A-listers looking for an extraordinary travel experience are seriously spoilt for choice these days. They can sip vintage champagne drifting over Kenya’s Masai Mara in a hot-air balloon, charter a helicopter to fly them into the Rocky Mountains to ski on virgin snow, or pick up a luxury yacht, complete with famous chef, to cruise around the Galapagos Islands. However, if their idea of a perfect holiday is more chill than thrill, they – and you – can now savour something unique in the Indian Ocean, by booking into the world’s first underwater spa, on the exclusive island of Huvafen Fushi, in the Maldives.
Situated at the end of a long wooden jetty, with uninterrupted views over a picture-perfect lagoon, the five-star Per Aquum spa comprises a yoga pavilion, treatment areas for couples, a steam and sauna suite, an ice room, a gym, a relaxation lounge and a raw-food restaurant. But it’s the two, state-of-the-art underwater treatment rooms – which took a year to build – that are making waves in the travel world, with their glass walls showcasing the lagoon’s multi-coloured marine life.
Reached via a stairwell, the wooden-floored, flower-scented rooms provide a magical setting. Here guests can have their jetlag gently massaged away with aromatic oils or their skin rejuvenated with a Japanese silk treatment as they watch angel fish dart through the coral or baby sharks drift past.Back on dry land, the hotel – with its three restaurants, underground wine cellar and trendy bar – provides the kind of accommodation you would expect from a hip, ultra-luxurious resort. Indeed, huvafen means dream in the local dialect, Dhivehi.
The deluxe beach bungalows, with open-air bathrooms, all have their own private plunge pools, while the vast ocean pavilions, located offshore, have dining areas, sundecks and infinity pools. All come complete with huge beds, espresso machines, the finest linens and plasma TV screens. For those guests whose underwater massages have left them keen to see more of the coral reef, the hotel runs a varied dive programme that will bring them face to face with the lagoon’s extraordinary underwater creatures.
For more on this magical water world, navigate your way to www.huvafenfushi.com.
