In the first of our series about the world’s greatest hotels, IAB Travel profiles Amilla Fushi Resort, an island hideaway that’s shaking up the Maldives with its sleek, minimalist styling and ‘anything goes’ attitude to dining.
ESCAPE TO AMILLA FUSHI
Amilla Fushi is not your typical Maldivian resort. Before Amilla Resort Maldives’ opening (to great fanfare) in 2014, tiki-inspired huts, one-restaurant wonders and Asian-fusion cuisine provided the tried and tested formula for resorts across the Indian Ocean. Then Amilla sashayed onto the scene, all sleek, whitewashed cubist ‘homes’ and an array of dining options, shimmering in the clear-as-crystal waters of a biosphere reserve. Amilla Resort doesn’t just ask you to relax, it makes it impossible for you not to. Whether that’s with spa treatments (you get a 50-minute complimentary treatment within your first 24 hours to ensure optimum decompression) or through working up a sweat in the gym, on the tennis courts or at the yoga pavilion.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF MONDAY BLUES
As with all properties in the Maldives, Amilla Fushi luxury resort is centred around the Indian Ocean. An expanse of deep cerulean with the clarity of good gin, you can snorkel with turtles, sharks and manta rays and experience the incredible visibility and variety of marine life that the Maldives are famous for. Divers of all ages and abilities will relish the opportunity to dive in the surrounding UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve of Baa Atoll, with a resident marine biologist who will escort you to underwater caves in the house reef and impress you with her knowledge of the underwater residents. As well as the usual diving excursions, you might one day find yourself dropped with snorkelling equipment on an uninhabited island surrounded by delicate coral, with an invitation to explore at your own pace. On the way there, you might even be joined by a school of dolphins, skimming alongside your boat like a welcome escort.
OVERWATER LIVING
If you’re looking for a stereotypical Robinson Crusoe-style thatched villa, you won’t find it at Amilla Fushi Resort Maldives – and it’s all the better for it. Instead of beached timber and the gentle flutter of palm-thatched huts you’ll find sharp, chic homes like blocks of sugar – as white as the beach they rest on. Some are set on stilts over that impossibly blue ocean, others languish on the sand. They wouldn’t look out of place in the Hamptons, and yet they look perfectly at home on a paradise island in the Indian Ocean. Book through Infinity & Beyond Travel and we can advise on which of the 10 different ‘homes’ or ‘residences’ to choose from, depending on your needs. All overlook the lagoon, with either direct ocean access or just a few steps of velvety sand between you and the sea. Alternatively, you could opt to stay in a treehouse, set 12 metres high in among the swaying island foliage. Butler service ensures you’ll want for nothing, and the multi-bedroom residences are gloriously luxe, with spa treatment rooms, saunas and gyms.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Eating out at most Maldivian resorts usually means rotating your choice of evening restaurant every few nights – great if you love a routine, not so handy when you’re a ‘variety is the spice of life’ kind of person. At Amilla Fushi Resort you’ll be spoiled for choice. Elegant overwater dining can be found at Lonu, a fine-dining establishment helmed by Luke Mangan (ex-Michel Roux). A mix of a la carte and degustation menus ensures you’ll always have something new to choose from, even if you’re veggie or vegan. Maldivian cuisine is celebrated here, think oysters, lobster, yellow-fin tuna sashimi and fish from the reef – you can even catch your own dinner and choose how you’d like to have it served to you: steamed one day, crispy battered with chipotle mayonnaise the next. If you want to pick up your own dinner, head to the General Store with its coffee shop and 8,000-bottle wine collection. And if it’s ease you’re after, the Bazaar has a tapas bar, grill, pizza parlour, salad bar and the poshest fish and chip shop this side of Whitby. The pool menu has to have the most upmarket menu of any swimming establishment, including the quintessential club sandwich, caviar and wagyu beef burgers.
FIT FOR FAMILIES
Amilla Fushi Luxury Resort Maldives might just be the most family-friendly resort in the atolls of the Maldives. There are baby monitors in each residence, language lessons in local Dihevi, and the kind of kids’ menu that inspires even the fussiest palates. Most importantly: nannies are free of charge. That’s how committed Amilla Fushi Maldives is to making families feel as comfortable as possible during their stay. So if you want to slip off for a massage together, enjoy dinner under the stars or an afternoon on a deserted beach for just the two of you, you can rest assured that your little ones will be properly looked after while you’re gone. The Kids’ Club is set in a shady spot under tall trees, with a playroom to satisfy even the shortest attention span and a special kids pool that’s shallow and safe. This is not your normal kids’ club, however: the swings are made from palm trees, there’s finger painting and beach games, billiards and a separate teen area with a juice bar. Kids will love the big terraces in the ‘homes’, and you can ask your smiling butler to arrange a family barbecue with sushi platters, big salads, meat, fish and desserts. Ask and it shall be done.
WE LIKE:
• Modern Maldivian style
• Butler service as standard
• Exceptionally family friendly
• Innovative dining
• Did we mention the 8,000-bottle wine cellar?
To read more about Amilla Fushi take a look at the hotel page
