Soneva Gili
Winter 2009
Frank's view 
Fabulous...but only when the sun shines
Soneva Gili is a goldmine.
In these times of economic doom and gloom Sonu and Eva Shivdasani’s Six Senses Group is riding high thanks to their ‘Intelligent Luxury’ approach to top end travel.
“Soneva Gili operates on a 100% profit”, one of the senior ‘Hosts’ (as the staff are called) told me on a guided tour of the Hosts’ Village in the island resort. The figure seemed all the more extraordinary when he talked of 264 employees servicing 45 villas. That equates to less than 100 guests when the place is packed.
As the tour continued the penny dropped. The concept is genius. Everything from the cushions in the bar to the sun beds by the pool to the sparkling water ($6 a bottle) is produced on the island. Soneva Gili is virtually totally self-sufficient. The diesel fuel that drives the huge power generators is the only blemish, and presumably significant overhead, in a hugely profitable machine.
The story goes that Eton / Oxford educated Sonu, the son of a wealthy Indian trader, met Eva, a top Swedish model, and they married. He suggested Goa as a honeymoon destination but she persuaded him to visit The Maldives, which she’d visited on a fashion shoot. They found an island resort which had been abandoned in 1979, and in 1990 set about building Soneva Fushi which opened in 1995 and has subsequently won endless awards and luxury travel acclaim.
Our guide continued by talking of how Soneva Fushi became a cash cow which funded rapid expansion throughout Asia. The island that is now Soneva Gili was bought by Sonu and Eva for $1m and transformed into a fabulous resort within 18 months at a cost of $8m, a sum that would barely build a substantial house in the UK.
‘Intelligent Luxury’, the Six Senses slogan, refers to a questioning of what luxury actually is. In an interview with EliteTraveler.com Sonu suggested that we see marble as luxury whereas sand on public area floors is “counterintuitive to luxury”. And so Soneva Gili surprises us all by providing luxury we don’t expect. Fortunately for Six Senses sand covered floors are much cheaper than marble floors so the Six Senses philosophy does seem very intelligent, particularly to the Finance Director.
Whilst other Resorts might place polished Italian furniture in the bedroom or antique French pieces in the bathroom, Soneva Gili makes everything in-house.
‘No News, No Shoes’ said the bag into which the boy thrust our shoes as we boarded the speedboat from the airport to the resort. You might take your Jimmy Choo’s to the Reethi Rah but at Soneva Gili, if you want your feet to sparkle, pack a bottle of Chanel nail varnish.
Soneva Gili is a mere twenty-minute speedboat ride from Male airport. Travel hand baggage only and you can be sipping a welcome fruit cocktail in your villa suite just over 30 minutes after landing. Soneva Gili has its own time zone and operates one hour ahead of Male time, which optimises daylight hours for guests. The sun rises just before 7am and sets around 7pm.
Transport around the island is via Shank’s Pony or bicycle. On the first day of our stay a Japanese visitor crashed her tricycle off the jetty and into the ocean. We looked on in disbelief, as did her husband. She just giggled.
All 45 villas are perched on stilts above the shallow reef water laden with coral and teeming with exotic fish, from tiny Batfish to metre-long reef sharks and meandering stingrays. Seven villas sit isolated from the island. Accessible only by boat these Crusoe Villas offer secluded luxury as does The Private Reserve, a three-bedroom castle for the wealthy recluse.
The villas are spacious with accommodation on three levels, a sun bathing deck with steps to the ocean, the main body of the villa with bedroom, living room and bathroom, and an upstairs open-air deck with a table, chairs and day bed. The Residence Villas are larger than the entry level Villa Suites and have a kitchenette, espresso machine, and wine cellar. Covering a well-utilised area of 250 sq metres you really do have your own house.
A Spa and bar complete the overwater buildings. The resort’s two restaurants and gym are the only land based guest structures. The main restaurant sits close to the bar whilst the small Japanese restaurant is opposite the Spa and above the very slick high tech gym.
The food is good but it has to be, as slipping off to a nearby island diner is not a realistic option. Lunch is a choice of a la carte or a $40 buffet and guests are encouraged to opt for the $90 -$99 themed dinner menu in the evenings. Booking is essential for the 18 cover Japanese restaurant where the menu is limited and once again, guests are encourage to select the $90 set dinner, which didn’t change during our stay and suffered diminishing appeal by the third visit.
Expect to pay between $80 - $100 for a decent bottle of wine. If you feel so inclined you can pay thousands for a Chateau Petrus as Soneva Gili has many fine wines. The resort’s sommelier hosts a weekly wine tasting event that is worth joining.
In-villa dining is happily encouraged and it is refreshing not to have an additional service charge added for delivery. It’s definitely worth having breakfast on the swimming deck of your villa.
The Spa offers all the usual services and a few extras including acupuncture at $250 per session. A complimentary 20-minute massage is offered to every guest and must be taken within two days of arrival, which is a clever ploy as it lures potential customers into the Spa. Sonu, who we were told doesn’t encourage discussion in his management meetings, really is a very sharp operator.
Soneva Gili promises Maldivian heaven – sparkling clear water and all year round comfortable tropical temperature. Dolphin sunset cruises, island picnics, reef snorkelling and candlelit beach dinners complete the seduction.
Step from your water villa into the shallow, sparkling water and hand feed a myriad of brightly coloured tropical fish. As you walk across the sea the fish follow, occasionally nibbling at your knees. A hundred metres or so and you reach the edge of the reef where the waves break and the floor drops a thousand feet or more.
Join the snorkel boat each morning to secret coves, slip into the warm water and watch and wonder as the undersea world busies below or venture further out beyond the reef and enjoy some of the best diving in the world.
Lunch is a picnic on a secluded beach followed by an afternoon of flitting in and out of the shade as the sun hits temperatures of 30º+. It’s back to the gently rippling water again for a dolphin safari and glass of fizz as the sun sets and the sea and sky blend into a blaze of red. Finally a candlelit dinner for two by the water’s edge and a goodnight cocktail on the roof deck of your villa.
Unfortunately our stay at Soneva Gili was marred by awful weather. It is only in these situations that you realise how much of a tropical resort experience is down to the weather. Soneva Gili is clearly a fabulous resort when the sun shines, but when it doesn’t, it becomes boring, frustrating and eventually tests your mental sanity. How many meals can you eat in the same wind and rain battered, cling film wrapped restaurant? When picnics on the beach, snorkelling, diving, dolphin cruises and candlelit dinners are removed from the promise, morale sinks and the dream dies.
Go to Soneva Gili but go in peak season when the weather is as assured as it can be. Ask for Residence Villa Number 32, the most private, where you can safely ditch your clothes for the duration. 3-4 nights is probably the optimum stay then spend 3-4 nights at another resort, perhaps Soneva Fushi.
The Shivdasanis run very good resorts. Intelligent luxury blends ethnic with modern essentials. It’s cool to live in a rustic shack, so long as we can still have our Bose sound system, coffee machine and plasma TV.
Add sand, sea and sun to the equation and you really do have the best of both worlds.
http://www.sixsenses.com/soneva-gili/
In these times of economic doom and gloom Sonu and Eva Shivdasani’s Six Senses Group is riding high thanks to their ‘Intelligent Luxury’ approach to top end travel.
“Soneva Gili operates on a 100% profit”, one of the senior ‘Hosts’ (as the staff are called) told me on a guided tour of the Hosts’ Village in the island resort. The figure seemed all the more extraordinary when he talked of 264 employees servicing 45 villas. That equates to less than 100 guests when the place is packed.
As the tour continued the penny dropped. The concept is genius. Everything from the cushions in the bar to the sun beds by the pool to the sparkling water ($6 a bottle) is produced on the island. Soneva Gili is virtually totally self-sufficient. The diesel fuel that drives the huge power generators is the only blemish, and presumably significant overhead, in a hugely profitable machine.
The story goes that Eton / Oxford educated Sonu, the son of a wealthy Indian trader, met Eva, a top Swedish model, and they married. He suggested Goa as a honeymoon destination but she persuaded him to visit The Maldives, which she’d visited on a fashion shoot. They found an island resort which had been abandoned in 1979, and in 1990 set about building Soneva Fushi which opened in 1995 and has subsequently won endless awards and luxury travel acclaim.
Our guide continued by talking of how Soneva Fushi became a cash cow which funded rapid expansion throughout Asia. The island that is now Soneva Gili was bought by Sonu and Eva for $1m and transformed into a fabulous resort within 18 months at a cost of $8m, a sum that would barely build a substantial house in the UK.
‘Intelligent Luxury’, the Six Senses slogan, refers to a questioning of what luxury actually is. In an interview with EliteTraveler.com Sonu suggested that we see marble as luxury whereas sand on public area floors is “counterintuitive to luxury”. And so Soneva Gili surprises us all by providing luxury we don’t expect. Fortunately for Six Senses sand covered floors are much cheaper than marble floors so the Six Senses philosophy does seem very intelligent, particularly to the Finance Director.
Whilst other Resorts might place polished Italian furniture in the bedroom or antique French pieces in the bathroom, Soneva Gili makes everything in-house.
‘No News, No Shoes’ said the bag into which the boy thrust our shoes as we boarded the speedboat from the airport to the resort. You might take your Jimmy Choo’s to the Reethi Rah but at Soneva Gili, if you want your feet to sparkle, pack a bottle of Chanel nail varnish.
Soneva Gili is a mere twenty-minute speedboat ride from Male airport. Travel hand baggage only and you can be sipping a welcome fruit cocktail in your villa suite just over 30 minutes after landing. Soneva Gili has its own time zone and operates one hour ahead of Male time, which optimises daylight hours for guests. The sun rises just before 7am and sets around 7pm.
Transport around the island is via Shank’s Pony or bicycle. On the first day of our stay a Japanese visitor crashed her tricycle off the jetty and into the ocean. We looked on in disbelief, as did her husband. She just giggled.
All 45 villas are perched on stilts above the shallow reef water laden with coral and teeming with exotic fish, from tiny Batfish to metre-long reef sharks and meandering stingrays. Seven villas sit isolated from the island. Accessible only by boat these Crusoe Villas offer secluded luxury as does The Private Reserve, a three-bedroom castle for the wealthy recluse.
The villas are spacious with accommodation on three levels, a sun bathing deck with steps to the ocean, the main body of the villa with bedroom, living room and bathroom, and an upstairs open-air deck with a table, chairs and day bed. The Residence Villas are larger than the entry level Villa Suites and have a kitchenette, espresso machine, and wine cellar. Covering a well-utilised area of 250 sq metres you really do have your own house.
A Spa and bar complete the overwater buildings. The resort’s two restaurants and gym are the only land based guest structures. The main restaurant sits close to the bar whilst the small Japanese restaurant is opposite the Spa and above the very slick high tech gym.
The food is good but it has to be, as slipping off to a nearby island diner is not a realistic option. Lunch is a choice of a la carte or a $40 buffet and guests are encouraged to opt for the $90 -$99 themed dinner menu in the evenings. Booking is essential for the 18 cover Japanese restaurant where the menu is limited and once again, guests are encourage to select the $90 set dinner, which didn’t change during our stay and suffered diminishing appeal by the third visit.
Expect to pay between $80 - $100 for a decent bottle of wine. If you feel so inclined you can pay thousands for a Chateau Petrus as Soneva Gili has many fine wines. The resort’s sommelier hosts a weekly wine tasting event that is worth joining.
In-villa dining is happily encouraged and it is refreshing not to have an additional service charge added for delivery. It’s definitely worth having breakfast on the swimming deck of your villa.
The Spa offers all the usual services and a few extras including acupuncture at $250 per session. A complimentary 20-minute massage is offered to every guest and must be taken within two days of arrival, which is a clever ploy as it lures potential customers into the Spa. Sonu, who we were told doesn’t encourage discussion in his management meetings, really is a very sharp operator.
Soneva Gili promises Maldivian heaven – sparkling clear water and all year round comfortable tropical temperature. Dolphin sunset cruises, island picnics, reef snorkelling and candlelit beach dinners complete the seduction.
Step from your water villa into the shallow, sparkling water and hand feed a myriad of brightly coloured tropical fish. As you walk across the sea the fish follow, occasionally nibbling at your knees. A hundred metres or so and you reach the edge of the reef where the waves break and the floor drops a thousand feet or more.
Join the snorkel boat each morning to secret coves, slip into the warm water and watch and wonder as the undersea world busies below or venture further out beyond the reef and enjoy some of the best diving in the world.
Lunch is a picnic on a secluded beach followed by an afternoon of flitting in and out of the shade as the sun hits temperatures of 30º+. It’s back to the gently rippling water again for a dolphin safari and glass of fizz as the sun sets and the sea and sky blend into a blaze of red. Finally a candlelit dinner for two by the water’s edge and a goodnight cocktail on the roof deck of your villa.
Unfortunately our stay at Soneva Gili was marred by awful weather. It is only in these situations that you realise how much of a tropical resort experience is down to the weather. Soneva Gili is clearly a fabulous resort when the sun shines, but when it doesn’t, it becomes boring, frustrating and eventually tests your mental sanity. How many meals can you eat in the same wind and rain battered, cling film wrapped restaurant? When picnics on the beach, snorkelling, diving, dolphin cruises and candlelit dinners are removed from the promise, morale sinks and the dream dies.
Go to Soneva Gili but go in peak season when the weather is as assured as it can be. Ask for Residence Villa Number 32, the most private, where you can safely ditch your clothes for the duration. 3-4 nights is probably the optimum stay then spend 3-4 nights at another resort, perhaps Soneva Fushi.
The Shivdasanis run very good resorts. Intelligent luxury blends ethnic with modern essentials. It’s cool to live in a rustic shack, so long as we can still have our Bose sound system, coffee machine and plasma TV.
Add sand, sea and sun to the equation and you really do have the best of both worlds.
http://www.sixsenses.com/soneva-gili/
Be Frank: agree or disagree? What do you think?
