Review: Soneva Jani

Why book Soneva Jani?

Because the second Maldivian island outpost of visionary brand Soneva is The Maldives of your wildest dreams. Life unfurls in a blissful haze of hammock lounging, water sports, scuba diving on coral reefs, spa days, yoga shalas and dolphin cruises. Cute dining spots around the lagoon, castaway picnics, garden lunches and cooking classes are part of the magic.

Set the scene

Soneva Jani is an unreal world where children and adults trail about the jungly interior on push bikes, hang in hammocks on Robinson Crusoe beaches, throw themselves down slides, splash about on technicolor reefs and watch dolphins race through iridescent waters.

The drama and delight of the overwater villas, with their glass-bottomed floors and slides whooshing into the baby-blue lagoon, bring out the child in adults, as does the restaurant that comes with its own outdoor cinema, Director’s Cut. But it’s not just about embracing your inner child. There are many adult treats, from a cross-island smorgasbord of restaurant options to an incredible island spa.

The backstory

In 1995, Soneva Fushi, created by Sonu Shivdasani and Eva Malmström Shivdasani opened on the island of Kunfunadhoo, in the Maldives’ Baa Atoll, with 42 villas, introducing the first spa to the island nation. It started out under the resort brand Six Senses, but the Shivdasanis sold and split from Six Senses in 2012 to establish owner-operated Soneva, which has Soneva Fushi; Soneva Jani; a boat, Soneva in Aqua, all in the Maldives; and Soneva Kiri in Thailand. Everything at Soneva is thoughtfully created by owners Sonu and Eva Shivdasani. They live on Soneva Fushi, which explains why their investment is absolute, and the sense of familial intimacy and their conscientious values so pervasive.

The rooms

The fifty-one overwater villas with one to four bedrooms and private deck pools, some with waterslides into the lagoon, have retractable roofs for stargazing, just because. (The newest over-water villas on the north side are nicest.) Open-plan living spaces in timbers and whites, with purple-coral and sea-blue accents, have little portholes and glass bottoms for tropical fish viewing in the tropical lagoon. Seven new beachfront island villas offer private pools and expansive indoor-outdoor living spaces and range from one to four bedrooms.

The area

A 150-acre island on the fringe of the Medhufaru lagoon in the Noonu Atoll, blanketed in verdant foliage and ringed with neon-white beach. The unreal swatch of cornflower sky, racing green jungle and baby blue water, marshmallowy white sands, and technicolour reefs, along with the calming fragrance of sun-warmed pandan leaves, is wellbeing in essence. This is a place where nature calls you to return to yourself, and your shoes disappear into a canvas bag on arrival, not to be seen till you leave. Take a 40-minute seaplane flight from Malé, a 60-minute speedboat ride from Soneva Fushi, or a half-day cruise from Soneva Fushi onboard Soneva in Aqua.

The service

Warm, welcoming and friendly whilst being efficient and attentive. Butlers are split between villas and zoom around on buggies, delivering guests between activities, restaurants and spa appointments, and communicating with you via Whatsapp.

Food and drink

Barn-like The Gathering, on the north side, is an overwater barn of multiple restaurants, a library and a wine cellar. A cross-island restaurant smorgasbord includes Overseas by Mathias Dahlgren, an organic garden-set idyll So Organic, and a rotation of diverse visiting chefs (this year’s includes Tom Aikens to Jane Alty, co-owner of Peckham Thai street food hero The Begging Bowl). The extensive gardens supply a quantity of fruits, vegetables and herbs to the various restaurants.

Spa and wellbeing

On the eastern flank of Soneva Jani, where green turtles return to lay eggs between the mangroves and the gentle surf, the three-level Island Spa skims above the treeline like a vast elongated tree house. Thick-walled egg-shaped treatment rooms linked by walkways float towards a yoga shala topped with a meditation platform, their facades coated with timber tiles curved like lizards’ scales.

Soneva Soul (also rolled out at Soneva Fushi and in process at Soneva Kiri, in Thailand) is their new approach to wellness, representing a shift from holistic-inspired body treatments and movements to something deeper and more ambitious. Sonu Shivdasani has recovered from stage four lymphoma, and his journey to recovery included complementary medicine. This pivot for Soneva is expressive of this, too.

The Soneva Soul team – complemented by visiting practitioners – includes an Ayurvedic doctor (a full panchakarma detox is possible), a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, and an integrative medicine doctor. Treatments skew across the clinical and complementary: from electrocardiograms to sound therapy, from platelet-rich plasma therapy to Tok Sen massage from northern Thailand (which utilizes wooden mallets and pegs to hammer muscle knots). There’s nutrient IV therapy, a sleep programme for insomniacs, cryotherapy, ozone therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Micro-needling facials, red-light therapy (for joint inflammation), Vietnamese pressure-point facials and medicinal mushrooms are all on offer.

This year, they’ve launched three-, seven- and 14-day wellness journeys around foundational health, sleep, detoxing, and using this magic blend of naturopathy, Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine alongside high-tech Western therapies. The Sleep Programme includes Ayurvedic Nidrasana sleep rituals, IV vitamin therapies and BEMER electromagnetic sessions. The Detox Programme offers guidance for eliminating dairy, gluten, refined carbs, hydrotherapy, lymphatic drainage, acupuncture, herbal baths, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Time Rewind Programme uses naturopathic treatments for healthy ageing and rejuvenating meditation and movement practices, including specialist facials, massages, vitamin IV therapies and microneedling.

At the spa's core, there’s a juice bar, shop and a perfect gym with an ocean view, for classes including barre, functional fitness, and free movement techniques. Visiting teachers include the likes of ray-of-sunshine Joe Wicks. The consultation suites, therapeutic biomodulation rooms, a Reformer Pilates room and a hyperbaric chamber are below. Some treatments, such as IV therapy, happen at the Over-water Spa at The Gathering on the island's north side.

For families

Soneva Jani is a Never Never Land for children, who are treated like gods and can pilfer free ice cream and chocolate parlors on demand. In 2022, Soneva raised the bar even higher for the pint-sized deities by creating the fantastical Den, a kids club of dreams that’s the largest in South Asia and two years in the making. Screens and tablets are banned – this is about real play in a natural setting. Two waterfalls plunge into a pool with a swim-up bar and catamaran nets for lounging in – a zip line cuts through them. The garden has a pirate ship, a skateboard ramp and a climbing wall. Inside, there’s an entire room for Lego, a bowling alley, a craft area, a dressing-up room, a library and cinema, a toddler sensory play area and a kids’ kitchen. On the roof, tweens and teens mingle over pool-set ping-pong, a music room, a telescope deck, pool and table football, pinball machines and a slide for getting downstairs. All is presided over by attentive, fun-loving staff members in the prime of youth. Older children and teenagers can also join the Soneva Academy, which takes young learners outside of the classroom with immersive courses in astronomy, birdwatching, sustainability, mosquitoes and marine life. Soneva Jani promises freedom and security to children and parents alike.

Accessibility

The 772 sqm two-bedroom Water Reserve is adapted for wheelchairs and mobility aids, with a ramp and specially adapted bathroom.

Eco effort

Soneva is (and has always been) a pioneer of clean energy and sustainability in the industry. Its resorts have been carbon neutral since 2012, and a 2 per cent environmental levy is added to every Soneva stay. Soneva Fushi and Soneva Jani aim to generate more than 50 per cent of their electricity with solar power expansion.

In 2021, Soneva launched an ambitious programme to restore coral reef systems and create a coral hub for the Maldives at Soneva Fushi. A partnership between the Soneva Foundation, the Swiss environmental organisation Coralive and global ecosystem restoration organisation Ark2030, the project aims to return the reef to the state in which it existed 25 years ago. It also seeks to make Soneva Fushi a global coral restoration and knowledge hub. Following a two-year study to define techniques, it will become the world's largest Mineral Accretion Technology (MAT) coral nursery, covering one hectare of ocean and propagating 50,000 coral fragments annually. MAT creates the ideal environment for corals by channelling low-voltage electricity through metal structures underwater. The nursery will be cultivated from corals broken or damaged due to storms, waves or human activity. In later phases, guests will be invited to join in the fun.

Anything else to mention?

Visit the observatory deck after dinner one night for an enchanted peek at the starry skie