Male - The Male Hotels page is your access to the most popular island resorts in this part of the Maldives with examples of prices and booking arrangements for many of the Male Hotels.
The Soneva Gili Resort and Spa page provides details of the facility with a customer review and access to booking arrangements for the Soneva Gili Resort and Spa.
Introduction
Soneva Gili is a short ten-minute boat ride from Male, the capital of the Maldives. A tiny coral island in a sparkling
lagoon, with jetties threading across the water out to spacious villas - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
Accommodation
The forty-four stilted accommodations continue the Soneva philosophy of "Intelligent Luxury". They are crafted in a
traditional style from natural materials and offer roof-top and over-water sundecks, featuring open air bathrooms,
sumptuous daybeds and a personal entertainment center. For the ultimate privacy, seven Crusoe Residences are only
accessible by personal boat - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
Dining
Come ashore for some great dining and equally great wines. Or perhaps a romantic moonlit dinner delivered right to
the villa. It is possible here. Soneva Gili Resort and Spa. The Six Senses Spa offers everything expected, and some things unexpected; glass
floor-panels beneath massage tables heighten the sensual experience, whilst a Maldivian sand massage presents yet
another new encounter - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
The Maldives is a paradise for snorkeling and diving and the resort has its own fully-equipped PADI diving school
plus a variety of water sports. This place tops the list of must-do destinations for those in the know.
The most relevant links we could find, placed here free
a customer review of Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
Quote "A cluster of sun-bleached shacks, slat-sided and straw-hatted, shimmers low on the midday horizon. As the
speedboat skims towards it, the miasma solidifies into separate buildings, each one seemingly organised from driftwood
and whimsy. A deck here, a conical grass roof there, a bristle of piers, the glint of glass ? yes, it is habitable.
A couple in swimwear climb a ladder from the sea to a landing, slake their thirsts with champagne from a frosted
bucket ? indeed, it is very stylishly inhabited." - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
"Such is my first glimpse of Soneva Gili Resort in the Maldives. It seems like a sea gypsy village, a hamlet
of castaway castles, although each one (as I know by reputation) will be appointed like a bolt-hole for a millionaire
Robinson Crusoe. And so it is." - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa "The affix "Soneva" before a resort means that you are in for something special.
Exclusive, expensive and exquisite, the Maldives, two Soneva resorts, the very new Gili and its sister Fushi
are like no others, nor like each other." - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
"Like all Maldivian resorts, Soneva Gili has an entire small island to itself - Lankanfushi, six nautical miles
(or 15 speedboat minutes) north of the Maldives capital Male. Each of the resort's 44 huge over-water villas is a
free-standing structure connected by a walkway to a triangular central jetty that juts one hundred metres into the
lagoon." - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
"A young Maldivian woman, Hajja leads me to my villa. "These are the largest rooms in the Maldives," she says. It
is no idle boast. My villa suite seems to go on forever, its three main areas (bedroom, plus indoor-outdoor living
room and bathroom) stretching some 30 metres, while a small stairway leads to a spacious upper deck that includes
a reading bower and even a sala bed for those who love to sleep below the stars. Other steps lead down from the
bathroom to the lagoon and a screened bathing enclosure." - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
"Hajja points out the welter of gizmos and creature comforts that Robinson Crusoe must barely have survived without
satellite TV and a bar full of Perrier and Dom Perignon - plus my favourite conveyance, a white bicycle. Such is the
sprawl of the over-water villas and on-shore everything else (bar, Six Senses Spa, restaurants, dive shop, pool)
that a bike is the ideal get-around device. For those not inclined to peddle, nifty little golf carts shuttle you
from point to point to whichever palm tree you indicate." - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
"Every facet of the resort reflects Swedish-born co-proprietor/designer Eva Shivdasani's vision. Her aspiration is
succinct - to provide "intelligent luxury."" - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa "As the Eva in Son-Eva (Sonu, her husband contributes the other syllable
and equal acumen), over a decade she has evolved in their luxury retreats a signature style that, for want of a better
term, I think of as "Scandinavian Troppo"." - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa "The ochre blinds, linen and parchment textures, sienna cushions, louvered
doors, whitewashed adobe, sand floors, an infinity pool - as a list the elements mean little, but in combination their
gestalt frequently leads me to admire the mind behind this post-mod surf shack that I temporarily inhabit." - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa "The sandy
lagoon bottom wears its best dress whites. A small ray scuds across it like a bird in slow flight. Somewhere between
the sea and sand there's an over-water restaurant and bar that has the whole Indian Ocean for a backdrop. There are
excursion to the challenging local reefs. Back on solid sand, the Gili's fine dining restaurant has a no-shoes dress
code. For a "desert island", its gardens (with imported, rich Indonesian topsoil) are an oasis of all the green
things you'd want to accompany the nicely varied dining selection." - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
"At night the only sounds you might hear are the slap of ripples against the piers and the white noise hum of surf on
the distant reef. If you're a partyer, a gregarious, loquacious, love-a-crowd type, then the tranquility and
three's-a-crowd privacy of Soneva Gili may not be for you." - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
"Meanwhile, just offshore from my not-so-humble villa is even more accommodation, seven mid-lagoon love shacks.
Separated from both the beach and jetty are the so-called Crusoe Residences. Should cabin fever strike - or perhaps
just the desire to see other faces when you and you're beloved are out here, then your butler in a rowboat will ferry
you to and from shore. Be it a love fest or love test (not everyone, I suspect, can handle so much
"togetherness alone"), the contemporary Crusoe couple who luxuriate in one of these Residences will look back for
years on the time they were marooned on a designer desert island." unquote - Soneva Gili Resort and Spa
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