Close to paradise in the Maldives

10 April 2012

I wasn't sure if I'd take to the Maldives. In the past 15 years, this Indian Ocean paradise has come to define luxury travel, with private butlers as well as sparkling reefs.

But what if there was too much luxury and not enough paradise in a low-lying island nation all but doomed by global warming?

Seen from the air, the coral islands look like emerald and turquoise gemstones on a bolt of indigo silk. There are 1,190 of them, linked together in 26 atolls.

According to Charles Darwin, these atolls were born 50 million years ago when volcanoes sprang up along fault lines in the earth's crust and corals developed around their edges. As the volcanoes subsided, the reefs were left encircling shallow lagoons. The theory is disputed. But whatever happened, it was nothing short of natural magic.

The island capital of Malé is rather less magical, its two square kilometres bristling with high-rises craning for the light. Around 100,000 people — a third of the Maldives' population — live here but we barely have time to register the fact before we are whisked off to Soneva Fushi, 30 minutes away in Baa Atoll.

As we step off the seaplane and onto a boat, we are invited to hand over our shoes. I sit down and feel the ocean between my toes.

Soneva Fushi was Six Senses' first Resort & Spa when it opened in 1995. The island is relatively large but the atmosphere is hush-hush, with 65 rustic-chic villas of varying sizes hidden along the shoreline.

Navigating the labyrinth of jungly paths by bicycle is as relaxing as a massage in the spa. In a bid to be carbon free, the resort grows its own vegetables, manages its waste, and offsets carbon emissions through a wind turbine project in India.

This doesn't mean it compromises on luxury — the choice of food is mind-boggling. After an exquisite dinner by Spanish chef Alex Garés at Fresh in the Garden, we gaze up at Jupiter and its moons from the observatory and doze at the outdoor cinema.

Tourism didn't reach the Maldives until the Seventies but already around 100 islands (compared to the 200 inhabited by the locals) have been, or are being, developed for tourism.

Of these, 20 or so are in the top-luxury bracket and the government intends to continue on this path, as well as promoting responsible tourism: faced with seeing the islands sink, the president has pledged to make the country carbon-neutral in the hope other nations do the same.

It's difficult to gauge the impact of the measures introduced at Soneva Fushi but they certainly project the right message. And the barefoot take on luxury doesn't detract from the natural setting — quite the opposite.

The Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru, also in Baa Atoll, suffers by comparison. Picking holes in luxury Maldivian resorts might seem a particularly spoilt-brattish sort of occupation, but after the dream-like atmosphere of Soneva Fushi, the Four Seasons' villas lack lustre.

The spa is excellent, combining Ayurveda with underwater meditation and stunning over-water treatment pavilions. And the marine centre — with its coral propagation project, whale-shark research and Manta Encore option (which takes guests by speedboat to wherever the rays happen to be) — makes me want to change profession. But overall the resort lacks a little wow factor.

You couldn't say the same of the One & Only Reethi Rah. Two-thirds of the island may be fake, but like its Manolo-shod clientele, the 228-villa resort is dressed to impress. The Aman-style Beach Villas are hugely glamorous, with pitched roofs, slatted doors and sunken baths. The ESPA spa is breathtaking, offering Thai couples' massage in an over-water pavilion.

And the Lebanese Fanditha restaurant is spectacularly 1001 Nights, with uplit palm trees and tables in the sand. I'd happily spend a night or two here but not a week — it just doesn't feel sufficiently in tune with its setting.

The same goes for Huvafen Fushi, also in the North Malé Atoll. This small island is big on fun: the wine list is more than 6,000-bottles long, and as we cruise in sipping Bloody Marys, we pass a man in a boat playing a saxophone.

The spa is underwater and all 43 villas have plunge pools. It's superbly done, right down to the Frank Gehry chairs in the Ocean Pavilions, but I'm not sure I'd choose an urban boutique hotel in the Maldives — even if Santa does arrive by jet ski at Christmas.

One resort did make me want to go back. Like its bigger sister, Soneva Gili is beautifully barefoot and in harmony with the environment, but the 45 villas stand over the water — on wooden
pillars that look less of an imposition than elsewhere — and water is what the Maldives is about.

The design is more contemporary than Fushi, with white bikes instead of black ones to take you from your jetty to the over-water spa, kitchen garden and rustic-futuristic wine cellar.

But nature is still the main event. From my sun deck, I look out over glittering bands of aqua, turquoise and midnight blue. On the house reef, we see stingrays and turtles, kaleidoscopic parrotfish, powder-blue surgeonfish and zebra-striped, leopard-spotted sweetlips.

And as night falls, the sun glows orange behind the island's palm trees and the sound of Bodu Beru drummers drifts across the lagoon.

It's unspeakably romantic. I think if I'd had a brand-new husband with me, I would have expired.

DETAILS: THE MALDIVES
THE RESORTS
Soneva Fushi from £2,680pp sharing a Crusoe villa, with Scott Dunn, www.scottdunn.com
Soneva Gili from £2,550pp room only with Kuoni, www.kuoni.co.uk
One & Only Reethi Rah from £2,585pp sharing a Crusoe villa, with Scott Dunn
Huvafen Fushi from £2,225pp sharing a beach bungalow, with Kuoni
Prices are for seven nights' B&B, May to September, and include BA flights from Gatwick with transfers. BA flies non-stop three times a week to Malé.

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