Huvafen Fushi

A staircase from the jetty at Huvafen Fushi leads down to the underwater treatment rooms of Lime Spa, where glass walls look straight onto the reef of North Malé Atoll. When the resort opened in 2004, those rooms were the first underwater spa rooms in the world, and two decades later they still define the island in most travellers' minds. Above the water, the resort is small, white and spare, with 44 bungalows and a calm that suits couples.

History

North Malé Atoll is where the Maldivian resort industry began, with the opening of Kurumba in 1972, and by the early 2000s the atoll was crowded with islands competing for attention. Kurumba set the model of one island, one resort, which almost every Maldivian resort since has followed. Huvafen Fushi kept the model and answered the competition with design and novelty: minimal bungalows, an underwater spa and a wine cellar set below ground. It opened as the flagship of Per Aquum, a boutique resort company, and quickly became a reference point for the design-led resorts that followed across the country. The name combines huvafen, the Dhivehi word for dream, with fushi, island.

Architecture and design

The style is pared back: white walls, pale timber, glass and generous decks, with every bungalow given its own plunge pool. Public areas are open-sided and look onto the lagoon, and the island is small enough that every building sits close to the water. The resort avoided the heavy thatch and dark wood of many earlier Maldivian islands, and its clean lines still look contemporary. The underwater spa rooms are the boldest piece of engineering, built as glass-walled chambers on the seabed beside the jetty.

Rooms and suites

There are 44 bungalows and pavilions, on the beach and over the lagoon, each with a plunge pool. The overwater bungalows have steps into the sea, while the beach bungalows open onto sand and planting, and the larger pavilions add space for families or longer stays. Interiors keep to white and natural tones, with beds facing the water and large bathrooms, and the glass walls of the overwater rooms bring the lagoon inside.

Dining

Vinum, the wine cellar, is set below ground and seats a small table for tastings and private dinners among the bottles, an unusual thing on a coral island barely above sea level. The other restaurants cover Asian, Mediterranean and grilled dishes, and breakfast is served facing the lagoon. Dinners on the beach or on a bungalow deck can be arranged.

Wellness

Lime Spa offers massage and body treatments, with its underwater rooms used for single and couples' treatments; above the water, there are further treatment rooms and space for yoga. Snorkellers reach the house reef from the beach, and the dive centre runs trips to the atoll's channels, where reef sharks, eagle rays and turtles are frequent sights.

Location

Huvafen Fushi lies in North Malé Atoll, about 30 minutes by speedboat from Velana International Airport, so no seaplane is needed and arrival is rarely delayed by weather. The atoll's eastern rim holds the best-known surf breaks in the country, reached by boat in the season that runs roughly between March and October. Malé is close enough for a half-day visit to its fish market and old mosques. For a luxury resort in North Malé Atoll, the short transfer, the underwater spa and the small number of bungalows make an easy case for a first visit to the Maldives.