIVING MAGAZINE

With Christmas fast approaching our lives can become pretty hectic with the last minute shopping, preparing Christmas dinner and of course the in-laws!! But it doesn't have to be this way, why not just escape and enjoy the festive season in paradise.

Hidden among dense foliage within touching distance of a pristine, UNESCO-protected Biosphere Reserve, Soneva Fushi inspires the imagination. The award-winning resort truly defines the essence of barefoot luxury with Robinson Crusoe simplicity and the resort’s down-to-earth personality is reflected in its nature-inspired architecture. If the experiences are magical, the philosophy is simple; no news, no shoes.

An Imaginative Hideaway

Situated in the Baa Atoll, Kunfunadhoo Island is one of the largest islands in the Maldives at just one m2 kilometre in size. Accessible by a scenic 30 minute seaplane flight direct from Malé International Airport Soneva Fushi is simply paradise. This boutique eco-resort the brain child of Sonu Shivdasani an Indian- British hotelier and Swedish wife Eva, features 57 private villas each built with natural materials, in keeping with the castaway theme many are built to resemble tree houses but are fitted with designer furnishings. All the deluxe and modern features you’d expect of a five-star hotel are included, but most of them are concealed so that no plastic is visible. Villas are well spaced around the edges of the island, affording complete privacy with each villa benefitting from its own stretch of pristine beach.

The resort's numerous restaurants feature Mediterranean-style seafood, traditional specialties of the Maldives, and Peruvian-influenced Japanese food. One of the bars offers nightly wine tastings. The wonderful treehouse-style Fresh in the Garden restaurant, where you cross a rope bridge to get to your table above the jungle canopy), is a real highlight of the resort. This is a resort that takes its eco-credentials and social responsibility seriously. You can take a tour of the resort’s recycling area and see the ingenious ways many things are reused on the island, while across the lagoon on Baa’s capital Eydhafushi, the resort has built and continues to fund a school. It’s hard not to be impressed.

Guests can while away the time exploring the island with complimentary bicycles and for those who want to delve under the waves the Soleni Dive Centre with more than 30 spectacular dive sites rich with marine life near the resort and multi-lingual PADI instructors, is the perfect way to explore the awe-inspiring wonders of the ocean.

For those who want to just sit back and relax the excellent Six Senses spa, set among the trees, is a place for pure relaxation there is also an open-air cinema the “Cinema Paradiso” which has the widest screen in the Indian Ocean measuring 13.8 meters. For star-gazers the Observatory equipped with a high-powered telescope, offers guests views of the magnificent galaxies and an opportunity to count the rings of Saturn and learn more about the universe under the clear Indian Ocean skies.