Hotel of the week: Six Senses Fiji, Malolo Island

This week, Mary Lussiana discovers yet another reason to visit Fiji
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Mary Lussiana16 March 2019

Far-flung and exotic, Fiji’s white sand beaches dotting reef-filled, crystal-clear, aqua marine waters, have always topped the traveller’s bucket list.

But the arrival of an outpost of the ecologically-driven Six Senses Resorts has made it an even more alluring destination.

Where is it?

Fiji is on the other side of the world quite simply; in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. It is best reached via LA where you could indulge in a day or two of browsing in the Getty Museum on the way out and a day or two of shopping on the way back in order to ease the jet lag. Six Senses sits on Malolo Island, part of the Mamanuca Islands, a cluster of twenty islands which along with another 312 islands make up this South Pacific nation. From the airport at Nadi, a five minute car ride will bring you to the dock where a speed boat will take you the remaining 45 minutes.

Hear the waves crashing against the shore while you look up at the Milky Way
Six Senses

Style

Brimming with island-chic, and the temptation to bury your toes in the white sands the moment you step ashore, lush jungle, vivid bougainvillea and frangipani surround just 24 villas and nine residences. All come with private pools and breezy interiors under thatched leaf roofs. Restaurants are open to the elements. The Spa, set up on a hillside behind the resort, is a contemporary take on a traditional Fijian village with treatment rooms set in thatched bures and accessed by stepping stones. The resort is scattered across the island but all the restaurants and the pier are within easy walking distance from the rooms allowing you time to search for the endangered crested iguanas which reside in the big Banyan trees.

Facilities

Six Senses have the whole resort scene down to a fine art here, as in their other properties worldwide. There is the spa, which, with wellness as one of the main pillars of the group, plays an important role. Here it offers a patented, non-invasive wellness screening which determines key physiological biomarkers from our lifestyle, relationship with stress, metabolism and sleep patterns. This means that an exercise programme or a diet, or coaching on better sleeping can be directly applied whilst you are there, advantageously incorporating it into your daily life before you return home. There is a yoga pavilion, with sea views, and lessons every morning. There are cooking lessons with Pranil, the sous-chef, whose delicious local dish of kokoda, a Fijian take on ceviche, made with white fish, chilli, coriander and fresh coconut cream is not to be missed. The Kid’s Club, another important feature in the Six Senses group, here shows children how to weave with banana leaves and paint traditional masks, alongside cycling trips and the ever popular outdoor cinema. Water sports abound with paddle boarding, snorkelling and diving a must in these diaphanous waters, underneath which lies the soft coral capital of the world.

A dreamy couple's spa room
Six Senses

Food & Drink

Absolutely delicious, fresh and zingy food is found at Tovolea, the all-day dining restaurant, which looks out onto the beach and sparkling sea beyond. Breakfast is a serious affair with a buffet of everyone’s favourites, delicious healthy shots such as ginger and turmeric and dishes on the menu like mud crab omelettes. The menu draws on local, traditional dishes sourcing as much of the ingredients as possible from the hotel’s own organic garden and farm. Try the Ura, a dish of prawns cooked in fresh coconut cream with local turmeric and bele – an island version of kale. This dish is encased in bamboo tubes and then cooked over hot charcoals for a traditional earthy taste.

There is also a deli to stock up on things you can eat by your own pool on your villa deck, an ice creamery with scoops of papaya, mint, coconut and passion fruit to carry you over from lunch to dinner and a pizzeria, a favourite of the children, situated in the herb garden.

Rara Restaurant and Bar which overlooks the marina offers a selection of light international and Asian dishes. Cocktails to accompany the magnificent Fijian sunsets are served at Tovolea Bar and don’t leave Fiji without trying the lip-numbing, heady, Kava concoction, the national drink, made from the yakona tree.

Extra-Curricular

Hop into a boat and cruise around the other islands that lie within the Mamanuca group, including Monuriki Island which was Tom Hanks’s lonely paradise in Cast Away. Go and visit the local village where a Methodist service is held every Sunday and village elder will show you around. Head out onto the water to lunch at Cloud 9, Fiji’s only two storey floating platform serving Italian wood fire pizzas accompanied by music and cocktails. Once a week the hotel has a traditional Meke Dance show where locals exhibit their talents in dancing and playing with fire.

Private pool? Yes, please
Six Senses

Which room?

The twenty-four villas all come clad in the same sustainable wood, with thatched leaf roofs and a clean-lined, simple, style. The one bedroom villas come with a split level room with sofas and a desks leading out to the deck. Huge beds draped in billowing muslin are on the upper half of the room with the bathroom behind. Bathrooms have outdoor tubs and showers and huge indoor rain showers.

Villas come in one bedroom or two, and suites which are an in between size with the possibility of screening off the sitting room. Some directly face the Ocean, while others are hidden away in the lush gardens. The nine residences have from three to five bedrooms and come complete with a kitchen, dining area and garden with private pool inset making them ideal for a family.

Best for

Fiji is both inescapably romantic with its warm air, fragrant with frangipani, the sunsets and the turquoise ocean-lapped white sands; but it is brilliant for families too as Fijians love children and at Six Senses they are well catered for.

When to go

Balmy temperatures are pretty much constant throughout the year, but July to September guarantees dry and sunny weather whilst November and April can bring tropical storms.

Details

Turquoise Holidays (turquoiseholidays.co.uk; 01494 678400) offer seven nights in a Hideaway Pool Villa at Six Senses Fiji from £3,250 per person on a b&b basis including return speedboat transfers and international flights. sixsenses.com