Conde Nast Traveller Award for “Robinson Crusoe” Style Hideaway in the Maldives

A ‘Dot in the Indian Ocean’ Soneva Fushi Private Island Resort and Spa in the Maldives has won the prestigious Conde’ Nast Traveller Readers’ Award for the Number One Hotel in the World. At the official awards ceremony held recently at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, well known British television actor Griff Rhys Jones presented Eva Shivdasani ( the owner of the Soneva Fushi) with the awards for “Best Overseas Leisure Hotel”, “Best of the Best” and the “Overall Winner: Conde Nast Traveller Readers’ Travel Awards 1999-2000”. The Maldives also won the award for “Best Islands in the World”. Conde Nast Traveller, with editions published in the United Kingdom as well as the U.S.A. surveyed some 30,000 readers in its annual awards.

The Soneva Fushi Resort and Spa(part of Six Senses Hotels and Resort) is situated on the private island of Kunfunadhoo in the Maldives. Barely noticeable on a satellite, this resort, only reachable by private seaplane transfer 25 minutes from the main island of Male, has now usuped the many large, famous and outstanding hotels and resorts that exist world-wide.

Dedicated to ‘intelligent luxury’ Soneva Fushi is designed to have minimal impact on the environment without compromising the creature comforts one dreams about. The Maldives environmental policy has ensured that it remains a place to ‘dive for’. The villas are scattered along the beach and tucked away in the surrounding rainforest. Soneva Fushi has its own ‘authenticity’ with open-air bathrooms and a policy of ‘no shoes, no news’.

Lawrence Marks, Screenwriter and Producer, said after his visit, ‘There is a kind of magic that is indefinable, but one just knows it is there; were I the management, I would bottle it and sell it to other resorts long on luxury but short on atmosphere’.

In this “Robinson Crusoe” style hideaway which presents a totally rustic. Back to nature experience, the sixty-two private villas are, at the same time, the last word in luxury, featuring sumptuous fittings and the highest standards of personal service. The villas are placed so that your very own stretch of white sand beach is just a few steps away. There is dense vegetation in between each villa creating patios and gardens for secluded enjoyment and each bathroom opens onto a private garden.

Soneva Fushi offers a wide variety of gourmet dining options in settings as memorable as the food itself, such as a seaside moonlit barbecue, a desert island picnic, a simple yet delicious lunch under a canopy of trees, or an intimate meal by lantern on a private beach.

If the tranquility of one of the world’s most beautiful islands is not enough to relax guests, they may opt to spend time in the resort’s jungle-set Spa, described by the influential Gallivanter’s Guide as “a design masterpiece, a stunning oasis of calm, reached via stepping stones across a circular reflecting pool; each treatment room is large and airy, with the natural slate walls trickling water into indoor rivers. Outside, across the impossibly white sand, a tunnel of trees leads to the beach, where guests wait in breeze-cooled champas for hedonistic massages.”

The paradise resort, Soneva Fushi, takes its name from the husband and wife owners, Sonu and Eva Shivdasani, who designed and developed the resort and live there in their own private villa for three months of the year, where they greet guests as old friends.

The Soneva Fushi Resort and Spa, managed by Six Senses Hotels and Resorts (formerly Soneva Pavilion Hotels and Resorts) and is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World.