Soneva Fushi is a long established resort in the Baa Atoll, about 30mins flight North West of Male, capital of the Maldives. It operates on a "no shoes, no news' principle - your shoes are taken away from you when you arrive and everything done to help you to relax and enjoy your stay. We also had Saeed, a 'man Friday', our personal guest representative who worked hard to look after us during our stay.
Soneva Fushi is on one of the largest islands in the Maldives - 1.4 km long and around 400m across. Each villa has bicycles to help you get around - great for whizzing along the sandy jungle paths to restaurants, the spa or to different secluded beaches. As well as an excellent dive school it also has 3 restaurants, a spa, openair cinema, gym and gardens where they grow their own vegatables.
Eating is a treat with choices between the main restaurant, serving excellent buffets at breakfast and lunch and a la carte in the evening, 'Fresh in the Garden', a treetop restaurant specialising in home grown eco eating, and 'By the Beach', a romantice beachside restaurant that specialises in Asian and Japanese food where you can sit by the seashore watching the sun go down and stars come out.
Rooms are beautifully designed and furnished in 'Robinson Crusoe chic' - elegant designs with local materials and natural colours but still very well equipped. We stayed in a villa with a large outdoor shower area and roomy bedroom. Noticeably smarter than when we were here 8 years ago - no iPods loaded with movies for the entertainment system then. Lastly staff and management were incredibly welcoming to us for coming back - so much so that we will be back again soon.