Soneva Fushi - Day 7

It's our last day today, and the weather has turned a bit. In fact at lunchtime we had possibly the heaviest rainfall I have been outside in. Luckily we were under shelter (in the bar actually, so not really a hardship) and were able to witness the tropical storm from inches away. I have to say that the rest the day was just spent reading until it was once again time for our massage treatments.

After the Watsu treatment, I had booked something even more unusual, and this was going to be special. They call it the Soneva massage and it is basically the best massage I have ever had. It involves two therapists working as a team and massaging you at the same time, sometimes the feet at the same time as the head, sometimes they each took a side, or one took an arm and one took a leg... it left me feeling absolutely zonked and loose and refreshed and languid all at the same time. I can never have another massage as this one was just so damned good!

Then it was back to the villa and a short rest before the barbeque dinner which once again was absolutely fabulous.

I am just about ready to go home now but this has been if not the best, certainly one of the best holidays I have ever had. If you ever need to chill and don't mind the fact that the hotel doesn't have lots of things that you don't need, and you want to go shoeless for a week for the first time since you were a baby, then this is the place for you. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Tomorrow we go home, so I'll end the journal here - unless our flights back to snowy London are in any way unusual... (they weren't)

Soneva Fushi - Day 6

You can probably tell from the fact that these journal entries get shorter as the days go on that I am relaxing. In fact I have never relaxed faster on holiday than I have here. Probably that's the atmosphere that this place induces. Everyone is incredibly laid back and it's catching. Today was a chill out on the beach kind of day. In fact we did very little but loaf until it was time for our sunset dolphin cruise.

We had not expected a great sunset as it had been a bit cloudy, much of the afternoon but the blue skies peeked through the cloud and we had a really lovely trip. Champagne flowed, canapes on tap too... And what's more we actually saw dolphins! A big school of them came up to the boat and started playing with us. They even leapt out of the water 'SeaWorld' style – but these were wild dolphins, not trained ones. It was fantastic to see them in their natural environment and very special indeed.

We returned to shore having witnessed these wonderful creatures and a magnificent sunset in time to take our places at the best table there is at Fresh In The Garden – the starlight table. This is a table in a separate area of the restaurant under the stars. It was fantastic to just lay on cushions looking at the stars and enjoying yet another fantastic meal. We were going to visit the Observatory after dinner, but it had become a little cloudy and there wasn't much point in staring at stars through a telescope when they were all a bit blurry. We did see Jupiter, however briefly, and that was quite interesting. But not very...

Soneva Fushi - Day 5

Finally, a lazy day! After breakfast it's back to the villa for a damn good crack at the book. At least until noon, when we head over to the other side of the island ( a three minute bike ride) to check out the snorkelling at Bar(a)bara. This is a bar at the end of a jetty which extends to the edge of the reef wall and you can drop into the water at precisely the right spot to see the very best fish, then return for a drink and a snack. There was a very gentle current, so we slowly drifted along the reef edge looking at the vast array of brightly coloured and picturesque fish. Many are very graphic and my new favourite is the sweet-lipped snapper which is a profusion of horizontal yellow lines. After our dip and a bite to eat, it's back to the villa for a couple of hours before today's spa treatment.

And it's a special one. Watsu sounds like a kind of curry, but in fact it's everything a curry isn't. Cool, calm, relaxing and watery. Yes watery, because this treatment takes place in a pool. The practitioner here is a young man in a wetsuit who basically gently manhandles you whilst you float in a pool of water at almost body temperature with your eyes shut. It is very weird and in common with a lot of Ayurvedic treatments invades the personal space to a rather embarrassing degree, but once you get over that and realise you're not going to be molested, despite how close the handsome chap is holding you, you really do start to relax.

After the spa treatment, it's down to the bar for a lecture on reefs. How they come to be and what challenges they face. Tomorrow we're going out on a snorkelling trip with this evening's lecturer, Kate, the hotel's resident marine biologist.

Then yet another stunning meal. This is getting monotonous, but every single mouthful here is amazing.

Soneva Fushi - Day 4

An early start today as we have our first dive booked for 9:30 and need to be at the pier sharpish. Yet another astonishingly good breakfast was followed by a boat trip on possibly the most luxurious dive boat I have ever been on. There was every luxury, including three staff and three dive masters looking after us. Fruit, food, and drink aplenty was provided, as were plenty of soft fresh towels. The dive itself was OK – but then I'm comparing it to snorkelling on the reef which was already great. The other diving party which went the other way around the dive site saw dolphins! And the dive master came back with a huge star fish on her shoulder with no idea how she had acquired it.

On the way back to the resort we lounged about on the roof of the cabin cruiser dive boat on sumptuous cushions. It was really de Luxe.

Then a delicious curry for lunch and a post lunch nap in the shade of some palm tress before going off for a snorkel in the warm, calm ocean.

After the snorkel (which was almost as good as the dive to be honest) it was back for some more reading. I just realised that I haven't yet touched on books. I like to read lots of books on holiday and devour them ravenously. So far, I have read Centurion by Simon Scarrow which I would describe as Andy McNab meets Gladiator; The American by Martin Booth which is possibly the worst book I have read in years. 175 pages of descriptive writing before anything actually happens; May on Motors, which is quite amusing but more of a loo book than a beach book, and I'm halfway through The Snowman by Jo Nesbo which is actually pretty good. Next up will be The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell.

Tonight there's a buffet, or rather a bouffée as we come away totally stuffed with the most delicious food. The cooking here is always sensational and it must be pretty challenging to be the executive chef. I chatted to him on the sandbank at the managers drinks and he brings a wealth of experience to the job he wasn't expecting to do. He had actually been hired to run Soneva's new Maldives property but the executive chef before him quit unexpectedly and there were delays to the opening of the new hotel, so he ended up in the flagship which will look fantastic on his CV. As will the praise that he is garnering from all the guests here.

Soneva Fushi - Day 3

This morning we were determined to get up before breakfast had finished! And we did, but the amazing buffet was not quite as sumptuous as usual as the rain had confined the service area to space just the size of a tennis court!

After breakfast we headed off our our diving refresher. It was awful. The little dive took place on the reef where there were large waves and a very strong current. It was dire. Daryl scratched her knees and I lost my camera. Fortunately, this was found again. However, we decided that we weren't prepared to do the refresher in this way. We suggested that since we had a pool at our villa, that the mask removal bit etc. could be done there. They agreed, and at 3:00pm we successfully proved that we could actually dive – at least in a pool!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and watching the boxed set that we had brought along on this holiday – Breaking Bad. An excellent series from America.

For dinner this evening we had already booked one of the other restaurants in the Resort – Fresh in The Garden – as mentioned earlier. It had rained earlier in the evening – hence the DVD watching – but by the time we showed up for one of the best meals I have ever had, the evening had cheered up and we were dry throughout!

Fresh In the Garden is a totally organic restaurant here and they served one of the best meals I have ever had anywhere – and that includes the Fat Duck. The service was of course impeccable, but the flavours and textures in the food were out of the world – which given the proximity of the stellar observatory was only fitting. The desserts were almost wicked – which is the only way a dessert should be, and the first courses a delightful preparation for the the main event. About which I have to say that I have never had simple grilled tuna so perfectly seasoned or so perfectly cooked to my liking – rare and seared.

Soneva Fushi - Day 2

We had booked a refresher dive at 10:30 as the dive masters insisted that we do one before being taken out on dives despite having dived in Anguilla only 18 months ago. I guess it makes them more confident that we won't do anything silly. Anyway, we woke up at 11:00 when the phone went and our Mr Friday reminded Daryl that she had missed her pedicure – so we were not only missing our dive but had also double booked – and missed breakfast!

Not to worry though. The dive was refixed for Monday and the pedicure postponed by 45 minutes. It poured with rain so we took a buggy to the spa and left Daryl there while our Mr Friday conducted me on a brief tour of the island.

After that I waited for Daryl until lunch, then off to another fabulous buffet. The weather turned and we spent most of the afternoon in the villa – not a tremendous hardship as it's so lovely... But having booked a table at the superb 'Fresh In The Garden' restaurant which shines when the night is clear, we changed our booking to the main restaurant and postponed the posh dinner for another day.

At 5-o-clock, we were booked in for a Fusion Massage – they have twin massage therapy suites and we were laying side by side for our treatment. I've never had a massage with another person in the room, and even thought it was someone I know as well as I know myself, it was still a little strange and we both felt rather self-conscious. I was grunting as I was being vigorously rubbed and Daryl found this a bit off-putting. Not as off-putting as when I exclaimed 'Oh, that's lovely!' when she was up in a nanosecond and looking at what was going on like a meercat! We decided not to have the rest of our treatments at the same time...

Soneva Fushi - Day 1

De Havilland. Such an evocative name – even more so when applied to island-hopping flying boats ferrying passengers to the most romantic places. And the ultimate evocation of the brand was when I saw the pilot of our particular seaplane cover the elegant aluminium rudder pedals of our de Havilland Twin Moth (embossed with the initials 'D H') with his bare foot. I knew we were on our way somewhere special.

The journey had started 12 hours earlier with a direct flight from London to Male in the Maldives. We were going on holiday to Soneva Fushi - a hotel we had never stayed at before in a land we had never visited before. Daryl had done all the research and had plumped for Soneva Fushi with lots of recommendation from a variety of sources. Would it really be worth the inordinately huge amount of money that it cost to stay in a resort on a 100 acre island in the middle of nowhere?

As our seaplane landed at 'Soneva Fushi International Airport' – actually a raft in the sea from which the boat transfer a few hundred metres to the island took place – I got an impression that this hotel would be unlike anywhere we have ever stayed before. We had read beforehand that this was a resort renowned for 'barefoot luxury' – normally shorthand for rustic chic and laid back luxury. And they even have a slogan, no shoes, no news, implying that you're really getting away from it all.

However, in Soneva Fushi's case, they meant what they said. On the short boat ride from SF International to the the pier, we were asked to put our shoes in bags. 'No shoes' really meant no shoes! And I didn't wear any the entire vacation. Wonderful for foot exfoliiation.

The hotel reception was also unlike any I have experienced before. The reception was just that – we were received on the dock personally by the Manager, the Deputy Manager, the Sommelier and various other staff who would be responsible for our stay – including Nimtaz, who would be our butler or 'Mr Friday' as they are referred to on Soneva Fushi for the duration of our stay. We weren't expecting a butler, but because we had booked a sizeable suite, he came with the territory.

We had already booked several spa sessions in the private lounge at Male Airport whilst waiting for our barefoot pilot to fly us here, and Nimtaz helped us with the rest of the organisation of our stay.

The suite itself was absolutely stunning – it was a two bedded suite with masses of space, including a really chilled out lounging area, as well as twin outdoor showers in our garden, and a second garden with a pool to ourselves leading directly on to the white coral sandy beach. I lost count of the number of times I had said 'Wow' and there would be lots more opportunities to come...

The next of which was lunch. I have never seen a bigger or better buffet for lunch. There was a pizza oven, a grill section which included a kebab made from freshest fish. A curry section, a sushi section, a salad room – separate and chilled to keep the salads fresh. The cheese and ham room was similarly climate controlled, as was the deserts room which offered luxury puds as well as 34 flavours of ice cream. And each of these sections was a big and well equipped as a whole kitchen in a normal hotel! Frankly, I didn't know where to start, but I leave you to take your pick of what you might have had given the seemingly limitless choice.

Then back to room to chill out and relax after the long day, we both fell asleep in instants and woke up in time to go to dinner.

We had been told that there was an 'ancestral-style' barbecue on one of the beaches (there are four) that evening and so we decided to take a look. It was like a fairytale. Seriously, in the sand were candles protected from the wind by muslin pyramid tents, with low tables set up here and there to give occupants privacy whilst they squatted on their cushions placed on coconut leaf mats. We hadn't honestly researched this dinner before going along, and when it turned out to be a nine course feast, were were a bit taken aback! But every single course was absolutely delicious. The clear sky was bristling with stars, and we discovered that the sea was too. There is a special sort of plankton here that when agitated releases a bio-luminescence mirroring the sparkling of a billion stars in the clear night sky. The highlight of the meal was the digging up of the main course from a couple of feet under the sand where it had lain wrapped in banana leaves for more than six hours. The lamb was absolutely delicious and the chicken was very tasty too! At the meal I had intended on taking some pictures, but despite taking the camera with me I had forgotten to insert the battery which I was charging for this very occasion. Luckily there was another guest who was taking pictures and I asked him to email me some... Afterwards we went and had a couple of drinks with Alex and his wife Anna, who were escaping their five children two cats and two dogs in Austria for a few days.